doctor, Dr Price. I wish he was our
doctor, but we're never ill, so it doesn't matter much. I like Dr
Price, ever since he told me about the kitten, only I wish he wouldn't
keep such cruel dogs. Where _is_ the kitten? Didn't you bring her?"

There was a little lump on Becky's knees covered up by her pinafore.
She lifted a corner of it, and showed the grey kitten snugly asleep,
curled up like a ball.

"I was afraid so many strange folk would scare her," she said.

The garden was soon full of the sound of voices and laughter, and alive
with many-coloured figures. Preparations for tea began to appear in the
veranda, and presently Dennis and Philippa came slowly back with heated
faces, each bearing a cabbage-leaf full of strawberries.

"Philippa will say that they have bigger ones at Haughton," said Dennis;
"so I was determined to find the very biggest I could. Now just look
here, Philippa!" He spread out his cabbage-leaf exultingly. "The Manor
Farm's _famous_ for its strawberries; there's nothing like them for
miles round. Yours at Haughton are all very well, but the very largest
would be squinny beside these."

Philippa had plenty to say on the subject as usual, and she carried on a
lively dispute with Dennis as to the merits of the strawberries, until
the children's tea was brought out, and placed on a little table all to
themselves.

During their meal, they could watch the other guests, who came in and
out from the garden to rest from the glare of the sun, or to taste the
strawberries and cream and other good things provided for them. They
all talked and laughed a great deal, and their talk was almost entirely
about strawberries and cream. One preferred strawberries alone; another
considered cream such a great improvement; a third found the mixture
unwholesome, but the fruit alone, beneficial. Lilian Broadbent
sauntered in, very much overcome with the heat, and threw herself
languidly into the wicker-chair which an attentive young farmer hastened
to bring.

"That is the one they want her to marry," whispered Dennis, who knew
every one's affairs.

Would she have some strawberries? With or without cream? Did she take
sugar? Would she have them prepared for her? After a careless assent
had been given to all these questions, Miss Broadbent thought that on
the whole strawberries tasted better picked for one's self, only the
very thought of stooping in the sun made her head ache. While her
admirer s