Gladys, like a good many beside herself, became fired with enthusiasm to possess whatever she saw to be precious in the sight of others.  Yesterday, had she seen the baby prince in some store she would not have thought of asking her mother to buy it for her; but to-day it had been captured, a little wild creature for which Faith had been searching and hoping during two summers; and poor Gladys had been so busy all her life wondering what people were going to get for her, and wondering whether she should like it very well when she had it, that now, instead of rejoicing that Faith had such a pleasure, she began to feel a hot unrest and dissatisfaction in her breast.

“He is a little beauty,” she said, and then looked at her cousin and waited for her to present to her guest the baby turtle.

“Why didn’t I see it first?” she thought, her heart beating fast, for Faith showed no sign of giving up her treasure.  “Do you suppose we could find another?” she asked aloud, making her wistfulness very apparent as they again took up the march toward home.

“Well, I guess not,” laughed Ernest.  “Two of those in a day?  I guess not.  Let me carry it for you, Faith.  You have to hold up your dress skirt.”

“Oh, thank you, Ernest, I don’t mind, and he’s so cunning!”

Ernest kept on with the girls, now, on their side of the brook.  It would be an anti-climax to catch any more turtles this afternoon.

“If I could find one,” said Gladys, “I would carry it home for my aquarium.”

“Oh, have you an aquarium?” asked Faith with interest.

“Yes, a fine one.  It has gold and silver fish and a number of little water creatures, and a grotto with plants growing around it.”

“How lovely it must be,” said Faith, and Gladys saw her press her lips to the baby prince’s polished back.

“She’s an awfully selfish girl,” thought Gladys.  “I wouldn’t treat company so for anything!”

“You’ll see the aquarium Faith and I have,” said Ernest.  “It’s only a tub, but we get a good deal of fun out of it.  It’s our stable, too, you see.  Did you notice we caught one of our old horses to-day?  Let’s see him, Faith,” and Ernest poked among the turtles and brought out one with a little hole made carefully in the edge of his shell.

“It seems very cruel to me,” said Gladys, with a superior air.

“Oh, it isn’t,” returned Faith eagerly.  “We’d rather hurt each other than the turtles, wouldn’t we, Ernest?”

“I guess so,” responded the boy, rather gruffly.  He didn’t wish Gladys to think him too good.

“It doesn’t hurt them a bit,” went on Faith, “but you know turtles are lazy.  They’re all relations of the tortoise that raced with the hare in AEsop’s fable.”  Her eyes sparkled at Gladys, who smiled slightly.  “And they aren’t very fond of being horses, so we only keep them a day or two and then let them go back into the brook.  I think that’s about as much fun as anything, don’t you, Ernest?”