in a
Pony-carriage by a Giant " " 220

When the Girl Came Out She Was Pale and Trembling " " 228

"When Your Time's Up Come to Me" " " 230

He Opened the Case and Used the Whole Thing as a
Garden Spade " " 238

She Did It Gently by Tickling His Nose with a Twig of
Honeysuckle " " 244

There, Sure Enough, Stood a Bicycle " " 248

The Punctured State of It Was Soon Evident " " 250

The Grown-up Lamb Struggled " " 258

She Broke Open the Missionary Box with the Poker " " 266

"Ye Seek a Pow-wow?" He Said " " 278

Bright Knives Were Being Brandished All about Them " " 284

She Was Clasped in Eight Loving Arms " " 294

"We Found a Fairy," Said Jane, Obediently " " 298

It Burrowed, and Disappeared, Scratching Fiercely
to the Last " " 308

CHAPTER I

BEAUTIFUL AS THE DAY

The house was three miles from the station, but, before the dusty hired
hack had rattled along for five minutes, the children began to put their
heads out of the carriage window and say, "Aren't we nearly there?" And
every time they passed a house, which was not very often, they all said,
"Oh, _is_ this it?" But it never was, till they reached the very top of
the hill, just past the chalk-quarry and before you come to the
gravel-pit. And then there was a white house with a green garden and an
orchard beyond, and mother said, "Here we are!"

"How white the house is," said Robert.

"And look at the roses," said Anthea.

"And the plums," said Jane.

"It is rather decent," Cyril admitted.

The Baby said, "Wanty go walky;" and the hack stopped with a last rattle
and jolt.

Everyone got its legs kicked or its feet trodden on in the scramble to
get out of the carriage that very minute, but no one seemed to mind.
Mother, curiously enough, was in no hurry to get out; and even when she
had come down slowly and by the step, and with no jump at all, she
seemed to wish to see the boxes carried in, and even to pay the driver,
instead of joining in that first glorious rush round the garden and
orchard and the thorny, thistly, briery, brambl