"That wasn't sacrifice," answered Pennie; "you _had_ to do that.
Sacrifice means giving up something you like for the sake of other
people."

"Well, if it makes you cross and tiresome I wish you wouldn't sacrifice
things," replied Nancy; "I don't see the good of it. Do you know," she
added, seizing hold of David's black kitten, "that mother says we may go
and see old Nurse?"

Pennie's brow cleared at once, the peevish look left her face.

"Oh, when?" she exclaimed joyfully.

"This afternoon," said Nancy. "Mother's going to drive into
Nearminster, and leave us at the College while she goes to see Miss
Unity. Isn't it jolly?"

"I suppose we shall have tea with Nurse," said Pennie; "but," she added,
"I hope Dickie isn't to go this time. She does spoil everything so."

"Only you and me," said Nancy, rolling the kitten tightly up in a
newspaper so that only its head appeared. "Doesn't it look like a mummy
cat? There's one just like it at Nearminster. It would do for the
boys' museum."

"It wouldn't stay there long," said Pennie, as the kitten writhed and
wriggled itself out of the paper. "I am real glad we're going to see
old Nurse."

"Do you like going in winter or summer best?" asked Nancy.

"Oh, I don't know!" said Pennie. "I like both. But I think perhaps it
looks nicer in summer, because you see the flowers are in bloom and the
old people are sitting on the benches, and all that."

"I like winter best," said Nancy, "because of making the toast."

All the year round a visit to old Nurse was one of the children's
greatest pleasures, but it was specially so to Pennie. She now felt
quite cheerful and happy in the prospect, not only because she was very
fond of her, but because she lived in such an extremely delightful and
interesting place. For Mrs Margetts, who had been Mrs Hawthorne's
nurse when she was a child, had now left service for many years and
taken up her abode in the almshouse at Nearminster, or The College as it
was called. Next to the cathedral Pennie thought it the nicest place
she had ever seen, and there was something most attractive to her in its
low-arched massive doors, its lattice windows with their small leaded
panes, and its little old chapel where the pensioners had a service and
a chaplain all to themselves.

The College was built in the form of a quadrangle, one side of which
faced the High Street, so that though they were snugly sheltered within
from noise and turmo