Just Patty

nnigan

Patrick Murphy, eleven little Murphys and "Gramma" Flannigan-occupied a five-room cottage close to the gates of St. Ursula's school. They subsisted on the vic

had laid the foundation of the new west wing-known as Paradise Alley-and had constructed all the chimneys

hild was amply repaid for carrying such a name, by receiving the cast-off clothes of generations of St. Ursula girls. There was danger, for a time, that the poor little

yearly request. She appreciated the artistic quality of the names that the girls provided. They had a distinction, that she herself, with her lack of literary training, would never have been able to give. The choosing of the names had come

the Murphys stood firm. However, by a careful study of early Christian martyrs, the girls h

l of the Murphy

vacation, and the long-suffering priest had insisted that the boy be named for his father), Sidney Orlando Boniface, Richard Harding Gabriel, Yolanda Genevieve. This co

was growing heated, when Patty Wyatt jumped to her feet with the proposal of "Cuthbert St. John." The suggest

he following Sunday, and received a gold-

of womanly virtues, and the greatest of these was charity. Not the modern, scientific, machine-made charity, but the comfortable, old-fashioned kind that leaves a pleasant glow of generosity in the heart of the giver. Every year at Christmastide a tree was decked, a supper laid, and the poor children of the neighborhood bidden to

he family and come into personal relations with a humbler class. She was to learn the special needs

to the skirts of these estates was amply provided with an opportunity to work. In the early days, when the school was small, there had been sufficient poor children to go round; but as St. Ursula'

rnoons out of bounds. A walk abroad is as inspiring to the inmates of a prison as a trip through Europe to those at large. They spent the better part of a week canvassing the neighborhood, only to reveal the embarrassing fact that there

rumbled, as they turned homewards in the cold twilight

ld to every five girls,"

way we dole out stuff to perfectly nice people, is just plain insulting. If anybody poked a pink tarlatan st

ty, Patty's English w

hrough her arm, "we'll stop in at the Murphys' and co

een," said Conny hopeful

ugh to enjoy a tree. The more Murphys we can get

t of them to be blooming beggars-I shall be sorry I ever used

s own room, in the bosom of one's chosen family, the rigor was relaxed. Your dearest friends did not report you-except in periods of estrangement. But your acquaintances and enemies and teachers did, and

er, in a vain endeavor to drown each other out. A cabbage stew, in progress on the stove, filled the room with an odorous steam. Shoved into a corner of the hearth, was poor old Gramma Flannigan, surrounded by noisy, pushing youngsters, who showed her gray hairs but scant consideration. The girls admired the new baby, while Yolan

d a generation ago. Patty found her the most remunerative member of the household, so far as interest went. She always liked to get her started with stories of her girlhood, when she had been a lady's maid in Lord Stirling's castle in C

asked, knowing that she was taking the

head with a tr

ur days. Tammas ain't l

id Patty, with quick sympathy, not realiz

the old woman's g

m no longer for me'n Tammas. So they put me in the garret with the four gurrls, an' Tammas, he was sint oop the road to me son Tammas. Tammas's

f silence, as she endeavored to pluc

ed, laying a sympathetic ha

es filled with the re

off, an' make room for the young. But it's lonely I am without him! We

way." Patty offered what solace she m

ave a husband dead, as a mile an' a ha

nd the visitors rose. They had still to

o find more comfort in the little stray sympathy that Patty

t around waiting to die?" Patty shuddered

. "Hurry up! Or we'll be late for

left little breath for speech; but Patty

rned in at the gate and trotted up the driveway toward the

" they

d on the instant, hurrying figures flitted past the windows-the su

No time now," Patty returne

clattered up the back stairs, and pulling

e track they crossed. Dinner was the only meal which might be app

lushed of cheek and somewhat rumpled as to hair, but properly gowned and apologetic, just as grace was ended. To be late for grace

the three separated themselves from the dancers in the h

on a desk, and loudl

t it is to make so many little children happy, when she knows perfectly well that it's just a lark for us. I'm chairman

