r little guest skipped up to
her. "Oh, aunt Hazel," she said, and the address softened the hostess's
eyes, "won't you and Flossie come to-morrow afternoon if it's pleasant, and
have lunch beside my garden?"

Miss Fletcher's face changed. This was a contingency that had not occurred
to her.

"Oh, do say yes," persisted the child. "I want you to see my flowers, and
Flossie says she'd love to. I'll come up and wheel her down there."

"Flossie can go some day, yes," replied aunt Hazel reluctantly; "but I
don't visit much. I'm set in my ways."

"Hannah, uncle Dick's housekeeper, suggested it herself," pursued Hazel,
thinking that perhaps her own invitation was not sufficient, "and I know
uncle Dick would be glad. You said," with sudden remembrance, "that you
used to know him."

Miss Fletcher's lips were their grimmest. "I've spanked him many a time,"
she replied deliberately.

"Spanked him!" repeated the child, staring in still amazement.

The grim lips crept into a grimmer smile. "Not very hard; not hard
_enough_, I've thought a good many times since."

Hazel recovered her breath. "You knew him when he was little?"

"I certainly did. No, child, don't ask me to go out of my tracks. You come
here all you will, and if you'll be very careful you can wheel Flossie up
to your garden some day. Come, now, are you going to read us that story? I
see you brought it."

"Yes, I brought it," replied Hazel, in a rather subdued voice. She saw that
there was some trouble between this kind, new friend and her dear uncle
Dick, and the discovery astonished her. How could grown-up people not
forgive one another?

Miss Fletcher seated herself again with her sewing, and Hazel took the
little white book and sat down close by the wheeled chair where Flossie was
holding both the dolls.

"Do you like stories?" she asked.

"Yes, when they're not interesting," returned Flossie; "but when mother
brings a book and says it's very interesting, I know I shan't like it."

Hazel laughed. "Well, hear this," she said, and began to read:--

* * * * *

Once there was a very rich man whose garden was his chief pride and joy. In
all the country around, people knew about this wonderful garden, and many
came from miles away to look at the rare trees and shrubs, and the
beautiful vistas through which one could gain glimpses of blue water where
idle swans floated and added their snowy beauty to the scene. But loveliest