kind too,' grandmamma went on.

'Yes,' I replied, but then I hesitated. Grandmamma wanted to find out
what I was thinking.

'You don't seem quite sure about it?' she said.

'Yes, grandmamma. She is a very kind girl, but she made me feel funny.
She has such a lot of brothers and sisters, and she says it must be so
dull to be only one. Grandmamma, is it dull to be only one?'

Grandmamma did not smile at my odd way of asking her what I could have
told myself, better than any one else. A little sad look came over her
face.

'I hope not, dear,' she answered. 'My little girl does not find her life
dull?'

I shook my head.

'I love you, grandmamma, and I love Kezia, but I don't know about "dull"
and things like that. I think Sharley thinks I'm a very stupid little
girl, grandmamma.'

And all of a sudden, greatly to dear granny's surprise and still more to
her distress, I burst into tears.

She led me back into the house, and was very kind to me. But she did not
say very much. She only told me that she was sure Sharley did not think
anything but what was nice and friendly about me, and that I must not be
a fanciful little woman. And then she sent me to Kezia, who had kept an
odd corner of her pastry for me to make into stars and hearts and other
shapes with her cutters, as I was very fond of doing. So that very soon
I was quite bright and happy again.

But in her heart granny was saying that it would be a very good thing
for me to have some companions of my own age, to prevent my getting
fanciful and unchildlike, and, worst of all, too much taken up with
myself.

A few days after that, grandmamma told me that the three Nestor girls
were coming twice a week to read French with her. I think I have said
already that grandmamma was very clever, very clever indeed, and that
she knew several foreign languages. She had been a great deal in other
countries when grandpapa was alive, and she could speak French
beautifully. So I wasn't surprised, and only very pleased when she told
me about Sharley and her sisters. For I was too little to understand
what any one else would have known in a moment, that dear granny was
going to do this to make a little more money. My illness and all the
things she had got for me--even the having more fires--had cost a good
deal that last winter, and she had asked the vicar of our village to let
her know if he heard of any family wanting French or German lessons for
their children.

This was