off.

"All my sweet-peas are passing," sighed Bella, when another Saturday had
come and gone, and her father had not again spoken of going to Norton.
"Tom, I've a good mind to go myself next Saturday, and take some flowers,
and try to sell them. Will you come with me? Do you think you could walk
so far?"

Tom was indignant at this reflection on his manliness. "Walk it! I should
rather think so! I can if you can, anyhow!"

"It's a good long way," said Bella reflectively; "p'raps we could get a
lift home. I wonder if Aunt Emma will let us go? Oh, Tom, I wish she
would. I shall hate it at first, but it does seem a pity to waste all my
flowers, and I do want to earn some money to buy a hotbed and some more
seeds; there's ever so many kinds I want to get."

To their great surprise, Aunt Emma agreed quite willingly to the scheme as
soon as she was told of it. She saw nothing to object to in it, she said,
and it never entered her head to think that the walk might be too long for
either of them. "If Saturday turns out wet or rough, you needn't go,"
she said cheerfully.

"I should have to if I'd got customers waiting," thought Bella; but she did
not argue the point; she was thankful to have won the permission she
wanted, and too fearful of losing it, to run any risks.

How the four children lived through the excitement of the next few days
they scarcely knew. For Charlie and Margery there was disappointment
mingled with the excitement,--disappointment that they could not go too;
but there was much that was thrilling, even for those who stayed at home,
and they were promised that they should walk out along the road to meet
the others at about the time they would be expected back.

Tom, on the whole, got the most enjoyment out of it all, because for Bella
there was a good deal of nervous dread mingled with the excitement and
pleasure.

"I do hope I meet with nice customers," she said to Aunt Maggie the day
before, when she went down to ask her to help her re-trim her rather
shabby Sunday hat for her. "I hope they don't speak sharp when they say
they don't want any flowers."

"You generally find folks speak to you as you speak to them," said Aunt
Maggie consolingly. "If you are civil, you will most likely meet with
civility from others. Look, I've got a large shallow basket here that I
thought would do nicely to hold your flowers and show them off prettily.
The cover will help to keep them fresh. You'll have