w; her flowers were her most cherished
possessions, and to pick a good bunch for Mary Ansell would make her
little garden look bare and shabby. Granny knew that; she knew that
Ethel's flowers would, in their way, be quite as costly a gift as the
lady's golden coin.

But she was not much surprised, on the following morning, to find the
best and brightest of the blossoms gone, and when next she went to see
Mary Ansell, the poor woman still had the flowers in a jug by her
bedside.

'You cannot think how it cheered me up,' said the invalid. 'That dear
little girl, with her bright face, and the posy in her hands, was like a
sunbeam coming in. She did me as much good as a mint of money.'

'Ah!' thought Granny, who knew how much real self-sacrifice must have
been in the gift, 'I felt sure that Ethel too could make a golden
offering.'

C. J. BLAKE.

THE GIANT OF THE TREASURE CAVES.

(_Continued from page 11._)

'What will become of us if Thomas has gone away?' asked Estelle. 'Does
the sea cover the beach very quickly? Will there be time for him to come
back, or can we get away without him?'

'No, no,' cried Georgie, clinging to Marjorie; 'we can't go in the boat
without Thomas! We shall all be drowned. Oh, I don't want to be---- '

'Shut up!' exclaimed Alan, impatiently. 'We are not drowned yet, and we
are not going to be. You are frightening Estelle with your noise. It is
all right, Estelle. Don't you be afraid. I can get the boat back all
right with Marjorie's help if Thomas is not here in time. But there is
no danger for an hour yet.'

'All the same, we had better find Thomas,' said Marjorie.

Neither she nor Alan had any serious belief in there being much mystery
about Thomas's movements. They liked to imagine themselves in romantic
positions, and were fond of weaving stories about any little event that
attracted them. But the gardener's sudden disappearance, together with
what Marjorie had seen in the cave, did seem strange.

'There's only one way of finding him,' remarked Alan, after he and
Marjorie had stared at each other in silence for some moments. 'You see,
he is nowhere in the cave. Now, what do you think has become of him?'

'Do you mean he has found a way up the cliff?' she asked, slowly, with
what Alan called 'the pondering look' in her eyes. 'I wonder if he
wanted to go into the woods when you saw him in the Wilderness, and
if--if he has managed to get there now?'

'I never thought of t