n
if you keep that rule in your mind."

Lucy put her arm round her little stepdaughter, and drew her close.
"I know that our Mona wouldn't hurt me wilfully," she said kindly.
"She's got too warm a heart."

Peter Carne patted Mona's shoulder tenderly. "I know--I know she has.
We've all got to learn and you can't know things unless they are pointed
out to you. I'm always thankful to them that helped me in that way when I
was young. Mona'll be glad, too, some day."

"Grown-ups always say things like that," thought Mona, wistfully. She did
not feel at all glad then. In fact, she felt so ashamed and so mortified,
she thought gladness could never enter into her life again.

It did come, though, for the hurt was not as deep as she thought. It came
the next day when her mother trimmed the new hat. Lucy had good taste,
and when living at the Grange she had often helped the young ladies with
their millinery.

"If I put the velvet bow just where the wreath joins, and let the ends
hang just ever so little over the edge of the brim, I think it'll look
nice and a little bit out of the common. Don't you, dear?" She held up
the hat to show off the effect. Mona thought it was lovely.

"Then, as soon as ever I can I'll cut out your dresses, and, if you'll
help me with the housework, I'll make them myself. It won't take me so
very long, with my machine."

She spoke of it so lightly that Mona did not realise in the least what the
fatigue of it would be to her.

"Oh, I'll do everything," she said, cheerfully. "You leave everything to
me, mother, and only do your sewing, I can manage."

And she did manage, and well, too, in the intervals of trying on, and
admiring, and watching the frocks growing into shape and beauty under
Lucy's hands. They were quite plain little frocks, but in Mona's eyes
they were lovely. She could not decide which of them she liked best.

Lucy finished off the pink one first, and as soon as it was completed Mona
took it upstairs and put it on. New dresses very seldom came her way, and
she was in a great state of excitement. She had never in her life before
had one that she might put on on a week day and wear all day long.
As a rule, one had to wait for Sunday, and then the frock might only be
worn for a few hours, if the weather was fine, and as soon as ever church
and Sunday school were over it had to be changed.

"Doesn't it look nice!" she cried, delightedly, running downstairs to show
h