st.

"You're kindly welcome, my dear; that is, if you'll excuse my hair
being in curl-papers. Dear me, now!" Mrs. Benny regarded Hester with
a look of honest perplexity. "And I was expectin' an older-lookin'
person altogether!"

Hester followed her into a kitchen which, though untidy and dim,
struck her as more than passably clean; and it crossed her mind at
once that its cleanliness must be due to Nuncey and its untidiness to
Mrs. Benny. The dimness was induced by a crowd of geraniums in the
window and a large bird-cage blocking out the light above them.
A second large bird-cage hung from a rafter in the middle of the
ceiling.

"And you've been travellin' all night? You must be pinin' for a dish
of tea."--

But here a voice screamed out close to Hester's ear--

"What's your name? What's your name? Oh, rock and roll me over,
what's your darned name?"

"Hester Marv--" she had begun to answer in a fright, when Nuncey
broke out laughing.

"Don't 'ee be afraid of 'en--'tis only the parrot;" and Hester
laughed too, recovering herself at sight of a grey and scarlet bird
eyeing her with angry inquisitiveness from the cage over Mrs. Benny's
head. Her gaze wandered apprehensively to the second cage by the
window.

"Oh, _he_ won't speak!" Nuncey assured her. "He's only a cat."

"A cat?"

"Iss. He ate the last parrot afore this one, and I reckon he died of
it. Father had 'en stuffed and put 'en in the cage instead. Just go
and look for yourself; he's as natural as life."

"I was thinkin' a ham rasher," suggested Mrs. Benny, with her kindly,
unsettled smile. "Nuncey, will you hold the baby, or shall I?"

"You give me the frying-pan," commanded Nuncey, turning up her
sleeves. "What's the matter with _you_, Robert Burns? And what's
become of your manners?" she demanded of the urchin who had followed
them in from the passage, and now stood gripping Hester's skirts and
gazing up at her, as she in turn gazed up at the absurd cat in the
parrot's cage.

"What great eyes she've got!" exclaimed Robert Burns in an
awe-stricken voice.

"'All the better to see you with,'" quoted Hester, laughing and
looking down on him.

"That's in _Red Riding Hood_. She knows about stories!" The child
clapped his hands.

"Well," put in Mrs. Benny, seating herself with a sigh as the ham rasher
began to frizzle, "you may say what you like about education, but mothers
ought to thank the Lord for it. Sometimes, as 'tis, I f