t gaiety of existence.

'I say, look here,' he began, giving himself a shake as if to get rid of
an unpleasant impression; 'don't be so jolly blue, all of you! Father
will only be away six months; he said so himself. And as for Auntie Anna,
how do we know she isn't quite a decent old lady? Some old ladies are
awfully sporting. Do you remember Merton major's aunt, Will? She used to
give him whopping tips, whenever she came to see him; and he said he quite
liked her!'

Christopher persisted in his gloomy view of the situation. 'Our aunt is
not the same as anybody else's aunt,' he said. 'And then, there's the
adopted kid.'

'Yes,' admitted Peter, 'no doubt she'll be a trial. Five years at a girls'
school and a year abroad doesn't give anybody a chance, does it?'

'Oh!' said Barbara, in a disappointed tone, 'I did hope _she_ would be
nice!'

'Wonder if she'll mind the smell of chemicals,' observed Wilfred, sniffing
cautiously at the saucepan he still held in his hand.

'Of course she will,' answered Christopher. 'She'll hate the whole jolly
lot of us, because we're boys; and she'll disapprove of the Babe.'

The boys broke into a laugh. There was something irresistibly funny to
them in Christopher's serious way of looking at things. But Barbara was
much too worried over his last remark to join in the laugh against him.

'Kit,' she begged anxiously, 'why is the adopted kid going to disapprove
of me?'

The air was full of startling discoveries this afternoon, and the idea
that the 'adopted kid,' for whom she had already formed an imaginary
attachment, was not going to like her, was a great shock to her. But
before Kit had time to speak, a loud ring at the door-bell drove the words
out of his mind and startled the rest of them into an agitated expectancy.

'That's her!' groaned Kit, and he dropped on the sofa and plunged his
head into the cushion, as if he wanted to stifle even the thought of the
dragon who was coming to work such havoc in the family. His words were
proved by the sudden arrival of Robin, who had been posted as scout on
the back staircase, and who now flung himself into their midst. He was
in far too great a hurry to look where he was going; and he tripped over
the saucepan, which had been set down casually near the door, and fell
full length into the room.

'Heigh-ho, Bobbin!' said Peter, cheerily, as he picked him up again; for,
in spite of his nine years, there was always the chance that Robin mig