“Do you mean my little friend Janie, or my friend, Janie Little, Aunt Alida?” asked Beth with her merry twinkle returning. “The Littles are nice, Aunt Alida; they are not rich, but they are nice people, looked-up to, you know--about like us. Nobody is rich at home, but the Littles are among the nice people. They---- I don’t know. Nobody ever tried to give us dresses. Maybe Janie could have one--or two. I suppose jewelry is safer, but I’m sure I don’t know why.” When this shopping expedition was over Aunt Alida had chosen two delicate white frocks of the finest material and designs for Beth to give Janie. For Beth herself there were half a dozen white frocks, ten chambrays, some delicate mulls and organdies in colors, a hat for best, a shade hat that Beth thought still prettier, low shoes in russets, browns and black; stockings, gloves, a parasol that awoke in Beth enthusiasm only just short of adoration, seeing which Aunt Alida added one like it, in another color, for Janie. “Aunt Alida, you don’t know, you really don’t begin to know what Aunt Rebecca will say when she sees all these things for no one but just me! It won’t be what she says in words; it will be what she’ll say with her eyes and especially with her back; turning it, you know!” cried Beth. “And only think what there is in the house already that you’ve bought for me! Why, I’ll never dare take back all the trunks these things will need!” “I do not intend you to, Bethie,” said Aunt Alida. “Your winter clothing will be put away in your wardrobes till you get back. That will be six months from now; in October, surely.” Beth began to feel cheered. Anna Mary’s wisdom was profound; shopping, pretty clothes do work wonders in drying feminine tears! It was impossible not to look forward to the long drive in the big touring car which Beth had never seen; it was resting for the winter. It was also impossible not to feel some interest in the yellow kitten which she had so long wanted and which Miss Tappan said was waiting for her. And, though she regretted Natalie, Alys and Dirk, still more the dear uncle who had given her her first actual knowledge of what a father would have been like, and the beautiful and adorable Aunt Alida, who was a combination of mother and goddess to the little girl, still Janie was dear, and of course she loved Aunt Rebecca, and it would be nice to see the dull little shops, the quiet streets of home once more. So, like a healthy, natural little girl, Beth began to see streaks of sunshine through her clouds; to enjoy amid her regret. “I’m having the car made ready, Beth,” said Uncle Jim one night at dinner, ten days later. “I’ve been inquiring and I learn that the roads are pretty well settled on the route we shall travel, returning you. I have a directors’ meeting, which I can’t cut, on April twentieth. I must be back for that. What about the date for the trip, Alida? When shall we start for Massachusetts?”