drive. Jan had given this room to the children because in summer they
could spend the whole day in its green-walled garden, quite safe and
shut in from every possibility of mischief. A sun-dial was in the
centre, and in one corner a fat stone cherub upheld a bath for the
birds. Daffodils were in bloom on the banks, and one small single tulip
of brilliant red. Jan went out and stood on the top step.

Long immunity from menace of any kind had made all sorts of little birds
extraordinarily bold and friendly. Even the usually shy and furtive
golden-crested wrens fussed in and out under the yew hedge quite
regardless of Jan.

Through an open window overhead came the sound of cheerful high voices,
and little Fay started to sing at the top of her strong treble:

Thlee mice went into a hole to spin,
Puss came by, and puss peeped in;
What are you doing, my littoo old men?
We're weaving coats for gentoomen.

"Is that what I've been doing?" thought Jan. "Weaving coats of many
colours out of happy dreams?" Were she and the children the mice, she
wondered.

Marauding cats had been kept away from Wren's End for over a hundred
years. "The little wrens that build" had been safe enough. But what of
these poor human nestlings?

"Shall I come and help loo to wind up loo thleds?" sang little Fay. "Oh,
no, Missis Pussy, you'd bite off our heads!" And Tony joined in with a
shout: "Oh, no, Missis Pussy, you'd bite off our heads."

The voices died away, the children were coming downstairs.

Jan drank three cups of tea and crumbled one piece of bread and butter
on her plate. The rest of the party were hungry and full of adventures.
Before she joined Earley little Fay had been to the village with Meg to
buy tape, and she had a great deal to say about this expedition. Meg saw
that something was troubling Jan, and wondered if Mr. Ledgard had given
her fresh news of Hugo. But Meg never asked questions or worried people.
She chattered to the children, and immediately after tea carried them
off for the usual washing of hands.

Jan went out into the hall; the door was open and the sunny spring
evening called to her. When she was miserable she always wanted to walk,
and she walked now; swiftly down the drive she went and out along the
road till she came to the church, which stood at the end of the village
nearest to Wren's End.

She turned into the churchyard, and up the broad pathway between the
graves to the west door.