all four went; it would be a little treat for Serry to look forward to,
and perhaps it would keep her good the rest of the time.

I thought afterwards Anne had been right, but I wouldn't agree with her
when she said it. I didn't want Serry at all; I wouldn't have minded
Maud, but I knew Serry would spoil it all. So I said to Anne it would
never do; they'd fidget or make a noise, and the lady who was playing
might hear us and be vexed, and it would be horrid to have any fuss in a
church, we might get scolded by the verger or possibly even the
clergyman,--what _would_ father and mother and gran think of such a
thing?

Anne gave in. But I gave in to her a bit too. She said it was much best
to make no mystery about it. Serry was as sharp as a needle about
mysteries, and she'd only set herself to find out. So that Thursday
morning at breakfast--the day nurse was to be away--I said quietly,
'Anne and I are going to church this evening for half an hour. Nurse,
please tell Serry that she and Maud may stay with Mrs. Parsley in her
kitchen while we're out.'

'Yes,' said nurse. 'You hear, Miss Serry and Miss Maud. It'll make a
little change for you.'

'I like being in Mrs. Parsley's kitchen for a while in the evening very
much, don't you, Serry?' said Maud.

But Serry did not answer. I think she pretended not to hear. Still she
couldn't make out now that she hadn't been properly told.

Well, with many charges and warnings, poor nurse set off. The red-eared
boy drove her to the station, and we ran over the fields by a short cut
to a stile on to the road, where we could see her pass, and there we
shouted out again all our messages to mums and Hebe--nurse couldn't
possibly have remembered all the things we told her to say, and it
didn't matter certainly, considering we were going to see them the very
next day.

The first part of the afternoon we got on all right. We'd had dinner
earlier than usual, so that nurse should be in time for the train, and
after she was fairly off we went out into the woods with baskets to get
all the flowers we could for mums and Hebe--I mean to make the rooms
look nice for them.

There weren't very many, for of course the spring flowers were over, and
it was too early for the regular summer ones. Besides, the spring is
always the best time for flowers that grow in the woods. Still we got
some, pretty nice, and some trails of ivy and these pretty reddy leaves
that you can find most of the year. A