"We've found it," said Mary Lee, hurrying in one day.
Every one looked up. "Found what?" came a clamor of voices.
"The house. Mr. St. Nick and I have found the dearest place and he's going to take you, mother, and Aunt Helen to see it. I know you will like it."
"Oh, I want to go, too," cried the twins simultaneously.
"There will not be any use in your going unless we are really intending to live there," remarked Nan oracularly. "Tell us about it, Mary Lee."
"Well, it's all on one floor, or means to be but isn't, because it is on the side of a hill, and you do have to go up two or three steps to the kitchen and dining-room."
"How funny to go up to a kitchen."
"It won't seem queer when you get used to it. There are trees all around and a broad veranda just covered with roses and fuschias and things. There is a living-room and ever so many bedrooms hitched on here and there so that it is sort of uneven looking, but it is so covered with vines that you like the unevenness. There is a garden and orange trees, lots of them, and grapes and all sorts of things that we hoped for."
Every one began to look interested. "Is it furnished?" asked Miss Helen.
"Yes, even to a piano and a dish-cloth hanging up in the kitchen. The people who own it want to sell, but are willing to rent it to a good tenant. Mr. Roberts knows them. The father has died and most of the children are married so that those who are left want to go where the others live. I believe there is only the mother and one daughter who are left."