aid; "but here's only one cup and plate! Get
another for yourself--you shall have it with me;" and as Maggie
hastened, delighted, to do her bidding, she added, "Bring a jar of
marmalade from the second shelf, and look for some crullers in a stone
crock."

Maggie did as she was bid, and in a few minutes the two strange
friends were enjoying their breakfast together.

Miss Hester was confined to her bed several days, with the cold she
had taken that fateful morning, and during that time, Maggie did
everything for her, every minute she was out of school. When at last
Miss Hester was able to be about, she had become so attached to
Maggie, and found such comfort in her help, that she was not willing
to let her go. Maggie being equally delighted to stay, the arrangement
was soon made, and Maggie came to the cottage to live.

The strangest part of the story is yet to come.

When Christmas time drew near, Miss Hester one day, while Maggie was
at school, opened some long-closed drawers in her desk to see if she
could find something to give Maggie on that day, for she had not
forgotten her own youthful days when Christmas was the event of the
year.

Among the long-forgotten treasures of the past, she came upon a little
locket given her when she was about Maggie's age, by her only brother,
who had gone to the war and been killed in battle, severing the last
link that bound the solitary girl to the world. Since that, she had
lived alone and shrank from all society.

"Poor Eddy!" she said, taking the trinket up in her hands, "how
different would have been my life if you had lived! But it's no use
keeping these relics of the past; they would much better make some one
happy in the present. I think Maggie will like this."

With a sigh she turned over the contents of the drawer, every item of
which was associated with her happier days, till she found a fine gold
chain which had held the locket around her neck. This she laid aside
with the locket, closed and locked the drawer.

When the great day arrived, Maggie, who had not dreamed of a present,
was surprised and delighted to receive it. The locket was very pretty,
of gold, with a letter B in black enamel on it. Miss Hester hung it
around her neck, and was as pleased as Maggie herself to see how
pretty it looked.

"I wonder if it will open," said Maggie to herself a little later,
when she had taken it off to examine more closely; "I'll try it," and
she worked over it a long