er," continued her mother in the same dejected
voice; "she doesn't care for ribbons, and she's not old enough for
sweethearts. I do think it's not acting right of Mrs Leigh to go and
entice her away."

"If here isn't Mr Snell coming in alonger Pa," said Agnetta, craning
her neck to see out of the window. "He's sure to stay to tea." She
immediately drew her chair up to the table and helped herself largely to
jam.

"And of all evenings in the week I wish he hadn't chosen this," said
Mrs Greenways. "Poking and meddling in other folks' concerns. Now
mind this, girls,--don't you let on as if I wanted to keep Lilac, or was
sorry she's going. Do you hear?"

It did not at first appear, however, that this warning was necessary,
for Joshua said no word of Lilac or her affairs; he seemed fully
occupied in drinking a great deal of tea and discussing the events of
the neighbourhood with the farmer, and it was not till the end of his
meal that he looked round the table enquiringly, and asked the dreaded
question.

"And what's Lilac settled to do about going?"

"You know as much about that as we do, Mr Snell," replied Mrs
Greenways loftily.

"There's no doubt," continued the cobbler, fixing his eye upon her, "as
how Mrs Leigh's friend is going to get a prize in Lilac White. She's
only a child, as you once said, ma'am, but I know what her upbringing
was: `As the twig is bent, the tree's inclined'. There's the making of
a thorough good servant in her. Well worth her wages she'll be."

"She's been worth more to us already than ever I knew of, or counted on,
till lately," put in the farmer. "Just now, I met Benson, and says he:
`You're losing your dairymaid by what I hear, and I can but wish you as
good a one.'"

"That's not so easy," said Joshua, shaking his head. "Good workers
don't grow on every bush. It's a pity, too, just when your butter was
getting back its name."

"I'd half a mind," said the farmer, "to offer the child wages to stop,
but then I thought it wouldn't be acting fair. She ought to have the
chance of bettering herself in a place like that. If she goes she's
bound to rise, and if she stays she won't, for I can't afford to give
her much."

"And what's your opinion, ma'am?" asked Joshua politely of Mrs
Greenways.

"Oh, it isn't worth hearing, Mr Snell," she replied with a bitter
laugh; "its too old-fashioned for these days. I should 'a thought Lilac
owed summat to us, but my husband don't see