"Yes, like me," said Patty; "I am cheerful and glad always. I like to be."
"I would like to be, too," said Miss Daggett.
"Do you suppose if I opened the shutters I would be?"
"Let's try it and see," said Patty, and running to the windows, she flung open the inside blinds and flooded the room with sunshine.
"Oh, what a beautiful room!" she exclaimed, as she turned around. "Why, Miss Daggett, to think of keeping all these lovely things shut up in the dark. I believe they cry about it when you aren't looking."
Already the old lady's face seemed to show a gentler and sunnier expression, and she said:
"Yes, I have some beautiful things, child. Would you like to look through this cabinet of East Indian curiosities?"
"I would very much," said Patty, "but I fear I can't take the time this morning; I have to study my part in a play we're going to give. It's a play your nephew told us about," she added quickly, feeling sure that this would rouse the old lady's interest in it.
"One of Kenneth's college plays?" she said eagerly.
"Yes, that's just what it is. A chum of his wrote it, and oh, Miss Daggett, we're going to invite Mr. Harper to come to Vernondale the night of the play, and take the same part that he took at college last year; you see, he'll know it, and he can just step right in."