my girls," said Mrs. Harold gaily, as she and Mrs.
Howland seated themselves before the open fire.

The girls hurried away to do her bidding, for it had been decided to
remain at Wilmot until after the Christmas hop, all going out to
Severndale by a special car when the dance was over, Harrison, Mammy and
Jerome, under Mrs. Harold's tactful generalship, having made all
preparations for the big house party.

In a few moments the girls returned from unpacking their suitcases.

The Thanksgiving visit had removed all sense of reserve or strangeness
with Mrs. Harold, but they did not know Mrs. Howland, and for a moment
there seemed an ominous lull. Then Peggy crying:

"I want my old place, Little Mother," nestled softly upon the arm of the
big morris-chair in which Mrs. Harold sat, and rested her head against
Mrs. Harold. The other girls had dropped upon chairs, but Mrs. Harold
was minded to have her charges pro tem at closer range, so releasing
herself from Peggy's circling arm for a moment, she reached for two
plump cushions upon the couch near at hand and flopping them down, one
at either knee said: "Juno on this one, Rosalie on the other; Marjorie
beside me and Natalie, Stella and Nelly with Polly," for Polly had
already cuddled down upon her mother's chair.

Before the words had well left her lips, Rosalie had sprung to her coign
of vantage crying:

"Oh, Mrs. Harold, you are the dearest chappie I ever knew, and it's
already been ten times lovelier than Polly and Peggy ever could describe
it."

With a happy little laugh, Natalie promptly seated herself upon the arm
of Mrs. Howland's chair, but Juno hesitated a moment, looking doubtfully
at the cushion. Juno was a very up-to-date young lady as to raiment. How
could she flop down as Rosalie had done while wearing a skirt which
measured no more than a yard around at the hem, and geared up in an
undergarment which defied all laws of anatomy by precluding the
possibility of bending at the waist line? She looked at Mrs. Harold and
she looked at the cushion. As her boys would have expressed it "the
Little Mother was not slow in catching on." She now laughed outright.
Juno did not know whether to resent it or join in the laugh too. There
was something about the older woman, however, which aroused in girls a
sense of camaraderie rather than reserve, though Juno had never quite
been able to analyze it. She smiled, and by some form of contortion of
which necessity and long