"Bother, my aunt!" said Drusilla emphatically. "They ain't no bother. They give me something to think about. Now, look at these clothes. I been all mornin' lookin' at 'em and sortin' 'em out. Look at that petticoat. See how soft and warm it is. I wish I'd made it myself. I can sit here and imagine how some mother'd feel makin' a petticoat like that fer her baby. I'm goin' to buy a lot of cloth and git some patterns and let the mothers make 'em themselves. When it's a little warmer they can set under the trees and sew while the babies is playin' around them." "But the mothers you have here--will--do you think that class--those kind of mothers will care to sew?" Drusilla flushed and an angry gleam came into her kindly eyes. "Sew? Why shouldn't they sew, and what do you mean by that class? All the mothers I got here seem jest like any other mothers." "We must admit," went on the refined, querulous voice, "that they are not the usual mothers--with husbands--" Drusilla's eyes distinctly darkened, and the flush deepened. "Never mind about their husbands. We don't need 'em to sew--and a mother's a mother, and she likes to make things fer her baby." Miss Lee noted the flush and changed the subject. "I hear you are going to take some Italians and their children here for the summer." Drusilla's eyes lighted up, and the angry gleam fled instantly. "Now, how did you hear that?" "It's all over the neighborhood. And--" "Is it? Then I suppose I might as well let the neighbors git it direct. Yes, I been visitin' places where I've traipsed up and down stairs till I'm most knee sprung, but I've learnt a lot of things, and sense I've seen how some of 'em live, I couldn't sleep nights unless I done somethin' fer 'em; and givin' a mother and her babies two weeks in the country is the least I kin do. Why, I look at all this grass, jest made fer babies to roll on, and I see the trees that ain't doin' what a tree should do unless it has some one under it, and I lay awake nights to plan things; and Dr. Eaton don't git no time to see his patients, I keep him so busy. Him and me's been goin' over the house and there's twelve spare bedrooms goin' to waste besides the settin'-rooms that's jined to 'em. And we was talkin' about the big armor room, that place with the tin men and horses. Now, I don't care much fer tin men, although John moons over 'em a lot, but there's a lot of people who like to look at 'em, and don't git a chance' cause they're shut up here doin' no good to no one. Dr. Eaton says that the Metropolitan Museum in the city'd be glad to have 'em as a loan, and then everybody who likes such things could go and see 'em, and I can make the room into a big playroom or day nursery, as folks call it." Miss Lee looked up, horrified. "Do you mean to say that you are goin' to spoil this beautiful house and these beautiful grounds?" "Spoil 'em? How'll it spoil 'em? They're goin' to waste as it is."