ly," said Penelope.

"Well, run into the garden and pick all the peas you can find. There's a
nice little joint in the larder, and I'll roast it, and you shall have a
beautiful dinner. Now off you go, dears. You shall have custard-pudding
and cream and strawberry-jam afterwards."

"Oh, how nice!" cried Penelope, with a little gasp. "Be sure you give us
_plenty_ of strawberry-jam, and make a very large custard-pudding, for
there's such a lot of us to eat the things, and I generally get the
teeniest little bit."

"You are a nursery child, and it's in the nursery you'll have your tea,"
said Verena in a stern tone. "Go and pick the peas."

"Not me," said Penelope.

She sat down just where she was, in an obstinate heap, in the middle of
the floor.

"If I are not to eat those peas I don't pick 'em," she said. "I wor going
to be kind, but I won't be kind if I'm to be turned into a nursery
child."

"Oh! do let her come to the dining-room just for to-night," pleaded
Pauline.

"Very well, then; just for once," said Verena.

CHAPTER IV.

THE LIFE OF MISRULE.

Dinner went off better than the girls had expected. But to Miss Tredgold
it was, and ever would be, the most awful meal she had eaten in the whole
course of her existence. The table was devoid of all those things which
she, as a refined lady, considered essential. The beautiful old silver
spoons were dirty, and several of them bent almost out of recognition. A
like fate had befallen the forks; the knives were rusty, the handles
disgracefully dirty; and the tablecloth, of the finest damask, was almost
gray in color, and adorned with several large holes. The use of
serviettes had been long abolished from The Dales.

The girls, in honor of the occasion, had put on their best frocks, and
Verena looked fairly pretty in a skimpy white muslin made in an obsolete
style. The other girls each presented a slightly worse appearance than
their elder sister, for each had on a somewhat shabbier frock, a little
more old-fashioned and more outgrown. As to Mr. Dale, it had been
necessary to remind him at least three times of his sister-in-law's
arrival; and finally Verena had herself to put him into his very old
evening-coat, to brush him down afterwards, and to smooth his hair, and
then lead him into the dining-room.

Miss Tredgold, in contradistinction to the rest of the family, was
dressed correctly. She wore a black lace dress slightly open at the neck,
and with e