"Why the chair?" demanded Alice.

"I thought you knew how to count, Mary Jane," added mother. "Didn't you
know there were only four of us? You're a funny little girl!"

"I can count," said Mary Jane with great dignity, "and I know there are
four of us when five of us isn't here. But I had to have a chair for
Dorothy."

And then, for the first time, Mrs. Merrill realized that something was
going on in Mary Jane's mind--something new.

"Dorothy?" she asked kindly; "who is this Dorothy you have been telling me
about?"

"She's the little girl who comes to see me when you won't let me play with
anybody come to see me," explained Mary Jane patiently, "and I'm glad she's
here because I'm lonesome and I want her to stay for lunch because she's a
nice little girl and I don't like people to laugh."

Mrs. Merrill frowned at Mr. Merrill and Alice who showed signs of laughing
and then gathered her little girl into her arms. "Have you been as lonesome
as that?" she asked.

"Just as lonesome as lonesome," answered Mary Jane. "I'm lonesomer than
when nobody comes to see me because this time I know nobody's coming to see
me even if they wouldn't anyway."

"Why is she so lonesome?" asked Mr. Merrill who seemed to understand just
what his little girl meant even though what she said was a little mixed.