"O, Cousin Ray!" was all the happy girl could gasp. Her voice faltered from sheer gladness. "You can't imagine what a load you have lifted from me. I love every inch of this place, every stone in its old gray walls. I couldn't bear to think of giving it up. And, just to think! last night, at the very time I was most despondent, the problem was being solved. I can never thank you enough." "The idea!" exclaimed Mrs. Marion, as she rose to go. "No thanks are due me, child. And Miss Caroline and Miss Harriet, as everybody still calls them, are just as anxious for such an arrangement as you can possibly be. They'll be over to see you to-morrow, for they are quite anxious to get settled. They have roamed about the world so long they begin to feel that 'there's no place like home.' Jack, they've been in China and Africa and the South Sea Islands. Think of the charming tales in store for you!" "Goodness, Bethany!" exclaimed Jack, when she came back into the room after walking to the gate with Mrs. Marion. "Your face shines as if there was a light inside of you." "O, there is, Jackie boy," she answered, giving him an ecstatic hug. "I am so very happy! It seems too good to be true." "Cousin Ray is awful good to us," remarked the boy, thoughtfully. "Seems to me she is always busy doing something for somebody. She never has a minute for herself. I remember, when I used to go up there, people kept coming all day long, and every one of them wanted something. Why do you suppose they all went to her? Did she tell them they might?" "Jack, do you remember the plant you had in your window last winter?" she replied. "No matter how many times I turned the jar that held it, the flower always turned around again towards the sun. People are the same way, dear. They unconsciously spread out their leaves towards those who have help and comfort to give. They feel they are welcome, without asking." "She makes me think of that verse in 'Mother Goose,'" said Jack. "'Sugar and spice and everything nice.' Doesn't she you, sister?" "No," said Bethany, with an amused smile. "Lowell has described her: 'So circled lives she with love's holy light, That from the shade of self she walketh free.'" "I don't 'zactly understand," said Jack, with a puzzled expression. She explained it, and he repeated it over and over, until he had it firmly fixed in his mind. Then they went back to the dictation exercises. It was almost dark when they had another caller. Mr. Marion stopped at the door on his way home to dinner. "I have good news for you, Bethany," he said, with his face aglow with eager sympathy. "Did Ray tell you?" "About the house?" she said. "Yes. I've been on a mountain-top all day because of it." "O, I don't mean that!" he exclaimed, hastily. "It's better than that. I mean about Porter & Edmunds." "I don't see how anything could be better than the news she brought," said Bethany.