niece
to do--at least fully as much as should a spinster, who had never
brought up anything but four cats and a parrot!) "Edith is quite right.
Cordelia is going to Texas next week."

"But, Mary, are you crazy? To let a child like that go all the way from
here to Texas--one would think New Hampshire and Texas were twenty miles
apart!"

Mrs. Wilson sighed a little wearily.

"Cordelia isn't exactly a child, Sophronia, you must remember that. She
was sixteen last November; and she's very self-reliant and capable for
her age, too. Besides, she isn't going alone, you know."

"Alone!" exclaimed Miss Sophronia. "Mary, surely, the rest that Edith
said isn't true! Those other girls aren't going, too, are they?--Elsie
Martin, and that flyaway Tilly Mack, and all?"

"I think they are, Sophronia."

"Well, of all the crazy things anybody ever heard of!" almost groaned
the lady. "Mary, what _are_ you thinking of?"

"I'm thinking of Cordelia," returned the minister's wife, with a spirit
that was as sudden as it was unusual. "Sophronia, for twelve years, ever
since she came to me, Cordelia has been just a Big Sister in the
family; and she's had to fetch and carry and trot and run her little
legs off for one after another of the children, as well as for her uncle
and me. You _know_ how good she is, and how conscientious. You know how
anxious she always is to do exactly right. She's never had a playday,
and I'm sure she deserves one if ever a girl did! Vacations to her have
never meant anything but more care and more time for housework."

Mrs. Wilson paused for breath, then went on with renewed vigor.

"When this chance came up, Tom and I thought at first, of course, just
as you did, that it was quite out of the question; but--well, we decided
to let her go. And I haven't been sorry a minute since. She's Tom's only
brother's child, but we've never been able to do much for her, as you
know. We can let her have this chance, though. And she's so happy--dear
child!"

"But what is it? How did it happen? Who's going? Edith's story sounded
so absurd to me I could make precious little out of it. She insisted
that the 'Happy X's' were going."

The minister's wife smiled.

"It's the girls' 'Hexagon Club,' Sophronia. They call themselves the
'Happy Hexagons.' There are six of them."

"Humph!" commented Miss Sophronia. "Who are they--besides Cordelia?"

"Bertha Brown, Tilly Mack, Alma Lane, Elsie Martin, and Genevieve
Hartley."