surveyed the garden. "It is the first thing they will see," she thought
despondingly, as, with the expected guests in her mind, she looked from
the ragged grass to the unswept path, and thence to the untrimmed bushes.
"I wish I could get Job Toms to cut the grass. I must ask father to order
him to."

Faith on her way back to the kitchen and Joan, saw Audrey in the garden
and joined her. "I wish we had flower beds on either side of the path,"
said Audrey, "they would look so pretty, but I suppose the children would
always walk on them."

"They wouldn't if they were told not to," declared Faith, always ready to
champion the little imps. "What a jolly idea, Audrey. If Joan wasn't ill
I'd come out this minute and begin to make them. It wouldn't take very
long."

"Oh yes, it would, to make them properly. We ought to have a real
gardener to do it, and then we should want dozens of bedding plants, we
should have to have something to start with. But all that would cost very
nearly a sovereign, I expect."

"I hadn't thought of having bedding plants," said Faith, disappointedly.
"Of course we couldn't spend money on plants. I was thinking of roots,
and seeds, and cuttings. The people in the village would gladly give us
a lot. Mrs. Pope offered me young sunflower seedlings only a week or two
ago, and Miss Babbs is always offering me phloxes, and wallflowers, and
things. We could soon fill up the beds, I am sure, and with things that
would come up year after year by themselves. Let's each make a bed for
ourselves, shall we, Audrey, and each do our own in our own way. It would
make the garden look ever so much nicer."

"I couldn't, and if I can't, you can't, at least you oughtn't to.
It would look too silly to have a bed on only one side. The garden would
look like a pig with one ear."

"It would be a very pretty pig," laughed Faith, "at least its one ear
would."

"Anyhow, we couldn't get it done by Thursday, and what I wanted was to try
and get the place looking nicer by the time the Vivians come. Now I am
going in to see if I can do anything to the drawing-room."

"Oh!" Faith's face grew grave. "Do you think we need use the
drawing-room? Won't the dining-room do? You see we have taken some of
the nicest things from there for mother's room--to make that as nice as
possible. The curtains, and the carpet."

"Whatever are we going to do!" cried Audrey in genuine dismay.
"It really is too dreadful. Fat