t pretty blue-eyed baby girls, but they don't want just
boys--like Jim."

"That's true," Alice Reynolds agreed. "My mother is a director at the
Orphan Asylum, and she says nine out of ten who go there for a child to
adopt, want a pretty baby girl."

"But you can find some other boy for the Camp Fire," Miss Laura
returned.

"Not another Jim. Please share him with us, anyhow, Miss Laura," Alice
urged.

"I don't want to be selfish about it," Laura replied, "but somehow Jim
has crept into my heart and I thought I would take him for my own
special Camp Fire 'service.' And perhaps the other girls won't be
willing to give up their pretty baby."

"I--I'd hate to, though I like Jim too," Rose admitted.

"You couldn't make pretty lacey dresses for Jim," Laura reminded her
with a little laugh. "Rose is hankering for a live doll to dress, girls,
so you'd better wait and see what the others say about it."

"When can Jim leave the hospital?" Alice inquired.

"To judge from his face when I left him, he will get well quickly, now,"
Miss Laura answered.

And he did. The next time she went to see him, he welcomed her with a
beaming smile. "I'm getting well," he exulted. "She says I can sit up
to-morrow," he nodded towards the nurse.

"He is certainly getting better," the nurse agreed. "He has seemed like
another boy since Sunday. How did you work such magic, Miss Haven?"

Laura looked at Jim and his eyes met hers steadily. "Hasn't he told
you?" she asked the nurse.

"He has told me nothing."

Laura smiled at him as she explained, "Jim is my boy now--we agreed on
that, Sunday. When he leaves the hospital he is coming to me."

"Jim, I congratulate you. You are a lucky boy," said the nurse, who knew
all about Judge Haven and his daughter.

"I think I too am to be congratulated," said Laura quickly, and the
nurse nodded.

"Yes, Jim is a good boy," she answered. Then she went away and left the
two together. This time Jim did not talk very much. It was enough for
him to have his pretty lady where he could look at her, and be sure it
was not all a dream.

Not many days later, after a telephone conference with the nurse, Laura
went to the hospital again. She found the boy lying there with a look of
patient endurance in his eyes, but they widened with half-incredulous
joy when she told him that she had come to take him away.

"Not--not _now_!" he cried out, with a little break in his voice.

"Yes, now--just as you are. We