"Yes, I will spend my Christmas money so; for, aunty, I do think your sort of sweetie is better than mine, and making people happy a much wiser way to spend my pennies than in buying the nicest candy in the world." Little Lu remembered that morning long after the dear old grandfather was gone, and kept her Christmas promise so well that very soon a larger purse was needed for charity money, which she used so wisely and so happily. But all her life in one corner of her desk lay carefully folded up, with the bit of paper inside, the little red purse. [Illustration: Chapter VI tailpiece] [Illustration: "Sophie came and sat beside her while she dried her curly hair." PAGE 178.] VII. SOPHIE’S SECRET. ,, class:: center medium I. A party of young girls, in their gay bathing-dresses, were sitting on the beach waiting for the tide to rise a little higher before they enjoyed the daily frolic which they called "mermaiding." "I wish we could have a clam-bake; but we have n’t any clams, and don’t know how to cook them if we had. It’s such a pity all the boys have gone off on that stupid fishing excursion," said one girl, in a yellow-and-black striped suit which made her look like a wasp. "What is a clam-bake? I do not know that kind of fête," asked a pretty brown-eyed girl, with an accent that betrayed the foreigner. The girls laughed at such sad ignorance, and Sophie colored, wishing she had not spoken. "Poor thing! she has never tasted a clam. What _should_ we do if we went to Switzerland?" said the wasp, who loved to tease. "We should give you the best we had, and not laugh at your ignorance, if you did not know all our dishes. In _my_ country, we have politeness, though not the clam-bake," answered Sophie, with a flash of the brown eyes which warned naughty Di to desist. "We might row to the light-house, and have a picnic supper. Our mammas will let us do that alone," suggested Dora from the roof of the bath-house, where she perched like a flamingo. "That’s a good idea," cried Fanny, a slender brown girl who sat dabbling her feet in the water, with her hair streaming in the wind. "Sophie should see that, and get some of the shells she likes so much." "You are kind to think of me. I shall be glad to have a necklace of the pretty things, as a souvenir of this so charming place and my good friend," answered Sophie, with a grateful look at Fanny, whose many attentions had won the stranger’s heart. "Those boys have n’t left us a single boat, so we must dive off the rocks, and that is n’t half so nice," said Di, to change the subject, being ashamed of her rudeness. "A boat is just coming round the Point; perhaps we can hire that, and have some fun," cried Dora, from her perch. "There is only a girl in it; I ’ll hail her when she is near enough."