pausing and regarding him. "She says she used to know
you well enough to spank you, too."

Mr. Badger laughed. "She certainly did."

"Then error must have crept in," said the little girl, "that she doesn't
know you now."

"I used to think it had, when she got after me."

The child observed his laughing face wistfully, "She didn't know how to
handle it in mind, did she?"

"Not much. A slipper was good enough for her."

"Well, I don't see what's the matter," said Hazel.

"'Tisn't necessary, little one. You go on having a good time. Everything
will come out all right some day."

As Mr. Badger spoke he little knew what activity was taking place in his
aunt's thought. Her heart had been touched by the surprising arrival and
sympathy of her namesake, and her conscience had been awakened by the array
of golden words from the Bible which she had not studied much during late
bitter years. The story of the Quest Flower, falling upon her softened
heart, seemed to hold for her a special meaning.

In the late twilight that evening she stood alone in her garden, and the
opening chalice of the perfect lily shone up at her through the dusk. "Only
a couple of days, at most," she murmured, "not more than a couple of
days--and humility was the root!"

When it rained the following morning, Flossie looked out the window rather
disconsolately; but after dinner her face brightened, for she saw Hazel
coming up the street under an umbrella. Tightly held in one arm were Ella
and a bundle of books and doll's clothes. Miss Fletcher welcomed the guest
gladly, and, after disposing of her umbrella, left the children together
and took her sewing upstairs where she sat at work by a window, frowning
and smiling by turns at her own thoughts.

Occasionally she looked down furtively at her garden, where in plain view
the quest flower drank in the warm rain and opened--opened!

By this time Flossie and Hazel were great friends, and the expression of
the former's face had changed even in three days, until one would forget
to call her an afflicted child.

They had the lesson and the treatment this afternoon, and then their plays,
and when lunch time came the appetites of the pair did not seem to have
been injured by their confinement to the house.

When the time came for Hazel to go it had ceased raining, and Miss Fletcher
went with her to the gate.

"Oh, oh, aunt Hazel--see the quest flower!" exclaimed the child.

True, a lily, larger, fa