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 mittees, they must be chosen after the Juniors were organized, but Rilla knew just who should be put on which. They would meet around—and there must be no eats—Rilla knew she would have a pitched battle with Olive Kirk over that—and everything should be strictly business-like and constitutional. Her minute book should be covered in white with a Red Cross on the cover—and wouldn't it be nice to have some kind of uniform which they could all wear at the concerts they would have to get up to raise money—something simple but smart?

“You have basted the top hem of that sheet on one side and the bottom hem on the other,” said Di.

Rilla picked out her stitches and reflected that she hated sewing. Running the Junior Reds would be much more interesting.

Mrs. Blythe was saying upstairs,

“Susan, do you remember that first day Jem lifted up his little arms to me and called me ‘mo’er’—the very first word he ever tried to say?”

“You could not mention anything about that blessed baby that I do not and will not remember till my dying day,” said Susan drearily.

“Susan, I keep thinking today of one night when he cried for me in the night. He was just a few months old. Gilbert didn’t want me to go to him—he said the child was well and warm and that it would be fostering bad habits in him. But I went—and took him up—I can feel that tight clinging of his little arms round my neck yet. Susan, if I hadn't gone that night, twenty-one years ago, and taken my baby up when he cried for me I couldn't face tomorrow morning.”