"These are different buildings on the grounds--I recognize them. This is a splendid present," complimented Katharine. "It was heaps of fun making it. Did you notice this picture of Mother's and Grandfather's class on Recognition Day? See, there's Mother herself. She happened to be in the right spot when the photographer snapped." "How lucky for you! It's perfect. I know Mrs. Emerson will be awfully pleased." "We hope she will. Are you infants ready?" and Roger swung the parcels on to his back and opened the door for the girls. "We're going to stop at Dorothy's, aren't we?" asked Ethel Blue. "Certainly we are. We want to see her presents and to give Elisabeth hers and to say 'Merry Christmas' to Aunt Louise and Miss Merriam." "You seem very fond of Miss Merriam," said Katharine to Ethel Brown as they turned the corner into Church Street. "We are. She's splendid. She knows just what to do for Elisabeth and she's lovely any way." "You act as if she belonged to the family." "Why shouldn't we?" asked Ethel in amazement. "Don't you pay her for taking care of the baby?" "Certainly we pay her. We'd pay a doctor for taking care of her, too, only we happen to have two doctors related to the Club so they give us their services free. Why shouldn't we pay her?" Ethel Brown was quite breathless. She could not entirely understand Katharine's point of view, but she seemed to be hinting that Miss Merriam was serving in a menial capacity. The idea made loyal Ethel Brown, who had not a snobbish bone in her body, extremely angry. Service she understood--her father and her uncle and Katharine's father, too, for that matter, were serving their country and were under orders. One kind of service might be less responsible than another kind, but that any service that was honest and useful could be unworthy was not in her creed. "No reason, of course," replied Katharine, who saw that she had offended Ethel. "Any way, her work is more than a nursemaid's work." "I should say it was," answered Ethel warmly; "she's taken several years' training to fit her for it. But even if she were just a nursemaid I should love her. I love Mary. She was Dicky's nurse and Mother says she saved him from becoming a sick, nervous child by her wisdom and calmness. Mary's skilful, too." Katharine did not pursue the discussion, and Ethel Brown, when Miss Merriam came into the room to wish them a "Merry Christmas," threw her arms around her neck and kissed her. "You're a perfectly splendid person," she exclaimed.