he pillow.

"Now, Cloudy Jewel, you've just got to begin to make plans!"
announced Leslie, curling up in a ball at her feet and looking very
business-like with her fluffy curls around her face like a golden
fleece. "There isn't much time, and Guardy Lud will be down upon us
by to-morrow or the next day at least."

"Guardy Lud!" exclaimed Julia Cloud bewildered. "Who is that?"

"That's our pet name for Mr. Luddington," explained Leslie, wrinkling
up her nose in a grin of merriment. "Isn't it cute? Wait till you see
him, and you'll see how it fits. He's round and bald with a shiny red
nose, and spectacles; and he doesn't mind our kidding at all. He'd
have made a lovely father if he wasn't married, but he has a horrid
wife. We don't like her at all. She's like a frilly piece of French
china with too much decoration; and she's always sick and nervous; and
she jumps, and says 'Oh, mercy!' every time we do the least little
thing. She doesn't like us any better than we like her. Her name is
Alida, and Allison says we're always trying to 'elude' her. The only
good thing she ever did was to advise Guardy Lud to let us come East
to college. She wanted to get us as far away from her as possible. And
it certainly was mutual."

"There, now, Leslie, you're chattering again," broke in Allison,
looking very tall and efficient in his blue bath-robe. "You said you
would talk business, and not bleat."

"Well, so I am," pouted Leslie. "I guess Cloudy has got to understand
about our family."

"Well, now let's get down to business," said her brother. "Cloudy,
what have you got to do before you leave? You know it isn't very long
before the colleges open, and we've got to start out and hunt a home
right away. Do you have to pack up here or anything?"

"Oh, I don't know!" gasped Julia Cloud, looking around half
frightened. "I suppose I ought to ask Ellen. She will be very much
opposed to anything I do, but I suppose she ought to be told first."

Allison frowned.

"Gee whiz! I don't see why Aunt Ellen has to butt into our affairs.
She's got her own home and family, and she never did like us very
much. I remember hearing her tell Grandma that we were a regular
nuisance, and she would be glad when we were gone back to California."

"That was because you hid behind the sofa when Uncle Herbert was
courting her, and kidded them," giggled Leslie.

A stray little twinkle of a dimple peeped out by the corner of Julia
Cloud's mouth. It hadn