of poetry, and no doubt some of the earliest poems of young Mr.
Tennyson were among their favourites, as well as 'Lycidas' and the
songs of the cavaliers. Parthy was a better artist and a cleverer
musician than Florence, though _she_ could sing and sketch; but both
were good needlewomen, and could make samplers as well as do fine work
and embroidery. When school-time was over and the rain was still coming
down, they would run away to their dolls, who, poor things, were always
ill, so that Florence might have the pleasure of curing them. And though
before Cap's accident she had never heard of a compress, she could make
nice food for them at the nursery fire, and bandage their broken arms
and legs while Parthy held the wounded limb steady.

* * * * *

When they grew older, they went abroad now and then with their parents,
but Florence liked best being at home with her friends in the village,
who were very proud of her wishing to take their pictures with her new
photographic camera. If they had only known it, the children in their
best clothes standing up very stiff and straight did not look half as
pretty as the baskets of kittens with eyes half-innocent, half-wise, or
the funny little pups, so round and fat. But the parents thought the
portraits of their children the most beautiful things in the world, and
had them put into hideous gilt frames and hung on the walls, where
Florence could see them on her frequent visits.

Welcome as she was to all, it was the sick people who awaited her coming
the most eagerly. She was so quiet in her movements, and knew so exactly
what to do without talking or fussing about it, that the invalids grew
less restless in her presence, and believed so entirely that she really
_could_ cure them that they were half cured already! Then before she
left she would read them 'a chapter' or a story to make them laugh, or
anything else they wished for; and it was always a pleasure to listen to
her, for she never stammered, or yawned, or lost her place, or had any
of the tricks that often make reading aloud a penance to the victim.

For the young people both in Derbyshire and Hampshire she formed singing
classes, and some of her 'societies' continue to-day. She was full of
interest in other people's lives, and not only was _ready_ to help them
but _enjoyed_ doing so, which makes all the difference.

* * * * *

There is much nonsense tal