e
staking Dora around in different places--she was in the front yard that
day you came over with Richard. She was there because the front yard
has the one decent piece of fencing left on the farm. She would give
more milk if we could let her go free in the pasture--but Kenneth has
to stake her with a staple and rope because the fences are so
poor--where there are any--that the only way to keep her home is to tie
her."

"You're tired," said Rosemary quickly. "You worked too hard yesterday,
Louisa. I wish you'd go off somewhere--find a nice, cool place--and
rest; I'll do these dishes."

Louisa did look tired. More than that, she looked discouraged. She
had not taken pains to brush her hair as carefully as usual and it was
"slicked back" in the tightest possible knot. Her dress was perfectly
clean, but so faded and mended that it would have taken a merry-hearted
girl to have been quite happy in it. Louisa was far from merry-hearted.

"But the potatoes will bring in some money, won't they?" urged
Rosemary, who now knew a great deal about the Gay finances.

"They will, if they're not all sunburned, before Alec gets them into
the barn," responded Louisa gloomily, pouring hot water over a pan of
dishes. "Last year the yield was poor, too. Ken and Jim try to help,
but neither Alec nor I can bear to keep such little boys working in the
hot sun all day long. It isn't right."

Louisa was not given to complaint and Rosemary guessed something of the
pressure the slender shoulders must be enduring.

"I wish I had a million dollars!" burst out Rosemary, putting her arm
about Louisa. "I'd give it all to you!"

To her distress, Louisa began to cry. She was standing near the
kitchen table and she just put her head down on her arms and "let go"
as Rosemary later told her brother. Shirley, who had ventured to leave
the cradle, after several cautious tests to determine the depth of
June's slumbers, peered in aghast. Rosemary motioned to her to go on
and Shirley dashed out into the sunshine, glad to escape.

"You're so sweet to me!" choked Louisa, raising her tear-stained face.
"And you're so pretty--I never saw a girl as pretty as you are. I wish
I could look the way you do and have the clothes you do!"

So the faded dress had had something to do with it, after all.

Rosemary had always taken her pretty summer frocks for granted. Now
she looked from her own blue and white gingham to Louisa's old dress
and rememb