his cousin was pretty sure to come into the story.

And Kezia used to speak of him too--'Master Cosmo,' she always called
him. For she had been a young under-servant of grandmamma's long ago,
when grandpapa was alive and before the money was lost.

That is one thing I want to say--that though Kezia was our only servant,
she was not at all common or rough. She turned herself into what is
called 'a maid-of-all-work,' from being my nurse, just out of love for
granny and me. And she was very good and very kind. Since I have grown
older and have seen more of other children and how they live, I often
think how much better off I was than most, even though my home was only
a cottage and we lived so simply, and even poorly, in some ways.
Everything was so open and happy about my life. I was not afraid of
anybody or anything. And I have known children who, though their parents
were very rich and they lived very grandly, had really a great deal to
bear from cross or unkind nurses or maids, whom they were frightened to
complain of. For children, unless they are _very_ spoilt, are not so
ready to complain as big people think. I had nothing to complain of, but
if I had had anything, it would have been easy to tell grandmamma all
about it at once; it would never have entered my head not to tell her.
She knew everything about me, and I knew everything about her that it
was good for me to know while I was still so young--more, perhaps, than
some people would think a child should know--about our not having much
money and needing to be careful, and things like that. But it did not do
me any harm. Children don't take _that_ kind of trouble to heart. I was
proud of being treated sensibly, and of feeling that in many little ways
I could help her as I could not have done if she had not explained.

And if ever there was anything she did not tell me about, even the
keeping it back was done in an open sort of way. Granny made no
mysteries. She would just say simply--

'I cannot tell you, my dear,' or 'You could not understand about it at
present.'

So that I trusted her--'always,' I was going to say, but, alas, there
came a time when I did not trust her enough, and from that great fault
of mine came all the troubles I ever had.

_Now_ I will go straight on.

Have you ever looked back and tried to find out what is really the very
first thing you can remember? It is rather interesting--now and then the
b--no, I don't mean to speak of them