wish I could come and listen."

"It is no place for little girls," said Kalman brusquely; then
noting the shadow upon the face of the child, he added, "Perhaps
you can come to the back window and Irma will let you in."

"I'll be sure to come," said Elizabeth to herself, for Kalman was
off again like the wind.

Paulina's house was overflowing with riotous festivity. Avoiding
the front door, Kalman ran to the back of the house, and making
entrance through the window, there waited for his sister. Soon
she came in.

"Oh, Kalman!" she cried, throwing her arms about him and kissing
him, "such a feast as I have saved for you! And you are cold. Your
poor fingers are frozen."

"Not a bit of it, Irma," said the boy--they always spoke
in Russian, these two, ever since the departure of their
father--"but I am hungry, oh! so hungry!"

Already Irma was flying about the room, drawing from holes and
corners the bits she had saved from the feast for her brother.
She spread them on the bed before him.

"But first," she cried, "I shall bring to the window the hot stew.
Paulina," the children always so spoke of her, "has kept it hot for
you," and she darted through the door.

After what seemed to Kalman a very long time indeed, she appeared
at the window with a covered dish of steaming stew.

"What kept you?" said her brother impatiently; "I am starved."

"That nasty, hateful, little Sprink," she said. "Here, help me
through." She looked flushed and angry, her "burnin' brown eyes"
shining like blazing coals.

"What is the matter?" said Kalman, when he had a moment's leisure
to observe her.

"He is very rough and rude," said the girl, "and he is a little pig."

Kalman nodded and waited. He had no time for mere words.

"And he tried to kiss me just now," she continued indignantly.

"Well, that's nothing," said Kalman; "they all want to do that."

"Not for months, Kalman," protested Irma, "and never again, and
especially that little Sprink. Never! Never!"

As Kalman looked at her erect little figure and her flushed face,
it dawned on him that a change had come to his little sister.
He paused in his eating.

"Irma," he said, "what have you done to yourself? Is it your hair
that you have been putting up on your head? No, it is not your
hair. You are not the same. You are--" he paused to consider,
"yes, that's it. You are a lady."

The anger died out of Irma's brown eyes and flushed face. A soft
and tender and mysteriou