ret about that!" cried Tabitha joyfully, regarding the
battle as good as won. "Daddy won't care a mite! Two weeks is such a
little time. He will be glad to have us come."

"I believe--I better--take Janie. She is so small, and----"

"I believe you better not!" the black-eyed girl laughingly retorted.
"She would be dreadfully in your way, no matter how good she is; and
you want to be free to take care of your--patient. Now, where is your
trunk? What clothes do you need to take? If you will tell us where to
find things, we will begin to pack at once while you are getting the
house settled the way you want to leave it, and writing out your
orders."

"'Cause we'll be ist as dood as anjils," lisped Janie, as the
procession, at a signal from Mercedes, quietly trooped forth into the
June sunshine once more, and, with radiant faces and happy hearts,
skipped down to their boulder playhouse to celebrate.

CHAPTER II

TABITHA AND GLORIANA, HOUSEKEEPERS

"You really think you want to do it?" Mr. Catt glanced quizzically
from one bright, girlish face to the other as his fingers gently
stroked the red tresses and the black hovering so close to his knee.

"Sure, daddy!" promptly answered Tabitha, patting the arm nearest her
in a fashion that a year before she never would have dreamed of.

"Perfectly sure!" repeated Gloriana, snuggling closer to the big
armchair in which her adopted father sat, and smiling contentedly at
thought of the new life opening up before her.

"Two weeks mean fourteen whole days," he warned them.

"Yes," they giggled, "fourteen whole days!"

"And six lively children can raise quite a racket."

"The house is too far from the rest of town for their noise to bother
anyone else," Tabitha reminded him.

"That's another point. What would you do if burglars broke in at
night? You would be too far from town to call help."

"There is nothing at McKittrick's to burgle," his daughter retorted
triumphantly. "I am not afraid."

"Nor I," said Gloriana, though somewhat faintly, for of a sudden a new
phase of the matter had presented itself. She _was_ still afraid of
the black desert nights, and burglars were a constant source of terror
to her, though never in all her life had she encountered any of that
species of mankind.

"The cottage on the cliff is no more isolated than our cottage here in
the hollow, now that the Carsons are away," continued the black-haired
girl. "It would be just