ghbors. It was warm and sunny, a summer day that had strayed
from its place in the Year's procession. The maid was putting the Angora
cat out on the balcony among the dwarf evergreens. The Marchioness was
trying to help her when, happening to look across the street, she saw
the two faces at the opposite window. She stared for a moment, then
taking the cat from the window sill held her up for the two little girls
to see. Flibbertigibbet and her mate nodded vigorously and smiled,
making motions with their hands as if stroking the fur.

The Marchioness dropped the cat and waved her hand to them; the maid
drew her back from the window; the two girls saw her ladyship twitch
away from the detaining hand and stamp her foot.

"Gee!" said Flibbertigibbet under her breath, "she's just like us."

"Oh, wot's she up ter now?" Freckles whispered.

Truly, any sane person would have asked that question. The Marchioness,
having gained her point, was standing on the window seat by the open
window, which was protected by an iron grating, and making curious
motions with her fingers and hands.

"Is she a luny?" Freckles asked in an awed voice.

Flibbertigibbet was gazing fixedly at this apparition and made no reply.
After watching this pantomime a few minutes, she spoke slowly:

"She's one of the dumb uns; I've seen 'em."

The Marchioness was now making frantic gestures towards the top of their
window. She was laughing too.

"She's a lively one if she is a dumber," said Freckles approvingly.
Flibbertigibbet jumped to her feet and likewise stood on the window
sill.

"Gee! She wants us to git the window open at the top. Here--pull!" The
two children hung their combined weight by the tips of their fingers
from the upper sash, and the great window opened slowly a few inches;
then it stuck fast. But they both heard the gleeful voice of their
opposite neighbor and welcomed the sound.

"I'm talking to you--it's the only way I can--the deaf and dumb--"

The maid lifted her down, struggling, from the window seat, and they
heard the childish voice scolding in a tongue unknown to them.

Flibbertigibbet set immediately about earning the right to learn the
deaf-and-dumb alphabet; she hung out all monitor Number Twelve's
washing--dish towels, stockings, handkerchiefs--every other day for two
weeks in the bitter December weather. She knew that this special monitor
had a small brother in the Asylum for Deaf Mutes; this girl taught her
the st