"That's a good phrase, too," observed Mr. Hepworth, still teasingly. "But, Patty, you do make the world brighter and better, just by being in it." "That's too easy; and, anyway, I expect to remain in it for some several years yet; and I want to do something beside just _be_." "Ah, well, you can doubtless find some outlet for your enthusiasms." "What she really wants," said her father, "is to be an operatic star." "And sing into phonographs," added Nan, mischievously. "Yes," smiled Patty, "and have my picture in the backs of magazines!" "That's right," said Mr. Hepworth, "aim high, while you're about it." "I can aim high enough," returned Patty, "but I'm not sure I can sing high enough." "Oh, you only need to come high enough, to be an operatic star," said Mr. Hepworth, who was in merry mood to-day. "But, seriously," said Patty, who was in earnest mood, "I do want to do good. I don't mean in a public way, but in a charity way." "Oh, soup-kitchens and bread-lines?" "No; not exactly. I mean to help people who have no sweetness and light in their lives." "Oh, Patty," groaned Nan, "if you're on that tack, you're hopeless. What have you been reading? 'The Young Maiden's Own Ruskin,' or 'Look Up and Not Down'?" "And lend a ten," supplemented Mr. Fairfield. "You needn't laugh," began Patty, pouting a little. Then she laughed herself, and went on: "Yes, you may laugh if you want to,--I know I sound ridiculous. But I tell you, people, I'm going to make good!" "You may make good," said her father, "but you'll never be good until you stop using slang. How often, my daughter, have I told you----" "Oh, cut it out, daddy," said Patty, dimpling with laughter, for she knew her occasional slang phrases amused her father, even though they annoyed him. "If you'll help me 'do noble things, not dream them all day long,' I'll promise to talk only in purest English undefiled." "Goodness, Patty!" said Nan, "you're a walking cyclopaedia of poetical quotations to-day." "And you're a running commentary on them," returned Patty, promptly, which remark sent Mr. Hepworth off in peals of laughter. "Oh, Patty!" he exclaimed, "I'm afraid you're going to grow up clever! That would be fatal to your ambition! Be good, sweet child, and let who will be clever. Nobody can be both." "I can," declared Patty; "I'll show you Missouri people yet!" Mr. Fairfield groaned at this new burst of slang, but Mr. Hepworth only laughed. "She'll get over it," he said. "A few years of these 'noble aims' of hers will make her so serious-minded that she won't even see the meaning of a slang phrase. Though, I must admit, I think some of them very apt, myself." "They sure are!" said irrepressible Patty, giggling at her father's frown.