truly; 'but it does always
happen like that.'

'You deserve to HAVE something happen,' said old Nurse. 'Slave, slave,
slave for you day and night, and never a word of thanks. ...'

'Why, you do everything beautifully,' said Anthea.

'It's the first time any of you's troubled to say so, anyhow,' said
Nurse shortly.

'What's the use of SAYING?' inquired Robert. 'We EAT our meals fast
enough, and almost always two helps. THAT ought to show you!'

'Ah!' said old Nurse, going round the table and putting the knives and
forks in their places; 'you're a man all over, Master Robert. There was
my poor Green, all the years he lived with me I never could get more
out of him than "It's all right!" when I asked him if he'd fancied his
dinner. And yet, when he lay a-dying, his last words to me was, "Maria,
you was always a good cook!"' She ended with a trembling voice.

'And so you are,' cried Anthea, and she and Jane instantly hugged her.

When she had gone out of the room Anthea said--

'I know exactly how she feels. Now, look here! Let's do a penance to
show we're sorry we didn't think about telling her before what nice
cooking she does, and what a dear she is.'

'Penances are silly,' said Robert.

'Not if the penance is something to please someone else. I didn't mean
old peas and hair shirts and sleeping on the stones. I mean we'll make
her a sorry-present,' explained Anthea. 'Look here! I vote Cyril doesn't
tell us his idea until we've done something for old Nurse. It's worse
for us than him,' she added hastily, 'because he knows what it is and we
don't. Do you all agree?'

The others would have been ashamed not to agree, so they did. It was not
till quite near the end of dinner--mutton fritters and blackberry and
apple pie--that out of the earnest talk of the four came an idea that
pleased everybody and would, they hoped, please Nurse.

Cyril and Robert went out with the taste of apple still in their mouths
and the purple of blackberries on their lips--and, in the case of
Robert, on the wristband as well--and bought a big sheet of cardboard at
the stationers. Then at the plumber's shop, that has tubes and pipes
and taps and gas-fittings in the window, they bought a pane of glass the
same size as the cardboard. The man cut it with a very interesting tool
that had a bit of diamond at the end, and he gave them, out of his own
free generousness, a large piece of putty and a small piece of glue.

While they were out th