had so unhappily
praised, her penance was yet to come!

Bob was the first to assail her as she opened the door on their arrival
home.

"Who forgot the bread?" he shouted out, so loudly that, starting back
with fright, she almost tumbled. "Who forgot the bread?"

"Who forgot the tea?" cried Nellie, immediately behind him, following up
her brother's attack and making Sarah jump afresh. "Who forgot the
tea?"

"And who forgot her head?" said the Captain from the rear, pressing the
charge home; whereupon, they all, Mrs Gilmour included, halted on the
doorstep and roared with laughter. "Aye, who forgot her head?"

This was too much for the girl.

"Oh my, me!" she exclaimed, staring at them in hopeless stupefaction.
"Oh my, me!"

"Dear me!" observed Mrs Gilmour, her laugh subsiding into a broad
smile. "Why, you are quite a poet, Sarah."

"Me, mum?" ejaculated the other, more astonished than ever. "Whatever
have I gone and done now?"

"Yes," continued her mistress, "you've just supplied `the missing link'
in our rhyme; and people who make poetry, of course, are poets."

"Oh, auntie, I see, I see!" called out Nellie excitedly, in great glee.
"I see it--don't you, Bob?"

"No, what is it?" asked that young gentleman. "See what?"

"Oh dear! and you began it, too," cried Nell. "You really are a very
stupid boy. Why, it's a regular verse of poetry--

"Who forgot the bread?
Who forgot the tea?
And who forgot her head?
Oh, my--me!

"Don't you see it now?"

"Oh, yes," replied Bob, adding his usual expression when praising
anything--"it's jolly!"

"I confess I did not see it either at first; so, I suppose, you'll call
me a stupid too, Miss Nellie, eh?" chuckled Captain Dresser. "However,
now you've made it all clear to us, I will, if you like, christen your
short but sweet poem for you. What say you to `Sarah's forget-me-nots'?
Do you think that will do, eh?"

"Splendidly!" said Nell; an opinion which they all seemed to share,
excepting poor Sarah, into whose ears the verselet was dinned so
incessantly, both by Bob and Nellie, and even by the pert Dick, too,
that its repetition, or any specific allusion to any one of the articles
she had omitted in making up the historic hamper, would invariably make
the unfortunate damsel wince; while if the simple name of the innocent
flower which the Captain had adopted were but mentioned, even without
any malice prepense, the poor girl would leave the room a