I

A DIFFERENCE IN HEARTS

"I DON'know as I cal'lated to be the makin' of any child," Miranda
had said as she folded Aurelia's letter and laid it in the light-
stand drawer. "I s'posed of course Aurelia would send us the one
we asked for, but it's just like her to palm off that wild young
one on somebody else."
"You remember we said that Rebecca, or even Jenny might come, in
case Hannah could n't," interposed Jane.

"I know we did, but we hadn't any notion it would turn out that
way," grumbled Miranda.
"She was a mite of a thing when we saw her three years ago,"
ventured Jane; "she's had time to improve."
"And time to grow worse!"
"Won't it be kind of a privilege to put her on the right track?"
asked Jane timidly.
"I don' know about the privilege part; it'll be considerable
work, I guess. If her mother hasn't got her on the right track by
now, she won't take to it herself all of a sudden."
This depressed and depressing frame of mind had lasted until th

eventful day dawned on which Rebecca was to arrive.

"If she makes as much work after she comes as she has before, we
might as well give up hope of ever gettin' any rest," sighed
Miranda as she hung the dish towels on the barberry bushes at the