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The only trouble was,” Maida went on smilingly, “that they liked everything so much that they could not decide which they wanted most. Of course, the boys preferred Arthur’s carvings and the girls Rosie’s candy. But it was hard to say who liked Dicky’s things the best.” Granny twinkled with delight. She had never told Maida, but she did not need to tell her, that Dicky was her favorite.

I guess if Molly fishes him out once after a rain, she does a half a dozen times.” “Do come and see me, Dicky, won’t you?” Maida asked when they got to the shop door. “You know I shall be lonely when all the children are in school andthen besidesyou’re the first friend I’ve made.” At the word friend, Dicky’s beautiful smile shone bright. “Sure, I’ll come,” he said heartily. “I’ll come often.”

We’ll bring the long kitchen table in for your things, Arthur,” Maida decided after a perplexed consideration of the subject. “Dicky’s and Rosie’s things ought to go on the shelves and into the show cases where nobody can handle them.” They tugged the table into the shop and covered it with a beautiful old blue counter-pane.

And, sure enough, “You watch him,” was all Arthur would say to the entreaties of his friends. Sixth, Billy ran a double line of rope between Maida’s and Laura’s window, a second between Rosie’s and Laura’s, a third between Arthur’s and Laura’s, a fourth between Dicky’s and Laura’s. Last, Billy opened another bundle. Out dropped four square tin boxes, each with a cover and a handle.

But she fancied that it had much to do with Dicky’s frequent purchases of colored tissue paper. The Misses Allison had become great friends with Granny. Matilda, the blind sister, was very slender and sweet-faced. She sat all day in the window, crocheting the beautiful, fleecy shawls by which she helped support the household.

Dicky’s face shone with delight when at last he tucked the big round box safely under his arm. “Just think, I’ve been planning to do this for three years,” he said, “and I never could have done it now if it hadn’t been for you, Maida.” Next Dicky took the two little girls where they could buy razors. “The kind that goes like a lawn-mower,” Rosie explained to the proprietor.

She was completely mystified by them and yet she had an uncomfortable feeling. They were so stealthy that she could not help guessing that something underhand was going on. “Do you know Rosie Brine?” Maida asked Dicky Dore one evening when they were reading together. “Sure!” Dicky’s face lighted up. “Isn’t she a peach?” “They say she is a tom-boy,” Maida objected. “Is she?”

I’ll either have to roll and roll and roll until I get on to dry land or I’ll have to wait until somebody comes and shovels me out.” But she did not fall into the puddle. She walked carefully along the edge and then ran as swiftly as her clothes and lameness would permit. She arrived in Dicky’s garret, red-cheeked and breathless. Arthur and Rosie had already come.

If that were true, she had to acknowledge that there must be something fine about Arthur that she had not discovered. Maida guessed that the W.M.N.T.’s met three or four times a week. Certainly there were very busy doings at Dicky’s or at Arthur’s house every other day. What it was all about, Maida did not know.

Dicky’s mother went to work so early and came back so late that Maida had never seen her. But Dicky soon became an intimate. Maida had begun the reading lessons and Dicky was so eager to get on that they were progressing famously. The Lathrops lived in the big house at the back of the court.