at
next? What _are_ you laughing at?"

"You will never guess, I am sure. This is a letter from Miss Jane! And she
has made me this pincushion!"

The pincushion was of a familiar type, two circles of pasteboard covered
with gray silk, neatly over-handed together, and stuck with a row of
closely fitting pins. Miss Jane's note ran as follows:--

HILLSOVER, April 21.

DEAR KATY,--I hear from Mrs. Nipson that you are to be married
shortly, and I want to say that you have my best wishes for your
future. I think a man ought to be happy who has you for a wife.
I only hope the one you have chosen is worthy of you. Probably
he isn't, but perhaps you won't find it out. Life is a knotty
problem for most of us. May you solve it satisfactorily to
yourself and others! I have nothing to send but my good wishes
and a few pins. They are not an unlucky present, I believe, as
scissors are said to be.

Remember me to your sister, and believe me to be with true
regard,

Yours, JANE A. BANGS.

"Dear me, is that her name?" cried Clover. "I always supposed she was
baptized 'Miss Jane.' It never occurred to me that she had any other
title. What appropriate initials! How she used to J.A.B. with us!"

"Now, Clovy, that's not kind. It's a very nice note indeed, and I am
touched by it. It's a beautiful compliment to say that the man ought to be
happy who has got me, I think. I never supposed that Miss Jane could pay a
compliment."

"Or make a joke! That touch about the scissors is really jocose,--for Miss
Jane. Rose Red will shriek over the letter and that particularly rigid
pincushion. They are both of them so exactly like her. Dear me! only one
letter left. Who is that from, Katy? How fast one does eat up one's
pleasures!"

"But you had a letter yourself. Surely papa said so. What was that? You
haven't read it to us."

"No, for it contains a secret which you are not to hear just yet," replied
Clover. "Brides mustn't ask questions. Go on with yours."

"Mine is from Louisa Agnew,--quite a long one, too. It's an age since we
heard from her, you know."

ASHBURN, April 24.

DEAR KATY,--Your delightful letter and invitation came day
before yesterday, and thank you for both. There is nothing in
the world that would please me better than to come to your
wedding if it were possible, but it simply isn't. If you lived
in New Haven now, or even