f thick yellow cream, and, what Poppy liked best of all, a
bunch of roses, and southernwood and pansies, and lavender from
grandmother's garden.

It was very pleasant to get tea ready, when there were so many good
things to put on the table, and it was still more pleasant when Poppy's
mother woke, to take her a cup of tea with the good country cream in it,
and to watch how she enjoyed some thin slices of grandmother's bread and
butter, and a fresh egg laid that morning by 'little Jenny, the bonniest
hen of the lot.'

'Now, Poppy,' said grandmother, when tea was over, 'you get on your hat,
and go out a bit. You're a good little lass if ever there was one--bless
you, my darling, my own John Henry's bairn! But you want a bit of rest
and play, you do indeed.'

'Yes, that she does,' said her mother. 'Why, it's weeks since she got
out for a walk--not since I was in bed, bless her!'

So Poppy put on her hat and went out. It was a lovely summer's evening;
the great heat of the day was over, and a gentle breeze was blowing,
which was very cooling and refreshing to the tired little girl. She went
slowly past the great cathedral, and she thought how beautiful it
looked, standing out against the quiet evening sky. Then she climbed up
a flight of stone steep, and these took her to the top of the old wall,
which went all round that ancient city.

And now Poppy had a beautiful view, over the tops of the chimneys, and
across the black smoky courts, to where the green fields were lying in
the evening sunshine, and the river was lighted up by the rays of the
setting sun. And there on the top of the old city wall, in a quiet
little corner where no one could see her, Poppy knelt down, and thanked
God for hearing her prayer, and for sending grandmother to help her. On
her way home she met Jack coming to meet her. 'Poppy,' he said, 'I've
got a present for you.'

He put his hand under his thick fustian jacket and pulled out something
tied up tightly in a red cotton pocket-handkerchief.

'Come and sit on this doorstep, Poppy,' he said, 'and look what it is.'

It was a large green apple.

'Why, Jack,' said Poppy, 'where did you get it? It's a funny time of
year to get an apple; I didn't know there was any left.'

'No, it's a real curiosity,' said Jack, 'and I said to myself when I got
it, "Poppy shall have that big 'un; she was such a plucky girl that
night in the tower--she never whimpered nor nothing." So I tied him up
in that han