apron in haste.

"Oh, that you, Miss Lucindy?" she called. "I've just been fryin' some
riz doughnuts. Well, how'd the flowers suit?"

"I haven't quite made up my mind," said Lucindy, trying to speak with
the dignity befitting her quest. "I just come in with little Claribel
here. She's goin' to have a new hat, and her grandma said she might
come down with me to pick it out. You've got some all trimmed, I
believe?"

Miss West opened a drawer in an old-fashioned bureau.

"Yes," she said, "I've got two my niece trimmed for me before she went
to make her visit to Sudleigh. One's blue. I guess you've seen that.
Then there's a nice white one. The 'Weekly' says white's all the go,
this year."

She took out two little hats, and balanced them on either hand. The
blue one was strongly accented. The ribbon was very broad and very
bright, and its nodding cowslips gleamed in cheerful yellow.

"Ain't that a beauty?" whispered Lucindy close to the little girl's
ear. "But there! Don't you have it unless you'd rather. There's lots of
other colors, you know; pink, and all sorts.".

Claribel put out one little brown hand, and timidly touched the other
hat.

"This one," she said.