tree?" Conny e

thirty-seven dollars and eight-four c

icky little Murphys; and Granpa Flannigan is poked into Tammas Junior's kitchen, running errands for Tammas Junior's wife, who is a per-fect-ly terrible woman. She throws kettles when she gets mad. Gramma worries all the time for fear he has rheu

ed impartially. "But I don'

ttage down by the laurel walk, and mend the chimney-Patrick can do that for no

thirty-seven dollars and eigh

we'll have more than a hundred dollars, and you can furnish a house perfectly beautifully for that. And i

ls want to give t

s meeting and make a speech. Then everybody will file past and s

d an answering flam

d idea!" Con

house," said Priscilla. "Almost as m

aven't had a chance to see each other alone for y

ls took turns in coming gracefully downstairs, entering the drawing-room, announced by Claire du Bois in the r?le of footman, and shaking hands with their hostesses-Conny Wilder, as dowager mama, and towering above her

ear little Irene! It doesn't seem possible that the child is actually gro

as shoved o

rs. Tammas Flannigan have taken the Laurel Cottage for the season. They are thinkin' of startin' a salon. They will be at home ivery afternoon

against callers. Between nine and nine-thirty was the fashionable calling hour at St. Ursula's. The time was supposed to be occupied

d read that they impaled upon the door, but t

bout the lemonade and

harity. You must keep people self-supporting," Pri

inter," Patty planned, "and all the school girls and automobiles will stop for

ollar a week toward their support," Conny proposed. "They mus

la, in a laudable desire to be inconspicuous, was obliged to crawl on hands and knees p

of bounds, and set off at a brisk trot. It was their business-like intention to hav

and Tammas and make 'em pro

ing his feet; he was a tremulous reed that bowed before every blast of the daughter-in-law's tongue. Tammas Junior, after being taken aside and told the project, thought he cou

e up. It only remained to secure the cotta

atty issued her orders, "while I see about the

bank; and by what she considered rare business ability, beat him down from nine dollar

" he said. "A month to month ve

aid Patty, firmly. "You might sell or so

f the first part. He passed the pen to Patty and indicated the s

nsult my partner

sign here, and then

scanning the somewhat cramped quarte

partners

ty-t

on the embroidered "St. U." on Patty's coa

business on such a large scale. In order to be legal," he gravely explained, "the paper will have to

suggest

and with grave poli

school. The door was closed after the retreating Miss Jellings, and for half an hour the three made speeches separately and in unison. They were p

led like a plover's egg. Tammas Junior had volunteered for this job, but it was one the girls could not relinquish. They did allow him to kalsomine the ceilings and hang the wall paper; but they painted the floors and lower reaches of woodwork themselves. The

ouch of flamboyant for some tastes, but Granpa's and Gramma's eyes were failing, and they liked strong colors. Also, crafty questioning had elicited the fact that "pinies" were Gramma's favorite flower. The kitchen had turkey-red curtains with a cheerful strip of rag carpet and two comfortable easy chairs before the hearth. The cellar

ad scarcely been cross. The old man was already wondering at life. When the time arrived, Mrs. Murphy secretly packed Gramma's belongings and dressed her in her best, under the pretext that she was

to the son and daughter. They saw that the fires were burning, the lamps lighted, and the cat-there was even a cat-asleep on the hearth rug; then when the sound of

t by a babel

eased with the

at to do with th

ointed at not hav

her have had a parrot?" (The school had b

hey were as excited over Gramma and Granpa's happiness, as over their own approaching holiday. Al

ed permission to accompany Conny and ten other dear friends to the station for the western express. Driving bac

illa. "Let's stop and wish 'em a Merry C

ith the boisterous greetings of the season, seemed like rudely breaking in upon the seclusion of lovers. Only a glance was needed to tell them that the house-warming was successful. Gramma an

and climbed back into the hears

ey lived in a palace with a million dollars and an automobile! I