"Well, you see it's this way," continued Mary Louise, settling herself
on an antique Windsor chair that the Higgledy-Piggledies were trying to
sell on commission. "Danny and I are going to have plenty of money to
live on, with what he earns. I know how Danny feels about my being an
heiress; not that he ever says a word about it, but he has a good job
and there is a chance of steady advancement and I have decided to do
something for somebody who needs it more than I do with all that gold
Grandpa Jim left me and the old house which is too huge for Danny and
me to live in, and too sad somehow for me just yet."
"I'm glad you feel that way about the house," put in Josie, shaking out
another damask napkin. "It's a bully old house but too big for a young
couple who don't need much room to be happy in."
"What is your plan, dear?" asked Irene, her sweet eyes misting a
little. The thought of Mary Louise quitting the old house which was
next to Uncle Peter Conant's, where Irene made her home, caused her to
be sad.
"Danny and I are going into an apartment for the time being and later
on will build a house more suitable to our needs. I am going to give
the old home to the Children's Home Society and make an endowment with
a part of my gold, so the society can begin operations at once in their
new quarters. They have a miserable place now, with not near enough
room."
"What a corking plan!" cried Josie. "I know of no charity that appeals
to one as this business of getting homes for poor little waifs. It
helps the poor little kiddies and it helps the childless persons who
want to adopt them. I'm with you, Mrs. Danny Dexter!"
"And I! And I!" came in a chorus from Elizabeth and Irene.
"The old house is more fitted for an institution than a private home.
The rooms are so huge, at least most of them are, and still it is
homelike. Only think how lovely it will be for the children to have the
pretty yard and old garden to play in. Dr. Weston, the dear old
gentleman who is in charge of the home now, says there is so little
room and so little money that they can't care for the children properly
and the people who come to see about adopting them are afraid to take
them sometimes because they don't look healthy enough."
"Poor little things!" murmured Irene.
"I'm wondering if your Uncle Peter and Aunt Hannah would mind having a
children's home next door to them," Mary Louise asked.
"I'm sure they wouldn't," said Irene. "I heard Uncle Peter say only
last night that he'd like to see the old place occupied again even if
it were by noisy boarders, and you know Aunt Hannah loves company and
she's so deaf that the noise the children make won't affect her in the
least."
"And you?" asked Mary Louise. "How will you like it?"
"I want what you want, dear. You must call on me to help in any way I
can."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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