Audrey the box of cakes she had been
unpacking. "I suppose it comes from being the eldest. Everyone seems to
expect the eldest to do things, and--and so I have got into the way of
doing them as a matter of course. I am awfully sorry, Audrey, it was a
great cheek of me."

But Audrey scarcely heard what she was saying, for she was thinking that
no one went to her to have things done for them. No one seemed to expect
anything of her.

"I suppose they think I am not able--but, at any rate, I can take cakes
out of a box and arrange them on a plate." And while trying her hardest
to make the dishes look as attractive as possible she grew less unhappy
and more in tune with everything.

"Oh, how pretty," said Faith, coming to her with the teapot in one hand
and a packet of tea in the other. "Audrey, will you measure out the tea.
I don't know a bit how much to put in for such a lot of us."

Here was something expected of her, at any rate. She should have felt
elated at being again appealed to, but she only looked vaguely from Faith
to Irene and back again. "Neither do I," she confessed at last.

Irene counted heads on her fingers. "Nine," she reckoned, "two real
kiddies, two ex-kiddies,"--fixing her eyes on Keith and Daphne.
Daphne threw a tuft of heather at her, "one--two--three----"

"Flappers," interrupted Keith derisively.

"Grown-ups," finished Irene, ignoring him, "and two real grown-ups who
like their tea strong. I should think half-a-dozen teaspoonsful would do.
If we haven't tea enough to go round, Keith and Daphne shall drink hot
water; it will be so good for their complexion."

"What gratitude! after we have slaved so over the fire and boiling the
kettle and all," cried Keith indignantly.

"What is the 'all'? Don't say that you have boiled anything more than the
water."

But the discussion was put an end to by the kettle, which boiled over at
that moment, and the tea was made as Irene had decreed.

Then at last the whole party gathered round the table; the kittens,
revived by milk, played happily together on the grass. Nibbler sulked in
his basket and took sly bites at a handful of dandelion leaves when he
thought that no one was noticing him; but everyone else was happy, hungry,
and content. The fresh air gave them all such appetites that everything
they had to eat and drink seemed to be doubly good; the same beautiful air
and the sunshine sent their spirits soaring, and set everyone in the mo