It was one lovely day in June that Nan hied her to Place o\' Pines. She gazed with a half smile at the old log of wood on which the music rack was still fastened. No need now to pretend a piano she remembered with pride and pleasure. She began softly to sing the old tune but this time Little Jamie was not the refrain, but that other one: Dearest Mother.

"The very nicest thing in all the world is a mother," she said to herself. "I believe just as Dr. Woods said to Aunt Helen the other day; she made me say it over so I wouldn\'t forget it: \'The Being who could conceive and create a good mother must Himself be perfect love.\'"

"Nan, Nan," came the voice of some one calling from afar.

Nan started up and listened, then she crept out of the opening in the pines and ran around to the fence, giving the peculiar call which the Corner children always used in answering one another. "Where are you?" Mary Lee\'s voice came nearer. [Pg 374]There was an excited and triumphant ring in it. Evidently, she had something important to tell.

"Here I am," said Nan, squeezing herself through the fence and meeting her sister on the other side. "What do you want me for, Mary Lee?"

"You ought just to hear what mother and Aunt Helen and Aunt Sarah have been talking about; the most exciting things. Come over here and I\'ll tell you." Mary Lee spoke importantly. It was generally Nan who was the dispenser of news, and Mary Lee seldom had the chance of taking the role of herald, in consequence she carried herself with the little air of superiority which Nan generally assumed upon such occasions.

Nan followed her to a patch of grass by the side of the fence, and they sat down together. This summer the two were more frequently companions, for Phil had suddenly discovered a preference for the company of boys, and was generally with Ashby and Ran pursuing more masculine sports than Mary Lee cared to join.

"We\'re not likely to be here six months from now," Mary Lee began with a view to making a sensation.

"What do you mean?" said Nan, startled out of a pretended indifference.

[Pg 375]

"Just what I say. Of course, Aunt Sarah and the boys will be here but we shall not."

"Oh, Mary Lee, we are not to be sent away to boarding-school, are we?" asked Nan in a horror-stricken voice.

Mary Lee hugged her knees and rocked back and forth in enjoyment of the situation. "No, we\'re not going to boarding-school. Oh, Nan, it will be perfectly splendid, and you\'ve always longed to travel, you know. It will be so fine to see oranges growing, and all sorts of things, olives and lemons and such oceans of flowers. You used to make such a fuss over that one little palm, and how you will revel in the things we shall see."

"I think you might tell me what you are talking about," said Nan impatiently.

But Mary Lee was enjoying her unwonted pleasure of news-giving too much to let out all her information at once and she went on, "Of course we shall not travel so very much after we once get there for it will be better that mother should settle down in some one place where it will agree with her. Aunt Helen says we must not give up our studies, and that you especially must keep up your music, so we shall probably take some little cottage where we can have a piano. It would be fun to have a Chinese servant, wouldn\'t it?"

[Pg 376]

Nan was too quick-witted to let this hint pass. "I know now!" she cried exultantly. "It\'s California. Now, Mary Lee, don\'t fool about it any more, but just begin at the beginning and tell me."

Seeing that there was no use in further holding off, Mary Lee smoothed down her frock and began. "Well, I just happened to be on the porch outside the living-room when it all started, and I went in and listened; they let me. It began by mother\'s saying that the doctor told her it would be perfectly safe to stay here during the summer, but that when November came she must go away again. He said that if she would do that for two or three years he was sure that she could get over all her symptoms. \'It makes my heart sink when I think of being separated for even one more winter from my children, but it must be done,\' said mother, \'and it is fortunate that the boys want to come back and that I shall be able to cover my expenses.\'

"Then Aunt Helen spoke up. \'Don\'t say anything about expenses, Mary,\' she said; \'you know it was mother\'s wish that the estate should be divided, and though she did not sign that last will, I consider it just as binding as if she had done it.\' Oh, Nan, she said she meant to have grandmother\'s first will set aside so we could have our share lawfully."

