and my name's Mary Rose Crocker and I'm almost
el--I mean I'm going on fourteen." She remembered the secret she had
with Aunt Kate just in time. A second more and it would have been too
late.

Mrs. Schuneman regarded her over the gold spectacles. "Going on
fourteen?" she repeated. "You're very small for your age. Why, when
my Lottie was fourteen she would have made two of you."

Mary Rose squirmed. The unjust criticism was very hard to bear. She
just had to murmur faintly that it would be some time before she would
reach fourteen.

"H-m, I thought so." Mrs. Schuneman looked very wise, as if she
understood perfectly and there is no doubt that she understood more
than Mary Rose. "Well, well," she said, while Mary Rose, scarlet and
mortified, stood twisting the corner of Aunt Kate's apron.

"I--I hope you won't tell," she said hurriedly, her eyes on the red
rug, "because it's something of a secret on account of the law for this
house. I don't understand exactly but Aunt Kate does."

"I've no doubt she does." The corners of Mrs. Schuneman's mouth were
pulled down farther than they had been and she looked very, very stern
until Jenny Lind broke into joyous song again, when the corners of Mrs.
Schuneman's mouth tilted up, slightly. "Well, well," she said again,
but not quite so crossly. "So long as you behave yourself and aren't a
nuisance I shan't say a word. Where I lived before my brother left me
his money there were more children than a body could count. Such a
noise and confusion all the time. I was glad to get away from them and
come up here where there couldn't be any children----"

"Nor any dogs nor cats," murmured Mary Rose sadly.

"But maybe that's why the place hasn't seemed like home to me."

"Of course it is." Mary Rose knew. "I never heard of a home without
children. There wasn't one in all Mifflin." She tried to imagine such
a thing but she couldn't do it. "It wouldn't be a home," she decided
emphatically.

Mrs. Schuneman regarded her curiously before she gave herself another
surprise. "Suppose you go and ask your aunt if you can go out with me
and find a bird? I believe you would choose a good one. Louise and
Lottie can make a fuss if they want to but I never said a word when
they bought a phonograph and a bird will be more company for an old
lady than a machine."

They had a wonderful time finding a canary. They visited several shops
where birds of many kinds were offered