Ladies--just Ladies.

Very often after that day she watched those who passed the cabin
where she and Sister Helen Vincula lived, and wondered which were
Mamas--

And which were Ladies.

There was no rule of old or young by which Bessie Bell could tell.

Nor was it as one could tell Sisters from Just-Ladies by a way of
dress. For Sisters, like Sister Helen Vincula, wore a soft white
around the face, and soft long black veils, and a small cross on the
breast of the dress: so that even had any not known the difference
one could easily have guessed.

But for Ladies and Mamas there were none of these differences.

But Bessie Bell looked and looked and wondered, but her eyes brought
to her no way of knowing.

Bessie Bell could at length think of only one way to find out the
difference, and that was to ask--to let her ears help her eyes to
bring to her some way of knowing.

One day, a dear old lady with white curls all around under her
bonnet stopped near the playground and called Bessie Bell to her and
gave her some chocolate candy, every piece of candy folded up in its
own white paper.