!

She drew a deep breath of delight, went downstairs on tiptoe, found a
basket and a knife, tied on her bonnet, and unlatched the door; but
there she stopped short, checked on the threshold by a sight so
surprising that for a moment she could not move. For at her feet, on
the doorstep, lying there purely white as though it had fallen from the
clouds, was a great mass of white lilac. There were branches and
branches of it, so that the air was filled with its gentle delicate
scent, and it was so fresh that all its leaves were moist with dew.
Someone had been up earlier even than herself. The question was--who?

Uncle Joshua of course; he had not failed after all, though how even
such a very clever man could have got to Cuddingham and back since last
night was more than Lilac could tell. That did not matter. There it
was, and what a fine lot of it! "He must have brought away nigh a whole
bush," she said to herself. "Miss Ellen will be rare and pleased,
surely." She gathered up the sweet-smelling boughs at last, and put
them into one of her mother's washing-baskets. There was no need to
pick moon daisies now, and as she swept and dusted the room and lit the
fire she gave many looks of admiration at her treasure, and many
grateful thoughts to Uncle Joshua. Mrs White also had no doubt that he
had managed it somehow; and she was so moved by the fact of his
kindness, and by Lilac being Queen, and by a hundred past memories, that
her usual composure left her, and she threw her apron over her head and
had a good cry.

"There!" she said when it was over, "I can't think what makes me so
silly. But Jem he would a been proud to have seen you--he always liked
the laylocks."

But now came the question as to how it was to be carried down the hill
to the school room. Lilac could not lift the great basket, and it was
at last found best to pile up the branches in her long white pinafore,
which she held by the two corners. When all was ready she looked
seriously across the fragrant burden, which reached up to her chin, and
said:

"You'll be sure and be up there in time, won't you, Mother, or you won't
see me crowned?"

"No fear," said Mrs White as she held the gate open. "Mind and walk
steady or you'll drop some, and you can't pick it up if you do."

Lilac nodded. She was almost too excited to speak. If it felt like
this to be Queen of the May, she wondered what it must be like to be a
real Queen!

It was a glori