That's just what we do want!" cried
Leslie, jumping up and running around to her aunt's chair to embrace
her excitedly. "And you promised, you know, that you would do what we
wanted if you possibly, _possibly_ could."

"You see, we put it up to our guardian about the house," went on
Allison, "and he said the difficulty would be to get the right kind of
a housekeeper that he could trust us with. Of course he's way off in
California, and he has to be fussy. He's built that way. But we told
him we didn't want any housekeeper at all, we wanted a mother. He said
you couldn't pick mothers off trees, but we told him we knew where
there was one if we could only get her. So he let us come and ask;
and, if you say you'll do it, he's coming down to see you and fix it
up about the money part. He said you'd have to have a regular salary
or he wouldn't consider it, because there were things he'd have to
insist upon that he had promised mother; and, if there wasn't a
business arrangement about it, he wouldn't know what to do. Besides,
he said it was worth a lot to run a couple of rough-necks like Les and
me, and he'd make the salary all right so you could afford to leave
whatever you were doing and just give your time to mothering us. Now
it's up to you, Cloudy Jewel, to help us out with our proposition or
spoil everything, because we simply won't have a housekeeper, and we
don't know another real mother in the whole world that hasn't a family
of her own."

They both left their delicious dinner, and got around her, coaxing and
wheedling exactly as if she had already declined, when the truth was
she was too dazed with joy to open her lips, even if they had given
her opportunity to speak.

It was some time before the excitement quieted down and they gave her
a chance to say she would go. Even then she spoke the words with fear
and trembling as one might step off a commonplace threshold into a
fairy palace, not sure but it might be stepping into space.

Outside the sky was still flooded with after-sunset glory, but there
was so much glory in the hearts of the three inside the dining-room
that they never noticed it at all. It might have been raining or
hailing, and they would not have known, they were so happy.

Both the guests donned long gingham aprons and wiped the dishes when
the meal was over, both talking with all their might, recalling the
days of their childhood when they had had towels pinned around them
and been allowed t