f I was to start out I believe I'd have to lie down
in the road and have a nap before I got to the bottom of the street.
I'll feel better when I've had a wash."

As he stumbled out of the kitchen Lucy picked up the coins lying on the
table, and put them in a little locked box in the cupboard. Mona, coming
back into the kitchen from putting her father's sea-boots away, saw that
there seemed to be quite a large sum.

"Shall I have my new hat?" she wondered eagerly. "There's plenty of money
now." But Lucy only said, "I'll have to get wool to make some new
stockings for your father, and a jersey, and I'll have to go to Baymouth
to get it. Mr. Tamlin doesn't keep the right sort. Can you knit
stockings, Mona?"

"Ye--es, but I hate----" She drew herself up sharply. "Yes, I can, but
I'd rather scrub, or sweep, or--or anything."

"Never mind, I'll make them. I'm fond of all that kind of work.
I'll have to be quick about the jersey, for I see that one he's got on has
a great hole in the elbow, and he's only got his best one besides.
I'd better go to Baymouth on Wednesday. It won't do to put it off."

"I wish I could take you with me," she said to Mona regretfully when the
Wednesday came, and she was getting ready to start. "I would, only your
father thinks he'll be back about tea-time, and he'll need a hot meal when
he comes. Never mind, dear, you shall go next time."

"Oh--h--that's all right." Mona tried to speak cheerfully, but neither
face nor voice looked or sounded all right! The thought uppermost in her
mind was that there was no chance of her having her new hat. Her mother
could not get that unless she was there to try it on.

She saw her mother off, and she did try to be pleasant, but she could not
help a little aggrieved feeling at her heart.

"Granny would have bought me one before now," she said to herself.
She did really want not to have such thoughts. She still felt mean and
uncomfortable about the wreath, and in her heart she knew that her
stepmother was kinder to her than she deserved.

When she had done the few things she had to do, and had had her dinner,
and changed her frock, she went out into the garden. It would be less
lonely there, she thought, and she could weed the path a little.
She would never touch one of the flower beds again! Before she had been
out there long, Millie Higgins came down the hill. At the sight of Mona,
Millie drew up. "So you ain't gone to Baymouth too?" she