"Indeed you are!" cried Polly, "and here's mamma."

"Dear little girl," Mrs. Sherwood said, as Sprite stepped from the
carriage, and ran up the steps. "I'm glad to see you, and I shall be
glad indeed to keep you as long as Captain Atherton will permit. He
was over here last evening, and he said that he would let us keep you
up to the first half of the Winter, as we agreed, but after that he
would have you at his home with Rose, if he had to steal you. He
laughed, but he meant it, so see how _very_ welcome you are at
Avondale."

"Oh, it is sweet to have so many people love me," Sprite said,
gratefully, and her eyes were as bright as stars. She was tired with
the long car ride, and with Princess Polly, she sped to her room, there
to make her little self fresh, and fair for dinner.

"We're to share this room, and these two pretty beds are yours and
mine," said Polly.

"We could have had separate rooms, but I wanted you with me, and beside,
mamma said if you were with me, you couldn't be lonesome."

"Oh, I'd rather be with you," said little Sprite, "and what a lovely
room it is!"

She saw every dainty bit of color, every charming detail of the
furnishings, she saw the river as she looked from the windows, and the
vines peeping in at the windows, and she wondered how it had happened
that she now possessed such dear friends, who vied with each other in