y to everybody. I _wish_ I did!
Janet and Willy both mind you a great deal better than they do me."

She was interrupted by a shout of joy from Cynthia.

"Edith, Edith, do look at this! Aunt Betsey's extra false front! She
left it behind. Don't you know she told me to put it away? It's a wonder
she hasn't sent for it. There, look!"

Edith turned with a brush in one hand and a dust-pan in the other, which
dropped with a clatter when she saw her sister.

Cynthia had drawn back her own curly bang, and fastened on the smooth
brown hair of her great-aunt. The puffs adorned either side of her rosy
face, and she was for all the world exactly like Miss Betsey Trinkett,
whose eyes were as blue and nose as straight as those of
fourteen-year-old Cynthia, who was always said to greatly resemble her.

"You're the very image of her," laughed Edith. "No one would ever know
you apart, if you had on a bonnet and shawl like hers."

"Edith," exclaimed Cynthia, "I have an idea! I'm going to dress up and
make Jack think Aunt Betsey has come back. He'll never know me in the
world, and it will be such fun to get a rise out of him."

Cynthia's enthusiasm was contagious, and Edith, leaving bureau drawers
standing open and boxes uncovered, hurried off to find the desired
articles.

Cynthia was soon dressed in exact reproduction of Aunt Betsey's usual
costume, with a figured black-lace veil over her face, and, as luck
would have it, Jack was at that moment seen coming up the drive. She
hastily descended to the parlor, where she and Edith were discovered in
conversation when Jack entered the house.

"Holloa, Aunt Betsey!" he exclaimed, as he kissed her unsuspectingly.
"Have you come back?"

"Yes, Jackie," said a prim New England voice with a slightly provincial
accent. "I thought I'd like to hear about those little orphan chicks,
and so I said to Silas, said I, Silas--"

Edith darted from her chair to a distant window, and Cynthia was obliged
to break off abruptly, or she would have laughed aloud. Jack, however,
took no notice. The mention of the chickens was enough for him.

"Don't you want to come down and see the machine? I say, Aunt Betsey,
you were a regular brick to send me the money. Did you get my letter?"

"Yes, Jackie, and I hope you are reading the book carefully. You will
learn a great deal from it, about hens."

"Yes. Well, I haven't got any hens yet. Look out for these stairs, Aunt
Betsey. They're rather dangerous."