"They are uncommonly nice little youngsters, considering how you happened to find them. I shall keep an eye on that boy," said the doctor. "He has a future before him, or I'm mistaken. I think it will be as well, perhaps, if I let him earn the doll."
Miss Hester agreed. "I want him to learn to be self-respecting. He has good instincts, is shrewd and ambitious; he continually astonishes me by exhibiting some new and very hopeful trait. I liked the way, at the first, that he was willing to go to school and be placed in the class with boys so much smaller, for he knew very little. He had learned to read, and is quick as lightning at figures, so he is fast pushing his way up into the higher classes."
"He's all right," commented the doctor. "I hope you will have as great satisfaction from that little mouse of a girl."
"Ruth, once her love is won, is the dearest child in the world," Miss Hester hastened to say. "I think she will be like a real daughter to me. Oh, yes, Tom, I shall be very happy to see her joy over the doll, and it is good of you to be willing to give it up, though we are too old now to be sentimental over such things."
The doctor sighed. "I have other treasures and memories, Hester, and most precious of all are the memories. I wish I could save you that everlasting needlework. I remember you always did hate buttonholes."
"They are a good discipline," returned Miss Hester, smiling. "I probably need them for my development. Won't you come in?"
The doctor declined. "God bless her," he murmured, as he drove away.
[CHAPTER VI]
Miss Hester Meets an Old Acquaintance
ON Tuesday, Billy hied him forth again to the doctor.