decide if you really want to stay?

Your true friend,
Rose Thornton."

After he had finished, Clematis was silent for a moment. Then she
looked up at him with a happy smile.

"Please read it again," she said.

So he read it again, while she sat still in his lap.

"Do you think you would really like to stay?" he asked, when he had
finished.

Clematis patted his hand, and snuggled her face against his
shoulder.

"Can Debby stay, too?" she asked.

"Of course she can. We couldn't get along without Debby."

That night Clematis looked out at the golden light, just fading from
the mountains.

A star was twinkling in the sky. The brook was bubbling down among
the trees, and the wind hummed a little tune in their soft
branches.

She was very happy.

"I am going to be happy always now," she said.

CHAPTER XX

THE TRUE FAIRY STORY

The next week they got Mr. Giles's horse, and drove down to meet
Miss Rose at the station.

How glad Clematis was to see her!

She sat in her lap all the way back to Bean Hill, and told her about
the mountains, the lakes, the trees, and the birds.

"So you think you would like to stay a whole year, do you?" asked
Miss Rose.

Clematis smiled and nodded.

"Deborah can stay too," she said.

When they got to the little cottage, Miss Rose went in with Mr.
Brooks, and had a long talk.

She told him all she knew about Clematis.

He listened while she told him how Clematis ran away, how the
policeman found her, and how she came to the Home.

"Have you any trace of her father and mother?"

"No, they said the father's name was Jones, but I am not sure that
was her father's true name. Both her father and mother died when she
was a baby, they say."

Mr. Brooks looked puzzled.

"Did the mother leave nothing when she died, that people might know
her by?"

Miss Rose reached into her little black bag and brought out the
picture. Mr. Brooks did not take it at first.

"They said the father's name was Jones; did they tell you his first
name?" he asked.

"No, just Jones. I could learn no other name."

Miss Rose held out the picture, and Mr. Brooks's hand trembled as he
took it.

After one look, he carried it to the window.

There he held it to the light, and gazed at it a long time.

"Do you see some one there you know?" asked Miss Rose.

"Wouldn't you know your own daughter, if