t from the
stove, and delicious little spice cakes just out of the oven; and we
carried out some to Harland; and it was a full half-hour before Tina's
conscience stirred, and we had to go. By that time Nannie and I were
very well acquainted. Yet I had always been amazingly slow about making
friends.

"After this episode Nannie and I always nodded and grinned when we saw
each other, going or coming from school. The next month Nannie appeared
at our Sunday school and announced that she would always attend there if
she might be in Miss Browning's class. Miss Browning taught my class.
Fancy my happiness! It impressed me very much the way Nannie could make
people do what she wanted. In summer another wonder happened. Nannie's
father built our new stable. Nannie used to bring him his luncheon
daily. Before the summer ended we were great chums."

"But did your mother approve of your intimacy?" asked Mrs. Waite, who
was bewildered by conduct so opposed to her recollections of the
Ridgelys.

"My mother was a wise woman. One day she sent me away on some pretext,
and she asked Nannie into the house and showed her pictures and talked
to her. Nannie adored my mother; and mamma never threw any obstacles in
the way of my seeing Nannie, while Tina was always willing to take me to
the Marshes; of course I never went alone. Tina thought Nannie one of
the nicest little girls in town; and she had sense enough to see that
while I was most often listless and shy with other girls, I was always
happy with Nannie. I don't think I can quite express her charm. She was
clever, but clever people have bored me. She was pretty, too; and she
was a true, delicate-minded little gentlewoman, though her father was a
mechanic and her aunt helped the family income by taking in fine
washing; but it was none of those things. I think it was that she was so
_wholesome_! Always cheerful. Always fearless. By consequence she was
the most absolutely truthful being I ever knew. Aunt Kate"--to Mrs.
Clymer--"you heard about the red paint? Shall I tell them?" At Mrs.
Clymer's assent she continued, "It was a truly terrible experience. I
was never so scared in my life; and I was always getting scared when I
was little. Nannie's next-door neighbor was a little girl named Elsa
Clarke, whose father was a painter by trade. He was an easy-tempered
man, and sometimes used to let us paint. If we daubed ourselves (which
we seldom failed to do), he would scrub us off with turp