. It seemed wise to change the subject. "What a lot of hair you
have," he remarked.

"It has been washed, and grandmamma said I might dry it in the sun,"
Rosalind explained, shaking her head so vigorously she was enveloped in a
shining cloud.

"Isn't it a great bother? Kit hates to have hers braided."

"Who is Kit?"

"She is my sister Katherine."

"It must be nice to have a sister. I haven't anybody but father and Cousin
Louis, and of course they are better than any one else. There are
grandmamma and Aunt Genevieve, but I am not very well acquainted with them
yet. I should love to have some children related to me."

I have a little sister, too; her name is Blossom. That is, her real name
is Mary, and we call her Blossom."

"Kit and Blossom; and what is your name?" Rosalind asked.

"Maurice Roberts."

Rosalind tossed back her hair and began to twist it into a shining rope.
"I am Rosalind Whittredge," she said. "I should not think you would ever
be unhappy," she added.

"Do you know, I saw you last Sunday when you were studying something. Kit
and I peeped at you through the hedge."

"I was learning a hymn for grandmamma. Why didn't you speak to me?"

"I didn't know whether you'd like it."

"Why, of course I should have liked it. I was beginning to think that day
I should never get acquainted with any one, and I was feeling dreadfully
lonesome when the magician came in."

"The magician?" Maurice exclaimed. Certainly this was a singular girl who
talked about magicians in an everyday tone.

Rosalind laughed. "I mean Morgan, who does cabinet work. Do you know him?"

"Everybody in Friendship knows Morgan. He is a good fellow, too. Why do
you call him the magician?"

"Because that is what father called him when he was a little boy. Once
when Morgan had made an old desk look like new, grandfather said he was a
magician, and father, who heard him, thought he meant it really. Father
and Uncle Allan used to play in his shop and talk on their fingers to him.
Can you do that?"

"Why, yes; I'll teach you if you like."

"I should like it very much. It is so tiresome to write things."

"Morgan is very clever, too, about understanding. You only begin to spell
a word when he guesses what you want to say," Maurice added.

"I went to his shop the other day with Miss Herbert, but she wouldn't let
me stay long. I made friends with his funny dog."

"Do you know what we call him? Curly Q. And the cat--did you see him?