Mrs. Dawson, looking at Jessie with kindly anxious
eyes, "but she looks healthy, I think, don't you?" Already it gave
her a pang to hear any one say that her Jessie did not look well.

"Oh yes!" agreed the girl reassuringly. "What can I get for you
to-day, Mrs. Dawson?"

"Well," said Mrs. Dawson thoughtfully, "it seems to me I want a good
many things. What I want mostly is some clothes for Jessie. Living
in the country, she ought to have something that'll wear well, strong
boots, and a plain sun-hat, and some print for washing-frocks."

Jessie's eyes opened wider and wider. Were all those things really
to be bought for her? It seemed impossible; but the girl, who did
not seem at all overcome, went off as though it were quite an
ordinary matter, and presently she returned with an armful of pretty
soft straw hats with wide drooping brims, and tried them one by one
over Jessie's curls.

"I declare, any of them would suit her; but I think she'd look sweet
in that one," she said at last, and granny agreed.

"What would you trim it with?" she asked; "a bit of plain ribbon, I
should think." But the girl shook her head.

"Oh no, if I was you I'd have a little wreath of flowers round it; it
would make ever so pretty a hat, and would last her for Sundays right
on till the late autumn. I'll show you some;" and dragging out a big
drawer, she displayed a perfect garden of dainty blossoms, daisies,
roses, forget-me-nots, moss, ferns, and flowers of every kind that
ever grew, and many kinds that never did or could grow.

Jessie's eyes, though, were caught by a wreath of feathery moss with
little blue forget-me-nots peeping out of it here and there, and when
she was asked which she liked best, she decidedly picked out that
one. To her great delight her granny's taste agreed with her, and
the wreath and the hat and a piece of white ribbon were put aside
together.

"Now," laughed Mrs. Dawson, "I've got to get her another for every
day. That's a pretty fine thing! I reckon you think there's no
bottom to my purse!"

"Now, Mrs. Dawson, you won't regret spending that money, I am sure,"
said the attendant coaxingly; "and this one shan't cost more than
eighteenpence, trimming and all," and she produced a big
shady-brimmed, flexible straw, for which was shown as trimming a
pretty soft flowered ribbon, to be loosely twisted around the crown.
Then came a length of blue serge for a warm dress, and two pieces of
print, one wi