he grass discovered the likeness of
the two faces, and with a startled whoop sat up to ask excitedly of
Peace, "Did you ever have a twin?"

"No."

"Oh, dear, I was sure you must have! You're just the _yimage_ of Lottie.
She's a _norphan_, and the folks that brought her here didn't even know
what her real name was or anything about her, and we've always 'magined
that some day her truly people would come and find her and she'd have a
mother of her own."

"Is this a--a school?" asked Peace. She wanted to say orphan asylum, but
was afraid it would be impolite, and she did not wish to offend any of
these friendly appearing children.

"It's the Children's Home."

"Who owns it?"

"Why--er--I don't know," stammered the second youth, who seemed the
oldest of the quartette inside the fence.

"I guess the splintered ladies do," remarked the cherub in the grass.

"The wh-at?"

"Tony's trying to be smart now," said the larger girl scornfully. "The
Lady Board is meeting today, and he always calls them the splintered
ladies."

"What is a Lady Board?" inquired mystified Peace, thinking this was the
queerest home she had ever heard tell of.

"Why, they are the ladies who say how things shall be done here--"

"The number of times we can have butter each week and how much milk each
of us can drink, and the number of potatoes the cook shall fix," put in
the boy called Tony.

"Don't you have butter every day!" cried Peace in shocked surprise.

"Well, I guess not! We have it Sunday noons and sometimes holiday
nights."

"And we never have sugar on our oatmeal, or sauce to eat with our
bread," added Lottie, shaking her curls dolefully.

"What do you eat, then?"

"Oh, bread and milk, and mush of some kind, or rice, and potatoes and
vegetables and meat once a week and pie or pudding real seldom."

"Who takes care of you?" asked Peace again after a slight pause.

"The matron and nurses."

"What's a matron?"

"The boss of the caboose," grinned Tony irreverently.

"Is she nice?"

"That's what we're waiting to find out. She's just come, you see, and we
don't know her real well yet. The other one was a holy fright."

"But the new one _looks_ nice," said Lottie loyally. "She smiles all the
time, and Miss Cooper never did. She always looked froze."

"She must be like Miss Peyton. She was my teacher at Chestnut School and
I didn't like her a bit till the day school ended. She did get thawed
out then, though, and I b'lie