It was raining--a condition of weather Miss Clyde hailed with delight.

"Just the very day to go through the linen closet," she said to Blue
Bonnet as they rose from the table. "I think we will begin there this
morning."

Blue Bonnet looked out at the lowering clouds and followed her aunt
meekly. She, too, was glad that it was raining; otherwise she should
have longed to be galloping over the country roads on Chula.

Mrs. Clyde's linen closet was a joy to behold; a room of itself, light
and airy, with the smoothest of cedar shelves and deep cavernous drawers
for blankets and down comforts.

Blue Bonnet had been in the room occasionally, when she had been sent
for sheets for an unexpected guest. She had brought away the refreshing
odor of sweet lavender in her nostrils, and a vision of the neatly piled
linen before her eyes.

To-day she watched her aunt as she opened drawers, took the white covers
from blankets and comforts, inspected sheets and patch-work quilts with
an eye to necessary darning.

What a dreadful waste of time to have cut up all those little patches
and have sewn them together, Blue Bonnet thought, as her aunt folded a
quilt and returned it to its particular place on the shelf. She felt
sure that Aunt Lucinda could have bought much prettier quilts with less
bother.

"It seems almost like a sanctuary, here," she said at last, leaning
against the window and watching the proceedings with interest. "It's so
beautifully clean, and I adore that lavender smell. Where does it come
from?"

Miss Clyde reached under a sheet and brought forth a small bag made of
white tarlatan filled with dried flowers and leaves.

Blue Bonnet buried her nose in it.

"Oh, I love it," she said. "I must get some and send it to Benita.
Benita is very particular about our beds. She says my mother was."

"She could not have been a Clyde and escaped that, my dear. It is a
passion with all of us--linen and fine china."

Blue Bonnet nodded brightly.

"When I have a home I shall have a linen closet just like this," she
said, glancing about admiringly.

"Then you cannot begin too soon to learn how to take care of it. Few
things require closer supervision than a linen closet, in any home. You
must learn to mend; not ordinary mending, but fine darning."

Miss Clyde cast her eye over a pile of sheets. She opened one and handed
it to Blue Bonnet, directing her attention to a rent which had been
skillfully repaired in one co