lled. "Penelope, dear!"

Penelope came running up the garden at once.

"Do you think you could walk as much as two miles without getting
over-tired?"

"Oh yes," said Penelope, without a moment's hesitation. "I often walked
five or six miles at home. Do you want me to go somewhere, Cousin
Charlotte?"

"Well, dear, I very much want some one to go to Four Winds for me.
I promised some strawberries to a friend of mine, Miss Row, who lives just
outside Four Winds. She is giving a garden-party to-day, and I know she
is relying on my sending her some fruit. I thought Ephraim would have
been able to go, but he started for Gorley before I could speak to him."

"I should love to go," said Penelope. "I will start at once. Which way
is it, Cousin Charlotte?"

"You go past the houses here, and keep on the main road, right up the
hill, until you come to the top; just before you reach the top you will
come to a church."

"Oh, I know," cried Penelope. "I went there yesterday, and when I came to
the church it was open, and some one was playing the organ, and I went in
and sat in one of the pews for ever so long to listen."

"Oh, is that where you were?" said Miss Charlotte. "I wondered what had
become of you. Well, when you go so far another time, dear, take Guard
with you. We rarely, if ever, get a tramp, or any other undesirable
person about these parts, we are too remote, and too poor to be worth
coming so far to find, but all the same I do not like you to go about
quite alone. Take him with you now, dear. When you reach the church you
must go on a little further, until you come to the village; then you cross
the square straight, keep down the next hill a little way, and you will
soon come to a large white gate with 'Cold Harbour' painted on it.
That is my friend's house. Go in, and ask for Miss Row, and if you can
see her, give her the basket and this note. If you can't see her you must
leave them; but I hope you will, for I should like you to rest a little
before you take the walk back."

Penelope took the basket, and was starting straight away with it.

"I think, dear, you had better wash your hands and brush your hair before
you go," said Cousin Charlotte. "Miss Row is very good and kind, but she
is a very particular lady, and I want you to make a good impression on
her; besides, one lady never calls on another with soiled hands."

"Oh, of course!" Penelope blushed and ran upstairs, and some few minute