face.

"You have taught me lots of things!" she said impulsively. "You are
one of the best and happiest women I know."

"Well, I guess I ain't the best by a long sight, but I may be the
happiest. An' I got cause to be: four of the smartest childern that
ever lived, a nice house, fair to middlin' health when I ain't got
the rheumatiz, and folks always goin' clean out of the way to be
good to one! Ain't that 'nough to make a person happy? I'll be
fifty years old on the Fourth of July, but I hold there ain't no use
in dyin' 'fore yer time. Lots of folks is walkin' 'round jes' as
dead as they'll ever be. I believe in gittin' as much good outen
life as you kin--not that I ever set out to look fer happiness;
seems like the folks that does that never finds it. I jes' do the
best I kin where the good Lord put me at, an' it looks like I got a
happy feelin' in me 'most all the time."

Lucy sat silent for a while, gazing out of the window. Mrs. Wiggs's
philosophy was having its effect. Presently she rose and untied the
bundle she held.

"Here is a dress I brought for Asia," she said, shaking out the
folds of a soft crepon.

"Umph, umph! Ain't that grand?" exclaimed Mrs. Wiggs, coming from
behind the ironing-board to examine it. "It does seem lucky that
your leavin's jes' fits Asia, an' Asia's jes' fits Austry; there
ain't no symptoms of them bein' handed down, neither! We all model
right after you, but it looks like Asia's the only one that ketches
yer style. Oh, must you go?" she added, as Lucy picked up her
gloves.

"Yes; I promised Mrs. Schultz to read to her this afternoon."

"Well, stop in on yer way back--I'll have a little present ready
for you." It was an unwritten law that no guest should depart
without a gift of some kind. Sometimes it was one of Asia's
paintings, again it was a package of sunflower seed, or a bottle of
vinegar, and once Lucy had taken home four gourds and a bunch of
paper roses.

"I declare I never will git no work done if this weather keeps up!"
said Mrs. Wiggs, as she held the gate open. "If I wasn't so stove
up, an' nobody wasn't lookin', I'd jes' skitter 'round this here
yard like a colt!"

CHAPTER X

AUSTRALIA'S MISHAP

"'T is one thing to be tempted,
Another thing to fall."

THROUGH the long, sunny afternoon Mrs. Wiggs sang over her ironing,
and Asia worked diligently in her flower-bed. Around the corner of
the shed which served as Cuba's dwelling-place, Australia an