is climate was best for his trouble, and when
Grandfather offered us a home on the farm we were so glad. But
Father's not having a church--only once in a while when he fills a
pulpit for a few weeks at a time--keeps us a little short. I reckon
you don't know much about--being short. You have everything you want,
don't you?"

"Everybody seems to think that; they forget that I haven't a mother or
father--or any brothers and sisters," Blue Bonnet said very simply.

Carita threw her arms impulsively about her friend and gave her a warm
kiss. "How mean of me to forget! I wish you were my sister. Boys don't
always understand. But you have so many people to love you, you can't
ever get lonesome. And having lots of money must be so nice, and to go
away to school, and have pretty clothes and go to parties and travel,
why--" Carita's breath failed her.

"I ought to be mighty thankful. And I am most of the time," Blue
Bonnet replied. "But the people who love you always expect a great
deal of you, and it's very hard to live up to their expectations.
Besides, going to school isn't all fun, I can tell you."

"I wouldn't care if it weren't all fun, if I could only go. Father
teaches me at home, but we have so many interruptions. There are
dishes to wash, babies to mind, Grandfather to wait upon, till neither
of us knows whether we're doing arithmetic or grammar." Carita rose.
"I must hurry back to camp--Mother's packing."

"You never forget what's expected of you, do you?" Blue Bonnet asked,
with a mixture of wonder and admiration.

"It wouldn't do for me to forget,--I'm the eldest, you know. Mother
depends on me." Carita spoke as though it were the most natural thing
in the world for a fourteen-year-old girl to be "depended upon."

"Nobody ever depends on me--for a very good reason!" Blue Bonnet
laughed. "Somehow it's so much easier for me to forget than to
remember. It's the only thing I do with shining success."

"You'll learn to be responsible when you have children of your own,"
Carita said as sagely as if she were forty instead of fourteen.

Blue Bonnet's eyes shone.

"I'm going to have a whole dozen!" she declared.

"I wouldn't, if I were you--it would be so hard on the eldest," Carita
reminded her.

And Blue Bonnet, noticing the care-worn look in the eyes of her
"missionary girl," decided that being the eldest of a big family might
have its disadvantages.

"Grandmother, I wish there were something I could do fo