"You see," she said, "there is always somebody in our apartment house who has a new baby. Why! it's so surprising, sometimes. There's Mrs. Price and Edna. Edna's my par-_tic_'lar friend, you know. They had no more idea of finding Baby Eldred than nothing 'tall. Why! Edna wasn't even at home when the baby came--and she certainly wouldn't have gone to Brooklyn to her auntie's to stay for a week that time, if she or her mother had had any _idea_ that they were to find Baby Eldred. "No! It's really quite startling when you come to think of it. I said to my mamma that I really wouldn't want to be alone in our house if _we_ found a baby. Suppose I opened my closet door and--and--there--he--was! Wouldn't it startle you?" "I am sure it would be quite shocking," admitted the pale lady gravely. For her part she told Carolyn a great many things about her baby, and how much she and his father thought of him. His father she called "Laird" and that, Carolyn presumed, was his surname. Bridget Dorgan always spoke of her husband as "Dorgan." Carolyn rather thought that some men did not possess any given names at all. Her own father was particularly rich in that he had two. So "Mrs. Laird" and "Baby Laird" the pale lady and her baby became in Carolyn May's mind, and she chattered about them so much at home that soon Mr. Cameron and Carolyn's mother spoke of the little girl's new friend as "Mrs. Laird." Her little daughter having shown herself to be so enamoured of her new friend, Mrs. Cameron would most certainly have soon visited the pale lady; but just at this time she was extremely busy preparing for the summer. It had been decided that she and Carolyn should spend the long vacation away from the hot city. Mr. Cameron's increased salary now made these plans possible. Besides, his wife and child were to go to a seaside resort, Block Island, which he could easily visit for the week end himself. It was planned, however, that Carolyn and her mother should spend the first fortnight of the long vacation at the Corners, and the little girl looked forward more eagerly to that than to the unknown delights of the ocean-girt island they were later to visit. Mrs. Cameron's sewing machine was very busy, and Carolyn May had to spend what seemed to her long, long hours being fitted and refitted with the pretty summer frocks that her mother made for her. Carolyn was delighted with all these new fineries, but she confessed she found the trying-on process very trying indeed. "You see, my arms and legs get so squirmy," she said to Papa Cameron. "I can just feel worms crawling and creeping all under my skin, and up and down my whole body. Of course, I know they aren't really worms. Mamma says they are nerves. But if they feel like worms they might as well be worms, I should think."