id presently. "I suppose that would
be more fun than having them all come here?"

"O, heaps more," cried Hannah. "It would be the jolliest kind of a
lark."

"Would the Board be willing?" suggested Alice.

"I'm sure of that," said Catherine. "Algernon will be the hardest to
persuade, for he feels as though the library were almost holy ground,
but I'll interview him at once."

The telephone was kept busy for the next half-hour; by its means
everything was arranged, and every one notified, and the girls went to
work making preparations for the supper. Polly and Dot came over in the
afternoon and the time slipped quickly by, trunk-packing and
sandwich-making being mingled in what seemed to the doctor, some of the
time, an almost hopeless jumble. At last the sounds of talk and laughter
and running up and down stairs ceased. The boys had arrived to carry
baskets, and a rain-coated procession tramped gayly off, waving good-bys
now and then to the two doctors standing in the window.

"It hardly seems as though Catherine could be the same girl," said her
father. "She is so eager and full of fun."

"But she keeps her quaint sweet dignity all the same," answered Dr.
Helen softly. "She will never lose her characteristic charm, and it is
such a comfort to have her well enough to wish to eat a cold supper in
that bare little room!"

"Can't they heat the place?" asked Dr. Harlow sharply.

"O, yes," his wife assured him, "and they have all solemnly promised me
to dry their skirts as soon as they get there! Hannah always contrives
to get into puddles."

"_She's_ not much changed," chuckled the little doctor. "Her
language is as funny now and then as Frieda's. She told me they were
going to relegate themselves on watermelon this evening!"

"It was a fortunate day for us when Catherine found her," and Dr.
Helen's eyes smiled, as they always did when Hannah's image came before
her mind. "And, do you know, I am very much pleased with Alice. She has
the honestest eyes, and her manners are as unconscious and simple as can
be. I should like to see her mother."

"Father's not so important, of course! But I agree with you, she's the
true blue sort. It's Frieda for me, though. Of all inscrutable
countenances, hers is the most. I believe she is, on the whole, the most
unforeseen young person I have ever had dealings with, and in whatever
direction she may choose to let herself out, in the future, she will do
something interesting, or