rley and hugged her fervently,
which was the emotion Shirley generally inspired in all beholders.
She was a young person, all yellow curls and fluffy white skirts
and tiny perfect teeth and distracting dimples.

"Miss Wright's room is in perfect order," reported Winnie, setting
Shirley down and straightening her pink sash. "I put on the
embroidered bureau scarf and the best linen sheets and pillow
cases, just as you said, Rosemary."

"And I put a bowl of lilacs on her table this morning," said
Rosemary happily, "so I guess everything has been attended to.
Do you want us to get anything up town? We're going to the
station, Winnie."

"No, my dinner's all planned," answered Winnie with pride. "What
train's Miss Wright coming on--the 4:10?"

"Yes, and Hugh said to have Bernard Coyle bring us up to the house
with his jitney," said Rosemary. "I suppose Aunt Trudy will have
some bags and parcels. You'll be round when we get back, won't you,
Winnie? I don't know exactly what to say to her."

"Bless you, child, you'll do all right," Winnie encouraged her.
"Doctor Hugh will be home to dinner and 'tisn't as if your aunt was
a total stranger."

"But she really is a total stranger," commented Rosemary, as they
began their walk to the station. "Of course she has been here a
couple of days last summer and she spent New Year's with us; but
Mother entertained her and we only saw her now and then, mostly at
the table."

"Well, we have to make the best of it now, because Hugh says we
can't upset Mother," said Sarah. "I know she will be an awful lot of
trouble and she won't know the first thing about animals."

"Maybe she'll read all the time," offered Shirley in her soft, baby
voice. "Dora Ellis has an aunt who reads books all the time and Dora
can do just as she pleases. She told me so."

"Well, don't you listen to everything Dora Ellis tells you," said
Rosemary severely. "Mother doesn't like you to play with her and
Hugh said you were not to go across the street without asking
permission; doesn't Dora Ellis live on the other side of the
street?"

"Yes, she does, but I didn't go over in her yard, not for weeks and
weeks," explained Shirley earnestly. "She told me 'bout her aunt
last year, in kindergarten."

"All right, honey, I'm not scolding," declared Rosemary, giving her
a kiss. "There's the station clock and it says half-past four. But,
pshaw, that clock never keeps time."

It was not half-past four they found, when