ed that it would be just the very thing. It had a
sitting-room and kitchen and scullery and three bedrooms, tiny rooms all
of them, but to the children it was one of the most fascinating little
places ever built; and when stocked with the simple furniture Miss
Charlotte had had instructions to purchase it really did look a dear, cosy
little house.

And such it seemed to the weary travellers when they arrived, the father
tired, disappointed with his last attempt, and bowed under a burden of
care, but so glad to see his children again that nothing else seemed to
matter. Such it seemed, too, to the mother, so disgusted with the
roughness and want of comforts in the life she had been leading lately
that everything seemed luxurious and replete with comfort.

Cousin Charlotte and the girls had certainly done their best to make the
place look homelike, and Anna had helped to clean it from top to bottom,
to lay carpets, hang curtains, and polish everything that could be
polished, so that it really was in a perfect state of order and
cleanliness.

It was in the spring that the travellers finally reached Four Winds, just
when the brooks were beginning to run with a cheerful note, and the scent
of wet moss and primroses to fill the air.

As they drove from the station on the memorable day of their arrival
Mr. Carroll drew in the sweet fresh breeze as though it were the breath of
life to him, and almost shouted with pleasure at the sight of the catkins
on the nut-bushes, and the 'goslings' on the willows, and the
yellowhammers and thrushes hopping in the hedges.

They got down for a moment at Moor Cottage to see the children's home, and
be introduced to Anna and Guard.

"You noble old fellow, you saved my girls' lives," said Mr. Carroll,
patting the dear old dog's rough head; and Guard wagged his tail and
looked as pleased as though he quite understood.

Then Mrs. Carroll and Miss Ashe mounted the quaint old carriage again,
and drove slowly on with the luggage, while Mr. Carroll and his girls,
and, of course, Guard, walked on behind. The elder girls were a little
shy and constrained just at first, perhaps, and Angela was silent with
happiness. If she talked much she should weep, she felt; but she showed
her father her hens and hen-house before they started on again.
"And in time I shall have a whole farm, father," she said seriously,
"and then I want you to come to live with me on it, and we will have all
kinds of anima