Patty and Azalea | Page 8

wonder-child,--oh, I know 'em!--and I hereby constitute myself her
godfather, without waiting to be asked."
"Good! We accept the honour. Make a bow, Fleurette."
"No, the honour is mine. She doesn't quite take it all in, yet,--but in
days to come, she may feel real need of a godfather and I'll be there!"
"What do godfathers do? I never had any."
"I'm not quite sure, myself. I'm going to get a field-book,--or First
Lessons in Godfathering, or something like that. But, anyway, I'm hers!
Oh, Patty, she's going to grow up a beauty! Did you ever see such
eyes!"
Patty laughed at Chick's enthusiasm, which was too patently genuine to
be mere polite flattery, and entirely agreed in his opinion as to the good
looks of the small Fleurette.
"What did you bring her?" she asked, and Chick drew from his pocket a
set of small gold pins.
"For her bibs and tuckers," he explained. "At least that's what they told
me at the shop. I don't know much about such things."

"They're just right," Patty said, "and they're her very first
present,--outside the family. Thank you a thousand times,--you're very
thoughtful, Chick."
"I hoped you'd like 'em," and the big, warm-hearted chap smiled with
gratification. "Dress her up in them to-morrow, will you?"
And Patty promised she would.
CHAPTER III
BETTY GALE
Seated at the head of her own dinner table that evening, Patty felt
decidedly in her element. Always of a hospitable nature, always
efficient in household matters, she played her rôle of hostess with a
sweet simplicity and a winning grace that charmed all her guests.
Farnsworth, opposite her at the big, round table, was a quiet, dignified
and well-mannered host. He had not Patty's native ability to entertain,
but he was honestly anxious that his guests should be pleased and he
did all in his power to help along. Patty had coached him on many
minor points, for Little Billee had been brought up in simple
surroundings and unaccustomed to what he at first called Patty's frills
and fal-lals.
But she had convinced him that dainty laces and shining silver were to
be used for his daily fare and not merely as "company fixings," and
being adaptable, the good-natured man obediently fell in with her
wishes.
And now he was as deft and handy with his table appointments as Patty
herself, and quite free from self-consciousness or awkwardness.
"You've made me all over, Patty," he would sometimes say; "now, I
really like these dinky doo-daddles better than the 'old oaken bucket'
effects on which I was brought up!"

And then Patty would beg him to tell her more about his early days and
his wild Western life in the years before she knew him.
It was her great regret that Bill had no parents, nor indeed any near
relatives. An only child, and early orphaned, he had lived a few years
with a cousin and then had shifted for himself. A self-made man,--as
they are styled,--he had developed fine business ability, and had also
managed to acquire a familiarity with the best in literature. Patty was
continually astonished by his ready references and his quotations from
the works of the best authors.
Indeed, the room he took the deepest interest in furnishing in their new
home was the library.
For the purpose he selected the largest room in the house. It had been
designed as a drawing-room or ballroom; but Farnsworth said that its
location and outlook made it an ideal library. He had an enormous
window cut, that filled almost the whole of one side of the room, and
which looked out upon a beautiful view, especially at sunset.
Then the furnishings were chosen for comfort and ease as well as
preserving the dignified effect that should belong to a library. The book
cases were filled with the books already owned by the two and new
ones were chosen and bought by degrees as they were desired or
needed.
The reference portion was complete and the cases devoted to poetry
and essays well filled. Fiction, too, of the lasting kind, and delightful
books of travel, biography and humour.
There were reading chairs, arranged near windows and with handy
tables; there were desks, perfectly appointed; racks of new books and
magazines; portfolios of pictures, and cosy window seats and
tête-à-têtes.
There were a few fine pictures, and many little intimate sketches by
worth-while pencils or brushes. And there were treasured books,
valuable intrinsically or because of their inscriptions, that Farnsworth

had collected here and there.
Small wonder, then, that the library was the favourite room in the house
and that after dinner Patty proposed they go there for their coffee.
"Some room!" ejaculated Chick Channing, as they sauntered in and
stood about, gazing at the wealth of books.
"Glorious!"