command.

"You aren't a bit glad, Puss," she said at last, trying to keep the
disappointment out of her voice. But if Tabitha heard she gave no sign
and the tears rose in the gentle blue eyes of the speaker. "I thought
you would think it was nice." Still Tabitha made no reply, but kept her
gaze fixed on the hot sands of the sizzling desert. "We have planned it
out so often, and now when w--I can go, you don't like it."

Gulping back the lump that rose in her throat, the black-eyed girl by
the window wheeled toward her playmate, now lying prostrate on the
floor, and dropping on her knees beside her she exclaimed penitently,

"I am mean, Carrie! I am glad because _you_ are going away to school,
but--it is so hard to have you leave here--when I can't go, too. Ain't I
selfish? It isn't as if it would be only for a week or even a month, but
for whole years with only a few days here in the winter! And you're the
only friend I ever had so near my own age!"

Tabitha was crying now and Carrie forgot her own disappointment in
soothing the greater sorrow of her mate.

"Don't feel so bad, Puss; maybe you can go, too."

"No, I can't! There isn't any use of thinking that, Carrie Carson! It
takes money to go to boarding school and Dad never has any any more. His
claims take all he gets. I wish he would let the Cat Group go to Guinea
and work for the Silver Legion like Mr. McKittrick does. Mercedes
McKittrick is going next year. I want to go _so_ much. I'm almost as far
as I can get in this little mite of a school and I can't bear to think
of growing up a know-nothing."

"You won't be a know-nothing, Puss, even if you never went to school
another day. Papa says it is ambition that wins, and you're the most
ambitious girl I ever knew. I'd like to go to boarding school for the
fun of it, but I do hate to study. Papa thinks maybe--"

She hesitated, remembering that she had been cautioned not to tell his
plans, for fear they might not be successful, but it was hard for Carrie
to keep such a beautiful secret, when she felt so confident that this
kind, big-hearted father would succeed in overcoming even Mr. Catt's
prejudices in regard to a boarding-school education for his one small
daughter.

"Maybe what?"

"Maybe--just _may_be--he can get your father to let you go."

Tabitha was silent for a moment and the black eyes shone wistfully; then
she answered with a heavy sigh, "There isn't the _least_ chance of
Dad's letting me go,