“What are you girls talking about?” asked Dorothy, who came in with Ethel Brown at this moment.

Both of them were interested in the addition that Della had made to their knowledge of flowers and gardening.

“Every day I feel myself drawn into more and more gardening,” exclaimed Dorothy.  “I’ve set up a notebook already.”

“In January!” laughed Della.

“January seems to be the time to do your thinking and planning; that’s what the people who know tell me.”

“It seems to be the time for some action,” retorted Della, waving her hand at the blossoming branches about the room.

“Aren’t they wonderful?  I always knew you could bring them out quickly in the house after the buds were started out of doors, but these fellows didn’t seem to be started at all—­and look at them!”

“Mother says they’ve done so well because we’ve been careful to keep them evenly warm,” said Ethel Brown.  “Dorothy’s got the finest piece of news to tell you.  If she doesn’t tell you pretty soon I shall come out with it myself!”

“O, let her tell her own secret!” remonstrated Blue.  “What is it?”

You know that sloping piece of ground about a quarter of a mile beyond the Clarks’ on the road to Mr. Emerson’s?”

“You don’t mean the field with the brook where Roger got the pussy willows?”

“This side of it.  There’s a lovely view across the meadows on the other side of the road, and the land runs back to some rocks and big trees.”

“Certainly I know it,” assented Ethel Blue.  “There’s a hillock on it that’s the place I’ve chosen for a house when I grow up and build one.”

“Well, you can’t have it because I’ve got there first!”

“What do you mean?  Has Aunt Louise—?”

“She has.”

“How grand!  How grand!  You’ll be farther away from us than you are now but it’s a dear duck of a spot—­”

“And it’s right on the way to Grandfather Emerson’s,” added Ethel Brown.

“Mother signed the papers this morning and she’s going to begin to build as soon as the weather will allow.”

“With peach trees in blossom now that ought not to be far off,” laughed Della, waving her hand again at the blossoms that pleased her so much.

“How large a house is she going to build?” asked Ethel Blue.

“Not very big.  Large enough for her and me and a guest or two and of course Elisabeth and Miss Merriam,” referring to a Belgian baby who had been brought to the United Service Club from war-stricken Belgium, and to her caretaker, a charming young woman from the School of Mothercraft.

“Will it be made of concrete?”

“Yes, and Mother says we may all help a lot in making the plans and in deciding on the decoration and everything.”

“Isn’t she the darling!  It will be the next best thing to building a house yourself!”

“There will be a garage behind the house.”