ocently.

Meg laughed. "Oh, we couldn't have any servants. A woman came in the
morning. Papa dined at his club, and I managed for the boys and me. But,
oh dear, they do eat a lot, and joints are so dear. Sheep's heads and
things pall if you have them more than once a week. They're such a mixty
sort of meat, so gummy."

"_I_ can cook," Jan announced, then added humbly, "at least, I've been
to classes, but I don't get much practice. Cook isn't at all fond of
having me messing in her kitchen."

"It isn't the cooking that's so difficult," said Meg; "it's getting
things to cook. It's all very well for the books to say 'Take' this and
that. My experience is that you can never 'take' anything. You have to
buy every single ingredient, and there's never anything like enough. We
tried being fruitarians and living on dates and figs and nuts all
squashed together, but it didn't seem to come a bit cheaper, for the
boys were hungry again directly and said it was hog-wash."

"Was your papa a fruitarian too?" Fay asked.

"Oh, no, he can't play those tricks; he has to be most careful. He never
had his meals with us. Our meals would have been too rough for him. I
got him breakfast and afternoon tea. He generally went out for the
others."

Jan and Fay looked thoughtful.

* * * * *

Amelia Ross-Morton was a fair judge of character. When she consented to
take her husband's niece as a governess-pupil she had been dubious as to
the result. She very soon discovered, however, that the small red-haired
girl was absolutely trustworthy, that she had a power of keeping order
quite disproportionate to her size, that she got through a perfectly
amazing amount of work, and did whatever she was asked as a matter of
course. Thus she became a valuable factor in the school, receiving
nothing in return save her food and such clothes as Mrs. Ross-Morton
considered too shabby for her own wear.

At the end of the first year Meg ceased to receive any lessons. Her day
was fully occupied in teaching the younger and chaperoning the elder
girls. Only one stipulation did she make at the beginning of each
term--that she should be allowed to accept, on all reasonable occasions,
the invitations of Anthony Ross and his daughters, and she made this
condition with so much firmness that Anthony's cousin knew better than
to be unreasonably domineering, as was her usual habit. Moreover, though
it was against her principles to do any