m to be----"

"_Foolish!_" said the Blinded Lady. "It wasn't sounds I was thinking of
this time, but _sights_!" She pushed me away. She sighed and sighed. It
puffed her all out. "O--h," she sighed. "O--h! Three pairs of Young Eyes
and all the World waiting to be looked at!"

She rocked her chair. She rocked it very slowly. It was like a little
pain.

"I never saw _anything_ after I was seventeen!" she said. "And God
himself knows that I hadn't seen anywheres near enough before that! Just
the little grass road to the village now and then on a Saturday
afternoon to buy the rice and the meat and the matches and the soap!
Just the wood-lot beyond the hill-side where the Arbutus always
blossomed so early! Just old Neighbor Nora's new patch-work quilt!--Just
a young man's face that looked in once at the window to ask where the
trout brook was! But even these pictures," said the Blinded Lady,
"They're fading! Fading! Sometimes I can't remember at all whether old
Nora's quilt was patterned in diamond shapes or squares. Sometimes I'm
not so powerful sure whether the young man's eye were blue or brown!
After all, it's more'n fifty years ago. It's new pictures that I need
now," she said. "New pictures!"

She took a peppermint from a box. She didn't pass 'em. She rocked her
chair. And rocked. And rocked. She smiled a little. It wasn't a real
smile. It was just a smile to save her dress. It was just a little
gutter to catch her tears.

"Oh dear me--Oh dear me--Oh dear me!" said my Mother.

"Stop your babbling!" said the Blinded Lady. She sniffed. And sniffed.
"But I'll tell you what I'll do," she said. "These children can come
back here next Saturday afternoon and----."

"Why there's no reason in the world," said my Mother, "why they
shouldn't come every day!"

The Blinded Lady stopped rocking. She almost screamed.

"Every day?" she said. "Mercy no! Their feet are muddy! And besides it's
tiresome! But they can come next Saturday I tell you! And I'll give you
a prize! Yes, I'll give two prizes--for the two best new pictures that
they bring me to think about! And the first prize shall be a Peacock
Feather Fan!" said the Blinded Lady. "And the second prize shall be a
Choice of Cats!"

"A Choice of Cats?" gasped my Father.

The Blinded Lady thumped her cane. She thumped it pretty hard. It made
you glad your toes weren't under it.

"Now mind you, Children!" she said.

"It's got to be a _new_ picture! It's got to be somet