anything in here! All the way up town I've been blessing you three for
taking me in."

Said Laura Ann: "If I were pun-mad, like some folks, I could do
something quite smart there. But there, you poor, wet dear! You sha'n't
be outdone in your specialty, no you sha'n't! Get off your things quick,
dear--we're all bursting to talk about the Grand Plan."

It was, after all, Billy that started in. Billy was very tired indeed,
and her lean, eager face was pale.

"Girls, we _must!_" she said. "I can't hold out more than a few
weeks more. I shall be a mental wreck and go 'round muttering,
_one_-two--three--four, _one_--two--three--four--flat your b's,
sharp your c's--one--two--three--four--_play!_" For Billy all day
toiled at pianos, teaching unwilling little persons to play. Billy's
long name was Wilhelmina.

They were all toilers--worker-B's. The "B" part of the name which they
had given to the little colony came from the accident of all their
surnames beginning with that letter--Brown, Bent, Baker, Byers. It was,
they all agreed, a happy accident; the "B-Hive" sounded so well. But,
as Laura Ann said, it entailed things, notably industry.

Laura Ann finished negatives part of the day to earn money to learn to
paint the other part. She was poor, but the same good grit that made her
loyal to her old grandmother's name, unshortened and unbeautified, gave
her courage to work on toward the distant goal.

Loraine taught--"just everlastingly taught," she said, until she could