"No, guess again."
"A locket?"
"Dear me, no. It is something—three somethings that cost forty times as much as a watch or locket. Now open your eyes and look on the bureau."
"Why don't you say something?" questioned Florence, as Marian stood speechless before three miniatures in gold frames. "That's my mother and our baby in the middle frame, and the girl on this side is my little sister and the boy in the other frame we call brother, just brother, since the baby came. Why Marian Lee! I never thought of it before, but you look like brother just as sure as the world!
"Why, Marian! what's the matter, what makes you cry when you look at mamma's picture?"
"Nothing, Florence, only I want a mother myself, I always wanted one."
"You poor young one!" exclaimed Florence, "it must be dreadful not to have a mother."
"It's like the Desert of Sahara!" Marian declared, dashing the tears from her eyes and making an attempt to smile. "You will see your mother again soon."
"I know it, Marian, only think, three weeks more and then the holidays. Are you going home Wednesday night or Thursday morning?"
"I am not going home until June," was the reply.