y lengthening herself, in a single
night, it seemed to the outraged Mrs. Murphy, to such an extent that a
new outfit was necessary.

"It may be well enough for asparagus and tulips to grow like that, but
it's all wrong for a girl," she had said resentfully. "I just wish the
Power that lengthened her had to find her dresses and petticoats and
things to make her decent to go to the grandmother that's never seen
her. Here I am, all but ready to start, an' I have to get her new
clothes. Childern may be a blessing, there's folks that say they are,
but there's times I can't see anything but the worry and the expense of
'em."

So the lengthened Ella's discarded garments had been left behind for
Mrs. Donovan to dispose of. They had been packed away and forgotten
until Mary Rose arrived and reminded her Aunt Kate that a perfectly
good outfit for a girl of fourteen was in one of her closets.

Fortunately Ella had been slim as well as tall and the middy blouse
that Mrs. Donovan tried on Mary Rose did not look too much as if it had
been made for her grandmother. The bright plaid skirt trailed on the
floor but Aunt Kate turned back the hem which still left the skirt
hanging considerably below Mary Rose's shabby shoe tops, much to her
delight.

She hung over the machine, her tongue clattering an unwearied
accompaniment to the whir of the wheel, as Mrs. Donovan sewed the
basted hem.

"Did you know there was an enchanted princess in your house, Aunt
Kate?" she demanded excitedly.

Mrs. Donovan had not known it and her surprise made her break her
thread. When Mary Rose had explained she grunted something.

"You mean the girl that Mr. Longworthy's crazy about? She's up above
an' won't have nothin' to do with men. 'I don't want nothin' in my
life but my work,' says she to me, herself. That's all very well for
now but let her wait a few years an' she'll sing a different tune or I
miss my guess. She ain't enchanted, Mary Rose, she's just pig-headed
an' young."

Mary Rose was disappointed. "Mr. Jerry said she was under the spell of
the wicked witch, Independence," she insisted. "Wasn't it good of him
to take George Washington to board? It's such a relief to have found a
pleasant place so near. I'm sure they'll be friendly to him."

Mrs. Donovan mentally planned to slip across the alley and see Mr.
Jerry and his Aunt Mary herself about George Washington's board as she
looked into the earnest little face so near her o