Little Friend Lydia

"Friend Morris has sent for you, Lydia," said she. "Alexander is waiting outside."

Nurse Norrie looked carefully at Lydia's face and hands.

"You're as clean as a pin," said she. "It would be well if others were more like you." And she rapped gently upon Sammy's head as she passed. Sammy looked up with a grin.

"I don't care," said he with Christmas daring. "I don't want to be clean. It's sissy."

On the doorstep Lydia slipped her hand in Alexander's, and off they started. Alexander and his wife, Friend Deborah, were Quakers who had lived for many years with Mrs. Morris, and the children knew them well. Friend Deborah wore a drab stuff dress and a kerchief like Friend Morris, and Alexander's broad-brimmed hat was quite different from that worn by other men.

"No, Lydia," Alexander was saying, "thee is not going to Friend Morris's house. She is spending the afternoon with friends in the city, and thee is to go there. And thee is going to ride on