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216 got to be let alone a lot. I thought it my duty to tell you."

"Oh, wasn't your Fourth of July party a success?" exclaimed Mrs. Jesse.

"Success, if an old woman like me has got enough youth left to learn new tricks, and I guess she has—I guess she has, Mrs. Jesse!" Sheshe [sic] ejaculated with spirit, head high, and eyes shining.

Three nights later, Elsie, braiding her long hair before the mirror in the guest-room, remarked to Winifred, lolling on the bed, "I wonder if mother is feeling well. Did you notice anything queer about her to-day?"

"Queer? No. What do you mean?"

"Oh, nothing, only,—well—I happen to be thirty-three years old to-day, and—"

"That's so. Of course—the seventh!" interrupted Winifred, "and no one, poor child, no one—"

"Oh, I didn't expect you to remember, all by yourselves, but mother—well, it's the first time she's forgotten. It's the first year of my life that I haven't had a present, and a nice preachy little sermon and a cake with candles on it from mother. Seems queer to have her forget."

Winifred sat up straight.

"It does seem queer—awfully queer," she exclaimed. "I don't like it, Elsie. I'm afraid