"I wish it would never rain another drop; it's always spoiling things!" "Kristy," said her mother quietly, "you remind me of a girl I knew when I was young." "What about her?" asked Kristy rather sulkily. "Why, she had a disappointment something like yours, only it wasn't the weather, but her own carelessness, that caused it. She cried and made a great fuss about it, but before night she was very glad it had happened." "She must have been a very queer girl," said Kristy. "She was much such a girl as you, Kristy; and the reason she was glad was because her loss was the cause of her having a far greater pleasure." "Tell me about it," said Kristy, interested at once, and leaving the window. "Well, she was dressed for a party at the house of one of her friends, and as she ran down the walk to join the girls in the hay-wagon that was to take them all there, her dress caught on something and tore a great rent clear across the front breadth." "Well; couldn't she put on another?" asked Kristy. "Girls didn't have many dresses in those days, and that was a new one made on purpose for the occasion. She had no other that she would wear." [Illustration: Kristy stood, peering into a world of drizzling Rain.] "What did she do?" asked Kristy. "She turned and ran back into the house, held up her ruined dress for her mother to see, and then flung herself on the lounge with a burst of tears. Her mother had to go out and tell the girls that Bessie could not go." "That was horrid!" said Kristy earnestly; "but why was she glad, for you said she was?" "She was, indeed; for an hour later her father drove up to the door and said that he was obliged to go to the city on business, and if Bessie could be ready in fifteen minutes, he would take her and let her spend a few days with her cousin Helen, who had been urging her to visit her. This was a great treat, for Bessie had never been to a large city, and there was nothing she wanted so much to do. You see, if she had been away at the party, she would have missed this pleasure, for her father could not wait longer. She forgot her disappointment in a moment, and hurried to get ready, while her mother packed a satchel with things she would need." By this time Kristy was seated close by her mother, eagerly interested in the story. Mrs. Crawford paused. "Do go on, mamma," said Kristy; "tell me more about her. Did she have a nice time in the city?" "She did," went on Mrs. Crawford; "so nice that her father was persuaded to leave her there, and she stayed more than a week. There was one scrape, however, that the girls got into that was not so very nice." "Tell me about it," said Kristy eagerly. "Well," said her mother, "this is the way it happened." CHAPTER II PLAYING DOCTOR; AND WHAT CAME OF IT One rainy Saturday afternoon when they were not allowed to go out, Bessie and Helen were playing with their dolls in the nursery.