BERTHA, 69

_ party dress, and stepped down-stairs in her pink slippers, she
- looked so bright and wore such a look of blissful content, that
Aunt Joanna kissed her again and again.

Such a lovely evening it was, and the little girl felt so
at her ease, and was naturally so witty and funny, that she
became a great favorite, and began friendships that evening
which lasted all her life.

That was the beginning of a change in Bertha’s life, for
Aunt Joanna persuaded her grandmother to allow her to go to
school, since Miss Long’s health was failing; and the little
girl spent many a Saturday and Sunday with Aunt Joanna,
taking back with her such freshness and happiness into her
own home that her grandmother gradually relaxed her ideas
of severity, until she really was quite like other people. Aunt
Joanna had much to do with it, for she insisted upon some
radical changes, yet in such a sweet way that grandmamma
felt flattered by being asked to make them. She is a dear
grandmamma, Bertha says, and tells her she grows sweeter as
she grows older, so grandnamma allows white dresses and an
occasional frivolous time with smiling consent.