I don't think I like
anybody--not much. She'll be all right with Jus and Archie. Why don't
you tell them to be nice to her?'

'Because,' said Aunt Mattie slowly, 'I want you all to be nice to her,
and in some ways I had thought you would suit her the best, Pat. You are
quieter than Jus and Archie, and little Rosamond has not been used to
boys, or indeed to playfellows at all. And she is fond of reading, like
you.'

'I'm always being scolded for reading,' grumbled Pat. 'It's often that
that Jus and I fight about, and then mamma takes for granted it's all my
fault, and they call me surly and ill-natured and all that. And it's
like that at school too--only----'

'Only what?' asked his aunt, delighted to get him to speak out to her in
the old way.

'I-- I didn't mind so much when--when _you_ were here and I could tell
you things,' said Pat. 'I've nobody now--nobody who cares. O auntie, I
do so wish you hadn't gone and got married.'

Aunt Mattie's face had grown very kind and gentle. She had sometimes
fancied that, little though he said about it, Pat really did care for
her.

'I'm not so far away after all,' she said, 'and I'm sure you know that
I'm always ready to talk to you, or to help you in any way I can.'

'Oh, but it's different,' said Pat. 'It's not like living in the house,
and taking my part a little, and explaining to them--oh! it's quite
different, and then--there's Uncle Ted----'

A little smile crept into Mattie's eyes at this; she had suspected more
than once that Pat was rather jealous of his new uncle.

'Of course,' she said, 'I know it can't be quite the same, but it might
be a good deal worse; I might have had to go to India, like Rosamond's
father and mother. And if you knew Uncle Ted better, you would find him
awfully kind and understanding about boys.'

Pat grunted.

'He likes the others, I know,' he said gloomily.

His aunt's face grew graver again. This touch of jealousy in Pat made
her anxious about him.

'It is such a pity,' she said, 'that you get these ideas into your
head--of people not liking you or liking the others better, and
uncomfortable fancies of that kind.'

'They are _not_ fancies,' said Pat; 'they are true.'

'Well, if they are true, make them not true,' was the reply. 'Try to be
a little brighter and pleasanter to other people, especially to your own
people, and see if that doesn't make a difference. Just _try_, for my
sake, and as far as Rosamond is concerned I a