bring her nicest gowns, and she needed a good thick pelisse
and heavy woolen frock for outside wear. The new hats were very large,
and young girls were wearing white or cream beaver. Some very handsome
ones had come from New York recently. There was a big bow on the top,
and two feathers if you could afford it, and ribbon of the same width
tied under the chin. She was to bring her slippers and clocked
stockings, her newest white frock, and if she had to buy a new one of
any kind it need not be made until she came to Hartford.

"I never heard of such a thing!" declared Mrs. Leverett, aghast. "She
must think your father is made of money. And when 'Lecty and Matthias
were married they went to housekeeping in three rooms in old Mrs.
Morton's house, and 'Lecty was happy as a queen, and had to save at
every turn. She wasn't talking then about white hats and wide ribbons
and feathers and gewgaws. The idea!"

"Of course I can't have the hat," returned Betty resignedly. "But my
brown one will do. And, oh, isn't it lucky my silk is made and trimmed
with that beautiful lace! If I only had my white skirt worked! And that
India muslin might do with a little fixing up. If I had a lace ruffle to
put around the bottom!"

"I don't know how I can spare you, Betty. I can't put Doris to doing
anything. When any of my girls were ten years old they could do quite a
bit of housekeeping. If she wasn't so behind in her studies!"

Betty had twenty plans in a moment, but she knew her mother would object
to every one. She would be very discreet until she could talk the matter
over with her father.

"Everything about the journey is so nicely arranged," she began; "and,
you see, Electa says it will not cost anything to Springfield. There may
not be a chance again this whole winter."

"The summer will be a good deal pleasanter."

"But the Capital won't be nearly so"--"gay," she was about to say, but
changed it to "interesting."

"Betty, I do wish you were more serious-minded. To think you're sixteen,
almost a woman, and in some things you're just a companion for Doris!"

Betty thought it was rather hard to be between everything. She was not
old enough for society, she was not a young lady, but she was too old to
indulge in the frolics of girlhood. She couldn't be wise and sedate--at
least, she did not want to be. And were the fun and the good times
really wicked?

She was on the lookout for her father that evening. Warren was going to
the