Half a Dozen Girls

sighed Polly. "I do

coming down

inquired Jean

nd you don't know how queer she is. I can't help laughing at her; and that makes mamma cross,

our mother was ever

; but sometimes she doesn't l

on't," remarke

ved as her best when she went into the institution. Accordingly, it was a strange figure that turned in at the doctor's gate, and came to a halt before the two girls who were sitting on the grass under one of the tall elms on the lawn. Her gown was of some black woollen stuff, figured with green, and its short, full skirt fell in voluminous folds over her large hoops. A white muslin cape covered her shoulders;

home?" she aske

answered Polly, rising

all her. You s

iss Bean, bringing her

bloomin

Jean demurely, in spite o

ight's d

r rose at the rough abbrevi

ither, when the Adamses wouldn't have had anything to do with such folks," remarked Miss Bean, who Avas not only a firm believer

sult to her friend, faced her with blazing eyes, while e

difference what you

harge of me, not you;

come

ighed Miss Bean, unconsciously touching another s

" Polly was beginning hotly; but remembering that the old woman, thoug

with a little suspicious moisture around her eyes. Polly dropped down by her side,

on't care anything about your grandpa and grandma; they might have been brough

disconsolately; "but some people a

lf, I don't see what difference it makes whether you have forty cents or forty million dollar

minute, and then Poll

. She minces so, and she never refuses anything to eat without telling just why she doesn't like it. One time, mamma offered h

y for this reason that the worthy woman made the most of her brief outings, to gather up any bits of information which might serve to enliven the days to come, and render her an object of admiration in the community where she was passing her time. In spite of Aunt Jane's frowns, and the efforts

ate. You remember Kate Harvey, her sister that married Henry Shepard and went out to Omaha to liv

interrupted Mrs. Adams desperately. "No, I don't eat oyste

spered Jean, in an aside which made

Miss Webster's. I don't know's I wonder, for I don't suppose there's any schools in them little western towns; but Mis' Hapgood's all upset about it. I told h

y'll come?" inqui

reat store by Kate, being her only sister," she went on, turning back to the doctor; "and so

ums, Miss Bean," said Mrs. Adams

go much on them, excepting pie-plant and molasses," answer

se, Jean pinched Polly's hand unde

g of folks dying, I see Mr. Solomon Baxter as I was coming along. He's aged a good deal since his wife died, and no wonder, poor man! with all his six children to look out for. He shook hands with me, and he seemed so all cut up when I told

the girls, and they burst out laughin

but I have no present

u might think 'twas a case of du

awn again, and sat down to discuss the situation, for they were

f in the hammock. "They were pretty, and they were just elegantly dres

had lots of money," s

r jewelry, and she won't let me have any at all, but just these." As she spoke, Polly touched the string of gold beads t

f they did that more

are the

Alan's age. Molly hasn't ever seen them, for they've always lived

f they're nice I think it wo

nough of us, as it is; and if they were

me school with us. And besides, you said this morning tha

impatiently. "I like Molly Hapgood better than any other g

ustomed to Polly's moods, and was by no means angry at th

better, when she's nice, for we've always been together; a

will, any more than Fl

sooth

ame, Polly straightened up, an

, never tell, I am going to say something

?" asked Je

mise not

e, if you don'

mamma would say I was as bad as Miss Bean, with all her gossip, but I can't help it, it's true.

se he was younger, as Molly did, but invariably stood as his champion when the other girls scolded him, and tried to send him away; and Alan, on his side, never rubbed Polly the wrong way, but respected her quick temper. Of course he teased her, as every natural boy teases the girls with whom he is thrown; but it was a gay, good-natured sort of teasing that never irritated Polly in the least. During his long, rheumati

s head, and his hands in the side pockets of his gray coat, and calmly disregarding the curiosity of the

ed himself to his liking, with his hands clasped u

emanded Polly,

live, and is about twenty-five thousand miles round; a decimal fraction is one whose de

. "We know all that stuff. What we want is to he

hing about them?" aske

y. "She went to see your mother on

isgust in Alan's tone.

t now. I came over to tell you, Poll, b

oming, then?" aske

n his face and pulling up a handful o

te," returned Po

aid mother is going to let them. Molly likes it, but I don't want them round in the way. I kno

tone, "But, Alan, you ought not to talk so about them, for they'

uired Alan, suddenly rolling

essity of making any reply,

et williams, but I don't think much of those new- fangled things," pointing to a

ome out to

ust short

garden, though," she hastily added, e

at her," said Polly, stifling he

quence, had passed on out of heari

boy," she began persuasively

y is the third and mine the seventh. I suppose they're well enough, but their pictures look a little toploftical, and I'm not ove

lly. "Do you remember the day we tried to r

e been all right. Well," he added, sitting up and stretching himself, "mother sent

sighed Polly, watching his boyish figure

nice, but it has its drawbacks, Polly. When they all want to do the same thing at th

e to help her mother get supper and put the younger children to bed. The birds were twittering their last sleepy good nights, and two or

ed herself on the broad arm of her mother's piazza chair; "now

laughing, as she pulled her light shawl ov

olly, with a sudden thoughtfulness;

sins, for instance

nt them, mamma. I know they won't fit in a

ay so without knowing anything more about them. But, Polly, you may

her head w

afraid Molly will like the

hrown with them a great deal, much more than with you; and, so long as they are her cousins, she will probably be fond of them. But, after all these years, can't yo

said Polly slowly. "Once in a while, when we have had a 'scra

don't think it is all Molly's fault, any more than it is all yours. If my small daughte

ously; "but you don't have any idea how har

temper, it is just so much easier to do it again; and if you were to go on long enough, in time you would get to where it would be impossible to stop yourself, and you would do something that might be a sorrow to you, through all your life. It is just so with eve

feet. "Miss Bean was twitting her to-day because she wasn't rich." And Po

tfully. When Polly had fin

Whatever Jean's parents may be, they are real

it make, anyway?" as

is so much stock in trade, just as money would be, if you were starting in business. If, when you have this start, you don't make the most of it, it shows that you are unworthy

nd it doesn't make any difference w

wer. Polly had a way of asking deeper questions than she realized. Mrs. A

ld give more time to study and reading every year. But, after all, I don't believe she would be half so fine, unselfish a girl as she is now, when she has to give up doing what she likes, to help her mother. It is just the same whether it is mone

said Polly. "He says they're goin

been, all summer,"

f the gate-latch, and a ta

nd in the dark doing nothing, when I think of all the good that can be done around us." And Aunt Ja

al goodnight talk with Polly was far more important than all the clubs in the w