feeding
the poultry. And I want to learn to milk, if Ben'll teach me. And in
the spring I mean to try and get ever such a lot of early ducks."

"Well, I hate all that," said Agnetta. "Now, if I could choose I
wouldn't live on a farm at all. I'd have lots of servants, and silk
gownds and gold bracelets and broaches, and satting furniture, and a
carridge to drive in every day. An' I'd lie in bed ever so late in the
mornings and always do what I liked."

Time went on and Mrs Greenway's ankle got better, so that although
still lame she was able to hobble about with a stick, and find out
Molly's shortcomings much as usual. During her illness she had relied a
good deal on Lilac and softened in her manner towards her, but now the
old feeling of jealousy came back, and she found it impossible to praise
her for the excellence of the dairy-work. "I can't somehow bring my
tongue to it," she said to herself; "and the better she behaves the less
I can do it." One day the farmer came back from Lenham in a good
humour.

"Benson asked if we'd got a new dairymaid," he said to his wife; "the
butter's always good now. Which of 'em does it?"

"Oh," said Mrs Greenways carelessly, "the girls manage it between 'em,
and I look it over afore it goes."

Lilac heard it, for she had come into the room unnoticed, and for a
second she stood still, uncertain whether to speak, fixing a reproachful
gaze on her aunt. What a shame it was! Was this her reward for all her
patience and hard work? Never a word of praise, never even the credit
of what she did! On her lips were some eager angry words, but she did
not utter them. She turned and ran upstairs to her own little attic.
Her heart was full; she could see no reason for this injustice: it was
very, very hard. What would they do, she went on to think, if she left
the butter to Bella and Agnetta to manage between them? What would her
aunt say then?

Trembling with indignation she sat down on her bed and buried her face
in her hands. At first she was too angry to cry, but soon she felt so
lonely, with such a great longing for a word of comfort and kindness,
that the tears came fast. After that she felt a little better, rubbed
her eyes on her pinafore, and looked up at the small window through
which there streamed some bright rays of the afternoon sun. What was it
that lighted the room with such a glory? Not the sunshine alone. It
rested on something in the window, which stood o