ry sun was already sending some clear yellow rays out into the pale
grey-blue sky.

"It must be late," thought Griselda, when she had opened the shutters
and seen how light it was. "I must have slept a long time. I feel so
beautifully unsleepy now. I must dress quickly--how nice it will be to
see my aunts look happy again! I don't even care if they scold me for
being late."

But, after all, it was not so much later than usual; it was only a much
brighter morning than they had had for some time. Griselda did dress
herself very quickly, however. As she went downstairs two or three of
the clocks in the house, for there were several, were striking eight.
These clocks must have been a little before the right time, for it was
not till they had again relapsed into silence that there rang out from
the ante-room the clear sweet tones, eight times repeated, of "Cuckoo."

Miss Grizzel and Miss Tabitha were already at the breakfast-table, but
they received their little niece most graciously. Nothing was said about
the clock, however, till about half-way through the meal, when Griselda,
full of eagerness to know if her aunts were aware of the cuckoo's
return, could restrain herself no longer.

"Aunt Grizzel," she said, "isn't the cuckoo all right again?"

"Yes, my dear. I am delighted to say it is," replied Miss Grizzel.

"Did you get it put right, Aunt Grizzel?" inquired Griselda, slyly.

"Little girls should not ask so many questions," replied Miss Grizzel,
mysteriously. "It _is_ all right again, and that is enough. During fifty
years that cuckoo has never, till yesterday, missed an hour. If you, in
your sphere, my dear, do as well during fifty years, you won't have done
badly."

"No, indeed, you won't have done badly," repeated Miss Tabitha.

But though the two old ladies thus tried to improve the occasion by a
little lecturing, Griselda could see that at the bottom of their hearts
they were both so happy that, even if she had been very naughty indeed,
they could hardly have made up their minds to scold her.

She was not at all inclined to be naughty this day. She had something to
think about and look forward to, which made her quite a different little
girl, and made her take heart in doing her lessons as well as she
possibly could.

"I wonder when the cuckoo will have considered enough about my having no
one to play with?" she said to herself, as she was walking up and down
the terrace at the back of the house.

"C