ant her to have Mrs.
Schuneman's head."

"And just suppose you had Mr. Wells' head and he had yours?" giggled
Mary Rose.

Mr. Jerry tweaked her pink ear. "Mr. Wells wouldn't keep my head for a
minute. Perhaps it is just as well to leave heads where they are."

"I used to want to change mine," Mary Rose confided to them soberly.
"You know I've millions of freckles and my hair's as straight as a
string. Nobody ever thinks I'm pretty like Gladys. One day Mrs. Evans
told me that pretty is as pretty does and for almost a week I did my
best to do pretty, the very prettiest I knew how. But no one ever
stopped and said, 'What a beautiful child,' as they do when they see
Gladys. Gladys is afraid of dogs and she screams when she sees a
mouse. She's even afraid of her tables. So I tried to think I had
more real good times by being brave instead of beautiful. Oh!" she
broke off with a squeal of delight, for Mr. Jerry's Aunt Mary brought
in a pitcher of lemonade and a plate of little cakes gay with white and
pink frosting. "Oh, Miss Thorley! aren't you glad now that you came?"

CHAPTER XVI

Long before school began Mary Rose had established an acquaintance, if
not a friendship, with all the people who lived in the Washington. Not
only did she know them herself, but she was the means of many of them
knowing others. Mrs. Schuneman and Mrs. Johnson often went to the park
together now to feed the squirrels which Mary Rose was firmly convinced
the Lord had placed there for those who could not have pets in their
homes. Mrs. Matchan had promised to play at one of Mrs. Bracken's club
meetings and Mrs. Rawson and her machine were making garments for the
children's ward of the new hospital in which Mrs. Willoughby had become
interested.

Until Mary Rose came neither Miss Adams nor Mrs. Smith knew that the
other was a slave to the crochet hook. Mary Rose arranged an exchange
of patterns and when a pineapple border proved too complicated to be
worked out alone she brought expert aid and Miss Adams no longer hated
the Washington. It was Mary Rose who discovered that old Mr. Jarvis
and young Mr. Wilcox were graduates of the same college and that Mr.
Blake's grandfather and Mrs. Bracken's grandmother had once sung in the
same church choir. Miss Carter and Bob Strahan were often seen
strolling together and more than once they had transported Mary Rose to
the seventh heaven of delight by taking her to a moving picture sh