first you
think you are one and then you think you are the other. I feel like a
bird on a bough, or as if I were living in a railway station, waiting
for a train to come in before I could do anything."

Betty said this gravely, and then felt a little shy and self-conscious.
Aunt Mary watched her as she sat by the window sewing, and was wise
enough not to answer, but she could not help thinking that Betty was a
dear girl. It was one of Aunt Mary's very best days, and there were some
things one could say more easily to her than to Aunt Barbara, though
Aunt Barbara was what Betty was pleased to irreverently call her pal.

"I do wish that I had a talent for something," said Betty. "I can't
sing: if I could, I am sure that I would sing for everybody who asked
me. I don't see what makes people so silly about it; hear that old robin
now!" and they both laughed. "Nobody asks me to play who knows anything
about music. I wish I had Aunt Barbara's fingers; I don't believe I can
ever learn. I told papa it was just throwing money away, and he said it
was good to know how to play even a little, and good for my hands, to
make them quick and clever."

"You played that march very well last night," said Aunt Mary kindly.

"Oh, that sort of thing! But I mean other music, the hard things that
papa likes. There is one of the Chopin nocturnes that Mrs. Duncan
plays, oh, it is so beautiful! I wish you and Aunt Barbara knew it."

"You must ask Aunt Barbara to practice it. I like to have her keep on
playing. We used to hear a great deal of music when I was well enough to
go to Boston in the winter, years ago," and Aunt Mary sighed. "I think
it is a great thing to have a gift for home life, as you really have,
Betty dear."

"Papa and I have been in such queer holes," laughed Betty. "Mrs. Duncan
and some of our friends are never tired of hearing about them. But you
know we always try to do the same things. If I hadn't any other teacher
when we were just flying about, papa always heard my lessons and made me
keep lesson hours; and he goes on with his affairs and we are quite
orderly, indeed we are, so it doesn't make much difference where we
happen to be. Then I have been whole winters in London, and Mrs. Duncan
looks after us a good deal."

"Mary Duncan is a wise and charming woman," said Aunt Mary.

"All the big Duncans are so nice to the little ones!" said Betty; "but
papa and I can be old or young just as we choose, and we try to make