etty, Molly. But I do not like to have you wear cotton in the
winter. I am afraid you might catch fire. Haven't you a worsted frock
that you can put on to-morrow, Lucy? It would be safer while you
children are up here so much alone."

Lucy was an old-fashioned little body from being the only child for so
long and being so much with her mother. Instead of answering directly,
she stopped to think, a pucker drawn between her brows with the effort.

"I don't believe I have, Cousin Mary," she said slowly. "'Most all my
best clothes are packed up, and the trunks are in the wagon. We didn't
mean to stay here more than two days, you know. It wouldn't be worth
while to unpack the trunks, I s'pose? Mamma will be well enough to go on
to Ohio pretty soon, won't she?"

"I hope so, dear."

My mother drew her up to her and kissed the brown head. She, too, was
thoughtful. I supposed that she was wondering if she would better
unpack those trunks. I was not glad that Cousin Mary Bray was sick, but
I was in no hurry for her to get well enough to travel. I had never had
another visitor whose ways of playing suited me as well as Lucy's. She
was a year older than I, and a year younger than Mary 'Liza, and she got
along beautifully with both of us. Then there was her cat, Alexander the
Great, that she was taking to Ohio with her. He was the biggest cat any
of us had ever known, with a coat of the longest, softest fur you can
imagine, all pure gray, without a white or black hair on him, and he had
lots of fun and sense. Mary 'Liza wanted, at first, to make believe that
he was a hungry wolf, but Lucy would not hear of it until I proposed he
should be a tame wolf we had taken when he was a baby and trained to
defend us. He really seemed to understand what was expected of him, and
when we lay down in the feather-bed and huddled close together under
the covers, and whispered, as the wind screamed around the corners of
the house:--

"There they are again! Don't you s'pose they'll be afraid of the fire?
Wolves always are, you know,"--and Lucy would answer:--

"Faithful Alexander will take care of us."

Alexander would prowl up and down the room and stalk around the bed,
never offering to get upon it, until we called out to one another:--

"Another morning, and we are still safe!"

Then, he would leap into Lucy's arms, and purr, and tickle her nose with
his whiskers, until she couldn't speak for laughing. She had had him
ever since he was b