hearty woman."

Patty looked at the weak little creature, and concluded that if
any medicine could make her strong and hearty, it must indeed be a
cure-all.

"May I call you Aunt Adelaide, too?" she said, gently, for she
wanted to be on the pleasantest possible terms with Mrs. Parsons,
and hoped to be able to help her in some way.

"Yes, yes, my dear. I seem to take to you at once. I look upon you
and Mona both as my nieces and my loved charges. I had a little
daughter once, but she died in infancy. Had she lived, I think she
would have looked like you. You are very pretty, my dear."

"You mustn't tell me so, Aunt Adelaide," said Patty, smiling at
her. "It isn't good chaperonage to make your girls vain."

"Mona is pretty, too," went on Mrs. Parsons, unheeding Patty's
words. "But of a different type. She hasn't your air of
refinement,--of class."

"Oh, don't discuss us before each other," laughed Mona, good-
naturedly. "And I'm jealous and envious enough of Patty already,
without having those traits fostered."

"Yes," went on Aunt Adelaide, reminiscently, "my little girl had
blue eyes and golden hair,--they said she looked like me. She was
very pretty. Her father was a plain-looking man. Good as gold,
Henry was, but plain looking. Not to say homely,--but just plain."