a dreadful feeling that she might have to do it some
day. There was no one else whose business it was to punish Godfrey,
and so she knew that the duty would have to be done by herself, and the
very thought made her feel quite cold and shaky.

Godfrey looked straight into her eyes.

'Yes, Aunt Angel,' he said. Then he suddenly took hold of her hand and
stroked it.

'I didn't want to crack your heart, and Aunt Betty's,' he said.
'Please don't get thin; I'm sorry I had the battle. I'll go home now,
and write all about the cover-up-candle-bell.'

For the next few days there was no fault to find with the way Godfrey's
lessons were learnt, and he watched for every chance of pleasing
Angelica, as if he were really afraid of her heart cracking, as Betty
had suggested it might. The weather was cold and frosty now, and the
two young aunts were much disturbed at the idea of Godfrey's first
winter in a northern climate. Angel consulted with Penny and Martha,
and stitched away diligently to provide the necessary warm clothes, and
he certainly looked much stronger already than when he had first come
to Oakfield.

There came a day, a bright, frosty day in December, when both the young
ladies were in the kitchen helping Penelope with the mince-meat for
Christmas pics, and Godfrey had his sum to do in the parlour by
himself. Outside the sun was shining. There had been a little
sprinkling of snow the day before and a sharp frost at night, and all
the garden was white and sparkling like the ice on a sugared cake,
while the bare trees shone like fairy land. Godfrey's eyes would not
keep on the grey figures and the black slate. It was his first English
winter, you see, and it seemed to him like Aunt Betty's stories of
enchantment. And besides, only last night, when they sat together in
the window seat and watched the stars coming out keen and clear above
the white world, she had told him about Arctic discoverers, and how
they sailed away over the grey northern seas till the ice barred their
way, and how the bones of many brave men had been left behind in that
dread, frozen world. Thinking of those great deeds always made
Godfrey's cheeks glow and his heart beat quick, and now he laid down
his slate and went and leaned with both elbows on the window ledge and
looked out. And looking at what we want and oughtn't to have is a
first step which takes us a long way, and the end of it was that
Godfrey did as I fear many of us hav