ppy settled down at once, but Dippy had to
have his head rubbed for some minutes before he began to purr
contentedly.

"You see, my dears," began Marian, "I am going to have a great deal
to do, almost as much as grandma has with her clubs and societies
and meetings. First there is school. I think I like Alice Evans the
best of the girls, for she has such pretty hair, but I am not quite
sure about it. She was not quite as nice to me at recess as Ruth
was, so maybe I shall like Ruth best. I am sure I shall love Patty.
I wish she had come here with her sister. It must be lovely, Tippy,
to have a sister, though I suppose you don't think as I do, for you
had a sister once and now you don't care anything about her, for you
fizzed at her the other day when she came in our garden. I saw you
and heard you, too, and I was very much shocked. What was I talking
about? Oh, yes, about so much to do. I'll have lessons to study at
home after this, I suppose. We didn't have any real lessons to-day,
just trial things, and I did such awful--I mean really awful writing
on the blackboard that the girls all giggled. I just hated that, and
I felt like crying or like running away and never going back, but I
realized that it wouldn't do to do either, so that is another thing
I must do.

"I must practice writing at home. I wonder where I shall get paper
and things to do it on. I'll have to ask Miss Dorothy about that.
She is such a dear, Tippy, and she likes cats; she said so. I never
used to think that any one could be as nice as Mrs. Hunt, but Miss
Dorothy is nicer in some ways, for she understands just how you feel
about everything, and Mrs. Hunt doesn't always. She is as kind as
can be, but she thinks that when you ask questions if she answers
with a cookie or a doughnut you will be satisfied. It does satisfy
your mouth, of course, but it doesn't satisfy the thinking part of
you. Sometimes I go down there just bursting with things I want to
know, and when I ask her, she says: 'Oh, don't bother your little
head about such things; there is a plate of cakes in the pantry; go
help yourself.' Now, Miss Dorothy isn't that way at all. She just
reaches her thinks down to yours and they go along together till
you come out all clear and straight like coming out of the woods
into an open sunshiny place where there is a good path.

"Now, Tippy, we've got to think of something to send papa for a
present. I don't suppose you are interested in such thi