the only one who remembers?"

"November tenth--your birthday! Oh, Gail, it had slipped my mind for the
minute! No wonder you are getting up a celebration if everyone forgets
like that."

"Oh, it isn't on account of the birthday, Faith; that just happened.
It's the mortgage--"

"Of course, I knew it was due soon, but the relief at being able to get
the money made me overlook the exact date, I guess. So that is the cause
of your excitement!"

"Partly, and then we are to have company for dinner, too."

"Who?" demanded Faith, again surprised.

"Mr. and Mrs. Strong and Glen and Mrs. Grinnell."

"What in the world will we do with them all? Eight is a tight fit for
our dining-room."

"It will crowd us a little, but I have it all planned nicely. Glen must
sit in his daddy's lap--he often does at home when they have company and
haven't room at the table for his high-chair--and of course I will wait
on the people, so there will be room for all."

"Of course you _won't_ wait on the people! What waiting there is to
attend to I shall look after. You are mistress of this house. Oh, I
can't help hugging myself every other minute to think Mr. Strong was
able to get the money for the mortgage and we won't have to leave this
dear little brown house after all."

"Do you care so much?" asked Gail, with such a curious wistfulness in
her voice that Faith stopped her ecstatic prancing to study the thin,
flushed face.

"I should say I do!" she exclaimed emphatically. "Someway, in these last
six months it has grown ever so much dearer than I ever dreamed it
could. I used to think I hated farm life, and it fretted me because we
couldn't live in Pendennis or Martindale, and have things like other
folks. I did want a piano so much, instead of a worn-out, wheezy old
organ."

"Wouldn't you still like all that?" questioned the older girl, keeping
her eyes fixed on the half-picked fowl in her lap, as if afraid of
betraying some delightful secret.

"Oh, yes, indeed! But I gave up thinking about such things a long time
ago. The farm is all we have, and there is the mortgage to pay on that;
so I just shut up my high-falutin notions, as Mrs. Grinnell calls them,
and mean to be happy doing my part in the home. I have wasted too much
time already."

"You have done your part splendidly," cried Gail with brimming eyes,
letting the chicken slip unnoticed from her hands as she threw one arm
around Faith's waist; "and now that--" She bit her t