er to make out her list, and Alice and Hannah helped themselves to
magazines and waited.

Catherine looked about her at the little room and her heart swelled with
pride and pleasure. So much had come of her thought of making Algernon
useful. He was already quite a different person, with a dignity that
became him well. The pile of cards in the charging tray before her
showed that the library was being used by a goodly number of borrowers.
The program committee was evidence that part, at least, of its use, was
for more than mere recreation.

"O, I am so glad, so glad!" sang Catherine's heart. "There are so many
things to be glad about. And see my dear, dear Wide-Awakes. I think they
really are the most beautiful girls I ever beheld!"

A stranger might have thought that rather an extravagant speech, for
Catherine herself was the only one of the four who could be called
beautiful. But Frieda's face was unusual and interesting, Alice's sweet,
though plain, and Hannah's the sort that always called for a second
glance and a smile of pleasure.

"Have you anything in the library on the Past, the Present and the
Future?" asked a voice, and Catherine stopped her musing.

"The what?" she asked, not believing her ears. She had been thinking of
the past, the present and the future as she watched her three friends'
faces, but that was quite a different matter.

"I have to write a paper on that subject," said a complacent young
woman, rather showily dressed, "and I thought I'd maybe better read up
on it a little."

"I should think it would be wise," murmured Catherine. "But I hardly
know--the Past, the Present, and the Future of what?"

"Why, not of anything. Just the Past, the Present and the Future," said
the other, with a shade of impatience in her tone. "Maybe I'd better
wait till the real librarian is at liberty. He always knows what to give
out."

"Perhaps that would be best," faltered Catherine. "It is such a very
large subject, you know."

"Yes, that's why I chose it. I like a large subject. There is so much
more to say on it. I wrote on 'Woman' last year, but it wasn't broad
enough!"

A little girl, who came in wanting a fairy story, gave Catherine a
chance to turn away and hide her amusement. The child wanted to know
what the story was about, and before Catherine realized what she was
doing, she had her arm about the little girl's waist, and, kneeling
beside the low table, was showing her the pictures in a beaut