Produced by Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings BY ANNIE HAMILTON DONNELL WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY WILLIAM VAN DRESSER [Illustration: Slowly her delicate fingers undid the ravages of Stefana's patient endeavors. FRONTISPIECE.] To MY HUSBAND WHO COULD WRITE SO MUCH BETTER A BOOK AND DEDICATE IT TO ME! ILLUSTRATIONS Slowly her delicate fingers undid the ravages of Stefana's patient endeavors. "We've all got beautiful names, except poor Elly" "If you are thinking of putting me anywhere, put me into a story like that" Evangeline established a stage of action outside the window Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings CHAPTER I "Mercy gracious!" "_Well!"_ The last utterance was Miss Theodosia Baxter's. She was a woman of few words at all times where few sufficed. One sufficed now. The child on her front porch, with a still childlier child on the small area of her knees, was not a creature of few words, but now extreme surprise limited speech. She was stricken with brevity,--stricken is the word--to match Miss Theodosia's. Downward, upward, each gazed into the other's surprised face. The childlier child, jouncing pleasantly back and forth, viewed them both impartially. It was the child who regarded the situation, after a moment of mental adjustment, as humorous. She giggled softly. "Mercy gracious! How you surprised me' 'n' Elly Precious, an' me 'n' Elly Precious surprised you! I don't know which was the whichest! We came over to be shady just once more. We didn't s'pose you would come home till to-morrow, did we, Elly Precious?" "I came last night," Miss Theodosia replied with crispness. She stood in her doorway, apparently waiting for something which--apparently--was not to happen. The child and Elly Precious sat on in seeming calm. "Yes'm. Of course if you hadn't come, you wouldn't be standin' there lookin' at Elly Precious--isn't he a darlin' dear? Wouldn't you like to look at his toes?" It was Miss Theodosia Baxter's turn to say "Mercy gracious!" but she did not say it aloud. It was her turn, too, to see a bit of humor in the situation on her front porch. "Not--just now," she said rather hastily. She could not remember ever to have seen a baby's toes. "I've no doubt they are--are excellent toes." The word did not satisfy her, but the suitable adjective was not at hand.