rilling place in
a novel. For you really couldn't hear any one calling from the house in
this leafy fastness. Ernest had made her two or three rustic seats, and
a little cupboard where she could keep her treasures sheltered from the
sun and rain.

Katy and Gertie were charmed with this retreat.

"If there was only a table, I could write all my letters home out here.
Wouldn't it be romantic?" Katy loved the unusual.

"It's lovely, Jane, let's stay out here lots." Gertie settled down on
one of the seats with a little sigh. "I wish I had my old doll here; it
would make such a dandy playhouse."

"Gertie Halford, the idea of a great, big girl like you wanting to play
with dolls."

"I get Victoria out sometimes and dress her up," confessed Jane. "It
isn't much fun all alone, but I like to see her sometimes. If you'd like
to, Gertie, we'll have a doll sewing bee this afternoon and you can be
Victoria's mother and Katie and I will be dressmaker's though I never
could sew decently. Mother's about given me up in despair."

Chicken Little had noticed a little far-away look in Gertie's eyes ever
since she came. Marian had warned her the night before that she had
better keep Gertie pretty busy for a day or two, or she would be
homesick.

Unfortunately, Chicken Little's kindness precipitated the catastrophe
she was trying to avoid. She was so motherly she reminded Gertie afresh
of the dear little mother she had left so many miles behind and the
tears came in spite of her.

Chicken Little coaxed and comforted, and Katy coaxed and scolded,
but Gertie's tears were apparently turned on for keeps and the
Weeping Willows was earning its name again. Gertie cried till she
got all shivery, declaring solemnly whenever she could command
her voice sufficiently to talk, that there wasn't a thing the
matter--only--only--she--was a little bit homesick.

She wouldn't hear to Jane's going to fetch Alice or Mrs. Morton or
Marian. "She'd be all right in a minute, if they'd just let her alone."

But the minutes went by and she still cried, and in spite of the warm
June sunshine, her hands felt cold and her shoulders shook as if with an
ague. Chicken Little and Katy were both getting worried when help came
in the shape of Marian and Jilly.

Marian understood at a glance, and dropping to the ground beside her,
drew her into her lap and chafed the cold hands while she bade Jilly hug
poor Gertie. Jilly was a born comforter and she half smother