h your beak and the other in your
claws. Butterflies aren't very heavy."

"Those butterflies were heavy enough," sighed her sister.

"It was splendid of you, Tess!" cried Mrs. Eland. "I am proud of you."

"So are we," announced Dot. "But Aunt Sarah says we ought not to praise
her too much or maybe she'll get biggity. _What's_ 'biggity'?"

"Something I'm sure Tess will never be," said the matron, hugging Tess
again. "Why so sober, dear? You ought to be glad you helped save those
two little girls from a serious fall."

"I am," Tess replied.

"Then, what is the matter?"

"It's Miss Pepperill."

"Oh, dear me!" murmured Dot. "She fusses over that old Miss Pepperpot as
though she were one of the family."

"Is she really worse, dear?" asked Mrs. Eland, softly, of Tess.

"They think she is. And--and, Mrs. Eland! She does call for you so
pitifully! Miss Lippit told me so."

"Calls for _me_?" gasped the matron, paling.

"Yes, ma'am. Miss Lippit says she doesn't know why. Miss Pepperill never
knew you very well before she was hurt. But I told Miss Lippit that I
could understand it well enough," went on Tess, eagerly. "You'd be just
the person I'd want to nurse me if I were sick."

"Thank you, my dear," smiled Mrs. Eland, beginning to breathe freely
once more.

"You see, Miss Lippit knows Miss Pepperill pretty well. She knew her out
West."

"Out West?" repeated Mrs. Eland.

"Yes, ma'am. Miss Lippit says that isn't her real name. She was a
'dopted child."

"Who was?" demanded the matron, all in a flutter again.

"Miss Pepperill. She was brought up by a family named Pepperill. Seems
funny," said Tess, gravely. "_She_ lost her mother and father in a
fire."

"I guess that's why her hair is red," said Dot, not believing her own
reasoning, but desiring to be in the conversation.

Mrs. Eland was silent for some minutes. "She isn't mad, is she?"
whispered Dot to Tess.

But the latter respected her friend's silence. Finally the matron said
pleasantly enough: "I am going out when you children go home. You must
show me where this school teacher of yours lives. If I can be of any
service----"

She put on her bonnet and the long gray cloak in a few minutes, and the
three set forth from the hospital. Dot clung to one hand and Tess to the
other of the little gray woman, as they went to Miss Lippit's boarding
house.

"This is Mrs. Eland," Tess said to the spinster, who was both landlady
and friend of the injured sch