Then patting Sophy's head, said pleasantly, "You needn't be afraid of the questions, Sophy; I will make Elsie answer them all." Elsie and her papa stayed for nearly two months at Elmgrove, and her life there agreed so well with the little girl that she became as strong, healthy and rosy as she had ever been.

She and Sophy and Harold spent the greater part of almost every day in the open air--working in the garden, racing about the grounds, taking long walks in search of wild flowers, hunting eggs in the barn, or building baby-houses and making tea-parties in the shade of the trees down by the brook.
There was a district school-house not very far from Elmgrove, and in their rambles the children had made acquaintance with two or three of the scholars--nice, quiet little girls--who, after a while, got into the habit of bringing their dinner-baskets to the rendezvous by the brook-side, and spending their noon-recess with Elsie and Sophy; the dinner hour at Mr.Allison's being somewhat later in the day.
Sophy and Elsie were sitting under the trees one warm June morning dressing their dolls.

Fred and May were rolling marbles, and Harold lay on the grass with a book in his hand.
"There come Hetty Allen and Maggie Wilson," said Sophy, raising her head.
"See how earnestly they are talking together! I wonder what it is all about.

What's the matter, girls ?" she asked, as they drew near.
"Oh, nothing's the matter," replied Hetty, "but we are getting up a party to go strawberrying.

We've heard of a field only two miles from here--or at least not much over two miles from the school-house--where the berries are very thick.