This peace offering Carolyn felt herself obliged to accept; yet she had not the first idea what use to make of it. She never ate tomatoes except with a dressing on them that her mamma made. She could not eat it "raw" in any case, for if she tried to set her teeth in it the juice would surely squirt out all over her dress "and everything." Sade, embarrassed by her own generous impulse, ran shrieking away the moment she had placed the tomato in Carolyn's hand; so the latter could not give it back. And she could not make up her mind to give it to any of her other schoolmates. To drop it in the gutter was against Carolyn's idea of civic neatness. So she found herself entering the schoolhouse with the plump and overripe tomato still in her possession. There was Miss Solomons. Public school teachers, especially those of the lower grades, are the recipients of all manner of gifts from their loyal and adoring pupils. Sometimes the ledge of Miss Solomons' desk held a long row of such bestowed articles of commerce, and there were several gifts there now. The red-haired girl was not in Carolyn May's grade and would never know. The little girl marched up to Miss Solomons' desk and gravely deposited the big and squashy tomato with the collection of gifts already on parade. "This is for you, Miss Solomons," she said seriously, and went on to her seat. The startled Miss Solomons was sure after that that Carolyn May was more "quaint" than ever. "What shall we do," asked Hannah Cameron of her husband, "about letting Carolyn May go to call on her 'pale lady,' as she calls the woman? You know, that block is in a very poor and dirty section." "Um! Maybe. But the pale lady is not likely to be a dirty lady, even if she is poor. Otherwise I could not imagine Joe Bassett's extreme chivalry in her case. For, after all is said and done, dirt cannot inspire such feelings. Nor does Carolyn May ever take one of her sudden and violent fancies for anybody who is not clean and neatly dressed." "Yes. I know," admitted his wife, but continuing in deep thought. "Besides," added Carolyn's father, "there's Prince. Prince has a deep-rooted prejudice against people who are ragged and dirty. With Prince I have no doubt she will be as safe on that particular block as on any other in New York." CHAPTER VII "IF I WERE RICH" After school the next day, as Carolyn had promised, she took Prince to call on the pale lady's baby. Little did she mark the locality as being fearsome or unpleasant. She was in Prince's care, and Carolyn May usually found something interesting, and therefore pleasant, wherever she went. Here were children of all ages, and so many, many babies! Of course they were dirty-faced and raggedly clothed in most instances. Quite in contrast to the babies on her own block or most of those she saw in the park when she went there to walk.