red cashmere frock
that was hardly as bright as her plump cheeks. Her hair had evidently
been plaited very tightly overnight, so that it stood out in a frizzled
mass all round her head. The whole effect was very large and bright.

"I have brought you a new pet," said Mrs. Winter addressing Madge;
"something you have seen before, but it looks rather different now."
She opened a large basket that was on the floor beside her, and lifted
out a pretty tortoise-shell cat.

"What a love!" cried Madge. "Is it the kitten we found in the cellar?
But it looks quite big and fat now, only the colour is the same."

"Ah, it's wonderful what care and good feeding will do for any animal!"
observed Mrs. Winter. "You remember how scared the poor creature was
at first? Well, now she is so tame that she will sit on my shoulder.
Just see."

While the cat exhibited two or three little tricks, such as standing on
her hind legs to eat a bit of bread, Mrs. Winter explained that she had
always intended to make a present of the pretty creature to the young
lady who had been so frightened by her in the cellar.

"So, this being early-closing day in the town, I borrowed Mrs. Smith's
pony-trap and drove out, bringing little Ann with me for company," she
said.

"And Mrs. West wishes you to rest and have some tea before you return,"
added Miss Thompson. "So let us all sit down at once, and Pussy shall
have a saucer to herself in the corner of the room."

When tea was finished the children asked permission to show Ann their
gardens, and pick her a bunch of flowers before she returned to the
town. Mrs. Winter preferred sitting indoors in the shade, until her
grandchild was ready to start.

It must be owned that as long as they were in the schoolroom Ann had
proved disappointingly dull. Instead of enlightening them on her
method of keeping shop when she was left in sole charge, she sat
stolidly munching cake, and hardly replying when she was spoken to by
Miss Thompson. In point of fact poor Ann was rendered desperately shy
by being dressed up in all her finest clothes to come on this important
visit. All the way to Beechgrove her grandmother had been warning her
that she must behave beautifully if they were asked to go inside the
house, and the consequence was that the poor girl was almost afraid to
speak, for fear of saying or doing the wrong thing. But when once in
the garden her shyness of the young ladies rapidly faded away.

"Do