"I ought to be mighty thankful. And I am most of the time," Blue Bonnet replied. "But the people who love you always expect a great deal of you, and it's very hard to live up to their expectations. Besides, going to school isn't all fun, I can tell you." "I wouldn't care if it weren't all fun, if I could only go. Father teaches me at home, but we have so many interruptions. There are dishes to wash, babies to mind, Grandfather to wait upon, till neither of us knows whether we're doing arithmetic or grammar." Carita rose. "I must hurry back to camp--Mother's packing." "You never forget what's expected of you, do you?" Blue Bonnet asked, with a mixture of wonder and admiration. "It wouldn't do for me to forget,--I'm the eldest, you know. Mother depends on me." Carita spoke as though it were the most natural thing in the world for a fourteen-year-old girl to be "depended upon." "Nobody ever depends on me--for a very good reason!" Blue Bonnet laughed. "Somehow it's so much easier for me to forget than to remember. It's the only thing I do with shining success." "You'll learn to be responsible when you have children of your own," Carita said as sagely as if she were forty instead of fourteen. Blue Bonnet's eyes shone. "I'm going to have a whole dozen!" she declared. "I wouldn't, if I were you--it would be so hard on the eldest," Carita reminded her. And Blue Bonnet, noticing the care-worn look in the eyes of her "missionary girl," decided that being the eldest of a big family might have its disadvantages. "Grandmother, I wish there were something I could do for Carita," she said later that morning, as she and Mrs. Clyde found themselves alone. "You have already done a great deal for her," her grandmother remarked. "Mrs. Judson has told me how much your letters and presents have meant to Carita." "But that was so little,--and it was just fun for me. She has all work and no play, and I don't think it's fair." "Perhaps you can do something for her, later on. But you must be careful how you assume responsibilities, Blue Bonnet. You seem to have taken upon yourself a great many already." "What ones?" Blue Bonnet questioned in surprise. "In the first place--you've me!" Grandmother smiled. "That's so,--I'm responsible to Aunt Lucinda for you. And what others?" "How about the We are Sevens whom you've brought so far away from their homes? And Alec?" Blue Bonnet's eyes opened. "I hadn't thought of them in that way. But I reckon you're right. And there's Solomon, too." Grandmother's mouth twitched. "You must be sure you can do your full duty by the responsibilities you have before you assume new ones." Blue Bonnet looked very serious. "Seems to me life has a heap of complications. Now there's Alec,--he's worse than a complication. He's a downright puzzle." "Has he said anything more about his trouble?" Mrs. Clyde asked.