ere they in deciding how many chairs and beds and tables they needed
to buy.

"Let's get the curtains first, and then we can have the windows
washed, and put them right up," said Leslie, "and nobody can see in.
I'm crazy to be shut into our own house, and feel that it belongs to
us. We can select them while Allison's gone to see what's the matter
with his engine."

But, when Julia Cloud heard the stupendous price that was asked for
ready-made curtains or curtains made to order, with fixtures and
installation, she exclaimed in horror:

"Leslie! This is foolish. We can easily make them ourselves, and put
them up for less than half the price. If I had only brought my
sewing-machine! But it was all out of repair."

"Could we really make them ourselves, Cloudy? Wouldn't that be fun?
We'll get a sewing-machine, of course. We'll need it for other things,
too, sometimes, won't we? Of course we'll get one. We'll buy that
next. Now, how many yards of each of these do we need?"

In a few minutes the salesman had figured out how much was needed,
counted the number of fixtures for doorways and windows, and arranged
to send the package down to the car at a certain time later in the
morning. Then they went at once and bought a sewing-machine, one that
Julia Cloud knew all about and said was the best and lightest on the
market. Leslie was as pleased with the idea of learning to run it as
if it had been a new toy and she a child.

"We'll have it sent right to the little new house, and then we can go
there evenings after we are through shopping, and sew. You can cut,
and I can put in the hems, if you think I can do them well enough. We
must get scissors and thread, a lot of it, and silk to match the
colored curtains, too."

They took the rooms one at a time, and furnished them, Allison joining
them, and taking as much interest in the design of the furniture as if
he had been a young bridegroom just setting up housekeeping for
himself.

They had set aside a certain sum for each room so that they would not
overstep their guardian's limit, and with Julia Cloud to put on the
brakes, and suggest simplicity, and decide what was in good taste for
such a small village house, they easily came within the generous limit
allowed them.

It was a great game for Julia Cloud to come out of her simple country
life and plunge into this wholesale beautiful buying untroubled by a
continual feeling that she must select the very cheapest without