“Well, you need not be ‘homesick’ any longer,” was the cheery assurance, “for mamma will make you feel that you have your own place in our dear home nest on the rocks by the sea; and papa is the jolliest of men.  No one need be ‘lonesome’ when he is around, and we shall have other friends with us some of the time.  Listen while I read you what mamma says:  ’Have your friend come, by all means, if she thinks she can be happy with us.  You can explain what our plans are, and if they prove attractive we will make her one with us.’”

“That will be perfectly delightful!  It is awfully sweet of you both,” Sadie exclaimed, with sparkling eyes, her spirits quickly rebounding, as the burden of a few hours previous began to roll from her heart.  “Oh!  Katherine, you never can know how happy you have made me, and I am going to write to my guardian this very minute.”

She turned back to her desk, and presently Katherine heard her tearing paper into tiny bits, after which she wrote two letters and then went immediately out to post them.

There were no more tears or doleful looks during the remainder of the week.  A day or two later there came an approving letter and a generous check from Mr. Farnsworth, and Sadie was once more her serene and gracious self and looking forward eagerly to the day of their flitting to the sea.

Katherine, on the other hand, was feeling an unaccountable reluctance to leaving, even with the expectation of returning in September, and in spite of her longing for both father and mother.  It was very strange, she told herself, but she certainly was not elated over the prospect of a long vacation.

Prof.  Seabrook was going to Europe for a complete change of scene and rest.  Mrs. Seabrook, Dorothy and nurse were booked for a quiet spot in the White Mountains, where, it was hoped, pure air and country life and diet would strengthen the frail girl for what was in store for her, and where Dr. Stanley would join them, for the month of August, if he could arrange to leave his patients.

Miss Reynolds was to go to her home in Auburn for July, but, to Katherine’s delight, had accepted an invitation from Mrs. Minturn to be her guest during the first two weeks of August.

And so, when the morning of their departure came, adieus and good wishes were exchanged with their many school friends, and the two girls started upon their journey to the coast of the “good old Bay State” and lovely Manchester, that beautiful town so boldly perched on rugged crags and nestling so restfully ’mid sylvan shadows.

There was a secret sense of disappointment in Katherine’s heart because she had not seen Dr. Stanley during these last days.  He had been unusually busy for a month, and she had not met him since the afternoon, of their brief interview under the great beech tree; but when she went to say farewell to Mrs. Seabrook she left a friendly message and good-by for him.