Kitty Trenire

and clasping her knees, "why I woke with a feeling that something d

ching herself luxuriously in her little b

er. "If your letter doesn't make her come by the very first train, it will only be bec

herself, and looked across at her sister. "Kitty, you don't really mean that? Oh no, of course you do

he doesn't come-oh, it'll be perfectly lovely; and if she does-well, we will get all the fun we can beforehand, and after, too, of

important point, for according to him

what would be simply lovely. Let's spend the day in Wenmere Woods, and take our l

Kitty; "just what Mrs. H

ways gives us; we will have fried ham and eggs as w

e have money enough. I w

tty," she said peremptorily. "We've got to do everything right to-day, and be very punctual at meals, and very tidy and all that sort of thing, s

"Aunt Pike is sure to tell; b

he mud dropped on his plate; but, of course, this is different-there is n

ly. "Honour bright, though, Betty, I really would tell

Kitty's sponge and bath-towel before departing to the

sitting on the side of her bed, and still in her night-gown. Hearing Betty's returning f

year after year, all my life through, I shall have to get up in the mor

p'r'aps you'll be a bed-lier like Jane Trebilcock, an

't say I didn't want dresses and things. I do. I want lots

e of any form of suffering or unpleasantness-"but I try to make it a little different every day, to help me on. Sometimes I pretend the bath is the

, dirty little thing!" cr

d. "I've known you not wash

t was only once when I forgo

You are not cleaner because you forget to wash

akfast-gong sounded through the house. "I haven't begun to dress,

away at her tangle of curls with a comb, and scattering

accidents," snapped Kitty. "It

d she could have done it in that time, if Dan had not had possession of the bathroom, and

en the charge was brought against her, "for I ha

igned air. "What is the matter, children? Haven't we bath-towels enough to go round? Kitty, you shoul

ar her. Kitty felt too dismayed to speak; there was something so final in her

ous morning after the storm. You ought to be out as much as possible, all of

nity, but it very frequently happened that when she arrived she was told that the children had gone out for the day, or even oftener a little

another, was against it; he said he thought that after all it was a bit sneaky and underhand, and he wasn't going to have any more of it. Betty felt the foundations of her world shake, and life bristle

food to take with us for our dinner, and then we will go to the farm for tea, and come home in time for supper. W

urning to the room just in time to hear

er exploring the woods, and catching beetles and minnows, and pa

of the woods or anything else. I have a long round in the morning, a

ead is all bandaged. I will go, father; I'd love to drive you." And she meant i

last night to have a look at the wound, and when he saw what a little bit of a place it was, he made up his mind he wasn't going about with his head tied up for people to poke fu

ley was gone. Emily was in a good temper too. The prospect of being free from the children all day, and of having no meals to get for them till supper, quite cheered her. She even, without being asked, cut them some sandwiches, filled a bottle with milk, and produced a store of a

e house, "only the worst of it is you never know when they are going to be.

said Tony, who had been puzzling himself for some minutes to know how to expres

ad begun to read Shakespeare, and was full of quotations. "It is rather like living i

ven Aunt Pike and darling Anna, on such a glorious day as this," cried Kitty joyfully. "

ttle, which had come to grief within the first twenty yards. Then on they went again, past more cottages and sundry turnings, until at last they reached a curious old rough-and-tumble wharf on one side of the road, where the coal which had been brought by train was piled up in great stacks for the coalmen to take round present

d up and down the seven miles which lay between Gorlay and Wenbridge. It seemed a limited sphere, but only to the ignorant, who knew nothing of her services to the dwellers by the roadside, the parcels she delivered, the boots she took to be mended and restored again to their owners, th

hind Dan and Kitty, on the farther side of the road, grew a high hawthorn hedge, under the shelter of which was a seat where people sat and sunned themselves by the hour, and at the same time gazed at the life and bustle with which the wharf woke up now and then. There were t

all reach the woods before they do, if we walk on," he said

he railway line until it emerged through some allotment gardens on to the open road, after which, for a while, train and foot passengers, and sometimes a drover, with a herd of cattle, meandered along side by side in pleasant talk or lively dispute-the latter

pure blue, and the larks were singing rapturously; the sun shone brilliantly, drawing out the smell of the tar from the "sleepe

ran in a never-failing stream along one side of the way, past the gardens of the cottages, from which at one time a root or maybe a seed only of the "monkey plant" had been thrown, and takin

ted its powers by bathing their eyes; but to-day, as they stooped over it, a weird shriek in the distance brought them to their feet again. Then cam

. "She is coming! Here's

est is not an ideal vessel from which to throw water over a flying foe. The larger share of it Dan received in his own shoes amidst the derisive laughter of his two intende

ey had let the men alone, but at the same moment began to wond

y were all rather tired and distinctly hungry, but they were never too tired or hungry to be roused to enthusiasm by the sight that met them there. No mere words can depict the charm and beauty of Wenmere Woods. No one can thoroughly appreciate them who has not actually seen them. No one who has seen them can forget them

, up, and up, and up, until to all seeming they met the sky. Delicate, feathery larches and quivering birches they were for the most part, and here and there, underneath their spreading branches, were open spaces carpeted with wind-flowers and bluebells, primroses and wild orchids, while ferns, large

woods the artist had depicted. There could be no others like them. Here Enid rode with Launcelot by her side; on that silvery beach, where the old bleached tree trunk lay as it mus

were only sleeping somewhere, waiting for some spell to be removed. She was sure of it, as sure as she was that King Arthur sat sleeping in his hidden cave, spellbound until some one, brave and good and strong enough, should find him and blow a huge blast o

with the sunlight gleaming through the trees and flashing on the water, and on her other hand would ride Dan in shining armour, a second Sir Galahad. She saw herself a wom

nd saw it all as plainly as though it were then happening. She saw the graceful steeds, richly caparisoned, daintily picking their way throug