hings were washed or the beds made) she had slipped on one of Dot's picturesque poppy-trimmed hats and declared

g and plotting, daddie darling, the sweetest

of its blooms, drooping on the pebbly path for a careless foot to crush,-all for the want of a few tacks and little shreds of cloth.

le paradise to her. "The roses must be clipped, the violets must be thinned, the carnations must be staked. And

and it was Monday morning-the very morning for forming and carrying out good plans and resolutions! Meals wanted cooking, cupboards

tchen window, past the passion-fruit creeper and the white magnolia tree, past the tiny swe

Dot. She had four plates for her breakfast-I only had one

thought wielded the tea-towel and attacked the trayful of cu

at arrested her. It cam

hing up a few cups and spoons-pooh! How'd you like t

t would never do, she told herself, to assist Betty and leav

, in the frequent intervals that occurred in the doing of her hair, frolicking about the smal

will take baby into the garden. Button your shoes and ask Betty to see that

s, and telling her, as she had told them all, from Dorothy down

ld apple tree, and left her to play with her toes and fing

e, Baby on

put, there y

ortable feeling, of having done wha

his beloved book-which was almost half-completed. It had reached that stage several ti

something that would bring in a quick return. For Dot's school fees would be due very shortly, and he

Bruce frequently put it, Dot was the eldest and was ve

his manuscript, rolled them up with t

of his wife, kneeling on the path, and making a littl

as he said it, and young and fresh hearted, just b

aking a pudding," she said, scr

er where you are,

undress, and a housemaid. Oh, and a nursemaid, t

before, but the face that the little author too

nts," he said, "servants an

rie. He had come beneath the stud

I'm going on for thirteen," he said. "Bert

himself that most men would have been more libe

ce round and r

said. "I must put my book away, and g

turned her face to the wicket gate. He could hear that she was crying in a miserable

dow sill to her. But she did not hear him

is head, and his school-bag over his shoulders, and Betty with her boots unlaced, a white bonne

il was saying grumblingly. "I know I'd have

their father, leaning over the window

," said Betty easily. "She always

ncy hurrying and crying, Cy

y morning come exactly ri

s gate, to lace her boots, and Cyril went gru

king under her arm as she bent over her boot, she beheld three figures w

and Fay!" s

apparently about Betty's age, and one Nancy's. Their dresses were white and spotless, and reached almost to their knees; their hats were flat shady thing

nurse, and sometimes in a carriage with a lady who invariably wore beautiful hats and dresses. Sometimes,

et and newspaper parcel in the other, and in a trice had squeezed herself under h

f as she watched them. How beautiful they were. How dainty! Betty looked down at her own old boots, old stockin

didn't see me!" she

enclosure and that one great bird was bearing curiously towards her already; the other, that her grandfather was the one who had called

her waved an

"If you come here again,

st before the emu reached her, and once m