arrived at the shop, bearing Betsy in his arms. "She was
almost to the bridge," he said, "when I caught sight of her from the
car window. The little tramp!"

Betsy never seemed to mind being caught. For an instant the little
rosebud that was her mouth would part over the tiny pearls that were
her teeth. This roguish smile seemed to say: "You wait until the
next time. You won't catch me then."

Sometimes Betsy would come into the shop for an hour's play. Maida
loved to have her there but it was like entertaining a whirlwind.
Betsy had a strong curiosity to see what the drawers and boxes
contained. Everything had to be put back in its place when she left.

Next to the Hales lived the Clarks. By the end of the first week
Maida was the chief adoration of the Clark twins. Dorothy and Mabel
were just as good as Betsy was naughty. When they came over to see
Maida, they played quietly with whatever she chose to give them. It
was an hour, ordinarily, before they could be made to talk above a
whisper. If they saw Maida coming into the court, they would run to
her side, slipping a hot little hand into each of hers. Attended
always by this roly-poly bodyguard, Maida would limp from group to
group of the playing children. Nobody in Primrose Court could tell
the Clark twins apart. Maida soon learned the difference although
she could never explain it to anybody else. "It's something you have
to feel," she said.

Billy Potter enjoyed the twins as much as Maida did. "Good morning,
Dorothy-Mabel," he always said when he met one of them; "is this you
or your sister?" And he always answered their whispered remarks with
whispers so much softer than theirs that he finally succeeded in
forcing them to raise their shy little voices.

The Doyles and the Dores lived in one house next to the Clarks,
Molly and Tim on the first floor, Dicky and Delia above. Maida
became very fond of the Doyle children. Like Betsy, they were too
young to go to school and she saw a good deal of them in the lonely
school hours. The puddle was an endless source of amusement to them.
As long as it remained, they entertained themselves playing along
its shores.

"There's that choild in the water again," Granny would cry from the
living-room.

Looking out, Maida would see Tim spread out on all fours. Like an
obstinate little pig, he would lie still until Molly picked him up.
She would take him home and in a few moments he would reappear in
fresh, clean clothes