fun of me all the time, but I told her if she hadn't gotten so smart- alecky, it would have been her that was taking toe lessons and not me, but of course, that didn't shut her up.

I'll never forget that Christmas, because it wasn't really Christmas at all. Mother caught influenza in London and never came home. Dad flew back to Boston and we had the funeral just eight days before Christmas. I think the saddest part was seeing him when he first came --he was so pale and looked so sad and didn't say anything for a long time, just held Ellen and me real tight. After the funeral, he and Grand- ma must have had a long talk, because they decided then that I was to go live with him in Illinois, and Ellen would stay with Grandma most of the time so that she could continue her lessons, and so on. Only, of course, it was the other way around. And the day after Christmas, it was Ellen who rode off with him, and me that stayed with Grandma. After they left, Grandma spent most of the day telling me all about the future, even including my debutant ball, which sounded exciting, but I knew it would never last that long. In fact, I didn't know which one would find out first-Dad or Grandma, that they each had the wrong kid.

But that didn't happen because there was a terrible blizzard in Ohio and both Dad and Ellen were killed so I was an orphan then. I'm sorry, but I just don't like remembering that Christmas. It wasn't funny -- but kind of odd — that when I finally went back to school, the teacher was reading a poem to the class about this guy whose twin brother dies

only somehow they bury the wrong one. Well, when she read that and everybody was laughing, I started in crying — and couldn't stop because all I could think about was Ellen being buried only it was my name. Finally the lady who ran the school took me home and Grandma put me to bed. The next morning she told me she thought it best I stay out of school for a while and a few weeks later, she decided we ought to go to Florida to help forget things.

We stayed in Florida for nearly a year—until the next fall. Anyway, when we went back to Boston, this time, I went to a different school, but it was a lot like the first. Grandma had insisted I keep up with my piano lessons, and she also had a tutor come in. One week during the summer though, we had to go to Chicago; Grandma sold our house and she packed everything up and shipped it all to Boston. When she was going through Dad's papers she found Ellen's birth certificate and she kept that apart. Later on, I figured she thought it was mine. Come to think of it, it was—now..

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