ing and a small daguerreotype picture of me. Then mother
said he had asked for it the night he went away."

"Oh, Aunt Selina, how lovely of you!" cried several little girls as
they crowded about the old lady and hugged her.

"Rebecca did not return to school again, but as soon as the war was over
we wrote and invited Mr. and Mrs. Crudup to bring Rebecca North to visit
us. The elders were too heart-sore to come to a country they blamed for
all their losses, but Rebecca came and stayed a long time."

CHAPTER X

BEGINNING TO SPELL SUCCESS

Another nest of Blue Birds had been formed under Mrs. Catlin's
supervision, and these little girls were chosen to act as agents to
secure subscriptions for the forthcoming magazine. They were also
permitted to donate short stories or pictures to the magazine and, being
so young a branch of the first Nest, felt this was a special privilege.

Aunt Selina had written her interesting Civil War story and had it ready
for Uncle Ben, but Mrs. Catlin was still busy trying to arrange her
chapters so they would make a good serial.

The Blue Birds had written their pages over and over, and finally Mrs.
Talmage said they would lose all sense in the telling if they kept on
rewriting. So the pages were taken as they were and corrected by Uncle
Ben.

As the various short articles came in to the Publishing House, Mrs.
Talmage took charge of them. Many a pleased surprise she had as she
read the different articles submitted by the boys, and the suggestions
and hints sent in by the girls.

The Bobolinks spent every afternoon at their Publishing House, setting
type, trying to run machines, and find out various things about
business. The two young men promised by Uncle Ben were not expected
until actual work on the magazine began.

So much talk had been heard at various dinner-tables in Oakdale, that
fathers manifested enough curiosity in the work to ask for an invitation
to the Publishing House. The habit of "dropping in to watch the boys"
grew to be regular meetings, and the men enjoyed the social evenings as
much as the boys did. Naturally, the work did not lose any of its value
by the suggestions and ideas given by the older, experienced business
men, but the Blue Birds grew envious over the evident interest shown in
the Bobolinks while they were never about.

One afternoon the Blue Birds gathered about Mrs. Talmage with a
complaint.

"Mother Wings, those Bobolinks will be 'way ahe