Letty blushed. "That is different!" she said.
"Of course!" answered the Captain. "Well, it is time for each of you to think up some plan of kindness for vacation time."
"What would you advise?" asked Estella, wriggling.
"I do not advise at all," said the Captain. "I want you to do your own planning because I want the credit to be all yours. I am sure everyone of you knows some invalid, some poor child, some old person, or some very poor sad or troubled neighbor who needs you. Keep your eyes open, my dears, and listen carefully. There will be a hand beckoning or a voice calling sooner or later. And if you should miss the summons, you would always be sorry."
"When is Mabel Brewster going to bring you her report?" asked Jane.
"She is simply seeing how selfish she can be, isn't she, Captain?" asked Estella.
"Not quite that," said the Captain, a sober look stealing over her pretty face. "Mabel was dissatisfied with her life and had ambitions that did not seem to be just what a girl should strive for, so her mother and I thought it would be a good thing for Mabel, as well as for all of us, to allow her to try her theories out and tell us the result."
"Well, I think she is perfectly miserable," announced Jane bluntly. "I don't think she likes it a bit! How she stands it at all I don't see. And do you know, Captain, my brother says Frank sleeps every night on that little hard settee outside her door because he is afraid someone might try to get in; and as soon as school is out, he hangs around the Times-Leader office to walk home with her. She doesn't know it, of course, and I suppose if she did she would be mad, but if I thought my brother was a perfect angel like that I would feel so proud!"
"Why, what a dear he is!" said the Captain, the tears starting to her eyes.
"She doesn't deserve him!" said Jane.