bad.'"

"Does Blue Bonnet still call her 'the cross?'" Mrs. Clyde asked, smiling
broadly.

"Yes, and declares that she has taken up 'her cross' and is 'bearing it
cheerfully'--whatever that may mean. Blue Bonnet loves figures of
speech. Her comparisons are really very amusing sometimes. I hardly know
what to make of her sudden tolerance of this girl; whether it is a case
of propinquity, duty, or over-generousness on Blue Bonnet's part. At any
rate, she seems to have espoused the cause of the cross, nobly."

"Bless her dear heart," Mrs. Clyde murmured Softly. "The world will
never end for Blue Bonnet at her own doorstep. She has a real genius for
friendship. I am glad she finds her room-mate pleasant. I feared from
her letters that she never would."

"Something has happened to change her mind," Miss Clyde said shrewdly.
"The girl's personality never appealed to Blue Bonnet. I rather suspect
that Blue Bonnet feels that she needs friends. She has been very
unpopular, I understand."

Miss Clyde, unconsciously, had put her finger upon the exact cause of
Blue Bonnet's sudden conversion. Joy did need friends. To Blue Bonnet,
this need was tragic--pathetic; and she straightway set about bringing
Joy into the charmed circle where she, herself, had been welcomed with
open arms. It had not been easy work; perhaps she would not have
accomplished her aim had she not taken Mrs. White into her confidence.
Mrs. White was executive as well as musical. She was tactful, too, and
under her guidance Joy was gradually steered into a port that became a
haven; a refuge from her old self, her youthful environment.

Another interest had come into Blue Bonnet's life. One that bade fair to
rival all others, and pave the way for future usefulness. It was the
Settlement work which the "Lambs" engaged in. Her first visit to the
poorer districts filled her with horror. She had never known anything
about real poverty. A kind fate had lifted her above all that; and when
she went for the first time into a day nursery, a free kindergarten, and
was told something of the homes the children came from, their
limitation, their actual needs, tears blinded her eyes and her throat
ached with the lumps that rose there. For a moment she was speechless.

It was the home for crippled children that interested her most. The
girls at Miss North's took turns going there to amuse the children. They
cut paper dolls, carried toys, and made themselves generally usefu