"My milk!" screamed Mrs. Blair. "A whole can full!"

"Was it ordered?" Bob asked, who by this time had gotten Tavia from under the shower.

"No," she said hesitatingly, "but someone would have took it for Christmas bakin'."

"Then let us have it," offered Bob, generously. "If I had kept my seat perhaps it would not have happened."

"Nonsense," objected Tavia, "it was entirely Daddy's fault."

But Daddy did not hear-he was busy trying to save the dregs in the milk can.

"What's it worth?" persisted Bob.

"Two dollars," replied Mrs. Blair, promptly.

Bob put his hand in his pocket and took out two bills. He handed them to the woman.

"There," he said, "it will be partly a Christmas present. I only hope my-friend's furs will not be ruined."

"Milk don't hurt," Mrs. Blair said, without reason. "Thank you, sir," she added to Bob. "This is better than ten that's comin'. And land knows we needed it to-night."

"I've lost time enough," growled Daddy. "And that robe is spoiled. Next time I carry milk cans I'll get a freight car."

"And the next time I take a milk beauty bath," said Tavia, "I'll wear old clothes." But as Bob climbed in again, and Tavia a.s.sured him her furs were not injured, she thought of Dorothy's prediction that she, Tavia, was about to have an adventure when she met Bob Niles.

"I'll have something to tell Dorothy," she remarked aloud.

"And I'll have news for Nat," slily said Bob.

CHAPTER V DOROTHY'S PROTEGE

"Well, what do you think of that!"

"Well, what do you think of this!"

It was Nat who spoke first, and Dorothy who echoed. They were both looking at letters-from Tavia and from Bob.

"I knew Bob would find her interesting," said Nat, with some irony in his tone.

"And I knew she would finally like him," said Dorothy, significantly.

"Bob has a way with girls," went on Nat, "he always takes them slowly-it's the surest way."

"But don't you think Tavia is very pretty? Everyone at school raves about her," Dorothy declared with unstinted pride, for Tavia's golden brown hair, and matchless complexion, were ever a source of pride to her chum.

"Of course she's pretty," Nat agreed. "Wasn't it I who discovered her?"

Dorothy laughed, and gave a lock of her cousin's own brown hair a twist.

She, as well as all their mutual friends, knew that Nat and Tavia were the sort of chums who grow up together and cement their friendship with the test of time.

"Come to think of it," she replied, "you always did like red-headed girls."

"Now there's Mabel," he digressed, "Mabel has hair that seems a misfit-she has blue eyes and black hair. Isn't that an error?"

"Indeed," replied Dorothy, "that is considered one of the very best combinations. Rare beauty, in fact."

"Well, I hope she is on time for the Christmas-tree affair out at Sanders's, whatever shade her hair. I don't see, Doro, why you insist on going away out there to put things on that tree. Why not ask the Sunday School people to trim it? We gave the tree."

"Because I promised, Nat," replied Dorothy, firmly, "and because I just like to do it for little Emily. I got the very doll she ordered, and Aunt Winnie got me a lot of pretty things this morning."

"Wish momsey would devote her charity to her poor little son," said the young man, drily. "He is the one who needs it most!"

"Never mind, dear," and Dorothy put her arms around him, "you shall have a dolly, too."

"Here's Ned," he interrupted, "I wonder if he got my skates sharpened? I asked him, but I'll wager he forgot."

The other brother, a few years Nat's senior, pulled off his furlined coat, and entered the library, where the cousins were chatting.

"Getting colder every minute," he declared. "We had better take the cutter out to Sanders's-that is, if Doro insists upon going."

"Of course I do," Dorothy cried. "I wouldn't disappoint little Emily for anything. Funny how you boys have suddenly taken a dislike to going out there."

"Now don't get peevish," teased Ned. "We will take you, Coz, if we freeze by the wayside."

"Did you get my skates?" Nat asked.

"Not done," the brother replied. "Old Tom is busy enough for ten grinders. Expect we will have a fine race."

"And I can't get in shape. Well, I wish I had taken them out to Wakefield's. He would have had them done days ago. But if we are going to Sanders's, better get started. I'll call William to put the cutter up."

"Here come Ted and Mabel now. They're sleighing, too," exclaimed Dorothy.

"Won't we have a jolly party!"

"That's a neat little cutter," remarked Ned, glancing out of the window.

"And Mabel does look pretty in a red-what do you call that Scotch cap?"

"Tam o'Shanter," Dorothy helped out. "Yes, it is very becoming. But Neddie, dear?" and her voice questioned.

"Oh, I don't know," he replied indifferently. "Mabel was always kind of-witchy. I like that type."

"And Ted is-so considerate," Dorothy added with a mock sigh. "I do wonder how Bob and Tavia are getting along?"

"Probably planning suicide by this time-I say planning, you know, not executing. It would be so nice for a boy as good as Bob to be coerced into some wild prank by the wily Tavia."

"She did not happen, however, to lead you into any," retorted Dorothy, "and I take it you are a 'good boy'."