She was a great deal of the time with Edith, who gave her the most glowing accounts of what they did at the band--how they had recitations and dialogues and items, how they made aprons and kettle-holders and sold them, and how Miss Agnes read most interesting missionary stories to them while they sewed. She also told of a beautiful letter the secretary, Mary Cresswell, had written to the lady missionary in the school in Lahore, India, which the Twigs supported, and how they were anxiously looking for a reply. Miss Agnes said they must not expect a reply very soon, for missionaries were very busy people and had not much time for letter-writing. But the girls thought that Mrs. C----, the missionary, would be so pleased with Mary's letter she would certainly make time to write, at least a tiny answer. "Does the band support a whole school?" Marty inquired in surprise. "It must take a lot of money." "What we do is to pay the teacher's salary, and that's only about twenty or twenty-five dollars a year," Edith replied. "You see it's this kind of a school: the missionary ladies rent a little room for a school and hire a native teacher, somebody perhaps who attends one of the mission churches." "But how can any one afford to teach for so little money?" "Oh, that's a good deal for them, for the natives of those countries can live on very little, Miss Agnes says. So the missionaries sometimes have a good many of these schools in different parts of the city, and they visit each one every two or three days to see how the children are getting on and to give them religious instruction. Miss Agnes says in that way the missionaries can do something for a great many children, and the more money we bands send to pay teachers the more of these little schools there may be." Marty could hardly wait for Saturday to come. She asked her mother to select a verse for her to say at the meeting. "For Edith says they all repeat verses when their names are called." Her mother chose this one for her: "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts." CHAPTER IV. WHOLES INSTEAD OF TENTHS. When Marty came home from the meeting the next Saturday evening, and entered the sitting-room in her usual whirlwind style, she found her father there having a romp with Freddie. "Why, here is little sister! Well, missy, where have you been?" he asked. "Why, papa!" exclaimed Marty reproachfully. "To the mission meeting, of course. I told you this morning I was going." "So you did; and you have told me every morning this week that this was the important day. I don't know how I came to forget it. Well, how did you like the meeting?" "Oh, ever so much! I heard a great many sad things." "That's a new reason for liking a thing," said her father.