"Is--isn't mother getting better?" asked Sally, hesitating. "Yes," said Fox, "but very slowly; very slowly indeed. Doctor Galen thinks it will be some years before she is herself again. Think, Sally, how much better it will be for you to be getting ready. Suppose she was well now. What would you and she do? How would the conditions be different?" Sally murmured something about taking boarders. "Well," Fox observed, "I never have taken 'em and so I have no experience with that end of it. But Henrietta and I have been boarding for a good many years now--ever since mother died--and we have seen a good deal of all kinds of boarders. On the average, they seem to be an unmannerly and ungrateful lot. Don't you be a party to making 'em worse, Sally. Don't you do it." Sally laughed. "Besides," he went on, "it's pretty apt to be humiliating." "I suppose that's something unpleasant," Sally said quietly, "and, of course, it wouldn't be pleasant. I shouldn't expect it to be." "I don't believe there's any money in it." Sally paused a moment to digest that phrase. Then she sighed. "You know more about it than I do. I'll do just what you say, Fox." The gate clicked and they both looked around. "Here comes Henrietta," said Fox. "Now we'll all go out in the shade and play. But, Sally," he added hastily, "have you got any rich relatives?" "Rich relatives!" Sally exclaimed. "Not that I know of. Or, wait. There's Miss Hazen--Martha Hazen. She's a cousin of father's, but I don't know how rich she is. I've never seen her." "Where does she live?" "Up in Massachusetts, somewhere. I think she's queer." "The queerer the better. Your father's cousin, is she? It wouldn't be strange. Can you find out where she lives, Sally?" Sally thought she could. "And, Fox," she reminded him,--she was afraid he might forget,--"you see if you can't come here to live. Will you, Fox?" He nodded. Henrietta was at the piazza steps. "I'll ask Doctor Galen about it." "What'll you ask Doctor Galen about, Fox?" inquired Henrietta. "Are you and Sally talking secrets?" "I'll ask the doctor what should be done with a very troublesome little sister," he answered, smiling at her. "You might get rid of her by sending her off to boarding-school," Henrietta remarked. "Not that she wants to go." "No boarding-school for you yet, young lady. There are one hundred reasons why, and the first is--is so important that the ninety-nine others don't matter." Fox had caught himself just in time. He had intended to say that he didn't have the money. Well, he hadn't; but he didn't mean to tell Sally so. "I suppose that first reason," said Henrietta, "is that you can't spare me." "Wrong. That is the second. And the third is that you are too young. Never mind the others. We are going out to play now, Henrietta." Sally darted into the house. "Where are you going, Sally?" "After Charlie," she called softly. "I'll be right back. And let's be sauruses!"