Page:Carroll Rankin--Dandelion Cottage.djvu/137

 Rh  to think of keeping us interested so we shouldn't be quite so lonesome."

"Yes," said Bettie, "it was even nicer than our lovely presents but it was just like her."

"Oh dear," said Mabel, again on the verge of tears, "I wish she might have stayed forever. What's the use of getting lovely new friends if you have to go and lose them the very next minute? She was just the nicest grown-up little girl there ever was and I'll never see—see her any"

"Look out, Mabel," warned Marjory, "if you cry on that handkerchief you'll spoil that monogram. Miss Blossom didn't intend these for crying-handkerchiefs—one good-sized tear would soak them."

Miss Blossom was not the only friend the girls were fated to lose that week. Grandma Pike, as everybody called the pleasant little old lady, was their next-door neighbour on the west side and the cottagers were very fond of her. No one dreamed