rush away the black looks and
be pleasant, you may ask mamma to let you write on my white slate."

"Till you come home?"

"Yes."

Flora with a quick motion brushed away the gloomy clouds and held up her
sunny face for a kiss.

"That is a lady," said Amy, approvingly.

"I will be very careful, and I won't break it," said Flora, gratefully;
"and Dinah must not touch it."

"Well! If you haven't got an April face I wouldn't say so," declared
Charley, at the risk of banishing the smiles.

But Flora did not care. She was thinking of the pretty white slate. She
had never held it in her hands but once, and then Amy stood by to watch
and to caution her. Now she was to have it all to herself.

"I am off," said Charley. "Will somebody kiss me before I go?"

"Dinah will."

Flora held up the black baby, but Charley made a wry face and said
"Pah!" That amused Flora, and she ran after Charley and insisted upon
his kissing Dinah, but before she knew it, Charley caught her in his
arms and left a kiss on the tip of her nose. He did not mean to leave it
there, he was trying to put it on her cheek, but the little nose was
right in the way, so it caught the kiss.

"Ho, ho!" laughed Charley. "Let me take it back and put it where it
belongs."

So Flora held quite still, and Charley made believe take it back; and he
put another one on the cheek. Then he and Amy trudged along to school,
leaving Flora and Dinah in a very happy mood.

CHAPTER III.

THE STORY OF POOR ROBIN.

Flora waited until they had turned the corner. When they looked back,
she waved her hand, and, before passing out of sight, Charley threw a
farewell kiss.

"It was not for you," she said to the black baby, "so you need not look
so pleasant about it. It was for me. And now we will go in and write on
the white slate; but you must not touch it, for somebody has clumsy
fingers and black fingers. It isn't me--my fingers are white; and it
isn't Amy. It is you. Dolls don't know so much as other folks, and dolls
break things. I don't. If you break that slate, Amy will cry. She said
I might take it; she didn't say nothing to you. Will you 'member?"

They went in, but they soon came out again. The sunny morning called so
loudly that Flora could not stay in doors. Not even the white slate had
power to keep her. She played with it a while, and then it was cast
aside, because Dinah wanted to take a walk. How she knew it, I am sure I
cannot tell. Perhaps the b