172

XIV. HOW A BEAR CAME TO SCHOOL 189

XV. HOW LETTIE HAD HER OWN WAY 202

XVI. HOW KATE FOUND A BABY 223

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THEY WERE PLAYING THAT THE WAX DOLL WAS SICK
(page 6) _Frontispiece_

KRISTY STOOD PEERING INTO A WORLD OF DRIZZLING RAIN 2

SHE HAD TO PASS A COTTAGE ALMOST HIDDEN WITH FLOWERS 124

IN THE PARK I FOUND A BABY ... AND I SAT DOWN BESIDE IT 226

KRISTY'S RAINY DAY PICNIC

CHAPTER I

THE RAINY DAY

"I think it's just horrid!" said Kristy, standing before the window,
peering out into a world of drizzling rain. "Every single thing is
ready and every girl promised to come, and now it has to go and rain;
'n' I believe it'll rain a week, anyway!" she added as a stronger gust
dashed the drops against the glass.

Kristy's mother, who was sitting at her sewing-table at work, did not
speak at once, and Kristy burst out again:--

"I wish it would never rain another drop; it's always spoiling
things!"

"Kristy," said her mother quietly, "you remind me of a girl I knew
when I was young."

"What about her?" asked Kristy rather sulkily.

"Why, she had a disappointment something like yours, only it wasn't
the weather, but her own carelessness, that caused it. She cried and
made a great fuss about it, but before night she was very glad it had
happened."

"She must have been a very queer girl," said Kristy.

"She was much such a girl as you, Kristy; and the reason she was glad
was because her loss was the cause of her having a far greater
pleasure."

"Tell me about it," said Kristy, interested at once, and leaving the
window.

"Well, she was dressed for a party at the house of one of her friends,
and as she ran down the walk to join the girls in the hay-wagon that
was to take them all there, her dress caught on something and tore a
great rent clear across the front breadth."

"Well; couldn't she put on another?" asked Kristy.

"Girls didn't have many dresses in those days, and that was a new one
made on purpose for the occasion. She had no other that she would
wear."

[Illustration: Kristy stood, peering into a world of drizzling Rain.]

"What did she do?" asked Kristy.

"She turned and r