uch to the observant Alene.

"Tissue-paper hats! Why, Uncle!"

"She was surprised, or I should say scandalized, when I remarked that I
had superintended the putting on of yours, and that I was sorry I was
too young, or not old enough, to go along with you."

"Oh, Uncle Fred, you are just the right age for--anything; but we
couldn't coax you to go that day!" Alene protested.

"And then I told her of my surprise when I reached the office that
morning to find my hat adorned with a red-white-and-blue rosette, which
horrified her so much that I was glad--I mean sorry, that she hadn't
met me wearing it."

"I wish she had, meddling thing!"

"She thinks I'm very lax in my duty to allow you on the street without
a _chaperone_. Alene, I'm a failure as a stern old guardian! I think,
to put myself right with the townspeople, I'll have to get arrested for
beating my incorrigible niece!"

"If they find fault with you, just send them to me and I'll--I'll
settle them," cried Alene, with angry vehemence, holding her fork in
such a threatening position that Kizzie, coming in with the tray, half
paused.

"Don't be alarmed, Kizzie. She's not going to attack you or me; she's
only indignant because everyone doesn't agree with her in holding me up
as a model guardian!"

"Oh, Mr. Fred, how you do go on!" returned Kizzie with a laugh and a
blush, giving Alene a glance that showed upon whose side she stood.

"But I haven't come to the end of my tale. It seems that Mrs. Ramsey's
real object in paying me a visit was not to lecture me, as I supposed,
but to say that her two daughters are coming to visit you to-morrow
afternoon."

"Oh, bother! Laura and Ivy promised to come and stay for tea!"
grumbled Alene.

"Well, the more the merrier. The Ramsey girls seem to be amiable
enough," returned Mr. Dawson who failed to see any reason for the
little girl's vexation. Indeed, Alene herself could not define what
was, in reality, the dismay any hostess might feel if called upon to
entertain a group of people which she knows to be utterly uncongenial.

"Don't worry, child! Just do the best you can," was the advice of the
housekeeper, when Alene, kneeling on a chair at the window next
morning, viewed the forbidding, rain-soaked grounds.

"But I depended on the garden to help me out," said she, giving a
reproachful glance at the soggy grass and dripping trees. "The girls
could swing and run about in the grass, and now we'll all have