y.

"There!" she exclaimed, "if it hasn't gone, right across the thumb."

"Lor', what a pity," said her mother. "Well, you can't stop to mend it;
you must keep one hand closed, and it'll never show."

Agnetta now appeared. She was dressed in the Sunday blue, with Bella's
silver locket round her neck and a bangle on her wrist. But the glory
of her attire was the new parasol; it was so large and was trimmed with
such a wealth of cotton lace, that the eye was at once attracted to it,
and in fact when she bore it aloft her short square figure walking along
beneath it became quite a secondary object.

Lilac watched the departure from the dairy window, which, overgrown with
creepers, made a dark frame for the brightly-coloured picture. There
was Mr Buckle, a young farmer of the neighbourhood, in a light-grey
suit with a blue satin tie and a rose in his buttonhole. There was
Bella, her face covered with self-satisfied smiles, mounting to his
side. There was Agnetta carrying the new parasol high in the air with
all its lace fluttering. How gay and happy they all looked! Mrs
Greenways stood nodding at the window. She had meant to go out to the
gate, but Bella had checked her. "Lor', Ma," she said, "don't you come
out with that great apron on--you're a perfect guy."

When the start was really made, and her cousins were whirled off to the
unknown delights of Lenham, leaving only a cloud of dust behind them,
Lilac breathed a little sigh. The sun was so bright, the breeze blew so
softly, the sky was so blue--it was the very day for a holiday. She
would have liked to go too, instead of having a hard day's work before
her.

"Where's Lilac?" called out Mrs Greenways in her high-pitched worried
voice. "What on earth's got that child? Here's everything to do and no
one to do it. Ah! there you are," as Lilac ran out from the dairy.
"Now, you haven't got no time to moon about to-day. You must stir
yourself and help all you can."

"Bees is swarmin'!" said Ben, thrusting his head in at the kitchen door,
and immediately disappearing again.

"Bother the bees!" exclaimed Mrs Greenways crossly. But on Molly the
news had a different effect. It was counted lucky to be present at the
housing of a new swarm. She at once left her occupation, seized a
saucepan and an iron spoon, and regardless of her mistress rushed out
into the garden, making a hideous clatter as she went. "There now, look
at that!" said Mrs Greenways wit