will answer favorably.

I remain,
Very respectfully,
PAULINE ALMY SHAW.
WINTON, VT., May Sixteenth.


Pauline laughed rather nervously as she slipped her letter into an
envelope and addressed it. It wasn't a very big flag, but perhaps it
would serve her purpose.

Tucking the letter into her blouse, Pauline ran down-stairs to the
sitting-room, where her mother and Hilary were. "I'm going down to the
post-office, mother," she said; "any errands?"

"My dear, in this rain?"

"There won't be any mail for us, Paul," Hilary said, glancing
listlessly up from the book she was trying to read; "you'll only get
all wet and uncomfortable for nothing."

Pauline's gray eyes were dancing; "No," she agreed, "I don't suppose
there will be any mail for us--to-day; but I want a walk. It won't
hurt me, mother. I love to be out in the rain."

And all the way down the slippery village street the girl's eyes
continued to dance with excitement. It was so much to have actually
started her ball rolling; and, at the moment, it seemed that Uncle Paul
must send it bounding back in the promptest and most delightful of