strangers always take him for one. Perhaps you do not notice but I do that he has a lot of girlish ways from being so close to you and imitating you and your way of talking and acting. Besides he loves to be dressed as a girl, and I bet he would be glad to live as one to help you". I know he would want to help, but this is not just dressing up. He would have to be a girl every minute, perhaps for years if conditions do not pick up so I can move back here". "How do you know that wouldn't suit him. Harold tells me he wishes some- times that he was a real girl so he could do everything they do, and I am sure Jack feels that way too. him in andsee".

Call

So they called me in. Mother explained it to me, and said that she did not want me to say yes just to help her, as it would influence my whole life, and if I lived as a girl for years it would be very hard to change to a natural boy again. I said of course I liked being a boy, but played a lot with girls and liked them too and their ways, someways better than boys, that I loved being dressed, would be glad to wear skirts all the time. Then I said, "Mother it is the funniest thing, but ever since Mrs. Taylor dressed me in that white dress of Harolds I have felt that dresses are my proper clothes. When I look at the pants and shirt that I take off they seem to belong to some one that I know but not me. Maybe it is like you read about I was intended to be a girl but got the wrong body". I wouldn't say that, but you do make a natural looking girl. But there are dozens of little things that you do not know about how girls act and this Miss Elliott would be sure to notice something and wonder". "We can fix

"

"No

that too, Mrs. Taylor said. "Take him to my cottage

at the lake as soon as school is out for the long holi- days. Stay a month. You can explain that you have to get your furniture stored and the house rented before you can come to Miss Elliott. You know from last year that there are a lot of girls around there. He can live with them as a girl, swim with them and go to their parties and soon pick up enough to pass perfectly, we will both be there to teach him too".

So the great decision was made. Mother wrote Miss Elliott that she could not come till late August,

19.