ight
and lovely eyes; her movements were quick, her expression full of
animation, and when excited--and she was generally in a state of
excitement--her words tumbled out almost too quickly for coherence.
Her cheeks would burn, and her eyes sparkle, over such trivial
circumstances as a walk down a country lane, as blackberry-hunting, as
strawberry-picking--a new story-book kept her awake half the
night--she was, in short, a constant little volcano in this quiet
home, and would have been an intolerable child but for the great
sweetness of her temper, and also for the fact that every one more or
less yielded to her.

Daisy was very pretty and fair--her hair was as yellow as Primrose's,
but it curled, and was more or less always in a state of friz; her
eyes were wide open and blue, and she was just a charming little
child, partaking slightly of the qualities of both her elder sisters.

These girls had never had a care or an anxiety--when they were hungry
they could eat, when they were tired sleep could lull them into
dreamless rest--they had never seen any world but the narrow world of
Rosebury, the name of the village where they lived. Even romantic
Jasmine thought that life at Rosebury, with perhaps a few more books
and a few more adventures must form the sum and substance of her
existence. Of course there was a large world outside, but even Jasmine
had not begun to long for it.

Primrose was sixteen, Jasmine between thirteen and fourteen, and Daisy
ten, when a sudden break came to all this quiet and happy routine.
Mrs. Mainwaring without any warning or any leave-taking, suddenly
died.

CHAPTER II.

THE FIRST MONTH OF THEIR TROUBLE.

There are mothers and mothers. Mrs. Mainwaring was the kind of mother
who could not possibly say a harsh word to her children--she could not
be severe to them, she could never do anything but consider them the
sweetest and best of human beings. The girls ruled her, and she liked
to be ruled by them. After her husband's death, and after the first
agony of his loss had passed away, she sank into a sort of subdued
state--she began to live in the present, to be content with the little
blessings of each day, to look upon the sunshine as an unmitigated
boon, and on the girls' laughter as the sweetest music. She had been
rich in her early married life, but Captain Mainwaring had lost his
money, had lost all his large private means, through a bank failure,
and before Daisy came into