was you,' answered Mary.

'Well,' said Sister Agatha, 'Mary was a dear little girl and Sister
Agatha grew very fond of her. And when Evangeline was very busy and
didn't know quite what to do with her--why Sister Agatha thought it was
time to put her thinking-cap on.'

'Is it like the cap you've got on now?' asked Mary, staring up at Sister
Agatha's white cap.

'When I think I generally take that off,' said Sister Agatha, 'and after
to-morrow I don't think I shall wear it again. Well, I put my thinking
cap on, and I began to wonder whether I could manage to keep you with me
always.'

'Oh!' exclaimed Mary, and she seemed to be hugging herself as if she
felt very pleasant indeed.

'And,' Sister Agatha said, 'after thinking about it a long time, I
fancied that perhaps I _could_ keep you with me always.'

'Here!' cried Mary. 'Should we live here?'

'No, we are going away from here to-morrow,' was the answer.

'Where to?' asked Mary.

'Suppose, now, we take a nice little house somewhere near the sea,' said
Sister Agatha.

'I should like that!' cried Mary.

'I think I should like it too,' answered Sister Agatha. 'Because I shall
always have some one to look after, and I like looking after people. And
we shall grow very fond of each other, sometimes we shall play on the
sands, or row on the sea, and then I shall teach you to read and write,
and when you can read you will begin to see what a wonderful world you
live in--and you will find that life is far more wonderful than any
fairy-tale.'

'Shall I?' asked Mary, and rising from her stool, she stood leaning
against Sister Agatha's knees. 'But, still,' she said presently, 'you'll
be there, won't you?'

'Why, of course I shall be there,' said Sister Agatha.

'And you won't go away the same as Evangeline!'

'No,' said Sister Agatha with a smile; 'that is not at all likely.'

'And,' said Mary looking up anxiously into her face, 'you'll never send
me away either?'

'No, I shall never send you away either,' answered Sister Agatha, and
she placed her arms round Mary Brown and drew the child's head on to her
shoulder. It rested there a long time, and Mary felt quite contented and
not at all anxious any more.

The next day they were driven to the station with their luggage, and
they travelled to a small town by the seaside. At first they lived in
lodgings, but presently Sister Agatha took a pretty house of her own; it
had a nice garden where Mary likes to sit re