had, as it were, skipped over the years and seen
herself just where she would like to be, able to travel, to make
friends, to have books and the pictures she loved. She had not seen many
that she cared for, until one day Mr. Warfield brought a portfolio of
prints _he_ admired, and she was so touched that she sat in a breathless
thrill of joy with her eyes full of tears.

"Oh, I did not know there were such beautiful things in the world," she
said with a sob in her breath. "And that people could really make them!
How wonderful it must be to do something the whole world can enjoy."

He smiled kindly. "The world is large," he replied, "and if only a
little circle commends us, that must satisfy the most of us. And perhaps
you know people who would rather have a bright chromo of fruit or
flowers than all of these."

"Yes," she admitted with a flush.

"But in everything it is worth while to try to come up to the best
within us."

This sentence lingered in her mind. But she was a very busy girl for the
next two weeks, for there was a good deal to do at home. Then she was
not old enough to have outgrown play. Girls really played in country
places round about.

But some new thing was growing up within her. There comes a dividing
line in many lives when the soul awakens and reaches up and seems
suddenly to sweep past the old things, just as the bud pushes out of its
sheath that then becomes a dry husk. So many desires crept up to the
light. Study, languages, histories of men and women, and deeds that had
changed the aspect of the world. Travel, a life of her own in which she
was first, not in any selfish fashion, but to have things peculiarly her
own, the things that appealed to her, not other people's ideas of what
was best for you. She had had some of Jenny's frocks made over for her,
and had been wearing Jenny's coat all winter. Aurelia was too small to
make these changes economical, and Mrs. Mulford was one of the thrifty
kind that believed in putting everything to the best use. Yet Helen
longed for the time when second-hand clothes and ideas were no longer
forced upon you, but you could come into some of your very own.

She thought she would go up to her own room and have a good cry. Just as
she reached the door Aunt Jane said: "Yes, she's old enough now to go to
work. It's a good idea."

"I'll speak to Mr. Brown and engage the place for her. After a
fortnight, if she pays any sort of attention she'll get three doll