And Bessie Bell asked: ``Are you a Mama or Only-Just-A-Lady?''

``I am only just a lady,'' the lady said, patting Bessie Bell's
little tiny hand. And it was easy to see that, in Bessie Bell's
mind, though Only-Just-Ladies were kind and sweet, Mamas were far
greater and more important beings.

One night, when Sister Helen Vincula had put Bessie Bell to bed in
the small bed that was not a crib-bed, though like that she had
slept in before she had come to the high mountain, Bessie Bell still
lay wide awake.

Her blue eyes were wide open and both of her pink little hands were
above her head on the pillow. She was thinking, and thinking, and
she forgot that she was thinking her thinking aloud, and she said:

``Alice has a mama. Robbie has a mama. Katie has a mama. Where is
Bessie Bell's mama? Never mind: Bessie Bell will find a mama.''

Then Sister Helen Vincula, who was wide awake, too, said:

``Ah me, ah me.''

Bessie Bell said: ``Sister Helen Vincula, did you call me?''

Sister Helen Vincula said:

``No, child: go to sleep.''

* * *