"

Debby read, written in a large, clear hand:

"And shouldst thou ask my judgment of that which hath most profit
in the world, For answer take thou this: The prudent penning of a
letter."

"It's lovely!" was Debby's comment. "If I should have one, I wonder what
it would be!"

"I'll run and get you one," volunteered Annie.

"No, no!" cried Debby, in terror. "I have no money to pay for it."

"Have you spent it all so soon?" asked Annie, curiously. "But we must
go now and get our ice-cream; for, do you know, Mr. James has promised
to treat all our class. So come along, for the more we eat the richer
the church will grow."

"No," refused Debby, shaking off Annie's hand, "I wont do any such
thing," and she shrank back into her corner.

"How queerly you act! You wont do anything I ask you," pouted Annie,
turning away.

"I couldn't take it," Debby excused to herself. "I want it so much that
I'd feel like a beggar in taking it from him. Annie can't understand,
because she has bought it for herself, and will only eat it now for fun.
I wish there was something for me to do."

Her thought was scarcely finished before it was answered by Mrs. White,
in the handsome alpaca Debby's mother so admired.

"What am I to do with this child?" she asked, stopping before Mrs.
Williams with a sleeping baby in her arms. "Phil wants me to go to
supper with him, but what can I do?"

"I'll hold her," said Debby, eagerly. "I have a nice quiet place here."

"Much obliged, I'm sure," answered Mrs. White, placing the baby
carefully in her arms.

With something to take care of, Debby grew so comfortable that when Mrs.
White returned from supper she begged to keep the baby longer.

"Every one is so busy here that I'd like to have something to do, too,"
she said, arranging a paper so as to shade the baby's eyes from the
light, remembering with a throb of gratitude the oranges Mrs. White sent
her when she was sick last fall.

"If you don't really care to run about, it would be a great favor to
me," returned Mrs. White, "for there are so many people here that I
shall not see again for a year, and I want to speak to them all. But a
baby is not the most convenient article to carry in a crowd."

The handsome alpaca disappeared, and Debby kept her guard for an hour,
watching the young people who visited the post-office or joked over the
neckties and aprons.

"Here's an industrious young lady who has had no supper," declare