“Little did I think when I wrote that last line, that six whole weeks would pass before I added another, or that my next entry would be made in this beautiful old garden that I have dreamed of so long.  Little did I think I would be sitting here beside the old sun-dial, or that such an hour could shine for me as the happy hour when Jack came back.

“I drove into Phoenix to meet him, and I knew from the way he waved his hat and swung off the steps before the train stopped that he had good news, and it was!  Perfectly splendid!  They had made him assistant manager of the mines, with a great big salary that would make a change in all our fortunes.  I thought it was queer that he should bring a trunk back with him, for he went away with only a suit-case, but I was so busy asking questions about Joyce and Holland and everybody at The Locusts, that there wasn’t time or breath to ask about the trunk.  We were half way home before he got around to that.

“He said his first thought when they told him of his promotion was, ‘Now Mary can have her heart’s desire and go away to school.’  And on the way to New York he planned it all out, how we’d give up the Wigwam, and take a house in Lone-Rock, and he’d get some one to help Mamma with the work, and he’d have Norman under his eye all the time when he was out of school, and keep him out of mischief.  He’s been wanting to do that ever since he went to the mines, for there never was such a home-body.  He can’t bear to board.

“Nearly all of that little scrap of a visit he and Joyce had together, those blessed children spent in getting my clothes.  Joyce has all my measurements, and they got me three dresses and a hat and a lot of shirt-waists and gloves and fixings, all so beautiful and stylish and New Yorkey, and the fine big trunk to put them in.  There was even a new brush and comb and mirror, for she remembered how ratty looking my old things were.  And there was a letter portfolio and a silk umbrella and a lot of odds and ends that all school-girls need.  I don’t believe they overlooked a thing to make my outfit complete, and I know they’re as nice as any the others will have, for Joyce has such good taste and always knows just what is fit and proper.  I feel so elegant in my pretty blue travelling suit, and I’m just aching for a chance to wear the beautiful little evening dresses they chose, one white pongee, and the other some new sort of goods that looks just like a soft shimmery cloud, a regular picture dress.

“Jack went on to the mines next day, and after that everything was in a whirl till we were moved and settled, for there was so much to do, packing the furniture to be shipped, and after we got to the new house unpacking again and shifting things around till it got all liveable and homelike.  By that time it was time for me to get my things together and go down to Phoenix to meet the people who had offered to take me