Waiting only long enough to put on her pretty blue kimono and slippers, she crept from her room and down the stairs to the library, where the two men sat smoking.
"Why, pet, what is the matter? are you ill?" her father asked anxiously as he took her on his knee.
"Oh, no, Father! It would never do for me to get sick now when Mother and Aunt Mandy are so busy with the babies. Something popped into my head a little while ago, and I couldn't go to sleep until I had asked you about it."
"It would not keep until morning, I suppose," laughed the Doctor.
"Of course it would keep, Uncle; but you know there is never very much time to talk things over in the morning."
"Very true; and beginning with to-morrow, you will be almost too busy to speak to anyone in the morning."
"Oh, I shall find time to say a few things at breakfast; but Mother will be there, too, and this is something that she must not hear a word about until it is all settled."
"Out with it then! You should be sound asleep by this time."
"Yes, pet, Uncle is right; so let us hear your plan quickly."
"I have been thinking for ever so long that Mother and Aunt Mandy need me so much to help with the twins that I ought to stay home to do it. Mother says she doesn't see how they are going to get along without me. I can save them a great many steps, you know, and do ever so many little things while they are doing the big ones; and if I go to school, I shall be away at the very busiest time."