“No, I brought the book, but in the hurry of my tea-party forgot to unpack it.  I’ll hunt it up to-night.  Remind me, Thorny.”

“There, now, I’ve forgotten something too!  Squire sent you a letter, and I’m having such a jolly time I never thought of it.”

Ben rummaged out the note with remorseful haste, protesting that he was in no hurry for Mr. Gulliver, and very glad to save him for another day.

Leaving the young folks busy with their games, Miss Celia sat in the porch to read her letters, for there were two, and as she read her face grew so sober, then so sad, that if any one had been looking he would have wondered what bad news had chased away the sunshine so suddenly.  No one did look, no one saw how pitifully her eyes rested on Ben’s happy face when the letters were put away, and no one minded the new gentleness in her manner as she came back to the table.  But Ben thought there never was so sweet a lady as the one who leaned over him to show him how the dissected map went together, and never smiled at his mistakes.

So kind, so very kind was she to them all that when, after an hour of merry play, she took her brother in to bed, the three who remained fell to praising her enthusiastically as they put things to rights before taking leave.

“She’s like the good fairies in the books, and has all sorts of nice, pretty things in her house,” said Betty, enjoying a last hug of the fascinating doll whose lids would shut so that it was a pleasure to sing “Bye, sweet baby, bye,” with no staring eyes to spoil the illusion.

“What heaps she knows!  More than Teacher, I do believe, and she doesn’t mind how many questions we ask.  I like folks that will tell me things,” added Bab, whose inquisitive mind was always hungry.

“I like that boy first-rate, and I guess he likes me, though I didn’t know where Nantucket ought to go.  He wants me to teach him to ride when he’s on his pins again, and Miss Celia says I may. She knows how to make folks feel good, don’t she?” and Ben gratefully surveyed the Arab chief, now his own, though the best of all the collection.

“Wont we have splendid times?  She says we may come over every night and play with her and Thorny.”

“And she’s going to have the seats in the porch lift up so we can put our things in there all dry, and have ’em handy.”

“And I’m going to be her boy, and stay here all the time; I guess the letter I brought was a recommend from the Squire.”

“Yes, Ben:  and if I had not already made up my mind to keep you before, I certainly would now, my boy.”

Something in Miss Celia’s voice, as she said the last two words with her hand on Ben’s shoulder, made him look up quickly and turn red with pleasure, wondering what the Squire had written about him.

“Mother must have some of the ‘party,’ so you shall take her these, Bab, and Betty may carry baby home for the night.  She is so nicely asleep, it is a pity to wake her.  Good-bye till to-morrow, little neighbors,” continued Miss Celia, and dismissed the girls with a kiss.