e to take care of her?"

The doctor smiled at the earnest little face. "She has nobody."

"No one to take care of her?" said Daisy.

"No. She lives there alone."

"But, Dr. Sandford, how does she do--how does she manage?"

"In some way that would be difficult for you and me to understand, I
suppose--like the ways of the beavers and wasps."

"I can understand _those_" said Daisy, "they were made to get along as
they do; they have got all they want."

Daisy was silent, musing, for a little time; then she broke out again.

"Isn't she very miserable, Dr. Sandford?"

"She is a very crabbed old thing, so the inference is fair that she is
miserable. In fact, I do not see how she can avoid it."

Daisy pondered perhaps this misery which she could so little imagine;
however she let the subject drop as to any more words about it. She was
only what the doctor called "quaintly sober," all the rest of the way.

"Why she looks child-like and bright enough now," said Mrs. Sandford, to
whom he made the remark. Daisy and Nora were exchanging mutual
gratulations. The doctor looked at them.

"At the rate in which she is growing old," said he, "she will have the
soul of Methusaleh in a body of twenty years."

"I don't believe it," said Mrs. Sandford.

Nora and Daisy had a great day of it. Nothing broke the full flow of
business and pleasure during all the long hours; the day was not hot to
them, nor the shadows long in coming. Behind the house there was a deep
grassy dell through which a brook ran. Over this brook in the dell a
great black walnut tree cast its constant flickering shadow; flickering
when the wind played in the leaves and branches, although to-day the air
was still and sultry, and the leaves and the shadows were still too, and
did not move. But there was life enough in the branches of the old
walnut, for a large family of grey squirrels had established themselves
there. Old and young, large and small; it was impossible to tell, by
counting, how many there might be in the family; at least now while they
were going in and out and running all over; but Nora said Mrs. Sandford
had counted fifteen of them at one time. That was in cold weather, when
they had gathered on the piazza to get the nuts she threw to them. This
kind of intercourse with society had made the squirrels comparatively
tame, so that they had no particular objections to shew themselves to
the two children; and when Nora and Daisy kept quiet they ha