?" she asked.

Pauline held up an armful of old-fashioned chintz.

"Oh, how pretty!" Josie exclaimed. "It makes one think of high-waisted
dresses, and minuets and things like that."

Pauline laughed. "They were my great-grandmother's bed curtains."

"Goodness! What are you going to do with them?"

"I'm not sure mother will let me do anything. I came across them just
now in looking for some green silk she said I might have to cover
Hilary's pin-cushion with."

"For the new room? Patience has been doing the honors of the new paper
and matting--it's going to be lovely, I think."

Pauline scrambled to her feet, shaking out the chintz: "If only mother
would--it's pink and green--let's go ask her."

"What do you want to do with it, Pauline?" Mrs. Shaw asked.

"I haven't thought that far--use it for draperies of some kind, I
suppose," the girl answered.

They were standing in the middle of the big, empty room. Suddenly,
Josie gave a quick exclamation, pointing to the bare corner between the
front and side windows. "Wouldn't a cozy corner be delightful--with
cover and cushions of the chintz?"

"May we, mother?" Pauline begged in a coaxing tone.

"I suppose so, dear--only where is the bench part to come from?"

"Tom'll make the frame for it, I'll go get him this minute," Josie
answered.

"And you might use that single mattress from up garret," Mrs. Shaw
suggested.

Pauline ran up to inspect it, and to see what other treasures might be
forthcoming. The garret was a big, shadowy place, extending over the
whole house, and was lumber room, play place and general refuge, all in
one.

Presently, from under the eaves, she drew forward a little
old-fashioned sewing-chair, discarded on the giving out of its cane
seat. "But I could tack a piece of burlap on and cover it with a
cushion," Pauline decided, and bore it down in triumph to the new room,
where Tom Brice was already making his measurements for the cozy corner.

Josie was on the floor, measuring for the cover. "Isn't it fun, Paul?
Tom says it won't take long to do his part."

Tom straightened himself, slipping his rule into his pocket. "I don't
see what you want it for, though," he said.

"'Yours not to reason why--'" Pauline told him. "We see, and so will
Hilary. Don't you and Josie want to join the new club--the 'S. W. F.
Club'?"

"Society of Willing Females, I suppose?" Tom remarked.

"It sounds like some sort of sewing circle," Josie sai