Why don't you go to church sometimes now, mother?" Jennie asked.
"There's nobody to rail at you for going. You might borrow Mrs.
O'Brien's bonnet after she's been to mass, and go round to the church on
the front street, where we hear the singing from every Sunday."

Mrs. Scott began to think she should like to go. She cleaned off her old
black alpaca as well as possible, and the next Sunday, borrowing her
kindly Catholic neighbor's bonnet, she went to church for the first time
in many years.

She came home delighted, and had much to tell Jennie about the pleasant
gentleman who gave her a seat and invited her to come again, about the
good sermon that she could understand every bit of, and the rousing
hymns, which indeed Jennie could hear with the window open.

Not long after this, one of the ladies Mrs. Scott worked for gave her a
partly-worn sateen dress and a black straw bonnet, so that she was
fitted out to go to church all summer; and go she did with great
enjoyment. It was a pleasure to Jennie also, for with listening to the
singing as she lay in bed, and hearing about all that was said and done
from her mother, she almost felt as though she had been at church
herself.

The purple Bible was not locked up any more, but kept handy for Miss
Alice to read, and to mark passages for Mrs. Scott to read in the
evening, for Jennie liked to hear the same things over and over.

The plan that popped into Marty's head that day she told to Edith on the
way home, after they had left Cousin Alice.

"O Edie!" she said, "wouldn't it be nice to give Jennie a Bible for her
very own?"

"You mean for you and me together to give it?" said Edith.

"Yes. You know my birthday comes in August and yours in September, and
we always get some money--"

"And we could each give half, and get Jennie a Bible," broke in Edith.

"Yes; or if we _couldn't_ do it then, we might have enough by
Christmas."

"And it would be a _beautiful_ Christmas gift!"

"Oh! do let us do it," said Marty, seizing Edith and whirling her around
and around.

"Yes, do," said Edith, panting for breath.

CHAPTER XII.

"NOW DON'T FORGET!"

It was well on in June, and Mrs. Ashford was very busy making
preparations to go to the country with the children.

Two successive summers they had spent at a very pleasant mountain
farmhouse, but the last year they had gone to the seashore. This summer
Mrs. Ashford decided for the farmhouse again, to Marty's great