Blue Robin, the Girl Pioneer — Part 178

“Oh, you dear thing!” cried Nathalie, rushing to her friend and giving her a squeeze. “Isn’t that just the loveliest thing? What nice times we can have after a while if you can walk, and Dr. Morrow, I always knew he was a dear!”

“There, don’t squeeze me to bits, but tell me all the things that have happened since the Flag Drill, and oh, Nathalie, your friends are dears. The one you call Grace is sweet, and the other one, why, she isn’t so pretty, but she looks a good sort.”

“She is something more than a ‘good sort,’” answered Nathalie swiftly, “she is a gem, she is so clever and sensible, and, oh, what a friend she has proved to me! She has a wonderful way of helping you over the hard places. But there, I will tell you what Grace said about you, she said you were a sweet little cherub—and—”

“Just arrived from angel land I suppose, with wings all sprouting,” ventured Nita sarcastically. “Well, she ought to see me when I’m mad. Cherub indeed! What did the other one say?”

Nathalie hesitated; her face flushed, “Oh—why, she thought you were a dear, but said you were a bit spoiled.”

Nita looked surprised for a minute; then her eyes flashed as she cried with a defiant lift of her head. “Well, I guess if Miss Sensible had a hump to carry about that could never be taken off, no matter how it hurt, and had to be shut up behind walls with nothing to see or any one to talk to, she’d be spoiled, too!” There was a quiver of the chin as the red lips closed tightly in the effort not to cry.

“Oh, you poor little thing, I should not have told you that, for really, Helen thought you were lovely!” Nathalie regretted with all her heart the impulse that had prompted her to tell the truth to Nita. It seemed unkind but it was really spoken in the hope of doing her little friend good.

But Nita pushed her away, “Oh, don’t pet me!” as Nathalie attempted to caress her, “I was only teasing. Yes, I know I’m spoiled, but there, do tell me the news, for your face shows that you are just dying to tell me something worth the hearing.”

“Well, yes, I have _some_ news—that’s slang, but O dear, it does mean so much sometimes,” laughed Nathalie as she and Nita seated themselves on the couch. “Saturday we had a Pioneer Rally. Judge Benson, a friend of Dr. Morrow’s from the city, gave us a talk on self-government. He explained the difference between natural, spiritual, and civic law. He also explained the meaning of an ordinance, told us how justice was administered in the different courts, and how self-government, or the reform system is having its try-out in some of the prisons to-day. He says it bids fair to make criminals—men hardened in sin and crime—respectable members of a community.”