ually go
together. She flushed.

"I wear them to save washing," she said with a certain dignity as she
touched the shrunken knickerbockers. "Girls' clothes are a lot of
trouble. Lena said they weren't worth it."

"I'm sure she's right. You're only a little ahead of the style. All
girls'll be wearing them soon, no doubt. They're that independent.
How old is the orphan George?" He changed a subject that was evidently
so painful to Mary Rose.

"He's 'most five. I got him when I had tonsilitis, when I was six,"
unconsciously betraying to anyone who could add five to six the secret
Aunt Kate had begged her to keep. "And we've never been separated a
whole day. But now," she swallowed the lump in her throat and went on
bravely, "you see the owner of that palace won't have any children nor
any dogs nor any cats in it."

"I know." Mr. Jerry seemed to know everything. "What are you going to
do?"

"If we kept him Uncle Larry would lose the janitor and we wouldn't have
a roof over our heads nor bread for our stomachs, so I thought if I
could find a pleasant place for him to board near by I could see him
often. I couldn't give him away, for Aunt Kate says perhaps the
Lord'll give us a real home some day where we can all be together.
When I saw your house it made me think of Mifflin and I wondered if you
had a cat and if you hadn't if you would like to board one?" Her face
was painfully serious as she lifted It to Jerry Longworthy.

"Well," he considered the question gravely. "Can you pay his board?"

"I've a dollar and forty-three cents. The forty-three cents I saved
and the dollar Mr. Black gave me when he took me to the train in
Mifflin. How much should a cat's board be?" anxiously.

"How much milk does he drink? Milk's seven cents a quart in Waloo."

"Oh, not more than a quart a day," eagerly. "And he's almost too fat
now."

"A quart a day would be seven times seven----"

"I know. I know all my tables up to twelve times twelve. That would
be forty-nine cents. Do you think fifty cents would be enough?"

"I should think fifty cents a week very good board for a cat. Suppose
we go in and see what my Aunt Mary has to say."

His Aunt Mary proved to be a plump lady with a round rosy face, who
agreed with Mary Rose that children and cats and dogs were most
desirable additions to a family. She seemed quite glad to take George
Washington as a boarder and thought that fifty cents a week was enough
to