t shot into the heart of her friend. "This blue one's
Allee. Blue means truth, grandma says, and Allee is true blue. Red in
our flag stands for valor. Cherry ain't very brave, but I named this
for her anyway, in hopes she'd ask why and I could tell her. Then maybe
when she found out that folks thought she was a 'fraid cat, she'd get
over it. Don't you think she would?"

"Perhaps--if you were her teacher," the older girl answered absently.
"Who is the black one?"

"Grandpa. Isn't it a whopper? He is real tall but not fat like the
flower. He always wears black at the University--that's why I picked
that one for him. This one is grandma and here is Gail. The striped one
is Faith. She is good in streaks, but she can be awful cross sometimes,
too,--like you. This tiny one is Glen, and the big, brown, spotted
feller is Aunt Pen. It makes me think of old Cockletop, a mother hen we
used to have in Parker, which 'dopted everything it could find wandering
around loose. That's what Aunt Pen looks as if she'd like to do."

This was too much for the lame girl's risibles, and she laughed
outright, long and loud, to Peace's secret delight, for when the Lilac
Lady laughed it was a sure sign that she was feeling better.

When she had recovered her composure, she said gravely, "Speaking of
Aunt Pen reminds me that she told me this morning the cook had made some
chicken patties for my special benefit and was hurt to think I refused
them. You might run up to the house and ask for them now to go with our
picnic lunch. Minnie will give them to you--cold, please. Some lemonade
would taste good, too. Aunt Pen knows how to make it to perfection."

Peace was gone almost before she had finished giving her directions, and
as she watched the nimble feet skimming through the clover, she smiled
tenderly, then sighed and looked sadly down at her own useless limbs
which would never bear her weight again. How many years of existence
must she endure in her crippled helplessness? Oh, the bitterness of it!
And yet as she gazed at the slippers which never wore out, and compared
her lot with that of the dancing, curly-haired sprite, tumbling eagerly
up the kitchen steps after the promised goodies, the old, weary look of
utter despair did not quite come back into the deep blue eyes; but
through the bitterness of her rebellion flashed a faint gleam of
something akin to hope. She was thinking of Peace's latest sunshine
quotation which had been laboriously e