?" she
answered, pointing to her feet. "But how could he make me a pretty
cap or a dress? And he doesn't want to ask anybody. But you needn't
think he ain't good to me!" she concluded, reaching after the crutch.

"Don't go yet, Louise. See, that's my doll over on the sofa. Her name
is 'Lady Amy,'" and Faith ran to the sofa and brought back her beloved
doll and set it down in Louise's lap.

"I never touched a doll before," said Louise, almost in a whisper.
"You're real good to let me hold her. Are you going to live here?"

"I'm going to school," replied Faith. "I've never been to school."

"Neither have I," said Louise. "I s'pose you know your letters, don't
you?"

"Oh, yes. Of course I do. I can read and write, and do fractions,"
answered Faith.

"I can't read," declared Louise.

Just then Mrs. Scott entered the room. If she was surprised to see the
shoemaker's daughter seated in her easy chair, wearing Faith's new cap
and holding "Lady Amy," she did not let the little girls know it, but
greeted Louise cordially, took Faith's new shoes from their wrapping
and said they were indeed a fine pair of shoes. Then she turned to
Louise, with the pleasant little smile that Faith so admired, and
said: "You are the first little girl who has come to see my little
niece, so I think it would be pleasant if you two girls had a taste of
my fruit cake that I make just for company," and she started toward
the dining-room and soon returned with a tray.

"Just bring the little table from the corner, Faithie, and set it in
front of Louise and 'Lady Amy,'" she said, and Faith hastened to obey.

Aunt Prissy set the tray on the table. "I'll come back in a little
while," she said, and left the girls to themselves.

The tray was very well filled. There was a plate of the rich dark
cake, and beside it two dainty china plates and two fringed napkins.
There was a plate of thin slices of bread and butter, a plate of
cookies, and two glasses filled with creamy milk.

"Isn't this lovely?" exclaimed Faith, drawing a chair near the table.
"It's just like a party, isn't it? I'm just as glad as I can be that
you brought my shoes home, Louise. We'll be real friends now, shan't
we?"

CHAPTER IX

LOUISE

"I must go home," said Louise, with a little sigh at having to end the
most pleasant visit she ever remembered. The two little girls had
finished the lunch, and had played happily with "Lady Amy." Mrs. Scott
had left them quite by