fresh this morning."

She nodded and smiled good-naturedly; Joshua should see there was no
stint at the farm. "Be back afore dusk," she called after Lilac as she
watched her from the gate.

So there was nothing to spoil the holiday or to damp Lilac's enjoyment
in any way, and she felt almost as merry as she used to be before she
came to live in the valley, and had begun to have cares and troubles.
For one whole day she was going to be White Lilac again, with no
anxieties about the butter; she would hear no peevish voices or
wrangling disputes, she would have kindness and smiles and sunshine all
round her, and the blue sky above. In this happy mood everything along
the well-known road had new beauties, and when she turned up the hill
and felt the keener air blow against her face, it was like the greeting
of an old friend. The very flowers in the tall overgrown hedges were
different to those which grew in the valley, and much sweeter; she
pulled sprays of them as she went along until she had a large straggling
bunch to carry as well as her basket, and so at last entered Joshua's
cottage with both hands full.

"Now, Uncle Joshua," she said, when the first greetings over he had
settled to his work again, "I've come to dinner with you, and I've
brought it along with me, and until it's ready you're not to look once
into the kitchen. You couldn't never guess what it is, so you needn't
try; and you mustn't smell it more nor you can help while it's cooking."

It was a proud moment for Lilac when, the fowl being roasted to a turn,
the table nicely laid, and the bunch of flowers put exactly in the
middle, she led the cobbler up to the feast. Even if Joshua had smelt
the fowl he concealed it very well, and his whole face expressed the
utmost astonishment, while Lilac watched him in an ecstasy of delight.

"My word!" he exclaimed, "its fit for a king. I feel," looking down at
his clothes, "as if I ought to have on my Sunday best."

Lilac was almost too excited to eat anything herself, and presently,
when she saw Joshua pause after his first mouthful, she enquired
anxiously:

"Isn't it good, Uncle?"

"Fact is," he answered, "it's _too_ good. I don't really feel as how I
ought to eat such dillicate food. Not being ill, or weak, or anyway
picksome in my appetite."

"I made sure you'd say that," said Lilac triumphantly; "and I just made
up my mind I'd cook it without telling what it was. You've got to eat
it now, Unc