ome for your mother this afternoon. She would
have enjoyed these things, and she looked so tired."

"I know. But I'm so glad she could go away and feel sure I'd carry
things through. You don't know what a comfort that is to me! Whenever I
feel discouraged about things, I always pluck up spirit by remembering
that I'm really useful to her. I couldn't practise medicine myself, you
know, but there have been lots of things Mother couldn't have done, if I
hadn't been here to help at home. I wish she could be here this
afternoon, though, for she is so clever at foolishnesses like this."

"You're clever enough at it, yourself," growled Hannah. "I don't see how
you can do it. You and Alice make me sick with envy. You can cook and
manage and tutor and make rhymes and everything, and I can't do much of
anything!"

"How about playing the violin?" suggested Alice.

"I can't do that," said Frieda suddenly. "I cannot do one thing. O,
there comes Dr. Helen, after all! We were wishing you were here," and
Frieda sprang up and ran to meet the doctor. The others followed her and
in an instant Dr. Helen found her arms full of welcoming girls.

"I met a messenger on the way, telling me that I need not come, and I'll
admit it was a relief. I knew you'd get on all right, but I did want a
finger in the pie. There! You may put my hat and coat away, Hannah, if
you will, and I'll get right to work. How prettily you are putting that
smilax on, Frieda!"

"That's right to cheer Frieda up, Mother," said Catherine. "She was just
saying that she couldn't do anything."

"Frieda was saying that? I thought you embroidered that wonderful apron
yourself?"

"O, of course, but that is only _Handarbeit_," said Frieda.

"Hand work is highly valued these days," remarked the doctor. "If you
could teach Catherine to sew so well, Frieda, I should be even prouder
of her than I am now. But it must not distress you when you find that
there is some one thing you can't do. No one does everything well. It's
one of my pet theories that for every talent one has, there is some
other he hasn't. It's part of the balancing of the world. Think how very
disagreeable it would be if there were one person who could do
everything, and some one else who could do nothing at all."

"Don't you think there are some people who can't do anything?" asked
Alice.

"Not really. Some people never seem to find their special line. I've
known people so perverse they wouldn't do what t