deed they do after you have lugged them about all day," said Minnie.
"I say I know all about it, dearie."

"We are not going to let you walk at all," said Rosanna. "We are going
to take you wherever you live right in the car."

"Nautomobile ride! Nautomobile ride!" chanted Tommy, tossing his cap.

"I think you are just too good," said Mary. "Will your automobile hold
such a lot?"

"Oh, yes, indeed, and more too!" said Rosanna, glad for once that she
had a big Pierce-Arrow.

CHAPTER IX

"I hear the car coming," said Minnie. Everybody listened, and sure
enough the big car rounded the bend and drew up at the bank with a
mighty blast of the horn. Tommy yelled in reply and bolted for it, the
others following, loaded down with the empty hamper and rugs, and by no
means least, the baby, awake now and very happy after his sleep.

Minnie marshalled them into their places, putting the two boys on the
front seat with Mr. Culver, and off they rolled. When they reached the
little house where the children lived, Mary thanked Rosanna and Helen
and Minnie and Mr. Culver again and she would have liked to thank the
car too, and the hamper. Even Tommy managed to say, "Much obliged!"
before he rushed to the house so he could have the fun of telling all
about it before Mary could get there.

But Mary did not mind. This was something that would have to be told
over and over a dozen or twenty times. She stood with Luella and Myron,
the baby looped over her arm, and watched the car disappear with a
feeling of happiness and gratitude that filled her thin little frame to
overflowing.

When the car reached the great white steps of Rosanna's house, the two
little girls said good-night.

"I never had such a nice, lovely, beautiful day in all my life,
Rosanna," she said. "And all because you were so good and kind."

"You would have thought of it just the same," said Rosanna, blushing.
"But oh, Helen and Minnie, _wasn't_ it lucky that we took such a lot of
lunch?"

"Well, it did turn out so," said Minnie.

The car rolled away, and Rosanna and Minnie went into the big, cool
hall.

On the table was a letter addressed to Rosanna in her grandmother's
stiff, precise handwriting. Rosanna took it up with a sort of groan.

"That's to tell when she is coming home, of course," she said. "I won't
read it until I am all undressed. Everything is going so beautifully and
I am learning such a lot and having such a lovely time that it does