“Who’ll make me remember to spit on me warts?” Bugsey asked.

“Who’ll keep house when ma goes to wash?” wee Tommy wailed dismally.

Danny’s grievance could not be expressed in words.  He buried his tousy head in Pearl’s apron, and Pearl saw at once that her whole house were about to be submerged in tears, idle tears.

“Stop your bleatin’, all of yez!” she commanded in her most authoritative voice.  “I will go!” she said, with blazing eyes.  “I will go, I will wipe the stain off me house once and forever!” waving her arm dramatically toward the caboose which formed the sleeping apartment for the boys.  “To die, to die for those we love is nobler far than wear a crown!” Pearl had attended the Queen Esther cantata the winter before.  She knew now how poor Esther felt.

On the following Monday afternoon everything was ready for Pearl’s departure.  Her small supply of clothing was washed and ironed and neatly packed in a bird-cage.  It was Mary who thought of the bird-cage “sittin’ down there in the cellar doin’ nothin’, and with a handle on it, too.”  Mary was getting to be almost as smart as Pearl to think of things.

Pearl had bidden good-bye to them all and was walking to the door when her mother called her back to repeat her parting instructions.

“Now, mind, Pearlie dear, not to be pickin’ up wid strangers, and speakin’ to people ye don’t know, and don’t be showin’ yer money or makin’ change wid anyone.”

Pearl was not likely to disobey the last injunction.  She had seventeen cents in money, ten cents of which Teddy had given her, and the remaining seven cents had come in under the heading of small sums, from the other members of the family.

She was a pathetic little figure in her brown and white checked dress, with her worldly effects in the bird-cage, as she left the shelter of her father’s roof and went forth into the untried world.  She went over to Mrs. Francis to say good-bye to her and to Camilla.

Mrs. Francis was much pleased with Pearl’s spirit of independence and spoke beautifully of the opportunities for service which would open for her.

“You must keep a diary, Pearl,” she said enthusiastically.  “Set down in it all you see and feel.  You will have such splendid opportunities for observing plant and animal life—­the smallest little insect is wonderfully interesting.  I will be so anxious to hear how you are impressed with the great green world of Out of Doors!  Take care of your health, too, Pearl; see that your room is ventilated.”

While Mrs. Francis elaborated on the elements of proper living, Camilla in the kitchen had opened the little bundle in the cage, and put into it a pair of stockings and two or three handkerchiefs, then she slipped in a little purse containing ten shining ten-cent pieces, and an orange.  She arranged the bundle to look just as it did before, so that she would not have to meet Pearl’s gratitude.