Elsie Morris brought a well-filled court-plaster case, for, as she explained, Patty was sure to be knocked down and run over every day by automobiles and trolley cars, and the healing strips would prove beneficial. Laura Russell brought her a tiny fern growing in a flower pot, in order that she might have some green thing to remind her of the country. “Oho,” said Ethel Holmes, “I’m going to give you a dozen green things to remind you of the country,” and Ethel produced her gift, which was nothing more nor less than a humorous sketch of the twelve girls of the Tea Club. Ethel was clever at drawing, and the group was well caricatured. Instead of drawing the faces, she had pasted in tiny photographs of the girls’ features, and, moreover, had realistically bedecked their hats with tiny feathers and microscopic bows of real ribbon. Neckties and hair-ribbons were also pasted into place, until the whole affair was a most comical representation of the Club members. Patty was delighted and declared she would have this work of art framed and conspicuously hung in her new home. CHAPTER III A NEW HOME On Saturday morning the Fairfields and Grandma Elliott started for their New York home. Uncle Charlie went to town on the same train, and the rest of the Elliott family escorted the party to the station. Marian had determined not to cry when Patty went away, but it required such a desperate effort to carry out her resolution that she made a most pathetic picture. “Chirk up, sis,” said Frank; “the world isn’t coming to an end. I’ll be a Patty to you.” “And a Grandmother, too?” asked Marian, smiling in spite of herself. “Yes, and an Uncle Fred. I’ll be a whole family tree to you if you’ll only smile a little, and brace up. You look like a dying rubber plant.” Marian did brighten up a little, and as the train rolled out of the station the last Patty saw of her cousin was a positive, if not very merry, smile of farewell. Following the process of thought usual to those starting off on a journey, Patty spent the first half of the trip to New York thinking about those she had left behind; thinking of her pleasant Vernondale home, her dear relatives, and the merry crowd of Tea Club girls. At first it seemed to her that no new scenes or new friends could ever make up for those she was leaving. But as she neared Jersey City and as she crossed the long ferry her thoughts turned forward to her new home in New York, and her anticipations began to seem bright and happy. Uncle Charlie parted from them at the ferry, and soon Patty and her large family, as she called it since the addition of Grandma Elliott, were in a cab driving uptown to The Wilberforce. Grandma Elliott was perhaps the most enthusiastic member of the party. That good lady was very fond of New York city, and had the effect of a patriot returning home after an enforced absence.