don't you see? And he is always grumbling about our being such a
dreadful expense."

"Mr. Runciman is horrid!" burst out Ducky, giving Nealie another hug. "I
just hate him when he says nasty things to you, Nealie."

"Of course we are an expense to him, especially when dear Father is not
able to send enough money to keep us, and we have all got such big
appetites," said Nealie, with a sigh.

"I am hungry now, dreadfully hungry," put in Billykins from the rear.

"Shall we go to see Mr. Runciman to-morrow?" asked Rumple.

"We can't manage to get back before dark, I am afraid, and Mrs. Puffin
makes such a fuss if we are out after dark; just as if anyone would want
to run away with the seven of us," returned Nealie in a scornful tone.

"We can go in the morning, for the vicar is going to a Diocesan
Conference, and he has given us a holiday. He told me about it
to-night," said Rupert.

"That will be lovely. Then we will have Aunt Judith's chair for you and
Ducky, it will be just a jolly jaunt for us; only we must be at The
Paddock early, to catch Mr. Runciman before he goes out," said Nealie.

"I would rather walk----" began Ducky, with a touch of petulance in her
voice, but Nealie stopped her quickly with a whisper:

"You must ride, darling, or Rupert won't have the chair, and a long walk
does take it out of him so badly you know."

"If we have the chair, Don and I will be the horses, and we will go down
Coombe Lane at a gallop," said Billykins, with a festive prance.

"That will be perfectly lovely, only Rupert will have to hold me tightly
or I shall be tossed out at the turn, and I might damage my nose again,"
replied Ducky, with a gleeful chuckle.

By this time they had reached Beechleigh, and turning short across the
green by the pond they tramped in at the gate of the funny little house
where their great-aunt, Miss Judith Webber, had lived and died, and
which was the only home they had known since Ducky was a tiny babe.

Mrs. Puffin, a lean little widow of mouldy aspect, opened the door to
let them in and exclaimed loudly to see how damp they were.

"Now you will all be catching colds, and I shall have to nurse you," she
said in a woebegone tone, as she felt them all round. "If you must go
out in the wet in this fashion, why can't you take umbrellas?"

"Because we haven't got them," answered Nealie, with a laugh. She mostly
laughed about their limitations, because it made them just a little
easier to bea