e "Now!"

All this had been accomplished so quickly, that Liddy would have been
quite taken by surprise had she not been used to their ways.

"Bless your bright eyes!" she laughed, uneasily looking from one beaming
face to the other; "you take one's breath away with your quick motions.
And now what certain, special, wonderful kind of a story do you want?"

"Why, _you_ know. Tell us all about it, Lydia," spoke Dorothy, sobered
in an instant.

"Sakes! Not again? Well, where shall I begin?"

"Oh, at the very beginning," answered Donald; and Dorothy's eager,
expressive nod said the same thing.

"Well," began Lydia, "about fourteen years ago--"

"No, no, not there, please, but 'way, away back as far as you can
remember; farther back than you ever told us before."

"Well," and Lydia proceeded to select a fresh apple and peel it slowly
and deliberately; "well, I was once a young chit of a girl, and I came
to this house to live with your Aunt Kate. She wasn't any aunt then, not
a bit of it, but a sweet, pretty, perky, lady-girl as ever was; and she
had" (here Liddy looked sad, and uttered a low "Dear, dear! how strange
it seems!")--"she had two splendid brothers, Mr. George Reed and Mr.
Wolcott Reed (your papa, you know). Oh, she was the sweetest young lady
you ever set eyes on! Well, they all lived here in this very
house,--your grandpa and grandma had gone to the better world a few
years before,--and Master G. was sort of head of the family, you see, as
the oldest son ought to be."

Donald unconsciously sat more erect on his bench, and thrust his feet
farther forward on the carpet.

"Yes, Master G. was the head," Liddy went on, "but you wouldn't have
known it, they were all so united and loving-like. Miss Kate, though
kind of quick, was just too sweet and good for anything,--'the light
of the house,' as the young master called her, and--"

[Illustration: "YOU'VE HER SHINING DARK HAIR, MASTER DONALD," SAID
LIDDY]

"Oh, I do love so much to hear about Aunt Kate!" exclaimed Dorothy, her
color brightening as she drew her bench up still closer to Liddy. Both
of the apples were eaten by this time, and the D's had forgotten to ask
for more. "Do we look like her?"

Here Donald and Dorothy turned and gazed full in Lydia's face, waiting
for the answer.

"Well, yes--and no, too. You've her shining dark hair, Master Donald,
and her way of steppin' firm, but there isn't a single feature like her.
And it's so with you, Mi