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Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work

"

"There's the bell!" cried Patsy. "It must be the girls. No one else

would call so early."

"It's Beth's voice, talking to Nora," added her father, listening; and

then the door flew open and in came two girls whose bright and eager

faces might well warrant the warm welcome they received.

"Oh, Louise," cried Patsy, "however did you get up so early?"

"I've got a letter from Kenneth," was the answer, "and I'm so excited I

couldn't wait a minute!"

"Imagine Louise being excited," said Beth, calmly, as she kissed Uncle

John and sat down by Patsy's side. "She read her letter in bed and

bounced out of bed like a cannon-ball. We dressed like the 'lightning

change' artist at the vaudeville, and I'm sure our hats are not on

straight."

"This bids fair to be a strenuous day," observed the Major. "Patsy's had

a letter from the boy, herself."

"Oh, did you?" inquired Louise; "and do you know all about it, dear?"

"She knows sixty pages about it," replied Major Doyle.

"Well, then, what's to be done?"

The question was addressed to Patsy, who was not prepared to reply. The

three cousins first exchanged inquiring glances and then turned their

eager eyes upon the broad chubby back of Uncle John, who maintained his

position at the window as if determined to shut out the morning

sunlight.

Louise Merrick lived with her mother a few blocks away from Patsy's

apartment, and her cousin Beth DeGraf was staying with her for a time.

They had all spent the summer with Uncle John at Millville, and had only

returned to New York a few days before. Beth's home was in Ohio, but

there was so little sympathy between the girl and her parents that she

was happy only when away from them. Her mother was Uncle John's sister,

but as selfish and cold as Uncle John was generous and genial. Beth's

father was a "genius" and a professor of music--one of those geniuses

who live only in their own atmosphere and forget there is a world around

them. So Beth had a loveless and disappointed childhood, and only after

Uncle John arrived from the far west and took his three nieces "under

his wing," as he said, did her life assume any brightness or interest.

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