ually crying too! What a
horrid, selfish, nasty wretch I am! I believe it's just as bad for you
as it is for me. There! I'm not going to say another word, and if I do,
please give me a smack. I'm ever so ashamed to have made my darling
little Mother cry!"

She got off the bed, and giving a hard scrub to her eyes, stuffed her
handkerchief back into her pocket with a determined air, as if the tears
went with it. All the same, her voice sounded choky, and there were such
bright drops glistening on Mrs. Hirst's eyelashes, that I think they
both felt it a welcome interruption when a loud tramping was suddenly
heard on the stairs, and four children burst tumultuously into the room:
a girl of eleven, two boys of nine and seven, and a younger girl of
about five years old.

"We ran all the way home from school," they cried. "We didn't wait a
single minute to talk to anybody. Oh! have you packed Patty's box
already? We did so want to watch you do it!"

"Go to the nursery, children," said Mrs. Hirst, "I cannot have your
meddlesome little fingers here. Robin, put down that hat immediately!
Wilfred, you're not to open that bag! No, Kitty, my pet, you mustn't
peep inside parcels. Milly, take them away, and make them wash their
hands. I didn't expect you all home so soon."

"I'll go with them, Mother," said Patty, taking the noisy four under her
elder sisterly wing, and escorting them to their own domain, where Mary,
the nurse, was endeavouring to attend to the baby, while at the same
time she restrained three-year-old Rowley from making acquaintance with
the interior of the coal box. "Did you give Miss Dawson my message,
Milly? You forgot? Oh, what a careless girl you are! I shall have to
write her a letter. No, it's no use your running back now. There
wouldn't be time before tea, it's almost ready."

Patty helped the children to put on pinafores and tidy their hair,
washed Rowley's hands, and seated him in his high chair at the table,
then made herself so useful in passing bread and butter, spreading jam,
and handing round mugs of milk, that Mary gave a heartfelt sigh of
regret.

"I simply don't know what we'll do without you when you've gone, Miss
Patty," she said dolefully.

"Oh! I wish I were going too!" cried Milly. "What lovely fun it would
be! Imagine having a gymnasium, and climbing poles, and walking on
planks. Muriel told me all about it when she was over here. She said she
learnt to swarm up a rope like sailors do