ted her. In their eyes everything she did was perfect.
She was a general favorite at school, but Madame La Rue declared that she
would never become a perfect lady while her brothers lived at home; but
she was kind-hearted and generous. Mrs. Hollister, Senior, liked her
immensely. She always called her "Grandma."

"Do you know what I'm going in for?" she asked of the old lady. "Well,
I'll tell you--it's babies!" Everyone laughed.

"You needn't laugh. Next year I'm going to take all of my spending money
excepting ten dollars and hire two rooms and a kitchenette. Dad gives me
sixty dollars per. I'm going to take thirty-five for rent and the boys
will help me furnish. Then I'm going to beg my friends for contributions
and open a Day Nursery. Of course, I'll have to get a woman for fifteen
dollars a month to take care of the babies, and the mothers can pay four
cents a day for each child."

"Why, Dorothy Kip," exclaimed the girls. "You couldn't get any servant
for fifteen dollars a month."

"I can, and don't you forget it. Old Susan Conner, who used to be my
brother Tom's nurse, has offered to come for fifteen dollars. She likes
me and she's willing to help me in this charity. We've talked it all
over. Susan is some class now and has her two-room-and-bath apartment.
She's old and hasn't much to do and she has enough to live on, so she's
offered to come; and I'm going to spend just ten dollars on myself each
month in place of sixty for candy and soda and such nonsense. No one
knows of it but Susan and I. I'm going to beg for oatmeal and rice and
bread of the grocers with whom we've traded for years, and if they
refuse I'll influence Mother to leave them. Then I think Dad will help
me out on milk and anything needed. I'll confide in him."

"That's a fine and magnificent idea, Dorothy," said Mrs. Hollister, "and
you'll become a public benefactor."

"Well, you see, Mrs. Hollister, I like the little kids and I've seen
such pitiful faces on some where the sisters have had to take care of
them while the mothers worked. So I made up my mind I could take ten
little ones anyway. Then the mothers' four cents will be forty cents a
day. That will pay for some, of the food. Oh! I'm going to become a
beggar and ask every friend to help me. Maybe it will fail but I can
try. The boys will give, I'm sure."

"Yes, Dorothy, and I bet you'll succeed," said the girls. "We'll help,
too."

Then each girl pledged herself for what she could