Mary Louise and Josie OGorman | Page 3

or giving the old house yet. I wanted to be sure it would
not be a nuisance to Uncle Peter Conant. He and Aunt Hannah have
been too good to me for me to go against their wishes."
"Set your mind at rest on that score," said Irene. "I can answer for
them."
"I'll do any typing you need when you begin on the thing," suggested
Elizabeth, "and I can look after the publicity end, too. The more
persons who get interested in an enterprise like this the better for it."
"Indeed you are right. We will need more money than I can give, too.
Yearly subscriptions will have to be solicited and the more publicity we
get the better."
"I'll be chief detective for the society," laughed Josie, shaking out
another napkin. "You may think that is a joke, but I tell you there are
more shady mix-ups in a concern like that than in courts of law. I'll bet
I'll be called on to trace parentage and establish property rights and
relationships before the year is up."
"Nobody could do it better," smiled Mary Louise. "Now I am going to
stop in and have a little talk with Uncle Peter Conant at his office and
then I'm going around and tell dear old Dr. Weston that as far as I am
concerned he can move his Children's Home to the Hathaway house
tomorrow. That is, if Uncle Peter doesn't object." Josie offered to meet
her at the Children's Home and Mary Louise gladly accepted.
Uncle Peter didn't object. To the contrary he seemed vastly pleased
with the prospect of some young neighbors.
"'Twill do Hannah good and no doubt she will turn our house into a
kind of annex. Go ahead, my dear, and invest your money in something
where moth and rust will not corrupt and where thieves will not break
through and steal."
"Oh, Uncle Peter, I am so glad to hear you say that. I haven't any blood

kin to go to for advice and Danny always says for me to do exactly
what I want to do, which is bad for my character. It might make me
very conceited to have him always insist that I'm right just because I
want to do something."
"Well, well! The young rascal is right," laughed Mr. Conant.
"But do you think Grandpa Jim would approve of what I am doing?"
"Surely he would. I haven't a doubt if you had not been in existence he
would have done much the same sort of thing with his fortune. Jim
Hathaway was a powerful charitable man."
Mary Louise then went to see Dr. Weston at his office in the dingy
little building that housed the Children's Home Society. The old man
slept on a bumpy couch in the corner of his office. He had been
assigned a bedroom in the house, but the association had grown beyond
its quarters and the devoted doctor had long ago given up his room as
an overflow dormitory for the constantly increasing number of little
children who were sent to the home to be kept there until some kind
person saw fit to adopt them.
Dr. Weston's life had been dedicated to social work and now in his old
age the thing which interested him most and to which he gave all his
strength and time was the placing of unfortunate children in good
homes. It was through his labor and influence the Children's Home
Society had been established and struggled for existence. He was
hampered in his work by an unwieldy board of women managers, but
he realized the importance of having a large board, because the more
persons interested the more money it was possible to raise for his pet
charity. At the time of Mary Louise's call funds were very low, so low
that it seemed as though the society might have to close its hospitable
doors to the homeless waifs and the present inmates be parceled out to
the various orphan asylums. The board was to meet that very day. Dr.
Weston always dreaded a board meeting. There were some fine, noble
women on his board, but also some interfering busy-bodies, who were
always starting disagreeable discussions, such as how much sugar a
little child should be allowed and how important it was that vanity

should not be encouraged in the girls.
Business and finance were not Dr. Weston's strong points. His only
idea was to gather in the little children and give them a home in the
society until better homes could be found for them. He wanted to make
the place as little like an institution as possible, but several members of
the board were for unrelenting law and prison order.
The old man sat with his head in