but we are goin' to see Holmes and
Longfeller, and the rest of the celebrities, so we ran out here fust
thing. Mrs Erastus Kingsbury Parmalee, of Oshkosh, tell her. We don't
mind waitin'; we can look round a spell if she ain't ready to see folks
yet.'

All this was uttered with such rapidity that Ted could only stand
gazing at the buxom damsels, who fixed their six blue eyes upon him so
beseechingly that his native gallantry made it impossible to deny them a
civil reply at least.

'Mrs Bhaer is not visible today--out just now, I believe; but you can
see the house and grounds if you like,' he murmured, falling back as the
four pressed in gazing rapturously about them.

'Oh, thank you! Sweet, pretty place I'm sure! That's where she writes,
ain't it? Do tell me if that's her picture! Looks just as I imagined
her!'

With these remarks the ladies paused before a fine engraving of the Hon.
Mrs Norton, with a pen in her hand and a rapt expression of countenance,
likewise a diadem and pearl necklace.

Keeping his gravity with an effort, Teddy pointed to a very bad portrait
of Mrs Jo, which hung behind the door, and afforded her much amusement,
it was so dismal, in spite of a curious effect of light upon the end of
the nose and cheeks as red as the chair she sat in.

'This was taken for my mother; but it is not very good,' he said,
enjoying the struggles of the girls not to look dismayed at the sad
difference between the real and the ideal. The youngest, aged twelve,
could not conceal her disappointment, and turned away, feeling as so
many of us have felt when we discover that our idols are very ordinary
men and women.

'I thought she'd be about sixteen and have her hair braided in two
tails down her back. I don't care about seeing her now,' said the honest
child, walking off to the hall door, leaving her mother to apologize,
and her sisters to declare that the bad portrait was 'perfectly lovely,
so speaking and poetic, you know, 'specially about the brow'.

'Come girls, we must be goin', if we want to get through today. You
can leave your albums and have them sent when Mrs Bhaer has written a
sentiment in 'em. We are a thousand times obliged. Give our best love
to your ma, and tell her we are so sorry not to see her.' Just as
Mrs. Erastus Kingsbury Parmalee uttered the words her eye fell upon a
middle-aged woman in a large checked apron, with a handkerchief tied
over her head, busily dusting an end room which looked