HOW AUNT BETTY MADE HER CHOICE

One morning three cousins were walking slowly down the village street
towards the house of their Aunt Betty, where they had been invited to
dine. They were eager and excited, for there was something peculiar
about the invitation, though none but Jenny knew exactly what it was.
Jenny began:--

"Well, I do wonder who'll get it!"

"Get what?" asked Grace.

"Why, don't you know? Didn't your mother tell you?" said Jenny, in
surprise. "Aunt Betty didn't mean to have us know, but mamma told me."

"I don't know what you mean," said Grace.

"Nor I," put in Ruth.

"Why," said Jenny eagerly, "you know Aunt Betty has not been so well
lately, and her doctor says she must have some one to live with her
besides old Sam, and she's made up her mind--mamma says--to take one
of us three and give her all the advantages she can while she lives,
and leave her something when she dies. Mamma says, probably her whole
fortune, or at any rate a big share. It's a grand chance! I do hope
she'll take me!"

"But," said Ruth, "I don't understand; why should she leave everything
to one, after spending so much on her?"

"Oh, to make up to her for giving up so much," said Jenny. "She's so
cranky, you know!"

"It won't be much fun to live with her," said Grace thoughtfully. "But
think of the advantages! I'd have all the music lessons I want, and
I'm sure she'd let me go to concerts and operas. Oh! Oh!"

"I'm not so sure of that," said Jenny. "She wouldn't want you going
out much; for my part I'd coax her to travel; I'd love to go all over
the world--and I'm just dying to go to Europe, anyway."

"What would you choose, Ruth?" asked Grace.

"I don't know," answered Ruth slowly, "and it's no use to wish, for of
course she won't choose me. I don't think she ever cared much for me,
and I do make such stupid blunders. It seems as if I was bound to
break something or knock over something, or do _something_ she
particularly dislikes every time I go there. You know the last time I
went there I stumbled over a stool and fell flat on the floor, making
her nearly jump out of her skin--as she said--and getting a big,
horrid-looking bump on my forehead."

The girls laughed. "You do seem to be awfully unlucky, Ruth," said
Jenny magnanimously, "and I guess the choice will be one of us two."

"Well, here we are!" said Grace, in a low tone, as they reached the
gate of the pretty cottage where Aunt Betty lived. "Now for i