I did it, though only a small chore."

"I'm sure the helping of five poor souls is a fine work, and you may
well be proud of it, Ida. Now I know why you wouldn't go to matinees
with me, and buy every pretty thing we saw as you used to. The
pocket money went for coal and food, and your fancy work was little
clothes for these live dolls of yours. You dear thing! how good you
were to cook, and grub, and prick your fingers rough, and give up
fun, for this kind work!"

Maggie's hearty kiss, and the faces of her friends, made Ida feel
that her humble task had its worth in their eyes, as well as in her
own; and when the others had expressed their interest in her work,
all composed themselves to hear what Marion had to tell.

"I have been taking care of a scarlet runner,--a poor old
frost-bitten, neglected thing; it is transplanted now, and doing
well, I'm happy to say."

"What do you mean?" asked Ella, while the rest looked very curious.

Marion picked up a dropped stitch in the large blue sock she was
knitting, and continued, with a laugh in her eyes: "My dears, that
is what we call the Soldiers' Messenger Corps, with their red caps
and busy legs trotting all day. I've had one of them to care for,
and a gorgeous time of it, I do assure you. But before I exult over
my success, I must honestly confess my failures, for they were sad
ones. I was so anxious to begin my work at once, that I did go out
and collar the first pauper I saw. It was an old man, who sometimes
stands at the corners of streets to sell bunches of ugly paper