"Well, Bridget likes to be talked to. I'm not sure, always, that anybody else--well, it's easy to talk to Bridget." "How about me?" "You come next," assured Jeanne. The next day Jeanne returned from school with her big black eyes fairly sparkling. She went at once to her grandfather's room. "I've decided what I'm going to do," said Jeanne. "I'm going to be married." "Why?" asked her grandfather. "Well, you see, if I had a kindergarten, I couldn't tuck the children in at night. That's the very nicest part of children--tucking them in. But the husband wouldn't need to be _much_ trouble. He could stay away all day like Uncle Charles does. What does Uncle Charles _do_? When he isn't at the Club, I mean?" "He is in a bank from nine until three every day." "Only that little bit? I guess I'd rather have an iceman. He gets up very early and works all day, doesn't he? Anyway, Miss Wardell said I didn't need to worry about picking _him_ out until I was twenty. Sometimes I wish Aunt Agatha liked kittens and puppies, don't you? They're so useful while you're waiting for your children." CHAPTER XIII BANISHED FRIENDS "I have a letter from Old Captain," confided Jeanne, that same afternoon. "Don't you want to read it? You wouldn't laugh at it, _would_ you?" "Certainly I wouldn't laugh," assured her grandfather, taking the letter. DEAR AND HONORED MISS [wrote Old Captain, in a large, sprawling hand]: This is to let you know that it is a warm day for April. The lake is still froze. It seems as if the sun shines more when you are here. Sammy lost his freckles for a while, but they come back again last week. Michael and Annie were here yestiddy. He says your father is teaching him to read. As I am a better hand with a boat-hook than I am with this here pen, I will close, so no more at present. Your true friend and well-wisher, CAPTAIN JOHN BLOSSOM. "Old Captain _is_ my true friend," explained Jeanne. "He taught me to make dresses and things. But I've learned some more things about sewing in school. I can put in a lovely patch, with the checks and stripes all matching; and darn, and hem, and fell seams, and make buttonholes. Old Captain's buttonholes were so funny. He cut them _round_ and all different sizes. I'm ever so glad Michael is learning to read. It's too far for small children to walk to school. Besides, their clothes--well, their _best_ clothes aren't just right, you know. I guess they haven't _any_ by this time." "Do you really like those children?" asked her grandfather. "I love them. Annie and Patsy are sweet and Sammy is so funny. He's so curious that he gets too close to things and either tumbles in or gets hurt. Once it was a wasp! I guess I couldn't live with people and not like them a little." "Then you like your cousins?" "I--I haven't lived with them very long," evaded Jeanne. Her grandfather chuckled. _He_ had lived with them for quite a while.