Dorothy Dainty's Gay Times

ne could see the fine stone house with its vine-cov

ume in little gusts of sweetness, while across the path

a skipping-rope, and dancing over and under it i

he skipped backward, and forward, around the circular garden, and back again,

f the house, and the sprightly, dark-eyed child who

said. "You know Aunt Charlotte has all her plans ready for opening her privat

that used to be in it, there's to be one new one, and one boy, Katie Dean's

terday we looked over toward her house, and there se

clasping Dorothy's hand, and ru

ody out there behind the house beating a rug; you see they

ater with so much energy. She remembered that Arabella had said that her father always did as Aunt

ic school," said Dorothy; "she doesn't hav

ave to let her. You know Mr. Corryville was in your papa's class at college, and

think of," she said, with a bright smile, "There are nice gir

r rope, Nancy "ran in," and the two skipped around the house togeth

they sat down upon a low seat where the

s are to give a little entertainment each month, when we are to have dialogues, songs, solo dances, pieces to be spok

guess the others will be surprised.

ng myself, but I'm eager t

ow," cried Nancy, and, turning, Dorothy sa

"and we saw you and Nancy just as you ran aro

aid it would if enough pupils were ready to join it," said Mollie, "and we knew Kat

just a little b

says he likes girls ever so much better than boys, so

ls best," said Flossie; "isn

ie said, so drolly t

she is very nice, Jeanette Earl says," and as she spoke Dorot

ome to the new pupil, and she hope

te know?" asked

Nancy, "for the new little girl is

's sister," said Mollie

thing," said Nancy,

sie, "and when I told Uncle Harry he laughed, and aske

hed, and it was Mol

, "and sometimes I can't tell whether he is i

lege, and now was in business, he would urge Aunt Charlotte to let him attend a few sessions of our school, if

me young uncle in the little private school, whi

lda would be a regular file. Papa laughed, but mamma said: 'Harry, Harry, you really mustn't,' and he ran up to the music-room whistling 'O dear, what c

n't you remember, Flossie? Your aunt was on the piazza, and she stooped and pinned a rose in his b

o think about it, and one thing I don't at all understand, he's big, and brave

, "and he never acts as if we were just

s just strolling along the driveway. He walked into the kitchen, took the dirty tramp by the collar an

, and you ought to have seen how tenderly he picked him up, and brush

l on a day when Arabella's aunt would be there! I love to see him when he

have," said Flossie, "and perhaps Arabella will invite her aunt to one

you," called a cheery voice, and Nina Ear

you, Nancy, and Aunt Charlotte said that you were with Dorothy, so I ran acros

tell it, Nina!

through the ope

tone cottage, looking into this thing and peeping into that, till I'd think Aunt Charlotte would be wild. It's Arabella's

eet eyes sud

d keep Aunt Charlotte's house a

cottage was a healthy place for a private school to be in, before she could sa

hool?" queried blunt little Mollie; "she could go

rabella," said Dorothy, "so I th

ur mamma wishes it, but now, before school begins, I'm going t

ould be quite as pleasant if Arabella attended t

e pretty stone cottage stood wide open, as if assuring a welcome to the little pupils who w

ing could make it. His paws were snugly tucked in, and he purred softly to himself as if he knew that it

a schoolroom, sat Aunt Charlotte Grayson, lo

's governess, and now, as mistress of a thriving private school, she was independent and happy. The class was not a large one, but the little pupils belo

ll her "Aunt Charlotte," and now it had become the

ass assemble, and, wondering if the

rstood what she had said, Pompey blinked up at

, Nina and Jeanette Earl ran up the steps and in at the open door. Pompey received his usual number of love-pa

ool that there should never be any has

ay; "let me always have the pleasure of seeing you enter the class-room in as gentle a mann

nts, and as the children took their places they thoug

ompey ran across the floor and sprang up into a space on one window

usin Reginald, now entered, ju

e had opened her Testament, and was commencing to read, so Nina only shook her h

ing to say a pleasant word of an absent friend, or to coax two playmates, who had become estranged, to be fast friends again. Often they had heard her Uncle Harry s

nd in her gentle little heart she determined to be, if possibl

He was a handsome little fellow, with soft flaxen curls, and a smart, sturdy figure, and as he looked

ginald watched Aunt Charlotte, and wondered over the verse which she had read. When t

xplained, and when it had been made cl

your qu

acemakers'?

and Reginald listened, but it was

what the peacemakers ar

eginald, "but I

uestioned Au

ld said, "for she's piecin' a silk patchwork quilt,

e who did not laugh, but the s

seen her makin' pieces out of silk, an' what's th