rapture. "I feel sure mother would let me have her."

"She can come here any time," said Jessica. "Papa allows me to do as
I like."

"'First catch your bird,'" said Nora wisely. "Don't plan too much, until
you find out whether you can snatch her from the dragon's claws."

"I feel sure we shall win," replied Grace confidently. "What do you
girls think of it?" she asked, turning to Eva, Marian and Eleanor, who
had so far expressed no opinion.

"Count us in," said Eva and Marian in a breath.

"And you, Eleanor?" asked Grace.

"She can live at our house forever, if she doesn't disturb me," replied
Eleanor lazily. "My aunt won't care, either. When we lived in Spain she
used to help every beggar we came across, and Spain is a land of
beggars. She never can resist an appeal for charity."

There was a sudden silence. Then Grace said gently, although she felt
irritated at Eleanor's careless speech: "I don't think Mabel Allison
could really be called a beggar; and if we adopt her, we ought never to
let her think that we consider her a dependent. Of course we know very
little about her yet, but I think she will prove worthy. I am to see her
to-morrow, and perhaps it would be better to talk a little more with her
before we tell Jessica's father about it."

Eleanor looked at Grace with an amused smile.

"How serious you girls are," she said. "Is it school that makes you so?
If it is, I don't think I shall stay long. I like to drift along and do
only what my inclination prompts me to do. I hate responsibility of any
sort."

"Perhaps you will feel differently about school after a while," said
Anne quietly. "This is my third year in Oakdale High School, and I never
had any good times until I came here. As for responsibility, it is a
good thing to learn to be responsible for one's self, if for no one
else."

"Well, perhaps you are right, but I am sure that if you had never lived
long enough in one country to become acclimated, you wouldn't feel very
responsible, either," said Eleanor in such rueful tones that the girls
laughed, although they secretly disapproved of Eleanor's inconsequential
attitude.

"Did you think the examinations hard?" asked Jessica of Eleanor.

"Oh, no," replied Eleanor lightly. "I had an English governess who was
with us for five years. She drilled me thoroughly in English and
mathematics. I loathed them both, but studied them merely to show her
that I could master them. Miss Thompson said my work