on of
an emigrant's wife torn from her children by stress of circumstance.
Then she read it again to Anna, and Anna's eyes filled too; but it was for
the children that Anna wept. Both kind hearts agreed, though, that they
could not refuse to give the homeless ones a home; and a letter was
despatched at once, full of warm hospitality and affection, and almost
before it was posted a perfect fury of cleaning, planning, rearranging
burst over Moor Cottage, in preparation for the four new inhabitants.

"Children," cried Mrs. Carroll delightedly, when the letter arrived,
"your dear Cousin Charlotte is quite anxious to have you in her charming
little home in Devonshire. I know you will be happy there, she is so
sweet and kind. I was always very fond of her, and so will you be, I
know; and you must do all you can to help her, and not be too troublesome.
She says she can have you at any time, so I think you really had better go
as soon as I can get you ready. I shall be able to see to things better,
and pay a few farewell visits, when I am quite free. It will be a great
relief to know you are comfortably settled."

Esther listened in silence. She was terribly sensitive. She was
interested, but troubled. Did Cousin Charlotte really want them, she
wondered, "or had mother forced them on her?"

Penelope knew no qualms; she simply danced with delight at the thought of
going to Devonshire, and to live on a moor. "I always wanted to go
there," she cried. "I know I shall love it."

Angela wept quietly at the thought of leaving Framley, and her mother, and
the house and the woods. Poppy stood gazing eagerly from one to the
other, prepared to do whatever her sisters did, but puzzled to know which
to copy.

"Cousin Charlotte will want a big house," she remarked gravely, "if she
has all of us to live with her. I wonder if she is glad we are coming--or
sorry," she added as an afterthought.

"What about our clothes and food, and everything," asked Esther presently,
nervously summoning up courage to put the great question that had troubled
her most ever since the move was first mooted. She knew from bitter
experience that the very last person to trouble about such details was her
mother.

"Really, Esther, you are very inquisitive and interfering," said Mrs.
Carroll, deeply annoyed because the question was one of the most
embarrassing that could have been put to her. "Who do you consider is the
right person to attend to s