hat you liked, and have ten pounds for your
share. Ten pounds would come in very usefully for Christmas."

"Rather! I'd get mother and father lovely presents, and Mrs Asplin
too; and buy books for Esther, and a little gold ring for Mellicent--
it's her idea of happiness to have a gold ring. I'll help you with
pleasure, Rob, and I'm sure we shall get the prize. What have we to do?
Compose some poetry?"

"Goodness, no! Fancy me making up poetry! It's to make up a calendar.
There are subjects given for each month--sorrow, love, obedience,
resignation--that sort of thing, and you have to give a quotation for
each day. It will take some time, but we ought to stand a good chance.
You are fond of reading, and know no end of poetry, and where I have a
pull is in knowing French and German _so_ well. I can give them some
fine translations from the Latin and Greek too, for the matter of that,
and put the authors' names underneath. That will impress the judges,
and make 'em decide in our favour. I've been working at it only three
days, and I've got over fifty quotations already. We must keep
note-books in our pockets, and jot down any ideas that occur to us
during the day, and go over them together at night. You will know a
lot, I'm sure."

"`Sorrow and silence are strong,
and patient endurance is godlike,
Therefore accomplish thy labour of love,
till the heart is made godlike.'"

quoted Peggy with an air; and Rob nodded approval.

"That's it! That's the style! Something with a bit of a sermon in it
to keep 'em up to the mark for the day. Bravo, Mariquita! you'll do it
splendidly. That's settled, then. We shall have to work hard, for
there is only a month before it must be sent off, and we must finish in
good time. When you leave things to the last, something is bound to
come in the way. It will take an age to write out three hundred and
sixty-five extracts."

"It will indeed, for they must be very nicely done," said Peggy
fastidiously. "Of course it is most important that the extracts
themselves should be good, but it matters almost as much that they
should look neat and attractive. Appearances go such a long way." And
when Robert demurred, and stated his opinion that the judges would not
trouble their heads about looks, she stuck firmly to her point.

"Oh, won't they, though! Just imagine how you would feel if you were in
their position, and had to look over scores of ugly, uninteresting
m