t seem to God! I wonder He goes on being good to
people if they never seem grateful."

"God is so tender, and loving, and forgiving. He does not punish us
because we are ungrateful, and forget Him; but, though what is done in
ignorance is excusable, when we know and yet forget Him we are committing
a sinful and ungrateful act."

Poppy sat drinking in eagerly all that was said. "I'll try to remember,
Cousin Charlotte," she said seriously. And Cousin Charlotte smiled, and
blinked her eyes rather hard for a moment and laid one hand on Poppy's
tiny hand resting on the table by her. Then the meal began in earnest.
And oh what a meal it was! The children were wildly hungry, and the new
fare was so tempting compared with what they had been accustomed to at
home. Then, when it was over, and that was not very quickly, and grace
had been said, they all strolled out through the open window and down the
steps to the sweet-scented garden, where they wandered about until it was
time to go in and unpack their boxes, and put Poppy to bed.

It was great fun unpacking and laying away their things in the places
meant for them, though there was so little to lay away it looked quite
lost in the deep drawers and cupboards. Esther felt horribly ashamed as
she wondered what Miss Ashe and Anna would think when they came and saw
them. At the same time it was great fun running from room to room to look
for missing articles. One of Poppy's shoes was in one box, and the other
in the one Penelope was unpacking in her room. Then no nightgowns could
be found until, after a long search, they were discovered at the very
bottom of one of the boxes underneath the toys they had insisted on
bringing.

"I don't think the boots ought to have been put in last," said Esther
gravely. "Your old boots were right on top of my best hat, and the crown
has been doubled right in. Look, Pen."

Penelope looked at it with serious consideration.

"What a pity! I believe," she added, after vainly trying again and again
to make the crown stay up, "I believe you will have to pretend this is how
it ought to be."

The Carroll children had had so little in the way of hats and clothes, and
so seldom a pretty thing, they thought very little about dress, so the
catastrophe did not affect them as it would have vainer children; and, in
any case, their minds were too full now of other things to have much time
to spare for trouble.

That night as soon as they wer