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"I am your birthday gift if you will have me. My father is dead, and my mamma is in heaven, too; I am a little orphan girl, without brothers or sisters. Will you take me, keep me, care for me, and love me? If so, I will be your own little Daisy and take you for my own dear, dearest mamma."

Near by was a child's wardrobe, full of beautiful tiny dresses.

Eva stood for a moment like one in a dream, her eyes growing brighter and brighter, her lips quivering. Then she flew to her mother again.

"O, is it real?" she cried, "is that little angel to be mine, really my own? What a glorious birthday gift! O, mother, I can't realize it!"

Her mother explained that the babe was her cousin's child, that the father had died before its birth, that the mother had just died before Eva left school, commending the little one to her care, and how she had planned this surprise and present. "But are you willing to give up your trip to Paris?" she asked.

"Yes, indeed," said Eva, eagerly; "everything, for that sweet little angel. But, mamma, what a solemn responsibility it will be. I shall have a human soul to train."

"Yes, still I can trust you," was the smiling reply, "only try to live so as to be worthy of the charge."

I don't believe there was ever a happier girl than Eva Dimple that day, and for days and years afterward, for the little Daisy was her chief delight, and a better guardian no child could have.

"We are all pleased with that, I know, said Anne, looking over her papers, "but the chief characters of all our stories have been girls. There's one little thing here about a boy. Grandfather wrote it one evening when he was at our house, and says every bit of it is true, and Granby is scarcely a mile from the farm. Perhaps we can get an idea from it for our picture. If you please, I will read it. It is entitled,

I want to have a good time, but I've only got five dollars," mused Granville Heth. "What's a boy to do with five dollars?"

"I'll tell you," said Joe Sickles. There are ten fellows beside you and I, who want to camp out. If we all give five dollars apiece, and of course we can, we might hire a tent, go over to Granby by wagon, buy the things we need to eat, camp out near the beach and have a first-rate time."

Granville looked thoughtful.

"But there are no conveniences," he said. "We ought to have some kind of a house to sleep in, and, besides, we should't have decent food for a week."

"We could have the best of food, and tip-top cooking if Ben Norris goes along. He's as neat and handy as a woman, and can cook better than any body I ever knew."

"But then how are we going to get a fire out in the fields? And how are we going to sleep with any comfort? We should be eaten up with mosquitos. There are so many difficulties in the way."

"Conquer the difficulties; meet them, and they're half conquered already. You may be sure that we can find both comforts and conveniences."

The boys were walking back and forth in the long side yard

"Hallo!" cried Joe Sickles, "I've got an idea."

They stopped before an old, cast-off cooking stove that had been taken out of the cellar to be sold for old iron. The top was broken entirely off, and leaned over on the ground.

"There's our fire!" cried Joe, triumphantly. "Don't you see? We take this top along, with plenty of pans and kettles, set him up over two rocks, place your wood and kindlings underneath, and presto! there's your cooking stove made to order. That's the talk."

"It is rather brilliant," said Granville, smiling.

"It will be brilliant, if it isn't now, when we get a lot of fish over it, of Ben Norris's cooking -- and chowder. I tell you, you never saw such a fellow for chowders as Ben Norris."

"And now I've an idea," said Granville. "Suppose we ask Fred Cook, poor fellow! He's just up from a long sickness, and such a trip will put him on his legs. One more won't break us."

"True enough," was the response, and that night Fred Cook, the only son of a poor widow, was invited to join the camping out. How his wan and pallid cheeks flushed at the sweet surprise! How his eyes sparkled!

It was a splendid day when the two carts drove up to the old squire's house full of boys and bundles. There was the tent-side sticking out; there were baskets of potatoes and onions, turnips, beets, two large hams, a side of pork. Fruit and milk and butter they were to get from the neighboring, farmhouses. Fred, the invalid, was packed away in the easiest seat, and every one of the dozen boys had some little comfort arranged for him.

Such a turning out when the party arrived at Granby! Such a yelling and tumbling, and shouting, as the baskets were unpacked; and such an enthusiastic cheer when the old, rusty stove-top was set upon two rows of rocks, and found to answer admirably for all the purposes of cooking.

Then the tent was arranged; they were only to sleep in that, and the ground was covered knee-deep with fragrant hay, on which blankets and comforts were spread. So clean and roomy and comfortable it looked that the boys set up another extatic shout when all was finished. What a glorious night they anticipated. And so it was. The moon lighted the wide ocean and all the surrounding scenery, while within the tent a dozen boys, who had "turned in" an hour before, were manfully and industriously employed in slapping their hands and faces, for an army was upon them; they had not guarded themselves against mosquitos. The ravenous insects were too much for them, they drove them down to the beach, and there the morning found them perched about, here and there, quite disheartened for want of sleep.