to attend service in the battered little frame
schoolhouse, without any organ or choir, and to eat crackers and cheese
in the wagon on the way home, as Mrs Stokes was afraid she would be
hungry before their unusually late dinner. But Marty was so charmed with
country life and all belonging to it that she considered the whole thing
an improvement upon city churchgoing.

In the afternoon she took her Bible and some missionary leaflets, and
going into a retired place in the garden read and studied for more than
an hour. The missionary spirit within her was fully awake that day. She
longed to talk with Evaline and could hardly wait until it was time for
her to come home. But by Tuesday, when she did come, Marty's head was
full of other matters, such as a discovery she had made in the wood of a
hollow in an old tree which would be a lovely playhouse, and an
expedition to Sunset Hill that was being talked of. So in one way or
another nearly two weeks of vacation had passed before this Missionary
Twig, who had been so ardent to begin with, had redeemed her promise of
trying to interest somebody in the work.

But in the meantime she had thought of Jimmy Torrence. The way he was
brought to her mind was this. She was with her mother on the side porch,
Monday morning, when Mrs. Stokes, coming out of the kitchen with floury
hands, inquired,

"Mrs. Ashford, did you see the little boy in the carriage that just
passed 'long?"

"Yes," replied Mrs. Ashford.

"Well, you just ought to have seen him when they brought him up here
three weeks ago--his folks are boarding over at Capt. Smith's; such a
pale, peaked child _I_ never saw! Had been awful sick, they said, and
now you see he looks right down well."

"Why, yes, he does," said Mrs. Ashford. "I should never imagine he had
been ill very recently. The country has certainly done him good."

"That's just it!" said Mrs. Stokes. "There's nothing like taking
children to the country a spell after they've been sick. Makes 'em fat
and rosy in less than no time."

"Oh! mamma," exclaimed Marty. "That makes me think of poor little Jimmy.
I wish we could do something to get him sent to the country."

"I wish we could, but I don't see any way to do it. I have given all I
can afford this summer to the different Fresh-Air Funds."

"Can't you think of anything, clothes or such things, that you were
going to get me, and that I _could_ do without, and send the money to
Mrs. Watson?" pleaded Ma