t is all
going to be nicer again, and as happy as it used to be. It really does
seem as if there was a difference already."

CHAPTER V.

WHAT AUNT MAGGIE SUGGESTED.

Bella was right,--there really was a difference already, and, best of all,
the difference continued. Never again could any one say that the Henders'
garden was neglected and untidy. As of old, William Hender worked there
every evening, but now he usually had one or more of his children with
him, and the garden in time became a perfect picture.

Bella had another and a larger piece of ground given her, in which to grow
flowers, and, as her father often remarked, she must have had the true
flower-lover's hand, for she had only to put in roots or seeds or cuttings
of any kind, for them to grow and blossom their best, and throughout the
spring, summer, and autumn her garden was a picture.

A year passed by, and Charlie's strawberry bed had yielded its first crop,
and Tom's vegetables had provided more than one meal for the family, and,
of course, had tasted better than any others that were ever grown.
Over the wall at the back of Margery's garden the fairy rose had grown
rapidly, covering the old stones with clusters of snowy blossoms.
The whole of Margery's garden was well stocked by this time, for night
after night mysterious plants had been placed there,--planted, as she
firmly believed, by the fairies, who had 'been telled by God' to take it
to her because she had been good; and that must have been the reason,
she felt sure, for whenever she was very good, some new flower always
appeared.

Another winter passed over the little household, a happy one, on the
whole, in spite of stormy scenes at times with Aunt Emma, sharp words and
sharp answers. The boys, as they grew older, found it harder to bear with
her short, cold answers, her sharp commands, and constant snubbings of
them in almost everything they said and did. Bella, who had never quite
recovered from the shock of the scene when her aunt had beaten her so
unmercifully, had an anxious time trying to stave off quarrels between
them, and soften harsh words and pert answers, which might lead to them.

Bella had never forgotten that dreadful Monday, nor had she ever forgotten
the talk with Aunt Maggie after, and the aim she had set before herself to
do her best to make the house more comfortable and happy, and more what
her mother would have made it had she been alive. She often failed,