"Dear me," said Miss Billy, throwing down the book she was reading,--"I don't see how I am going to break loose from everything and go back to school. The Canary birdlings will be just as dirty and ill-cared for as ever,--and little Mike, and Isaac Levi, and a half dozen others are too young for the public kindergarten. Then there's the Street Improvement Club, and the mothers' meetings,--why, I don't see what I am to do."
Beatrice looked up from the lunch cloth she was hemstitching for a church fair. "If you can trust the smaller children to me," she said timidly, "I think I can take care of them. I was talking to Mrs. Canary to-day. I told her she could send the twins and Mikey over every morning for two hours, as usual. She seemed so relieved and happy over it, and promised that Holly Belle should go to school."
"Oh," cried Miss Billy, with shining eyes, "it's lovely of you, Bea, and Holly Belle will be wild with delight. But those babies are the slipp'riest things when they're wet!"
"I shall not drop them," said Beatrice firmly. "I shall think of Holly Belle all the time, and that her chances depend upon my success. All the rest of the little brood shall have as conscientious care as I can give them for two hours every day,--but I don't expect it to be easy for me, as it is for you."
"Oh, they'll love you, Bea," said Miss Billy enthusiastically. "You don't know what dear little things they are, especially just after they've been washed. Well, _that's_ settled, then. Margaret will be glad to relieve you at any time, I know,--and she will continue to look after Holly Belle's music, too. The way the child takes to it is simply wonderful. Francis, of course, will continue at the head of the Street Improvement Club."
"Five long days between this and school, and nothing to do!" murmured Theodore luxuriously from the couch. "I shall drive no mules,--I shall instruct no growing intellects. Fads may continue to lead Miss Billy round by the nose, up to the very last minute,--but I shall do nothing at all!"
"It has been a busy summer," said Mrs. Lee, with a half arrested sigh.
"Is it good news, papa?" asked Beatrice of her father, who in the soft glow of the study lamp had been perusing the illegibly scrawled sheets of a special delivery letter.