e sea. And, here, some years after we said good-bye to
them as they drove away from the pretty house in the garden, we find
them again--Ted, a big boy of nine or ten, Cissy looking perhaps older
than she really was, so bright and hearty and capable a little maiden
had she become.

They are in the garden, the dear garden that was as delightful a playing
place as children could have, though quite, quite different from the
first one you saw Ted in. There it was all ups and downs, lying as it
did on the side of a hill; here the paths are on flat ground, though
some are zigzaggy of course, as the little paths in an interesting
garden always should be; while besides these, some fine broad ones run
straight from one end to another, making splendid highroads for drives
in wheelbarrows or toy-carts. And in this garden too the trees are high
and well grown, and plenty of them. It was just the place for hide and
seek or "I spy."

Ted and Cissy have been working at their gardens.

"Oh dear," said the little girl, throwing down her tiny rake and hoe,
"Cissy _is_ so tired. And the f'owers won't grow if they isn't planted
kick. Cissy is so fond of f'owers."

"So am I," said Ted, "but girls are so quickly tired. It's no good their
trying to garden."

Cissy looked rather disconsolate.

"Boys shouldn't have all the f'owers," she said. "Zoo's not a summer
child, Ted, zoo's a Kismas child. Zoo should have snow, and Cissy should
have f'owers."

She looked at her brother rather mischievously as she said this.

"As it happens, Miss Cissy," said Ted, "there wasn't any snow the
Christmas I was born. Mother told me so. And any way, if you liked
snowballs I'd let you have them, so I don't see why I shouldn't have
flowers."

Cissy threw her arms round Ted's neck and kissed him. "Poor Ted," she
said, "zoo shall have f'owers. But Cissy won't have any in her garden if
zey isn't planted kick."

"Well, never mind. I'll help you," said Ted; "as soon as I've done my
lessons this evening, I'll work in your garden."

"Zank zoo, _dear_ Ted," said Cissy rapturously, and a new hugging
ensued, which Ted submitted to with a good grace, though lately it had
dawned on him that he was getting rather too big for kissing.

The children's "gardens" were just under the wall that skirted their
father's real garden. On the other side of this wall ran the highroad,
and the lively sights and sounds to be heard and seen from the top of
this same wall made t