making beds, when you put your
mind to it," she announced diplomatically. "You make the beds
mornings, when Rosemary is doing her practising and I won't ask you
to do another thing."

"But me?" urged Shirley. "What can I do, Winnie?"

"Bless your little heart, you run to the store for Winnie, and help
her make cookies," cried Winnie, "that's enough for one little girl,
dearie."

"I don't think any of us has much to do," observed Rosemary. "I can
do lots more to help, Winnie. And so can Sarah."

"If you'll do just one thing and do it every day, I won't be
complaining," Winnie returned. "You'll find it's easy to get tired
and it's then you'll want to skip a day."

The girls were sure that nothing would induce them to "skip" a day,
and Winnie went back to her kitchen well-pleased with her bestowal
of commissions.

The house seemed strangely empty without the gentle little mother
and at first time hung heavy on the three pairs of young hands.
Doctor Hugh was very busy adjusting his work to run smoothly and
his hours were irregular so that he did not see much of his sisters.
Then, as the mother's absence became an established fact, gradually
old interests and friends absorbed their attention and normal life
was resumed with the difference that a great gap was always present
and unfilled. Aunt Trudy was kindness itself and overflowing with
affection for her nieces, but her attitude toward them was that of a
placid outsider, gently watching them from a little distance. Aunt
Trudy did their mending exquisitely, because she liked to sew, but
she would not leave the mending and come down stairs to meet Nina
Edmonds, a new-comer to the neighborhood, though Rosemary was
anxious to have every social courtesy shown the rather critical
young person who seemed older than her thirteen years.

"I don't want to drop my work now, dearie," said Aunt Trudy in
response to her niece's appeal. "I always lose my needle when I get
up; I'll meet your little friend some other time. Ask her to dinner
to-night if you wish--Winnie is going to have veal loaf and egg
salad."

Rosemary acted on this suggestion, and Doctor Hugh, coming in late,
was surprised to find a fourth girl at the table, a freckle-faced
little girl with light bobbed hair and incredibly thin arms and
hands. Nina Edmonds talked incessantly and, after a few ineffectual
attempts to carry on a conversation with his aunt, the young doctor
devoted himself to his dinner, keeping