he lisped to Freddie.

"At Uncle Daniel's," Freddie answered. "Where do you live?"

"With mamma," replied the little boy. Then he stopped a minute. "Oh,
no; I don't live with mamma now," he corrected himself, "'cause she's
gone to heaven, so I live with Mrs. Manily."

Mrs. Manily was the matron, and numbers of the children called her
mamma.

"Can I come over and play with you?" asked the boy. "What's your name?"

"His name is Freddie and mine is Flossie," said the latter. "What is
your name?"

"Mine is Edward Brooks," said the little stranger, "but everybody calls
me Sandy. Do you like Sandy better than Edward?"

"No," replied Flossie. "But I suppose that's a pet name because your
hair is that color."

"Is it?" said the boy, tossing his sunny curls around. "Maybe that's
why!"

"Guess it is," said Freddie. "But will Mrs. Man let you come over to
our house?"

"Mrs. Manily, you mean," said Sandy. "I'll just go and ask her."

"Isn't he cute!" exclaimed Flossie, and the pretty little boy ran in
search of Mrs. Manily.

"I'm going to ask mamma if we can bring him home," declared Freddie.
"He could sleep in my bed."

The others of the party were now walking through the big tents.

"This is where we eat," the matron explained, as the dining room was
entered. The tent was filled with long narrow tables and had benches at
the sides. The tables were covered with oilcloth, and in the center of
each was a beautiful bunch of fresh wild flowers--the small pretty kind
that grow in the woods.

"You ought to see our poor children eat," remarked the matron. "We have
just as much as we can do to serve them, they have such good appetites
from the country air."

"We must send you some fresh vegetables," said Aunt Sarah, "and some
fruit for Sunday."

"We would be very grateful," replied Mrs Manily, "for of course we
cannot afford much of a variety."

Next to the dining room was the dormitory or sleeping tent.

"We have a little boys' brigade," said the matron, "and every pleasant
evening they march around with drums and tin fifes. Then, when it is
bedtime, we have a boy blow the 'taps' on a tin bugle, just like real
soldiers do."

Freddie and Sandy had joined the sightseers now, and Freddie was much
interested in the brigade.

"Who is the captain?" he asked of Mrs. Manily.

"Oh, we appoint a new captain each week from the very best boys we
have. We only let a very good boy be captain," the matron told him.

In