4  THE GATE OF THE GIANT SCISSORS.



waiting for her to come home from school, and
trying to tell her by excited gestures, long
before she was within speaking distance, that
some one was in the parlor. The baby had on
his best plaid kilt and new tie, and the tired
little mother was sitting talking in the parlor,
an unusual thing for her. Joyce could see her-
self going up the path, swinging her sun-bonnet
by the strings and taking hurried little bites of
a big June apple in order to finish it before
going into the house. Now she was sitting on
the sofa beside Cousin Kate, feeling very awk-
ward and shy with her little brown fingers
clasped in this stranger's soft white hand.
She had heard that Cousin Kate was a very
rich old maid, who had spent years abroad,
studying music and languages, and she had
expected to see a stout, homely woman with
bushy eyebrows, like Miss Teckla Schaum,
who played the church organ, and taught
German in the High School.
  But Cousin Kate was altogether unlike Miss
Teckla.  She was tall and slender, she was
young-looking and pretty, and there was a
stylish air about her, from the waves of her
soft golden brown hair to the bottom of her