'll stay with Mrs. Calvert,
please."

"You'll do nothing of the kind, my dear," said that lady, smiling.
"You've done altogether too much 'staying' in your short life. Time
now to get outdoor air and girlish fun. Go with Dorothy and get some
color into your cheeks. You want to go back to that father of yours
looking a very different Elsa from the one he trusted to us. Run
along! Don't bother about a hat and jacket. Exercise will keep you
from taking cold. Dolly, dear, see that the child has a good time."

Elsa's mother had died of consumption and her father had feared that
his child might inherit that disease. In his excessive love and care
for her he had kept her closely housed in the poor apartment of a
crowded tenement, the only home he could afford. The result had been
to render her more frail than she would otherwise have been. Her
shyness, her lameness, and her love of books with only her father for
teacher, made her contented enough in such a life, but was far from
good for her. The best thing that had ever happened to her was this
temporary breaking up of this unwholesome routine and her having
companions of her own age.

So that even now she had looked wistfully upon the small bookshelf in
the cabin, with the few volumes placed there; but Mrs. Calvert shook
her head and Elsa had to obey.

"But, Dorothy, aren't you afraid? There might be snakes. It might
rain. It looks wet and swampy--I daren't get my feet wet--father's so
particular----"

"If it rains I'll run back and get you an umbrella, Aunt Betty's
own--the only one aboard, I fancy. And as for fear--child alive! Did
you never get into the woods and smell the ferns and things? There's
nothing so sweet in the world as the delicious woodsy smell! Ah! um!
Let's hurry!" cried Dolly, linking her arm in the lame girl's and
helping her over the grassy hummocks.

Even then Elsa would have retreated, startled by the idea of "woods"
where the worst she had anticipated was a leisurely stroll over a
green meadow. But there was no resisting her friend's enthusiasm;
besides, looking backward she was as much afraid to return and try
clambering aboard the Lily, unaided, as she was to go forward.

So within a few minutes all four had entered the bit of woodland and,
following Dorothy's example, were eagerly searching for belated
blossoms. Learning, too, from that nature-loving girl, things they
hadn't known before.

"A cardinal flower--more of them--a whole lot! Y