Then both the little girls talked sweet nothings to their rag babies,
just like any other little girls.

"Is the dollies blind-eyed, too?" asked Katie, making a dash forward, and
peeping into the cloth face of a baby.

The little mamma, whose name was Octavia, smiled, and taking Katie by the
shoulders, began to touch her all over with her fingers.

"Dear little thing!" said she; "what soft hair!"

"Yes," replied Katie; "velly soft. Don't you wish, though, you could see
my new dress? It's got little blue yoses all over it."

[Illustration: DOTTY AND KATIE VISITING THE BLIND GIRLS.]

"I know your dress is pretty," said Octavia, gently, "and I know you are
pretty, too, your voice is so sweet."

"Well, I eat canny," said Katie, "and that makes my voice sweet. I'se got
'most a hunnerd bushels o' canny to my house."

"Have you truly?" asked the children, gathering about Flyaway, and
kissing her.

"Yes, and I'se got a sweet place in my neck, too; but my papa's kissed it
all out o' me."

"Isn't she a darling?" said Octavia, with delight.