_"--Page 174.]

"The happy little girls went with the dolls into the bow-window, and
Mrs. Howard got her usual short sleep. They did not make any noise. In
all their behaviour they showed that they had been well brought up.

"They drank tea with Mrs. Howard, and were very busy after tea in
showing all the clothes to their old kind friend, and in packing them
up in the trunk, and putting the dolls in the cradle, and restoring all
the things to the place from whence they had been taken.

"Mrs. Howard saw them kiss the dolls, and heard them wish them a
good-night when they had done.

"Mrs. Symonds had sent her green market cart and cloaks for her little
girls. When the cart came they both kissed Mrs. Howard, and asked her
if they had been quiet.

"'Very quiet, my dears,' she answered.

"'Then may we come again?'

"'You may, my darlings,' answered the old lady; 'and next Saturday
shall be the day, if all is well.'

"The fair little creatures did come on the day fixed, and the man
who fetched them home that night brought Mrs. Howard a small cream
cheese and several pats of fresh butter, with many, many thanks from
Mrs. Symonds for her great kindness to her children.

"From the day of the thunderstorm till the end of the summer the little
girls spent Saturday afternoon, every week, with Mrs. Howard, and now
and then stopped an hour with her on other days; and never passed the
window without speaking to her, often coming in with flowers, or fruit,
or a fresh egg, or some little thing from the garden or poultry-yard.
Thus such a friendship grew up between the old lady and these little
girls, that one might have thought that Mrs. Howard must have been
their grandmother.

"Often and often she would hear them read a chapter, or repeat a hymn,
and do what she could to improve their minds; she taught them to sing
some fine old psalm tunes, and she also taught them some new stitches
in the samplers they were working. Many times she walked between them a
little way in the wood, whilst they carried the dolls, and in these
walks she often told them stories, so that they loved her more and more
every day, and tried more and more to please her.

"All this time Mrs. Symonds had been so busy with the work of the farm
that she had not found time to come herself to thank Mrs. Howard for
all she was doing for her little ones; and it was rather strange that
all this time she had understood that the kind old lady's name was
Johnson