was missing in the
present. It was such a sad, dreadful sort of letter that Nealie had
cried herself nearly blind over it, and then had gathered the others for
a solemn council. The elders had no secrets from the younger ones, so
Billykins and Ducky had as much to say on the subject as their seniors;
and in the end it was resolved that Nealie and Rupert should write a
letter to their father and tell him that they would worry him with no
more letters until he expressed a desire to have them.

A year and a half had passed since that time, but although the children
watched for the mails with pathetic eagerness, there had come no letter
from their father for them. He did not write to Aunt Judith either,
after he had been told how ill she was; but he wrote to Mr. Runciman
sometimes, they knew, because Mr. Runciman had spoken of having letters
from him.

This long silence would have made them very miserable, if it had not
been that they were so sorry for him that it never occurred to them to
be sorry for themselves. They had each other, but he was alone, and so,
of course, he was to be pitied.

Inspired by the great idea, the seven woke in riotous spirits next
morning, which not even the near prospect of an interview with Mr.
Runciman could daunt, although he was quite sufficiently formidable at
close quarters to make any ordinary person afraid.

Rupert and Rumple cleaned the boots, while Nealie and Sylvia got
breakfast ready, the three juniors having to make themselves useful in
any direction where help was most needed.

They had all learned to wait on themselves during the long illness of
Aunt Judith, for Mrs. Puffin had her hands full with nursing, while
since the death of the old lady she had been in such poor health that
Nealie and Sylvia had done all the cooking and most of the housework,
with a great deal of help from the others.

Breakfast consisted of big plates of porridge and slices of home-made
bread spread with damson jam. There were two trees in Aunt Judith's
small garden, and they had borne a record crop this year.

There was no lingering over their food this morning, but directly the
meal was dispatched the boys washed up the breakfast crockery, while the
girls made the beds and put the rooms tidy. Then Nealie asked Mrs.
Puffin to make them a suet pudding and bake them some potatoes for
dinner, after which they brushed themselves into a fine state of
neatness, and then, bringing the bath chair from the