queer ways of beginnin' things in the
middle like that. No knowin' what a girl was drivin' at, half the
time!

"Jemmy--say--"

"What say? Ain't that smoke out there?"

"No, it's a cloud. Jemmy Three, I'm going to tell you something. I
_want_ to. I'm going to tell you what that money's going to do--you're
listening, aren't you?"

"With both ears--go ahead."

"Well--oh, it's going to be something so _beautiful_, Jemmy! I never
knew till day before yesterday that you _could_ do anything so
beautiful--I mean that anybody could. I never dreamed it! But you
can--somebody can! There's a man can, Jemmy! All you need is money to
take you across to him and--there's the money!" waving her hand toward
the rows of barrels. Her eyes were shining like twin stars. She had
forgotten aches and lameness again.

"I told Uncle Jem," she went on rapidly, while Jem Three gazed at her
in puzzled wonder and thought more things about girls. "He told me to
go down to the hotel and ask that other little girl's mother, and I
meant to go last night! But I went to sleep last night! So I'm going
to-day--I'm going to ask her to tell me just exactly how to do it."

"Do what?" inquired Jem Three quietly. That was the only way to do
with girls--pull 'em up smart, like that!

"Mercy! Haven't I told you?" cried Judith. "Well, then--Jemmy, if you
were a little mite of a thing--a Blossom, say--and a fairy came to you
and said, 'Wish a wish, my dear; what would you rather have in all
the world?' what would you answer, Jemmy? Remember, if you were a
little mite of a Blossom with a--with a--little broken stem." Judith's
voice sank to a tender softness. She didn't know she was "making
poetry."

The boy with his toes deep in the sand was visibly embarrassed.
Whatever poetry lay soul-deep within him, there was none he could
call to his lips.

"Wouldn't you answer her, 'Legs to walk with'?" went on the girl
beside him softly. "You know you would, Jemmy! _I_ would--everybody
would. You'd say, 'The beautifulest thing in the world would be to
_walk_--dear fairy, I want to walk so much!' And then supposing--are
you supposing?--the fairy waved her wand over you and you--_walked!_
Do you know what you'd say then? _I_ know--you'd say, 'See me! Judy,
see me! Jemmy, everybody, see me!'"

Judith laughed to herself under her breath. The twin stars in her
eyes shone even a little brighter.

"The fairy's a great doctor--he's across there, 'way, 'way out of
sigh