th hands, and exclaimed, "Harriet is in her vapours; come, let us have
a race!"

She was instantly careering along like a white butterfly in the
sunshine, flitting on as the child tried to catch her, among the snowy
hawthorn bushes, or sinking down for very joy and delight among the bank
of wild hyacinths. Life and free motion were joy and delight enough for
that happy being with her childish heart, and the serious business of
the day was all delight. There lay the rich meadows basking in the sun,
and covered with short grass just beginning its summer growth, but with
the cowslips standing high above it; hanging down their rich clusters of
soft, pure, delicately-scented bells, from their pinky stems over their
pale crinkled leaves, interspersed here and there with the deep purple
of the fool's orchis, and the pale brown quiver-grass shaking out its
trembling awns on their invisible stems. No flower is more delightful
to gather than the cowslip, fragrant as the breath of a cow. And
Aurelia darted about, piling the golden heap in her basket with untiring
enjoyment; then, producing a tape, called on Harriet, who had been
working in a more leisurely fashion, to join her in making a cowslip
ball, and charged Eugene not to nip off the heads too short.

The sweet, soft, golden globe was made, and even Harriet felt the
delicious intoxication. The young things tossed it aloft, flung from
one to the other, caught it, caressed it, buried their faces in it, and
threw it back with shrieks of glee.

Suddenly Harriet checked her sister with a peremptory sign. She heard
horse-hoofs in the lane, divided from the field by a hedge of pollard
willows, so high that she had never thought of being overlooked, till
the cessation of the trotting sound struck her; and looking round she
saw that a horseman had halted at the gate, and was gazing at their
sports. It was from the distance of a field, but this was enough to
fill Harriet with dismay. She drew herself up in a moment, signing
peremptorily to Aurelia, who was flying about, her hat off, her one long
curl streaming behind as she darted hither and thither, evading Eugene
who was pursuing her.

As she paused, and Eugene clutched her dress with a shout of ecstasy,
Harriet came up, glancing severely toward the gate, and saying, as she
handed her sister the hat, "This comes of childishness! That we should
be seen thus! What a hoyden he will think you!" as the hoofs went on and
the red coat