thick as her little finger, which she called a
bodkin, but which we should think very rude and clumsy indeed.

"Hast thou heard, Bertha," said Avice, "that when I was young, I dwelt
for a season in the Castle of Windsor, and my mother was nurse to some
of the children of the Lord King that then was? Brothers and sister
they were of our Lord King Edward that reigns now."

Bertha's eyes brightened. She liked, as all girls do, to hear a story
which had to do with great people.

"No, Aunt Avice, I never knew that. Won't you tell me all about it?"

So Avice began and told her what we know already--how the Bishop had
recommended Agnes to the Queen, and all about the journey, and the
Castle, and the Queen herself. Then she went on to tell the rest of the
story.

"We lived nigh five years," said Avice, "in the Castle of Windsor--until
the Lord Richard was dead, and the Lord William was nearly four years
old. Then the Lady Queen removed to the royal Palace of Westminster,
for the Lord King was gone over seas, and she with Earl Richard his
brother was left to keep England. It was in August, the year of our
Lord 1253, at we took up our abode in Thorney Island, where the Palace
of Westminster stands. It is a marshy place--not over healthy, some
folks say; but I never was ill while we dwelt there. And it was there,
on Saint Katherine's Day"--which is the 25th of November--"that our
little Lady was born. Her royal mother named her Katherine, after the
blessed saint. She was the loveliest babe that eye could rest on, and
she was christened with great pomp. And on Saint Edward's Day, when the
Lady Queen was purified"--namely, churched--"there was such a feast as I
never saw again while I dwelt with her. The provisions brought in for
that feast were fourteen wild boars, twenty-four swans, one hundred and
thirty-five rabbits, two hundred and fifty partridges, sixteen hundred
and fifty fowls, fifty hares, two hundred and fifty wild ducks,
thirty-six geese, and sixty-one thousand eggs."

"Only think!" cried Bertha. "Did you get some, Aunt?"

"Surely I did, child. The Lady Queen, I told thee, was then keeper of
England, for the Lord King was away across the seas; and good provision
she made. Truly, she was free-handed enough at spending. Would she had
been as just in the way she came by her money!"

"Why, Aunt, what mean you?" asked Bertha, when Avice expressed her wish
that Queen Eleanor had been as just in gaining