soft under their fairy covering.

In the afternoon Miss Cotton took her sewing, put a shawl over her
head, and ran over to the Hamiltons'. She was lonely, and, besides,
she had some news to tell.

"Here's 'Liza comin'," announced Maggie to the group sitting around the
dining room stove. "Chuck full o' news, too, I know. I can tell by
the way she's hoppin' along. Old Mother Fraser's jist gone away from
there; she's been tellin' her something new about Mr. Egerton, I guess!"

She ran out to the hall and flung open the door. "Hello, 'Liza! Come
along in; we're all here, Sarah'n all. It was too snowy for her to go
to school. My, but you needn't bring all the snow in; leave a little
outdoors for sleighin'."

"If you weren't such a lazy poke, Maggie Hamilton, you'd have a path
shovelled to your gate; it looks like the track to a wigwam!"

"It's jist too bad, 'Liza," said Mrs. Hamilton as she swept the snow
from her visitor's feet and skirts. "If I've told them girls once to
sweep that path, I've told them a dozen times. Where's Mary Fraser
been?"

"Up to see old Duncan Polite." Miss Cotton spread her cold hands over
the stove, and surveyed the four girls sharply. "My, but you're
pretendin' to be awful busy! An' Maggie sewin', too, as I'm alive!
The poor old man's got brownkaties, she says."

Sarah covered her face with her French Grammar and giggled.

"Oh yes, smarty! You've got to snicker at somethin'. I s'pose they've
learned you some new-fangled way o' sayin' it at the High School. But
brownkaties is good enough for ordinary folks, an' bad enough, too.
An' that's what the poor old fellow's got anyhow. They had a doctor
out from Mapletown, an' Betsey Neil's been there three nights. He's
had a cold all fall, Mrs. Fraser says, an' wouldn't look after it."

"Dear, dear," said Mrs. Hamilton in distress. "One o' you girls must
run up to-morrow with some beef-tea or something. That's too bad. Sit
close to the fire, 'Liza, it's dreadful cold."

"You'd better send Jessie up with the stuff," remarked the visitor,
planting two trim feet upon the stove damper. "Maybe she'll get news
o' Donald."

"How d'ye know she don't get news anyhow?" demanded Maggie.

"Well, I got some news I'll bet she never got. Don's up sides with you
now, Miss Jessie!"

Jessie looked at her with a startled expression in her grey eyes.

"I don't know what you mean," she said with attempted lightness.

"Well, Mrs. Fraser