! Don't go and leave poor Mum! Quisanthemum must go
with Mamma!"

The visitors turned in surprise, toward this querulous "child" as the
girls fancied it, though the Judge was already smiling his understanding
of the matter. Then there appeared in the doorway a parrot, of wonderful
plumage and exaggerated awkwardness; who waddled from side to side,
climbed one side of its mistress's gown to her shoulder and walked
head-first down the other, rolling its eyes and emitting the most absurd
moans till the two girls were convulsed with laughter.

Then Mrs. Cook held out her wrist, the parrot settled on it, and they
proceeded to the garden; the lady explaining:

"This little Miss Chrysanthemum is a spoiled baby. She's only a few
months old, was brought to me by one of my sailor friends, and about
rules the house now. Especially when my boy is away."

As she mentioned her "boy" the tiny woman looked rather anxiously into
the Judge's face; and Dorothy noticed that her own was really quite
young, despite the white hair and widow's cap which crowned it. She
thought the lady charming, she was so small, so delicate and quaint. Yet
there was the real "English color" on her still fair cheek and her eyes
were as bright a blue as Molly's own.

"Son told me you would call. Also, Ephraim wrote me in his last letter;
but I had not expected you to-day. I thought you were to be in Yarmouth
for a week or more and didn't anticipate so prompt a kindness."

Then opening a little bag which hung fastened to her waist, the cottager
drew from it a pair of blunt-pointed scissors and gave them to Dorothy,
saying:

"It's you I see, who has the keenest eyes for flowers. Cut all you want
of anything you fancy;" and she swept her hand rather proudly toward the
hedges of sweet-peas, just coming into bloom, and the magnificent roses
which were earlier in her protected garden than elsewhere in the town.

Had Dorothy known it, this was a rare privilege that had been accorded
her. Mrs. Cook loved her flowers as she did her human friends and had a
fancy that cutting them was almost as cruel as wounding a person she
loved. Until they faded she never cut them for her own enjoyment; and
only now and then nerved herself to clip them for the cheer of some
ailing neighbor. She was therefore greatly pleased when the girl
returned the scissors, after one questioning glance toward Molly, as to
her possible disappointment.

"Thank you, Mrs. Cook, but I don't lik