their tea, crying, distractedly, 'Oh, Aunt
Betsey, come quick! for the saucepan fell off the shed, and Fan's feet
are all boiled purple!' Nobody laughed at this funny message, and Aunt
Betsey ran all the way home with a muffin in her hand and her ball in
her pocket, though the knitting was left behind.

"I suffered a great deal, but I was n't sorry afterward, for I learned
to love Aunt Betsey, who nursed me tenderly, and seemed to forget her
strict ways in her anxiety for me.

"This bag was made for my special comfort, and hung on the sofa where I
lay all those weary days. Aunt kept it full of pretty patchwork or, what
I liked better, ginger-nuts, and peppermint drops, to amuse me, though
she did n't approve of cosseting children up, any more than I do now."

"I like that vewy well, and I wish I could have been there," was Maud's
condescending remark, as she put back the little bag, after a careful
peep inside, as if she hoped to find an ancient ginger-nut, or a
well-preserved peppermint drop still lingering in some corner.

"We had plums enough that autumn, but did n't seem to care much about
them, after all, for our prank became a household joke, and, for years,
we never saw the fruit, but Nelly would look at me with a funny face,
and whisper, 'Purple stockings, Fan!'"

"Thank you, ma'am," said Polly. "Now, Fan, your turn next."

"Well, I 've a bundle of old letters, and I 'd like to know if there
is any story about them," answered Fanny, hoping some romance might be
forthcoming.

Grandma turned over the little packet tied up with a faded pink ribbon;
a dozen yellow notes written on rough, thick paper, with red wafers
still adhering to the folds, showing plainly that they were written
before the day of initial note-paper and self-sealing envelopes.

"They are not love-letters, deary, but notes from my mates after I left
Miss Cotton's boarding-school. I don't think there is any story about
them," and grandma turned them over with spectacles before the dim eyes,
so young and bright when they first read the very same notes.

Fanny was about to say, "I 'll choose again," when grandma began to
laugh so heartily that the girls felt sure she had caught some merry old
memory which would amuse them.

"Bless my heart, I have n't thought of that frolic this forty years.
Poor, dear, giddy Sally Pomroy, and she 's a great-grandmother now!"
cried the old lady, after reading one of the notes, and clearing the
mist off he