one minute."

"I have not come to take you away," said Mrs. Coit, "but to beg Mrs. Rogers to keep you a little longer."

"Ah, Miss Lucy," said Ollie, laughing, "you see they have found it so pleasant to be without you that they are going to give you to us."

Lucy looked from one to another in surprise. "What do you mean, mamma?" she asked; "am I to stay here? what for? how long?"

"I will tell you," said her mother. "Just after Mr. Rogers left our house with your bag, last night, your father brought a letter from the post-office from your Aunt Mary. She is going to move out West, and wants us to go on and make her a visit before she leaves. We are going to take Willie, for I think a change of air would do him good, after his illness; but your aunt's house is so small, I do not think it is best for you to go. As Mrs. Rogers has consented to keep you, I think you had better stay here."

"Oh, good, good, good!" exclaimed Ollie, clapping her hands and jumping around the room for joy. "Now you will have to stay, and be my sister for a good long week."

Lucy hardly knew whether to be glad or sorry. She was delighted to stay with her friend, but the thought of being so long away from her mamma made her feel almost homesick.

"I will write you a letter every day," said Mrs. Coit, seeing the cloud on her little girl's face.

But the cloud only stayed a minute. "After all," she thought, "mamma will only be gone for a week, and I would much rather be here with Ollie than at Aunt Mary's, where there is no one of my own age; and a letter every day! oh, that will be too delightful!"

"Well, I must go," said Mrs. Coit. "Thank you very much, Mrs. Rogers, for taking Lucy; I hope she will be a good child, and not give you any trouble. Good-by."

"Martha will send over your trunk this afternoon," she continued to Lucy. "It is all packed, and William Henry Johnson said he'd bring it over on his way to the mill this evening. Good-by, my dear," and Lucy was seized, hugged, and kissed, and almost before she knew what it was all about her mother had gone, and she was left alone, watching the wagon as it rolled slowly down the road.

She was roused by hearing Ollie's voice close behind her.

"Oh, Lucy, let's go up-stairs, and get the room ready for you. I must move the things in my closet, and make enough bare nails for your dresses."

So the two girls went up-stairs together, and the afternoon was passed in preparations for the coming week.

The next morning Lucy and Ollie went to school as usual, only instead of having a long solitary walk, they each had the other's company, which they found very pleasant. The girls at school were quite astonished to hear that they were spending the week together.

As they were walking back from school, they saw on the beach the signal which was always used to show that there were fish in sight.

"Oh, let us hurry through our dinner," said Ollie, "and go down to the beach. I love to see them draw in their big nets full of fish. It is such fun."

Mrs. Rogers was astonished to see two wild children rush into the house, all out of breath, exclaiming,

"Isn't dinner ready? We are in such a hurry to get down to the beach."

"Yes, dinner is ready," said Mrs. Rogers; "you can sit down as soon as you like."

As soon as they had eaten as much as they wanted, and had been excused, they rushed to the beach. The men were just preparing to launch the big boat through the surf. When the children came in sight, the captain of the crew saw them and said,

"Hold up a minute; here are our little friends; they always enjoy a dance on the