g, moving,
breathing creatures, all of them Peggy's very own--were chipping their
shells, and making their entrance into this wonderful world. Alice took
the chickens more calmly, but she was greatly interested in them in her
quiet way.

"Oh, mother, I do hope grandmother likes chickens," Peggy said, when
Mrs. Owen told the children that she had a letter from their
grandmother, fixing the time of her annual spring visit.

"Peggy, you never seem to be able to think of but one thing at a time,"
said her mother. "What difference will it make whether your grandmother
likes chickens? She won't have to do anything about them."

The children were very much interested in helping arrange the spare room
for their grandmother. Alice got out the prettiest bureau cover from the
linen closet, and the children helped their mother wash the china for
the washstand. It was pretty china, covered with small pink roses, with
green leaves. And there was a pincushion, that was white over pink, on
the bureau. Peggy went out and picked some of the hemlock and put that
in a green vase on the table.

It was a pleasant excitement to have their grandmother come. She always
brought them presents. She was a quiet, dignified woman, and she had
brown eyes very like Alice's, but her hair, that was once brown, was now
snow-white. They all went down to the station to meet her, and they rode
back with her in the taxi, and that was great fun.

Their grandmother was not a person who expressed a great deal, so, when
she came into the house and said, "Mary, how pleasant you have made this
little house look," they were all very much pleased.

The children could hardly wait for her trunk to be unpacked, for they
were eager to see what she had brought. They did not venture to go into
her room; she liked to have her room to herself. She was tired, and it
was almost supper-time before she came down. She had some things in her
hands.

"I have some blue gingham here for a dress for Peggy, and some pink for
Alice," she said. "I have brought some material for new white dresses,
too."

The children were delighted with the thought of their new frocks. Their
grandmother brought them each a book besides.

Lady Janet wandered into the parlor.

"You have the same cat, I see," said their grandmother.

"Oh, no, grandmother, she's different," Alice said. "Don't you see how
different she is? She's her daughter. She hasn't so many stripes on her
tail, and she's a li