never do, would it?"

"I often wish so, too, dear. Good-bye now. Run home quickly, you may be
wanted."

Bella ran up the lane with a very much lighter heart than she usually
bore. She was fired with the thought of her new endeavours, and anxious
to begin. She would keep her eyes always open to see things that she
could do,--and almost as the thought was passing through her mind her
chance came, for as she opened her own gate she saw that the fowl-house
door was standing wide, and that the hens were scattered all over the
garden, scratching up the beds.

"Tom promised to put a nail in the latch of that door," she sighed, "and
he has never done it." Then the thought flashed through her mind that
here was a beginning! Here she could help. By the aid of a long
pea-stick she collected the greedy hens and drove them all into their run
again, and fastened them in securely; but it took her some time.

"Wherever have you been?" demanded Aunt Emma coldly; "here's tea-time
nearly, and you've been out all the afternoon."

"I was down at Aunt Maggie's part of the time, and when I got back I found
the hens all out and all over the garden, and I drove them in and shut
them up."

"Oh!" Aunt Emma was visibly mollified. If there was one thing she
disliked more than another, it was struggling with stupid, obstinate hens,
as she called them, and she was really thankful now that she had been
spared the task of getting them out of the garden. In her relief at this
she forgot her annoyance at Bella's having been down at Mrs. Langley's.

"If there's time before tea I'll go and put the nail in the latch,", said
Bella, "for it won't stay shut very long, unless the latch is mended."

The hammer, though, was not to be found, and the only nail was a crooked
one, so the latch-mending was put off till after tea. The children came
in from the orchard, and went to the pump to wash their hands and faces.
Bella spread the cloth and arranged the cups and plates and mugs.
As a rule, she put them down in any haphazard fashion, but to-day she did
try to arrange the things nicely.

Miss Hender was busily taking out cake and cutting bread and butter.
Bella knew it would be of no use to offer to do either of these, but she
did ask if she might put some water in the teapot to warm it, and, to her
astonishment, her aunt said, "Yes, you may if you like."

The meal would have been a very silent one if it had not been for the
children, but with