There, Uncle David is cranking that terrible machine. I must go. Carin, we who go to die salute thee!

I will you my amber beads.

Tremblingly,

Azalea.

CHAPTER IV
MADAM GRANDMOTHER

Mallowbanks, Brent County, S. C.,
November first.

Poor neglected Carin:

I know it, Carin. I know I have treated you badly. I know that you have been expecting and wondering and scolding because I have not written.

But when you say that I have forgotten you because of my new friends, well—I haven’t any answer to that. Nothing pleasant ever happens to me that I do not wish you were with me to share it, and nothing bad ever happens that I do not think in the midst of all my trouble:

“I will make a story out of that to tell to Carin and—well, Annie Laurie or any other person whom I love.”