hungry for them for many a day.

"We're so glad!--for it did seem as if you'd never come," exclaimed
Dotty Dimple.

"And I'd like to know," said Horace, "how you happened to get here
first."

"O, we came by express--came yesterday."

"By 'spress?" cried Flyaway, pulling away from aunt Madge, who was
trying to pin her frock together; "_we_ came by a 'ductor.--Why, where's
Flipperty's ticket?"

Horace seized Prudy with one hand, and Dotty Dimple with the other,
turning them round and round.

"I don't see anything of the express mark, 'Handle with care.' What has
become of it?"

"O, we were done up in brown paper," said Prudy, laughing, "and the
express mark was on that; but aunt Madge took it off as soon as she got
the packages home."

"Why, what a story, Prudy Parlin! We didn't have a speck of brown paper
round us. Just cloaks and hats with feathers in!"

Dotty spoke with some irritation. She had all along been rather
sensitive about being sent by express, and could not bear any allusion
to the subject.