r. "The little boys had the last umbrella that we possess
to play at Bedouin tents with on Tuesday, and they had a sad accident
and broke three of its ribs, poor thing. But we shall not catch cold,
Mrs. Puffin, because we are all going straight to bed."

"But I am hungry," protested Billykins.

"I know, and so am I; but we will all have a big piece of seed cake when
we get into bed, and go to sleep to dream of big bowls of steaming
porridge with brown sugar on the top," said Nealie; and the vision
proved so alluring that all seven trooped up the dark stairs and crowded
into the small bedrooms, feeling quite cheerful in spite of tired
limbs, hunger, and the discomfort of damp clothes.

But their voices hushed, and a wistful look crept into their faces, as
they passed the door leading into Aunt Judith's empty bedroom. The old
lady had loved them so dearly, and they had given her love for love in
unstinted measure, so that now she was dead there was an awful blank in
their hearts and their lives.

Being very tired and very healthy, however, they went to sleep directly
they tumbled into bed; indeed Ducky could not keep awake long enough to
eat her cake, so Nealie laid it on the chair by the little girl's bed
for her to find when she opened her eyes in the morning.

Sleep was longer in coming to Nealie than to the others. She was older
than they were, and had been mother to them so long that she was apt to
be thinking out ways and means when she ought to have been asleep.

It would be too utterly delightful to go out to Australia and live with
her father. It was nearly seven years since she had seen him, and her
heart was always aching at the thought of his lonely exile.

If only Mr. Runciman would consent to their going! But would he?

"Well, it is of no use to worry and to wonder; we must just wait and
see. But I think when all seven of us go marching into that splendid
library of his at The Paddock, he will be so dismayed to see what a lot
of us there are, that he will be quite ready to take the very shortest
way of getting rid of the bother of looking after us," she said to
herself, with a soft little laugh which rippled through the dark room
and even made itself heard in the other room across the passage where
the four boys were sleeping; and Rupert, who had been having bad dreams
because his lame foot was hurting rather badly, smiled in his uneasy
slumber and straightway drifted off into a more profound repose,