fore?" asked Nat, as they
lay about on the grass, nibbling pennyroyal like a flock of sheep.

"Not since I last flew a kite, years ago, when I was a girl," answered
Mrs. Jo.

"I'd like to have known you when you were a girl, you must have been so
jolly," said Nat.

"I was a naughty little girl, I am sorry to say."

"I like naughty little girls," observed Tommy, looking at Nan, who made
a frightful grimace at him in return for the compliment.

"Why don't I remember you then, Aunty? Was I too young?" asked Demi.

"Rather, dear."

"I suppose my memory hadn't come then. Grandpa says that different parts
of the mind unfold as we grow up, and the memory part of my mind hadn't
unfolded when you were little, so I can't remember how you looked,"
explained Demi.

"Now, little Socrates, you had better keep that question for grandpa, it
is beyond me," said Aunt Jo, putting on the extinguisher.

"Well, I will, he knows about those things, and you don't," returned
Demi, feeling that on the whole kites were better adapted to the
comprehension of the present company.

"Tell about the last time you flew a kite," said Nat, for Mrs. Jo had
laughed as she spoke of it, and he thought it might be interesting.

"Oh, it was only rather funny, for I was a great girl of fifteen, and
was ashamed to be seen at such a play. So Uncle Teddy and I privately
made our kites, and stole away to fly them. We had a capital time, and
were resting as we are now, when suddenly we heard voices, and saw a
party of young ladies and gentlemen coming back from a picnic. Teddy did
not mind, though he was rather a large boy to be playing with a kite,
but I was in a great flurry, for I knew I should be sadly laughed at,
and never hear the last of it, because my wild ways amused the neighbors
as much as Nan's do us.

"'What shall I do?' I whispered to Teddy, as the voices drew nearer and
nearer.

"'I'll show you,' he said, and whipping out his knife he cut the
strings. Away flew the kites, and when the people came up we were
picking flowers as properly as you please. They never suspected us, and
we had a grand laugh over our narrow escape."

"Were the kites lost, Aunty?" asked Daisy.

"Quite lost, but I did not care, for I made up my mind that it would be
best to wait till I was an old lady before I played with kites again;
and you see I have waited," said Mrs. Jo, beginning to pull in the big
kite, for it was getting late.

"Must we go now?"

"I