ught out
her dishes. Grandmother held the Pennypacker baby, who certainly was the
best cat in the world and settled himself down, white dress and all.

Ben asked Charles if he was studying Roman history, and found he was
reading the Orations of Cicero in Latin, and knew a great deal about
Greece and Rome. He had read most of Sir Walter Scott's novels, and
liked "Marmion" beyond everything.

"What was he going to do--enter college?"

"Mother wants me to. Father says I may if I like."

He colored a little, but did not say his mother had set her heart on his
being a minister because his Uncle Robert, who died, had intended to
enter that profession. Ben said the boys, John and the doctor, wanted
him to go, but he wished he could be a newspaper man like Nora's father.
His mother thought it a kind of shiftless business. They talked over
their likes and dislikes in boy fashion, and Charles enjoyed it
immensely. He thought it would be just royal to have a big brother who
was a doctor, and a little sister like Hanny.

Meanwhile the little women had been very much engrossed with their
children and their tea party, and the prospect of a grandmother and an
old soldier coming to visit them.

"And Mr. Brown is so heedless," said Mrs. Brown. "He ought to be here to
go to the store, but he's off talking and men are _so_ absent-minded."

Elsie said she'd go to the store, which was the closet in the basement.

Then the company came, and the old soldier limped dreadfully. Mrs. Brown
scolded her husband a little, and then excused him, and everybody was
seated in a row. There was a plate of thin bread-and-butter, some smoked
beef cut in small pieces, some sugar crackers, quite a fad of that day,
and a real cake. Mrs. Dean had given them half of a newly baked one.

It was quite a tea. Mr. Dean came home in the midst of it and
sympathized warmly with the hero of 1776, and was extremely courteous to
grandmother. The little girls cleared away the dishes, put their
children to bed, had a fine swing and played "Puss in the Corner" with
two sets.

Mr. Reed came in for Charles.

"I wish you'd come over and see my boy," he said to Ben. "He's a rather
lonely chap, having no brothers or sisters."

"Let him come over to our house," returned Ben cordially. "We have a
good supply."

Then everybody dispersed. They'd had such a good time, and were eager in
their acknowledgments.

"Why, I quite like John Robert Charles," said Ben. "He's a r