ent down to Long Island. I sent them a new girl. And
Bridget was here to inquire about you."

"Oh, she was so good to me. I was a little afraid of her at first,
especially when she said she'd 'skin me alive.' Don't you think it
would hurt dreadfully? She used to threaten Jack, but she never did
it. And she said that about the fairy godmother and the King's ball
was a dream. What is it that goes to strange places when you are
asleep? And how can you enjoy and remember all, and hear the music for
days afterward? If there are two lives, one for day and one for night,
why doesn't the night one go straight on?"

"You'll have to ask the doctor these curious puzzles. They are beyond
me."

"Is Bridget at the house?" she inquired after a moment's thought.

"She was going away to some cousin to stay a week as Mr. Borden will
be down to--Bayside, I think it is, all the week."

"When I get well I suppose I shall have to go back to the babies. You
know I am a bound out girl--until I am eighteen. But they'll be
growing bigger all the time. I wish they were as pretty as Jack. Don't
you think all babies ought to be pretty? And have curly hair?"

"I think the curly hair quite an addition."

"There's another puzzle. Why should some hair curl and some hair keep
straight?"

"I don't know. But your's is curly," smiling.

"Yes, I like it. At the Home there were two other girls with curly
hair. And the nurse said it made us vain, so she cut it close to the
skin and she said it wouldn't curl any more. That was last summer. But
it did when it grew out, and I was glad. I tried to make the babies
curl, and Mrs. Borden said she'd give me a silver dollar if I could.
But it was _so_ straight and there wasn't much of it. Do you remember
the fat little girl of the Campbell's Soups? The babies look a good
deal like her. They have high foreheads and round eyes full of wonder,
and such chubby cheeks. But Aunt Florence said Mr. Borden was just
such a baby and he isn't at all chubby now and has dark eyes. Jack's
are dark. Maybe they'll grow prettier. But they're good and--funny.
They laugh over everything, and they seem to understand everything I
say or read to them. I wonder if they will like the new girl."

"She is very pleased and, I think, patient--four years older than
you."

"Oh, suppose they didn't want me back?" and the child drew a long
breath of half fear.

"There will be something else," in an assuring tone.

Marilla leaned her