IGHT-HEARTED and ready for work, the Herrick girls were at home again, after visiting for the first few weeks of their summer vacation. Elise, the eldest, taught the English branches in a girls' school in the West. Elizabeth, fifteen, and Marion, twelve, were two growing schoolgirls, and had spent a month with an aunt at her country place on the Hudson. "Dear me!" said Marion, yawning, as the three sat in the library, "how dull Traxton seems after such charming times at Aunt Isabel's, and the beautiful house with trained servants, with nothing to do from morning till night but one's own pleasure!" "It does spoil one. I'm afraid, if we were rich, Marion, we 'd be "'otty an' 'orrid,'" said Elizabeth." Yet here is Elise, who has been so gay, and had tennis and golf parties in her honor, and has been a belle of the solidest - brass, and she 's already sewing on a dress for a poor youngster who has none for the Sunday-school picnic next week. The needle fairly squeaks, it is so hot! She is doing it for sunshine, but who wants sunshine this weather? I prefer shade." Elizabeth lay back in her big chair and fanned vigorously. "Stop being so frivolous and pun-making, Betty," said the elder sister. "If you'd gather this sleeve you 'd be cooler than groaning in that lazy chair. I've been thinking as well as sewing-yes, it is wearing, and far from complimentary." "To yourself?" asked Marion. "To all of us," said Elise. "Has it ever occurred to you elegant young women that while we have been butterflies of pleasure, if not of fashion, our dear mother has been here nursing grandmother through a long and tedious illness, and never letting us know about it for fear of spoiling our visits?" "It's hard to realize it when we are away," murmured Elizabeth. "With us seein' is believin',' and then mother never complains, and always seems so calm and pleasant. But she must be tired out. Nursing is the hardest work." "We 're a selfish lot; at least Betty and I are," said Marion, impulsively. "I plead guilty, too," Elise declared. "But we must do something to redeem ourselves. Mama must have a vacation." "Oh, you know, Elise, there's no money to spare for any more jaunts—' "More's the shame!" said Elise, quickly. "I've offered her part of my earnings,- I can't save half I ought to,- but she won't touch it, as she thinks I need it for fall and winter clothes. But I've thought of another way-not so attractive, but far better than no vacation. Why not invite her to visit us for two or three weeks? Of course, when we 're at home we help, but the brunt falls on her. Now let us big, hearty girls take every bit of the housework on our hands and make a visitor of our mother. We can do several simple, nice things for her entertainment. Let us make a little sacrifice for her, instead of her making dozens every year for us." "The very thing!" cried Betty. "My conscience does prick, and it will be fun, too. Nobody but you, Elise, would think of such a thing." "We must write a formal invitation and send it at once. Let me see! Get paper and pens from my desk my very swellest note. How will this do? |