"What for?" asked Russ, who had been looking at the stick on which he
was winding his cord, wondering if it would be large enough to hold it
all.

"Because you're pulling off my hat!"

And that is just what Russ was doing. The tail of the kite had become
tangled in the trimming on the woman's hat, and Russ was pulling it off
her head.

"Oh, please stop, little boy!" she cried, and she had to run along,
following the kite across the street.

Then Russ stopped winding the string, and the woman, putting up her
hands, took hold of the kite tail, so it did not quite pull off her hat.
But it almost did.

"I--I'm sorry," Russ said, as he saw what had happened.

"Oh, that's all right," the woman answered with a laugh. "You couldn't
help it. I have a little boy of my own, and he likes to fly his kite,
but he never got it tangled in my hat, that I remember. But it's all
right. No harm is done. I can pin my hat on again, but my hair is rather
mussed up, I'm afraid."

"You could go into my Aunt Jo's house and fix it," said Russ politely.
"She has a looking-glass."

"Has she? That's nice," said the lady with another laugh. "But I have a
little one of my own. See!" She opened her purse and showed a tiny,
round mirror fastened inside. "If you'll hold that up, so I can see
myself in it, I can put my hat on again and it will be all right," she
went on.

This Russ did. His kite had fallen to the street, but it was not torn
and was all right for putting up again. So he held the woman's mirror,
which was in her pocketbook, as well as he could, while she smoothed out
her hair and straightened her hat. Then, with a smile and a bow, she
said:

"There! Is it all right?"

"It looks nice--just like my mother's," answered Russ, and the woman
laughed as she took back her purse.

"Did you lose a pocketbook?" asked Russ.

"No," was the answer. "Why do you ask?"

"'Cause my sister Rose found one, and it had some money in, but nobody
ever came to get it."

"Well, I hope you can fly your kite again," said the woman, as she
walked away.

Russ picked up his kite and went back to the vacant lot with it. He
tried to fly it, but the wind had gone down, and the toy would not rise.
Laddie's, too, had begun to bob about, and he said:

"I guess I'll pull mine down before it falls."

"Well, we had some fun, anyhow," remarked Russ.

It was the next day, a fine, sunny one, that Rose and Violet, having
played with their dolls until they w