she said, 'but I've just time to tell you
that we've been hunting houses, and we're coming here to live. We've
got a house right next to the big schoolhouse, and that's nice, for I
wouldn't want to go to private school.'

"Then she ran off, just looking over her shoulder to say:

"'I've got to hurry, for I've an engagement, but I'll be over to see you
all soon.'"

"I wish she _wouldn't_," said Reginald, stoutly.

"Perhaps she's pleasanter than when she lived here before," ventured
Flossie, looking up into the faces of her playmates.

Dear little girl, the youngest of the group, she was ever ready to say a
kind word for an absent playmate.

"She _looked_ just the same," said Mollie.

"If she said she was to live next to the big schoolhouse, that is just
_miles_ from here," Jeanette said, "so she wouldn't be likely to come
over here very often."

"'Tisn't any farther than where she lived before," said Nina, "and she
came often enough then."

* * * * *

Aunt Charlotte had chosen wisely, when she had decided to interest her
young pupils in history, by reading aloud from a volume in which the
facts were set forth in story form, and there was one pupil who listened
more intently than any of the others.

One glance at Reginald's earnest little face would have convinced any
one that he was wildly interested.

His round, blue eyes never left Aunt Charlotte's face while she was
reading. The story of Ponce de Leon's search for the fountain of youth
was more exciting than any fairy tale that he had ever heard. He saw no
pathos in the old Spaniard's useless search. The picture which the
history painted for him showed only the little band of swarthy men
following their handsome, white-haired leader through the wild,
unexplored South, their picturesque, gaily colored costumes gleaming in
the sunlight.

How brilliant the pageant! How brave, how valiant they must have
appeared! Even the gorgeous wild flowers paled with chagrin as the bold,
venturesome Spaniards trampled them underfoot as they marched steadily
onward, hoping yet to find the crystal fountain which should grant to
them eternal youth.

When Aunt Charlotte ceased reading, she said: "Now, take your pencils,
and write all that you remember of what I have read."

How their pencils flew! In a short time their papers were ready, and the
little pupils proved that they had been attentive, many of the sketches
giving the story almo