With an amused smile, his sister willingly obeyed.  Sammie followed her into the house, mentally cursing Dick for his untimely interruption.

CHAPTER IV

A LITTLE CABIN

Betty and old David had a great afternoon out upon the water in the small row-boat.  They were delighted with Lois, and after she had left them they watched her until she disappeared within the house.

“Isn’t she wonderful!” Betty exclaimed, as she at length picked up the oars which had been lying unused in the bottom of the boat.

“Who is she, anyway?” her companion asked, for it was evident that he was as much lost in admiration as was the girl.

“Oh, she’s Miss Sinclair, Lois, they call her, and her father is very rich.  He is president, or something like that, of the street railway and the electric light company in the city.  Ma knows all about him, and she has told me a whole lot.  He was very poor once, so she says.  He’s awful mean and stuck up and won’t have anything to do with the people he knew when he was young.  But his daughter isn’t a bit like him.  She takes after her mother, so I understand, who was a very fine woman.”

“Does Mr. Sinclair live here all the time?” David inquired.  “I never heard of him before.”

“Oh, no.  He has a big house in the city.  He only bought this place last summer.  Lois has never been here before.  She came two weeks ago and I think she is going to stay till fall.  I hope she does, anyway.  Won’t it be great to have her here, so we can meet her and talk to her every Saturday afternoon?”

“She seems to be a very fine young woman,” David assented.

“Indeed she is, and she’s a nurse, too.  She’s been away training in some hospital for several years, and has just got through.”

“Why should she want to be a nurse?” David asked.  “If her father has plenty of money why should his daughter want to earn her own living?”

“It’s because she’s so independent, that’s why.  She believes every one should earn her own living, and I guess she’s right.”

A pained expression suddenly overspread the old man’s face at these words.  But so engrossed was Betty with her own thoughts that she noticed nothing amiss.

“I am going to be a nurse some day,” the girl continued.  “Just as soon as I am old enough I am going to enter a hospital.  Then when I get through I can earn so much money and be such a help at home.  And I’m going to help you, too,” she added as an afterthought.

“No, child, that will not be necessary then,” David replied.  “I shall have plenty of money of my own by the time you are a nurse.  I shall be manager of the biggest company the country has ever known, for it cannot be long now before people realise how wonderful is the scheme I have worked out.  They have been very slow to see, but I am sure that a great change is soon to take place.”