pace with
their happy thoughts and busy tongues, and there was no lingering on
the way that evening.

CHAPTER V.

HAPPY DAYS.

Granp and granny did not hold out very long against Miss Grace
Barley's plan, and in a short time all arrangements were made, and it
was settled that Jessie was to go to Miss Barley's pretty house by
the green every morning at ten, and to leave it at twelve, so that
she might meet her grandfather as he went home to his dinner.

Thomas Dawson was head gardener at "The Grange," Sir Henry Weston's
beautiful country-house, which lay a little distance beyond
Springbrook station. Just outside the station were four cross-roads
with a signpost in the middle of them to tell you where each one led.
If you stood close to the signpost and faced the station, the road
exactly behind you led down to Springbrook green and village, while
the one on your right led along a wide flat road to "The Grange," and
on, past that, through villages and towns until at last it reached
the sea; and the road on your left led past "Sunnyside Cottage," and
then on to Norton. This was the road that Jessie knew best, the one
she had first walked with her grandfather on her way home that first
evening.

From Miss Barley's house to the signpost was a very short distance,
and here it was that Jessie and her grandfather were to meet every
day and walk home together. Yet not every day, for Saturday, being a
busy day for most people, was to be a whole holiday from lessons.

Miss Grace Barley had to gather flowers for the church and arrange
them in the vases on Saturday mornings, and Miss Barley had extra
things to do in the house and to go to Norton by train to do her
shopping, and Jessie had to help her grandmother clean up the cottage
and make all bright and neat for Sunday; so that it was nice and
convenient for every one that Saturday should be a holiday from
lessons.

On that first morning, when Jessie stood at Miss Barley's door and
knocked, she felt very glad indeed to think that the day after
to-morrow was Saturday and a whole holiday, for she felt very shy and
rather frightened, and she longed to be back at home again with her
granny and grandfather. In fact, she was just edging towards the
gate, with her mind almost made up to run home, when the door opened,
and Miss Grace herself appeared. Miss Grace had on a hat and a large
pair of gardening gloves, and in her hand she held a basket and the
biggest pair