arlor and a dining room, with a basement kitchen which Bridget
declared she liked above all things. A woman came to do the washing
and ironing, Bridget's nephew took out the ashes and swept the stoop
and sidewalk. Bridget was a strong, healthy, good natured Irish woman
when you didn't meddle with her, and the ladies were very glad not to
meddle. But some one for the babies they must have.

One day a friend came in for a subscription to some of her charities
and heard the appeal.

"Now, I'll tell you just what to do," she said "Go over to the Bethany
Home, you take the car out to the Melincourt Road that passes it. Ask
for Mrs. Johnson. They have two girls; they put them out when they are
twelve. And since you only want some one to amuse the babies and take
them out, and she will be growing older all the time, you see, you can
bring her up in your ways. Yes, that is what I'd do."

Mrs. Borden followed the advice. There was a stout, rather vacant
looking German girl, a good worker who delighted in scrubbing and
scouring and who would make an excellent kitchen maid. The other was
Marilla Bond, an orphan with no relatives that any one knew; a fair,
nice looking intelligent child, with light curly hair cropped close,
rather slim, and with a certain ready, alert look that was
attractive.

Mrs. Borden brought her home for a month's trial. She took to the
babies at once, and Jack took to her. Oddly enough, so did Bridget.
She had such a quaint sweet way of saying, "Yes'm" and "No'm;" she did
what she was told to do with alacrity, she ran up and down stairs on
numberless errands. She was a very good reader and at first, Jack kept
her busy in this respect. But she wanted to hear about lions and
tigers and men killing them and Indian fights and matters that didn't
please the little girl at all. Mother Goose was babyish.

The twins sat on a blanket on the floor and sometimes rolled around a
little. She played with them, talked to them and they really listened
to the stories that she acted off and laughed gleefully.

"They certainly _are_ intelligent," Aunt Florence said with pride.

On nice sunny days when it was not very cold she took them out in the
carriage. They were carried down and put in it, then brought up
again. Their mother "wasn't going to have any nurse breaking their
backs by a fall."

So when the month of probation was ended, Marilla was bound to Mr. and
Mrs. John Borden, to be clothed and fed and sent to sch