ry is cooking, and there is only Debby to look after her.
Will you come down when you are ready? It will soon be tea-time, and I
want you to see baby. Oh, Audrey, she is such a darling. You'll be sure
to love her. Doesn't it seem odd that you have never seen her--your very
own sister!"

"Yes," said Audrey, but without eagerness. "I wish though that she had
been a boy. We were too many girls before."

Faith went downstairs with a shadow on her bright spirits. Why was it
that nothing seemed quite right? Perhaps she had expected too much.
Somehow she had a feeling that Audrey was not pleased with anything,
nor comfortable. She could give her another drawer or two and more room
in the cupboard, but she could not change the long, low rooms to high,
light ones, nor her baby sister into a brother.

"And I don't want to!" she cried as she met the young person in question
crawling along the hall to meet her.

"Fay! Fay! Fay!" cried Joan joyfully, and chuckled with delight at sight
of her.

Faith caught her up in her arms and hugged her. "Oh, Joan, you darling--
but what about your clean pinny that I had put on on purpose to make you
look nice when your new big sister saw you for the first time?"

But Joan only caught Faith's curls in her two plump little hands, and drew
her face down until she could rub her own soft baby face against it.

A few minutes later Audrey came out of her room, she had made herself as
tidy as she could without hot water to wash with, or a brush or comb.
Her own were not unpacked, and Faith's were nowhere to be seen.
As she descended the stairs a strong smell of cooking poured up to meet
her. "Sausages," she thought to herself, "what a funny time of day to
have them." She was so hungry though, she could forgive the appearance of
such a dish at such an hour.

In the dining-room Tom and Debby were trundling a small tin train across
the table from side to side, trying to avoid collisions with forks and
spoons and cups and saucers, et cetera, by moving such things away.
Faith was playing on the hearthrug with Joan. "Look, Audrey," she cried
as her eldest sister entered, "this is baby! isn't she a darling!"

Audrey looked down at the sweet little upturned face, at the big, velvety,
violet eyes fixed so earnestly on herself. "Oh, you are a darling," she
cried impulsively. "Will you come to me, Joan dear?" But Joan was shy at
first and shrank back against Faith, though her eyes still sc