st Sunday."

"You really didn't go?" Miss Margery asked. "But Mrs. Flannagan says
you passed her house--five of you--dressed for the excursion."

"Yessum, lady," Peggy agreed, dimpling. "I wisht you could 'a' seen us.
It cert'ny is nice livin' when you can wear fussy-fixy velvet and silk
clothes and lacey waists. John Edward and Elmore, bein' boys, couldn't
get no good of them, so we give John Edward the little lace-flounced
umberill to carry and Elmore a painted open-and-shut fan.--Them's the
things the lady give us where mommer sews for," she explained, in answer
to Miss Margery's bewildered look. "We went to see her like she asked
us. 'Twas too far for the baby and Bud and Lois to walk, so we left them
with Mrs. Mooney--she's the nice colored lady next door. We wisht they
could 'a' gone. Mrs. Peckinbaugh gave us sandwiches and lemonade and
little icin' cakes and street-car tickets to ride home on. I never did
have such a good time. Oh," Peggy laughed merrily, "and when we came
back by Mrs. Flannagan's, I said out loud 'twas most too cool on the
boat up the river and John Edward he asked if the monkeys wa'n't cute!"

"Peggy, Peggy, my child!" said Miss Margery. "Don't you know it's sinful
to tell lies?"

"Yessum--lies that hurt folks. Them's little white lies. They don't do
no harm."

"There aren't any white lies, Peggy. They are all black. It is wrong, it
is sinful, to tell a falsehood. Remember that, my child," Miss Margery
urged. "Always speak the truth."

"Yessum, lady." Peggy's brow was unclouded and her clear blue eyes
looked straight into the clear blue eyes of the Charity lady. "Can I
tell mommer you'll come? or can't you give me the money? She's awful
worried."

"I do not understand," said Miss Margery. "I know she had that money for
the rent."

"Did she, ma'am?" Peggy looked surprised, then suggested, "I 'spect she
lost it. She keeps the rent money in a china mug on the mantel-piece,
and this might 'a' been paper money and blowed in the fire and got burnt
up."

Miss Margery looked unconvinced. "Tell your mother I'll come there this
afternoon," she said. Peggy, with an engaging smile, tripped away.

Anne was delighted to learn that another visit was to be paid to the
Callahans. She ran home to get Honey-Sweet.

"I told them about her and they want to see her," she said. "I think
she's taller than the baby. Oh! I hope that cunning baby has another
tooth."

Miss Margery paused a moment at the do