herself in her dark little
bedroom, leaving the children to chatter over the delightful prospect
for the morrow, and when she came back to put Jack to bed, her eyes
looked as if she had been crying.

"Mother," whispered the little boy, laying his cheek softly against his
mother's as she bent to give him a last good-night kiss, "you aren't
sorry you said yes, are you?"

"No, darling," she answered tenderly; "I can never be sorry about
anything that gives my little boy pleasure, but, oh, Jack dear, I wish I
had the money to take you myself."

Betty's first action on waking the next morning was to rush to the
window to ascertain the state of the weather.

"It's perfectly lovely, Jack," she announced joyfully, running from the
room she shared with her mother into the tiny one Jack occupied. "The
sun is shining as bright as can be, there isn't a cloud in the sky.
Here's your birthday present; it's only a box of drawing pencils, but I
couldn't go far enough to buy anything else yesterday, and I thought
you'd like it."

Jack, who was already sitting up in bed, hugging a new story book,
assured his sister that drawing pencils were the very things he most
wanted.

"And see what mother gave me," he added, holding up the new book for
Betty's inspection, "'The Boys of Seventy-six.' Oh, Betty, I do think
birthdays are lovely things, don't you?"

That was a busy morning for the Randalls. Being Saturday, there were no
lessons for Mrs. Randall to give, but there was all the weekly
house-cleaning to be done, and Betty and her mother worked steadily
until luncheon time. If Mrs. Randall had ancestors, she had also plenty
of good common sense. She was not too proud to work for her little ones,
however unwilling she might be to accept favors for them from others,
and she plied broom and mop to such good purpose that by twelve o'clock
the little home was the very picture of neatness and order. Jack lay on
the sofa as usual, too happy in eager anticipations for the afternoon to
forget them even in the interest of his new story book.

Mrs. Randall went out for a little while after luncheon, returning with
a pretty blue sailor cap for Jack. The thought had suddenly occurred to
Betty that her brother possessed no outdoor garments, and for a moment
she was filled with dismay, but her mother assured her that, with the
aid of her own long cape and the new sailor cap, the little boy would do
very well indeed.

"I wish I had time to fini