and you ought to have seen how tenderly he picked him up, and brushed
off the dust, and he was quite as gentle as mamma would have been."

"Oh, he's just fine," said Mollie, "and I _do_ wish he would visit our
school on a day when Arabella's aunt would be there! I love to see him
when he looks at her. Someway he seems so very respectful, and yet his
eyes laugh."

"Well, it's just a few days now before school begins, and what fun we'll
have," said Flossie, "and perhaps Arabella will invite her aunt to one
of our entertainments; if she does, I'm just sure Uncle Harry would go."

"Oh, come here this minute, every one of you," called a cheery voice,
and Nina Earl stepped through an opening in the hedge.

"Why, how surprised you look! I've been over to the stone cottage to
call for you, Nancy, and Aunt Charlotte said that you were with Dorothy,
so I ran across the lawn. I could hear you all talking, and I was wild
to tell you something."

"Oh, tell it, tell it, Nina!" cried Mollie.

Nina looked back through the opening in the hedge.

"She's just saying 'good-morning' to Aunt Charlotte," she said, "and let
me tell you something; she's been all over the stone cottage, looking
into this thing and peeping into that, till I'd think Aunt Charlotte
would be wild. It's Arabella's aunt, and she says she came to learn if
the house was a healthy one to be in, and to see if the plumbing was
all right."