"Why not?" asked Mary, their niece.
"That dreadful child!"
"Freddy isn't dreadful!" cried Mary hotly.
"With that atrocious slang! Won't eat his oatmeal! And he's such a queer child—queer! So pale, never laughs, doesn't like any one. Why should you take up for him? He doesn't even like you. Hates me, I suppose."
"It's because we are so different from the women he has known," said
Mary.
"I should hope so! Well, sister, what are you going to do about it?"
"I don't know what to do," sighed Miss Nellie. "He hasn't any other relatives as far as I know. And the summer coming on, what shall we do?"
"Nothing for it but to send him to an orphanage if she doesn't write soon," said Miss Eva.
"Oh, auntie, you wouldn't!"
"Why not? How can we afford to give children free board and education?"