g; but as it was, she was so full of her own cleverness
at the discovery, that she talked of nothing else all the way to
Fieldside, and seemed for the moment to have forgotten Becky and all she
had meant to do for her.

It was a long way to drive round by Fieldside, and Miss Mervyn was not
very willing to go, for it was getting late. "You must promise me, my
dear Philippa," she said, "not to stay more than a few minutes if I
allow you to go in, and I will wait for you in the pony-carriage."

Philippa promised readily, and arrived at the house, lost no time in
making her way to the field, where she was told she should find Dennis
and Maisie. At first she could see nothing of them; but presently, up
in the corner where the cowhouse, haystack, and poultry-yard stood, she
made out two busy figures in white aprons, deeply engaged with
paint-brushes and pots of scarlet paint.

"Whatever are they doing?" she said to herself.

They were painting the jackdaws' house, and were that moment as
perfectly happy as two children could be. Aunt Katharine had given full
permission, two immense white aprons, and a liberal supply of paint,
which last they were using freely, not only on the jackdaws' house, but
on their own persons. Maisie in particular, who _would_ take too much
on her brush at a time, had splashed and sprinkled herself all over,
even to the tip of her small round nose; so that she looked like a funny
little clown squatting on the grass. Even the dog Peter, hunting rats
under the haystack near, his agitated hind-legs only just visible, bore
a scarlet patch of paint on one toe.

"Well!" exclaimed Philippa, when she had got close to them without being
seen, "you are making a mess!"

"Why, it's Philippa!" exclaimed Maisie, throwing down her brush, and
scrambling up from the ground; "but we mustn't go near you," she added,
stopping short, "or you'll get all over paint."

"Isn't it jolly?" said Dennis. "Come round here and look at the bit I'm
doing."

"No, thank you," said Philippa primly; "I haven't come to stay. Miss
Mervyn's waiting in the pony-carriage. I've only come to say," with a
pause, "that I've found your grey kitten."

"So have we," said Dennis coolly; "at least we think we know where it
is."

Philippa's face fell. "Where?" she asked.

"We don't _really_ know," said Maisie hastily, "only Dr Price saw a grey
kitten at Tuvvy's house in Upwell, and Aunt Katharine says I may go
to-morrow and see i