mean--if she could be made to believe that other people love
_her_, that she could be of use to others--I think that would take away
the sort of defiance and hardness one sees in her sometimes. It is so
unlike a child. She is always imagining people don't care for her, and
then she takes actual pleasure in being as naughty as she can be."

"Yes," said Hoodie's mother; "there really are days when she goes out of
her way to be naughty, one might say,--when it is enough for Martin to
tell her to do or not to do _anything_, for her to wish to do or not to
do the opposite. Still she _has_ been better lately, Magdalen, and it is
all thanks to you."

"Poor little Hoodie!" said her cousin, "I wonder why it should be so
very difficult for her to be good. But we must get ready now, must we
not, Beatrice? And _whatever_ I do I must not forget the cage, or any
good I can ever hope to do Hoodie will be at an end!"

"But she is only to have it if she really has been good?" said Mrs.
Caryll, who was sometimes afraid that Magdalen was rather inclined to
spoil Hoodie.

"Only if she has been good, you may be sure," said Magdalen. "And there
is one thing about Hoodie--she does keep a promise."

"You think she is honest and truthful?" said Mrs. Caryll.

"By nature I am sure she is. But her brain is so full of fancies that
she hardly understands herself, that I can quite see how sometimes it
must seem as if she were not straightforward. Not that the fancies would
do her any harm if they were all happy and pretty ones--but I do wish
she could get rid of the idea that no one cares for her. It is _that_
that sours her and spoils her, poor little girl."

Hoodie's mother looked affectionately at Magdalen.

"Where have you learnt to be so wise about children, Magda?" she said.
"You seem to understand them as if you had lived among them all your
life."

"It is only because I love them so much," said Magdalen, simply. "And
often somehow----" she hesitated.

"Often what?" said her cousin, smiling.

"I was going to say--but I stopped because I thought perhaps you would
not like it as we were talking of your children who have everything to
make them happy--" said Magdalen. "I was going to say that sometimes,
often, I am so very, very sorry for children. Even their naughtinesses
and sillinesses make me sorry for them. They are so strange to it
all--and it is so difficult to learn wisdom."

Hoodie's mother smiled again.

"You are such a