u are getting rosy already. It seems to me, for an old nurse your
Reda has rather suddenly given up her charge, not to have inquired for
you this morning."

"Oh, Reda wouldn't. She is dreadfully afraid of strangers," replied
Mary.

"Why--pray?" asked Mrs. Dunbar simply. Mary shifted uneasily,
shrugging her shoulders in the only foreign mannerism she carried, and
answering with nothing more than a fleeting expression of annoyance.

"Oh, Reda is so queer, Aunt Audrey," Grace assisted, "she would run
like an Indian if you just looked at her square in the eye."

"Is she Indian, Mary?" pressed Mrs. Dunbar gently.

"Yes, that is, she is from a Pacific Island outside of Central America.
You see, we were there when Loved One--went away."

Jennie was dusting the rails of the porch, and the little family kept
moving about to accommodate her brush and polishing cloth.

"I must take a bag this time," Mrs. Dunbar said, reverting to her
necessary New York trip. "I rather envy you chickens running around
with no other cares than the next hour's adventure. Mine are all cut
and antiseptically dried."

"And we never know what ours are going to be," remarked Madaline who
was vainly trying to trap a feeble little fly, to feed to the pitcher
plant.

"Come on," suggested Grace, "if we are not going to the Sanitarium
let's go to the village. I haven't spent every single cent of my
allowance yet, and I should hate to have my princely remittance
overlap."

"Whackies on the nut-sundae!" cried Madaline. "I am bankrupt till my
ship comes in."

"And I have to send home my Scout Sacrifice," said Cleo. "I promised
mother I would not forget a little personal contribution to a charity
case we are interested in. A child has to have an operation on her
eyes, and we scouts are providing the comforts."

"Oh yes, Mumsey gave mine. She was afraid I would disgrace the troop
by forgetting to remit," confessed Madaline.

"And daddy turned mine in, likely for the same reason," said Grace.
"Cleo, you are the only one trusted to do her part at this distance.
Mary, when you are a scout, you will better understand all our secrets.
They're just deli-cious," and she rolled her round eyes till they
threatened to take tucks in her dimples.

It required some coaxing to induce Mary to go to the village with them,
but they finally won out, and when Mrs. Dunbar embarked for her train,
the four little girls waved a happy good-by, interspersed with