it of
ripping and sewing.

Carroll looked at her inquiringly.

"Well," he said, "_is_ it the one you made? You seem desperately
interested in it!"

"I don't know whether it's the one or not. But it doesn't matter,
they're all alike. Put it on, Carroll, they're all going out to supper
now, and it spoils your costume not to wear it."

Supper was a gay feast. It was the one occasion of the year when the
children were allowed in the dining-room at night, and there were
snapping-crackers and especial varieties of cakes and ices and jellies
suited to juvenile tastes.

After supper the young guests were supposed to say good-night and the
party was over.

As they went upstairs, Dolly pulled Dotty back beside her, and at the
same moment whispered to Tod to let her take his cap.

Unnoticed by any one else, Dolly showed Dotty the piecing inside, and
putting her finger on her lip, shook her head as an admonition to be
silent. Then she returned the cap to Tod, who hadn't noticed the
incident especially, and on the upper landing of the great staircase,
the children said their gay good-nights and went off to their various
apartments.

"Now, what do you think of that?" said the fair-haired Shepherdess, not
waiting to take off her fancy costume, but pulling the black-haired
Shepherdess down to the window-seat beside her.

This was the spot where the girls sat nearly every night to talk over
the events of the day. The wide velvet-cushioned seat with its many
pillows, was cosy and comfortable, and the view of the ocean and the
sound of the rolling waves made these evening chats very happy and
confidential.

"But I don't understand," said Dotty, looking puzzled. "You motioned for
me not to speak a word, so I didn't. But what does it mean? Who put that
piece in Tod's cap, his mother?"

"No; Pauline did it! She sneaked those caps away to her room last night,
and sat up till all hours piecing those pieces in. And a sweet job she
must have had of it! Why, it's about as much trouble to piece a thing
like that, as to make a whole cap!"

"Pauline did it?" still Dotty couldn't understand. "Why, she said this
evening that the caps were all right and big enough."

"Of course they were, after she pieced the bands out longer! She did it
herself, Dotty, and then pretended to us that they were just as we had
left them. At least she meant us to think that, for she said, 'Now don't
you see they're all right?' and she didn't tell us she h