ery gently but
decidedly suggesting that they should come down.

"Pink!" said he, "this may do for mamma and you, but it is very poor
entertainment for me. Come! leave that, and eat your strawberries, and
let us go on the lawn. The sun will do now."

Matilda felt that this was reasonable, and she put by her own
gratification. Nevertheless her eyes and eyelashes were all glittering
when she lifted them up.

"What has mamma done to you?" said Norton, wondering. "Here, Pink, do
you like strawberries?"

"If you please, Norton," said Matilda, "couldn't I have them another
time? I don't want them now."

"Then they may wait till we have done playing," said Norton; "and then
I'll have some too. Now come."

The great trees cast a flickering shadow on the grass before the house.
Norton planted his hoops and distributed colours, and presently
Matilda's sober thoughts were driven as many ways as the balls; and
_they_ went very widely indeed.

"You must take _aim_, Matilda?" Norton cried.

"At what?"

"Why, you must learn at what; that's the game. You must fight; just as
I fight you. You ought to touch my ball now, if you can. I don't
believe you can. You might try."

Matilda tried, and hit it. The game went on prosperously. The sun got
lower, and the sunbeams came more scattering, and the breeze just
stirred over the lawn, not enough to bend the little short blades of
grass. Mrs. Laval's visitors went away, and she came out on the
verandah to look at the children; they were too much engaged to look at
her. At last the hard-fought battle came to an end. Norton brought out
another plate of strawberries for himself along with Matilda's, and the
two sat down on the bank under the locust trees to eat them. The sun
was near going down beyond the mountains by this time, and his setting
rays changed the purple mist into a bath of golden haze.

"How nice and cold these are," said Matilda.

"They have been in the ice. That makes things cold," observed Norton.

"And being warm one's self makes them seem colder," said Matilda.

"Why, are you warm, Pink?"

"Yes, indeed. I have had to fight you so hard, you know."

"You did very well," said Norton, in a satisfied tone.

"Norton, how pretty it all is to-night."

Norton ate strawberries.

"Very different from Lilac Lane," said Matilda, looking at the china
plate in her hand, on which the painting was very fine and delicate.

"Rather different," said Norton.

"Norton,--I