I called the professor out in the hall, and told him so," said Keith,
"and asked him if he couldn't adopt Jonesy, or something, until papa
comes home. But he said that he is too poor. He has only a few dollars a
month to live on. I didn't mind asking him. He smiled in that big, kind
way he always does. He said Jonesy was lots of company, and he would
like to keep him this summer, if he could afford it, and let him get
well and strong out here in the country."

"Then he would keep him till Uncle Sydney comes, if somebody would pay
his board?" asked Virginia.

"Yes," said Malcolm, "but that doesn't help matters much, for we
children are the only ones who want him to stay, and our monthly
allowances, all put together, wouldn't be enough."

"We might earn the money ourselves," suggested Virginia, after awhile,
breaking a long silence.

"How?" demanded Malcolm. "Now, Ginger, you know, as well as I do, there
is no way for us to earn anything this time of year. You can't pick
fruit in the dead of winter, can you? or pull weeds, or rake leaves?
What other way is there?"

"We might go to every house in the valley, and exhibit the bear," said
Keith, "taking up a collection each time."

"Now you've made me think of it," cried Virginia, excitedly. "I've
thought of a good way. We'll give Jonesy a benefit, like great singers
have. The bear will be the star performer, and we'll all act, too, and
sell the tickets, and have tableaux. I love to arrange tableaux. We were
always having them out at the fort."

"I bid to show off the bear," cried Malcolm, entering into Virginia's
plan at once. "May be I'll learn something to recite, too."

"I'll help print the tickets," said Keith, "and go around selling them,
and be in anything you want me to be. How many tableaux are you going to
have, Ginger?"

"I can't tell yet," she answered, but a moment after she cried out, her
eyes shining with pleasure, "Oh, I've thought of a lovely one. We can
have the Little Colonel and the bear for 'Beauty and the Beast.'"

Malcolm promptly turned a somersault on the rug, to express his
approval, but came up with a grave face, saying, "I'll bet that
grandmother will say we can't have it."

"Let's get Aunt Allison on our side," suggested Virginia. "She's up in
her room now, painting a picture."

A little sigh of disappointment escaped Miss Allison's lips, as she
heard the rush of feet on the stairs. This was the first time that she
had touched her b