up with one of her rare smiles.

"Ah, I knew it was coming," she said, "and I am sure it will prove an
antidote for your blues. I had a letter from the same place last week,
and I've been in the secret ever since."

"What secret?" demanded Mary, her eyes round with curiosity, and Jack
echoed the question.

"That Joyce was to be invited to a house party in June, back in 'My old
Kentucky home.' The invitation is from one of my old school friends.
There were three of us," she went on, in answer to the look of eager
interest in Mary's eyes. "Three girls who grew up together: Joyce Allen
(your sister is named for her), Elizabeth Lloyd, and myself. And now our
little daughters are to meet in the same dear old valley where we played
together and grew up together and learned to love each other like
sisters. I hope they will become as dear friends as we were."

Joyce looked up from her letter, her face aglow with joyful surprise.
"Oh, mother!" she cried, "do you really mean it? Is it possible that I
am to go? How can you afford it?"

Mrs. Ware motioned toward the envelope lying at Joyce's feet.

"Look again," she said, "and you will find that Mr. Sherman has sent a
pass. As for the clothes, well, your 'witch with a wand' has come to the
rescue again."

"Cousin Kate?" gasped Joyce.

Mrs. Ware nodded. "What would you think if I were to tell you that there
has been a box hidden away in my closet for nearly a week, waiting for
this letter, which I knew was on its way, and inside are the very
things you need to complete your summer outfit? There is a new hat, for
one thing, and material for several very pretty dresses."

Mary danced up and down, her hair ribbons bobbing over her shoulders,
and her face ashine, as she cried, "Oh, sister, isn't it lovely? I'm so
glad, I'm so glad, I'm so glad!"

But Joyce stood with her face suddenly grown serious and her lips
trembling. Her little sister's unselfish delight made her conscience
hurt. Putting her arms around her mother's neck, she hid her face
against her shoulder. "Oh, mother," she sobbed, "I don't deserve it all!
Here I've been so fretful and discontented all day, thinking there'd
never be any good times any more, and that there was nothing but work
ahead of me, and all the time this beautiful surprise was on its way. I
don't deserve for it to be mine. It ought to be Mary's. She never frets
over things."

Mrs. Ware looked down into Mary's face, still a-smile with the th