ed mother
they were ever the sweetest little quartette that breathed the breath
of life." Mr. Delaney's eyes filled with sudden tears as he said these
words. "Good-by, Rub-a-Dub," he whispered as he left the garden. "Yes,
there are many good-bys in the air just now."

CHAPTER VII.

BUT ANN COULD NOT HELP LETTING OUT NOW AND THEN.

The Rectory at Super-Ashton was a large, sunny, cheerful house. It was
filled with every modern convenience, and possessed plenty of rooms
papered with light, bright-looking papers, and painted also in
cheerful colors. The windows were large and let in every scrap of
sunshine; the passages and hall and stairs were broad and roomy; the
nurseries and the children's rooms were models of comfort; the
servants were all well behaved and thoroughly accustomed to their
duties; the meals were punctual to a moment; in fact, nothing was left
to chance at Super-Ashton Rectory.

Mrs. Dolman was the life and soul of this extremely orderly English
home. She was one of the most active little women in the world. She
invariably got up, summer and winter, soon after six o'clock, and
might be seen bustling about the house, and bustling about the garden,
and bustling about the parish from that moment until she retired to
rest again, somewhere between ten and eleven at night. She was never
exactly cross, but she was very determined. She had strict ideas, and
made everyone in the parish not only respect her and look up to her,
but live up to her rule of life. She was, as a matter of fact, thought
a great deal more of by the parishioners than her husband, the
Reverend William Dolman, and the real Rector of Super-Ashton.

Mr. Dolman was a very large man, tall in stature and broad. He was
also fat and loosely built. He had a kindly face and a good-humored
way of talking. He preached very fair sermons on Sundays, and attended
to his duties, but without any of the enthusiasm which his wife
displayed.

When Mrs. Dolman wrote to her husband to say that she was returning
home with the four little Delaneys, it caused considerable excitement
at the breakfast table. Five little hearts beat considerably faster
than usual; but so great were the order and regularity of the
household that the five little faces to which the hearts belonged
remained apparently impassive.

Miss Ramsay, the governess, was presiding at the head of the table.
The Dolman girls were neatly dressed in print frocks with white
pinafores; th