we might wish for."

"I know it, mamma. But look at these pale cheeks. Poor wee Polly! she
is only a shadow of our baby. If we could only send her to Gourlay for
a little while."

"Do you think her looking so poorly? I think it is the heat that is
keeping them all so languid. Don't look so miserable. If it is
necessary for them to go to the country, we shall manage to send them in
some way. But we are quite in the country here, and when we have had
rain the air will be changed, and the heat may be less, and then they
will all be better."

"Have you made any plan about going to the country?" asked Violet,
eagerly.

"No, my dear. I trust it will not be necessary. It could not be easily
managed," said Mrs Inglis, with a sigh.

"If we were only not quite so poor," said Violet.

"I say, Letty, don't you think mamma has trouble enough without your
bother?" said Jem, sharply, as his mother went out of the room. Violet
looked at him in astonishment.

"If we were only not quite so poor!" repeated Jem, in the doleful tone
she had used. "You have said that three times within half an hour. You
had better stay up at the big house, if that is all the good you can do
by coming home."

"That will do, Jem! Don't spoil your sermon by making it too long,"
said David, laughing.

"Sermon! No, I leave that to you, Davie. But what is the use of being
so dismal? And it isn't a bit like Letty."

"But, Jem, it is true. The children look so ill, and if they could only
get a change of air--"

"And don't you suppose mamma knows all that better than you can tell
her? What is the good of telling her? She has been looking all day for
you to come and cheer us up and brighten us a little, and now that you
have come you are as dismal as--I don't know what. You have been having
too easy times lately, and can't bear hardness," said Jem, severely.

"Have I?" said Violet, with an uncertain little laugh.

"Softly, Jem, lad!" said his mother, who had come in again. "I think
she has been having a rather hard time, only it will not do her much
good to tell her so."

"I dare say Jem is right, mamma, and I am cross."

"Not cross, Letty, only dismal, which is a great deal worse, I think,"
said Jem.

"Well, I won't be dismal any more to-night, if I can help it. Davie,
take Polly, and, mamma, lie down on the sofa and rest while I make the
tea. Jem, you shall help me by making up the fire. We will all have
tea to-night, b