rrangements herself. So it was bound to be a success.

Nan needed some ribbons and a new pair of gloves at the last minute, and
she ran out to get them herself. Trying shop after shop, just as the
street lights were beginning to glimmer, she wandered some blocks away
from the Mason house.

She reached a corner where there was a brilliantly lighted bakery beside
a narrow and dark alley. Nan was looking for a shop where gloves were
sold, not for a bakery; but some people coming out of the shop jostled
her. She did not give the little group a second glance as they set off on
their several ways from the bakeshop door.

Suddenly, she heard a voice say: "Oh, Sallie! they smell so good. I am as
hungry as I can be."

Nan fairly jumped. She wheeled quickly to see two girls--one quite tall
and pretty, after a fashion--standing with a bag of cakes between them.
The tall girl opened it while the shorter peered in hungrily.

"Goodness! Can it be--?"

Nan's unspoken question was not completed, for out of the alley darted a
street urchin of about Inez's age, who snatched the bag of cakes out of
the girl's hand and ran, shrieking, back into the dark alley.

"Oh! the rascal!" gasped the taller of the two girls.

The other burst into tears--and they were very real tears, too! She
leaned against the bakery wall, with her arm across her eyes, and sobbed.

"Oh, Marie, don't!" begged the other, with real concern. "Suppose
somebody sees you!"

"I don't care if they do. And I _hate_ that name,--Marie!" choked the
crying girl, desperately. "I won't answer to it an--any more--so now! I
want my own na--name."

"Oh, dear, Celia! don't be a baby."

"I--I don't care if I _am_ a baby. I'm hun--hun--hungry."

"Well, we'll buy some more cakes."

"You can't--you shouldn't," sobbed the other, weakly. "I haven't any more
money at all, and you have less than a dollar."

Nan had heard enough. She did not care what these girls thought of her;
they should not escape. She planted herself right before the two startled
strangers and cried:

"You foolish, foolish things! You are starving for greasy baker's cakes,
when your fathers and mothers at home are just sitting down to lovely
sliced ham and brown bread and biscuit and homemade preserves and
cake--_and plenty of it all_! Sallie Morton and Celia Snubbins, I think
you are two of the most foolish girls I ever heard of!"

The crying girl stopped in surprise. The other tried to assume a very