r was built on purpose. It had been winter and it was going to
be winter, but somehow one little spring day, balmy and fine, slipped in
for the occasion. The poor people around got wind of the affair, and
streamed over the common. Even the Penitents climbed the back wall of
the convent and sat on top of the broken bottles to see the show. Only
the nuns went on as if nothing were happening--telling their beads and
singing their Ave Marias in ignorance of worldly events, as all good
nuns should be.

Then Mrs. Morton gave the signal, and the children clasped hands, and
marched across the common, singing at the tops of their lungs. To Peggy
and Jerry, drawn to the window by the commotion, it was the sweetest
sound they had ever heard since the voices of their dear little babes
had been hushed.

Nearer and nearer they came, the little Outcasts, in the post of honour,
leading. They did not have anything to be sorry for, but everybody
wanted them and they wanted to come. They crowded into the door of the
cottage, and nearly buried the aged couple with gifts,--all of them
talking at once.

Each child came up and, shaking the worthy couple by the hand, promised
never to be thoughtless and wicked again.

After this ceremony, Jerry, overcoming his shyness, made the effort of
his life. He thanked the children and their parents in a speech that
Peggy afterward described as being "just too beautiful, winding up as it
did with real poetry made up mostly from his own head."

And she told the truth. The old fellow had a roguish twinkle in his gray
eye as, pointing to the piles of blankets and pillows, he said:

"Though Paddy on the Turnpike
Could never count eleven,
When children all brought feather beds
He an' Peggy tho't they was in Heaven."

THE END.

COSY CORNER SERIES

It is the intention of the publishers that this series shall contain
only the very highest and purest literature,--stories that shall not
only appeal to the children themselves, but be appreciated by all those
who feel with them in their joys and sorrows,--stories that shall be
most particularly adapted for reading aloud in the family circle.

The numerous illustrations in each book are by well-known artists, and
each volume has a separate attractive cover design.

Each, 1 vol., 16mo, cloth $0.50

_By ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON_

The Little Colonel.

The scene of this story is laid in Kentucky. Its heroine is a sm