ed. "Something's been troubling you all
summer. I've noticed it ever since I came home."

"Yes, it's jist about that time. But it can't be helped now. And it
won't be long till it's all over. And, Elsie"--she glanced around, as
though fearful of being overheard--"I'm goin' to leave you something!"

"Oh, Arabella! don't!" cried the girl, tears rising to her eyes. "I
can't bear to hear you talk like that. You'll be better in a day or
two."

Miss Arabella shook her head firmly. "No, Susan says I've got
stubborn, an' I guess she's right; because I don't seem to want to
bother about getting better. But I'd like you to have something to
remember me by, Elsie. You were always different from the other girls,
an' never acted as if I was old an' queer, an' I'm goin' to leave
you--something."

She lay still for a few moments while her companion regarded her with
sorrow-filled eyes. "Elsie," she whispered suddenly, "if I tell you
something--something awful, mind you, will you promise never, never to
tell it to a living soul? Not even after I'm gone?"

Elsie looked at her half alarmed. "Oh, Arabella!" she stammered, "of
course I wouldn't tell--if you--that is if you'd really like to tell
me."

Miss Arabella's cheeks were growing pale. "Yes, I'd better tell you.
I'll have to if I--I leave it to you. Run out an' lock the door,
Elsie--the back door, too, and bring Polly in. Somebody might come in
an' see it."

Elsie obeyed, with a feeling of growing apprehension. She had
evidently stirred up depths of which she had never dreamed. When she
returned the invalid was half sitting up in bed, flushed with
excitement. She pointed to the gay Red Riding-Hood upon the dresser.
"There's a key behind her, just inside the wolf," she whispered. "It
unlocks that bottom drawer, an' you hand me out what's there."

Elsie opened the drawer and took out a large parcel, done up in brown
paper. Miss Arabella took it tenderly, and for a few moments lay
smoothing it gently. Then, slowly and tremblingly, she untied the
string and let a billow of sky-blue silk roll out upon the bed.

Elsie gave a little exclamation of admiration. "Oh, Arabella, what a
lovely thing! It looks as though it had been intended for an
old-fashioned wedding dress."

"That's just what it was for," whispered Arabella, with drooping head.

The girl looked at her for a moment, and then, with a woman's
intuition, she divined the secret. She sank upon h