andmother,' I said eagerly.

"'Well'--she went on, speaking rather slowly and gravely, and very
distinctly--'the other day an extraordinary thing happened among my china
cups in that cupboard over there. I had one pink cup, on the side of
which was--or is--the picture of a shepherdess curtseying to a shepherd.
Now this shepherdess when I bought the cup, which was only a few days
ago, was dressed--I am _perfectly_ certain of it, for her dress was just
the same as one I have upstairs in my collection--in a pale pink or
salmon-coloured skirt, looped up over a pea-green slip--the picture of
the shepherdess is repeated again on the saucer, and there it still is as
I tell you. But the strangest metamorphosis has taken place in the cup. I
left it one morning as I describe, for you know I always dust my best
china myself. Two days after, when I looked at it again, the
shepherdess's attire was changed--she had on no longer the pea-green
dress over the salmon, but a _salmon_ dress over a _pea-green_ slip. Did
you ever hear anything so strange, Nelly?'

"I turned away my head, children; I dared not look at my grandmother.
What should I say? This was the end of my concealment. It had done _no_
good--grandmother must know it all now, I could hide it no longer, and
she would be far, far more angry than if at the first I had bravely
confessed my disobedience and its consequences. I tried to speak, but
I could not. I burst into tears and hid my face.

"Grandmother's arm was round me in a moment, and her kind voice saying,
'Why, what is the matter, my little Nelly?'

"I drew myself away from her, and threw myself on the floor, crying out
to grandmother not to speak kindly to me.

"'You won't love me when you know,' I said. 'You will never love me
again. It was _me_, oh grandmother! It was me that changed the cup.
I got another for you not to know. I spent all my money. I broke it,
grandmother. When you told me not to open the cupboard, I did open it,
and I took out the cup, and it fell and was broken, and then I saw
another in a shop window, and I thought it was just the same, and I
bought it. It cost ten shillings, but I never knew it wasn't quite the
same, only now it doesn't matter. You will never love me again, and
nobody will. Oh dear, oh dear, what _shall_ I do?'

"'Never love you again, my poor dear faithless little girl,' said
grandmother. 'Oh, Nelly, my child, how little you know me! But oh, I am
so glad you have told me