they left off carrying their woolly lambs. I suspect the real
reason was that their extreme affection for the lambs had resulted in
these favoured animals growing more black than white, and that Bessie
judged them unfit for appearing in public, but if this _was_ the case,
evidently Bessie had been obliged to resort to artifice to obtain their
owners' consent to the lambs being left at home. For, when I asked the
trots where the precious creatures were, they looked melancholy and
distressed and shook their heads.

'"Too told!" said Doll, and Dot repeated, like a mournful echo, "too
told!"

'"Of course," said I, "how stupid of me not to think of it! of course
it's far too cold for such very little lambs to be out."

'Bessie looked gratefully at me. "We're going to buy some cakes for
tea," she said, with a smile, and sure enough in about half-an-hour the
trio reappeared again, and came to a standstill as usual, opposite our
window. And, instead of a lamb, each trot hugged a little parcel, neatly
done up in white paper. I opened the window to hear what they were
saying, they looked so excited.

'"Takes for tea," they both called out at once, "takes for tea. Lady
have one. Dip have one."

'And poor Bessie was obliged to open the parcels, and extract one "take"
from each and hand them up to me, before my little dears would be
satisfied.

'Can you fancy that I really got to love the trots? I did not want to
know who they were, or what sort of a father and mother they had--they
were well taken care of, that was evident, for somehow, knowing anything
more about them would have spoilt them for being my funny little trots.

'But, for several weeks of the three months we spent at St. Austin's,
the sight of these happy little creatures was one of my greatest
pleasures, and a day without a glimpse of them would have seemed blank
and dull.

'There came a time, however, when for many days I did not see my little
friends. The weather was bad just then, and mamma said she was sure they
had got colds, that would be all that was wrong with them, but somehow I
felt uneasy. I asked our doctor, when he called, if there was much
illness about, and he, fancying I was nervous on my own account,
replied, "Oh no, with the exception of two or three cases of croup, he
had no serious ailments among his patients: it was a very healthy
season."

'I got frightened at the idea of croup, and cross-questioned him to
discover if my trots were a