but she always ended by thinking that it was
because she was so superior.

"Here, Peter!" exclaimed Agnetta suddenly. A boy in leather leggings
and a smock appeared at the entrance of the barn, and came tramping
across the straw towards them at her call. "Just take this into the
kitchen," said his sister in commanding tones. "Now," turning to Lilac,
"we can go t'other way across the fields. The lane's all in a muck."

Peter slouched away with the basin in his hand. He was a heavy-looking
youth, and so shy that he seldom raised his eyes from the ground.

"No one 'ud think," said Agnetta as the girls entered the meadow again,
"as Peter was Bella's and Gusta's and my brother. He's so dreadful
vulgar-lookin' dressed like that. He might be a common ploughboy, and
his manners is awful."

"Are they?" said Lilac.

"Pa won't hear a word against him," continued Agnetta, "cause he's so
useful with the farm work. He says he'd rather see Peter drive a
straight furrow than dress himself smart. But Bella and me we're
ashamed to be seen with him, we can't neither of us abide commoners."

Common! there was the word again which seemed to mean so many things and
yet was so difficult to understand. Common things were evidently
vulgar. The pigs were common, Peter was common, perhaps Lilac herself
was common in Agnetta's eyes. "And yet," she reflected, lifting her
gaze from the yellow carpet at her feet to the flowering orchards, "the
cherry blossoms and the buttercups are common too; would Agnetta call
them vulgar?"

She had not long to think about this, for her cousin soon introduced
another and a very interesting subject.

"Who's goin' to be Queen this year, I wonder?" she said; "there'll be a
sight of flowers if the weather keeps all on so fine."

"It'll be you, Agnetta, for sure," answered Lilac; "I know lots who mean
to choose you this time."

"I dessay," said Agnetta with an air of lofty indifference.

"Don't you want to be?" asked Lilac.

The careless tone surprised her, for to be chosen Queen of the May was
not only an honour, but a position of importance and splendour. It
meant to march at the head of a long procession of children, in a white
dress, to be crowned with flowers in the midst of gaiety and rejoicing,
to lead the dance round the maypole, and to be first throughout a day of
revelry and feasting. To Lilac it was the most beautiful of ceremonies
to see the Queen crowned; to join in it was a del