'Now, whatever is it, darlin'?' wondered her mother, sympathetically but without concern. 'You’ve not got a pain, have you, dear?'
'She wants to help the Children of Mary!' said her father tenderly. 'She wants to do as much as Tessie does!'
'Oh, but, dad, she can’t!' fretted Teresa. 'She’s not a Child of Mary! She oughtn’t to want to tag that way. Now all the other girls' sisters will tag!'
'They haven’t got sisters!' said Alanna, red-cheeked of a sudden.
'Why, Mary Alanna Costello, they have too! Jean has, and Stella has, and Grace has her little cousins!' protested Teresa triumphantly.
'Never mind, baby,' said Mrs. Costello hurriedly. 'Mother’ll find you something to do. There now! How’d you like to have a raffle-book on something—a chair or a piller? And you could get all the names yourself, and keep the money in a little bag—'
'Oh, my! I wish I could!' said Jim artfully. 'Think of the last night, when the drawing comes! You’ll have the fun of looking up the winning number in your book and calling it out in the hall.'
'Would I, dad?' said Alanna softly, but with dawning interest.
'And then, from the pulpit, when the returns are all in,' contributed Dan warmly, 'Father Crowley will read out your name,—"With Mrs. Frank Costello’s booth—raffle of sofa cushion, by Miss Alanna Costello, twenty-six dollars and thirty-five cents!"
'Oo—would he, dad?' said Alanna, won to smiles and dimples by this charming prospect.