talk to grandmamma.
They were very kind and did not keep us long waiting, and soon we heard
granny calling us from the window. Her face was quite pleased and
smiling. I saw in a moment that she was not going to say I should not
have spoken of her birthday to the little girls.

'Mrs. Nestor is thinking of a great treat for you--and for me, Helena,'
she said. 'And she and I want you to know about it at once, so that you
may all talk about it together and enjoy it beforehand as well. Some
little bird, it seems, has flown over to Moor Court and told that next
Tuesday week will be your old granny's birthday, and Mrs. Nestor has
invited us to spend the afternoon of it there. You will like that, will
you not?'

I looked up at grandmamma, feeling quite strange. You will hardly
believe that I had never in my life paid even a visit of this simple
kind.

'Yes,' I whispered, feeling myself getting pink all over, as I knew that
Mrs. Nestor was looking at me, 'yes, thank you.'

Then dear little Vallie came close up to me, and said in a low voice--

'Now we can settle about the surprise. Come quick, Helena--the surprise
will be the fun.'

And when I found myself alone with the others again, all three of them,
even Nan, chattering at once, I soon found my own tongue again, and the
strange, unreal sort of feeling went off. They were very simple unspoilt
children, though their parents were rich and what I used to call
'grand.' It is quite a mistake to think that the children who live in
very large houses and have ponies and lots of servants and everything
they can want are sure to be spoilt. Very often it is quite the
opposite. For, if their parents are good and wise, they are _extra_
careful not to spoil them, knowing that the sort of trials that cannot
be kept away from poorer children, and which are a training in
themselves in some ways, are not likely to come to _their_ children. I
even think now, looking back, that there was really more risk of being
spoilt, for me myself, than for Sharley and her brothers and sisters.

Being allowed to be selfish is the real beginning and end of being
spoilt, I am quite sure.

The 'surprise' they had thought of was a very simple one, and one that I
knew grandmamma would like. It was that we should have tea out-of-doors,
in an arbour where there was a table and seats all round. And we were to
decorate it with flowers, and a wicker arm-chair was to be brought out
for granny, and wreathed wi