keep still a minute, but I know how
he feels. It's the same way with me. At first I couldn't see how any
mother would name her little boy such a name as that, but now I know. He
upset three vases of flowers in the reception hall, and spilled a glass
of frappe down his dress when I tried to give him some to drink, and
pulled over the bird-cage, so's the water was all spilled, and stepped
into the dog's drinking trough at the back door while I was trying to
get them out of the house without the ladies seeing me. He makes rivers
out of every bit of water he comes near."

"Doesn't your grandmother know where you have gone?" asked the invalid
in surprise, not half understanding what Peace was trying to tell her.

"Why, no! She's one of the missionaries herself. She might think I ought
to let her s'ciety look after these children as long as they've got hold
of the mother already; but I--they'd be sep'rated as sure as fits,
and--just look how teenty Rivers is to be taken away from _all_ his
folks at once."

"I don't want him tookened away," Fern spoke up. "Mamma told me to stay
with him all the time, and I said I would. He can't talk much yet and
there ain't anybody else can tell what he wants, now that mamma is
sick."

"Come here, dear." The lame girl held out her thin, blue-veined hands,
and little, homeless Fern ran to her with a desolate cry.

Peace was satisfied, and dropping down cross-legged in the grass at
their feet, she remarked thoughtfully, "I _had_ to bring them here, you
see. Our house is full already, and grandpa says grandma has all she can
'tend to with the six of us. The parsonage is too small to hold any
more, and besides, Saint John is away on his vacation, so the house is
shut up for a few days. I knew Aunt Pen could mother a dozen, and I knew
you'd want her to if she got the chance, so I brought 'em along.

"Isn't it too bad there isn't a nice Children's Home in this state like
there is in Kentucky or some place down South, where one lady has forty
daughters? They ain't any of 'em her very own. She's really just the
matron of the Home, like Miss Chase is of our Children's Home, only they
don't call the place a Home. The lady is just like a real mother to
them, and she won't let any of her girls be adopted away from her. She
just takes care of them until they are old enough to look out for
themselves or get a husband to look out for them. Then she takes some
more in their place and keeps on that way.