and asking was Mrs. Otway to home. That's the way they
all do; get the name next door and come as brazen as you please
asking for Mrs. this and that. I'd like to know who's to tell the
sheep from the goats."

"I would know in a minute that Miss Dorothy wasn't a goat," said
Marian.

"Oh, you know a heap, don't you," replied Heppy scornfully. "If you
knew so much why didn't you tell me who it was first off?"

"I didn't know exactly who it was but I could easily guess, for I
knew the teacher was coming some time soon."

"I don't see why your grandma didn't say I was to look out for her,"
Heppy went on with a new grievance.

"Maybe she thought you would know, because you helped get her room
ready, and knew she was expected," Marian made excuse.

"As if I could remember anything on a Saturday, when I'd been
pestered to death, answering the door a dozen times, while I was
cleaning my kitchen. She might have chose some other day to come."

"She has to begin school on Monday, and besides that would be just
as bad, for it would be wash-day and you are cross always then,
Heppy, you know you are."

Heppy turned on her. "You just go out of here," she said. "I don't
want you 'round underfoot, pestering me at meal-time nohow. I guess
I can get a meal for four just as easy as for three and I don't need
your help neither."

At this Marian was fain to depart, seeing that Heppy was in one of
her worst moods, when everything was a grievance. It was a pleasant
contrast when the little girl was met by Miss Dorothy's smile as she
returned to the parlor, so she settled herself by the side of this
new friend, folded her hands and let her feet dangle over the edge
of the sofa. It was rather a slippery seat and in time it might be
that she would have to wriggle back to a firmer place, but its
nearness to Miss Dorothy was its attraction and she felt well
satisfied and entirely secure when the teacher's arm encircled
her and drew her closer. "I am to have one new pupil anyhow,"
said Miss Dorothy, smiling down. "Won't it be nice for us to
be going to school together every day, Marian?"

"Oh, am I going?" Marian looked from one grandparent to another.

Mrs. Otway nodded sedately. "We have concluded that it is best," she
said. "Your grandfather has many affairs to attend to, and it is a
tax upon his time to teach you, therefore, since you will not need
to go to school unattended, we think it best. We shall see how it
works, at all even