[Pg 377]

"That is just like Aunt Helen," said Nan. "Go on."

"Then they talked about that for a little while and said a lot about lawyers and trustees and things I didn\'t understand, then Aunt Helen said, \'What do you think of California for a winter, Mary?\'

"\'But it is so far,\' said mother, \'and it is such an expensive trip. I should like it better than the Adirondacks, but for the distance. But I couldn\'t be so far from my children. Of course,\' she said, \'you and Aunt Sarah would be here, and that would be a great comfort.\'

"\'I didn\'t mean for you to go alone,\' Aunt Helen said; \'I meant that the children and I would go, too.\'

"Mother turned right around and put her hand on Aunt Sarah\'s. \'But what would my dear auntie do?\' she asked.

"\'Don\'t mind me,\' Aunt Sarah said. \'I\'ll manage. If you want to close the house, I\'ll go to Henry Dent\'s or somewhere, but if you\'d rather keep it open I should like mighty well to stay right here and look after those boys, and perhaps I could get a couple more to come in, so it would keep me interested and occupied.\'

"Then I spoke right up, Nan."

[Pg 378]

"What did you say?" asked Nan, eagerly.

"I said, \'Oh, do let Aunt Sarah stay, mother, for who would take care of old Pete, and what would Lady Gray and Baz and Ruby do without any family, and then there\'s Unc\' Landy and the pig and the chickens.\' Then they all laughed, though I don\'t know why and mother said: \'That settles it, Mary Lee. If Aunt Sarah wants to take such a large family under her wing, I am sure I have no objection.\'

"Then Aunt Helen said: \'I\'ve only one thing to say, Mary. If Miss Sarah is to undertake all this, I hope you will feel that you have enough to let her have all she can make out of her—her——\'"

"Her experiment," suggested Nan who had a more ready vocabulary than Mary Lee.

"I think she said \'undertaking,\'" said Mary Lee, not to be corrected. "Then I said: \'Are we really going to California, Aunt Helen?\' And she said, \'I should like to think so. It all rests with your mother. I have always wanted to go there and I can\'t bear to be parted from you all, so why can\'t we go together?\' Then she asked mother what she thought about it."

"She said yes, of course," put in Nan.

Mary Lee nodded. "Uhm—hm. She did indeed, and I got up and just yelled, and then I told [Pg 379]them I was going hot-foot to find you, and I left them there still talking about it."

"Oh, do let\'s go back and hear the particulars," said Nan. "Isn\'t it perfectly wildly exciting? Did you ever believe such a thing could happen to us? To think we are all going. I wonder when we shall start, and where we shall go, I mean the exact place. To think of living, really living there. Come, let\'s find out more."

They went racing toward the house and burst in upon the three ladies still absorbed in making plans. "Are we really going to California?" asked Nan, excitedly. "When shall we start? What place is our cottage to be in? May I take some of my books? What trunk shall I use?"

All three smiled. "Gently, Nan, gently," said her mother. "We are not going to-morrow, and there will be plenty of time to decide on trunks before October."

Nan drew a long sigh, and went to sit down by her Aunt Helen. "Fairy godmother," she said, "the Poppy fairy never brought me this dream. Just wave your wand, please, and make me see it all."

"We shall go to Southern California," said Miss Helen, drawing Nan close to her, "probably to San Diego or Pasadena. We shall travel a little at first [Pg 380]and decide upon the best place for your mother, then we will take a little cottage, hire a piano, have some books, engage a teacher for you girls, and settle down to enjoy our winter."

"Do let\'s have a Chinese servant."

"Perhaps we can try one."

"And we can have a garden?"

"If we can find a house with one attached. I think it is extremely probable that we will have one. A little cottage of about six or eight rooms will be large enough, I think, and, if we can, we will have a garden where the geraniums will grow so high that they will shade our second story windows, and where roses will bloom in January. We will not be to............