he chicken and fowls, and I'd
try to do it properly." She was very eager and very shy about making her
request.

"I shall be very glad indeed of your help," said Cousin Charlotte.
"Anna seems too busy and Ephraim forgets; he thinks eggs and hens too
unimportant for his notice. I, though, think them very important indeed;
they make quite a nice little addition to one's income, I find."

"Do they?" said Angela, full of interest. "When I grow up I shall keep
fowls too, I think."

"You will have to learn all about them first," said Cousin Charlotte,
"but that you can begin to do at once. You have them here always under
your eyes, and you must keep your eyes open and take in all you can."

Angela felt, as Penelope had done, that all her dearest wishes were being
granted at once. "Is there something else I can do for you, Cousin
Charlotte?" she asked.

"Yes, dear, if you will. I want to send those fresh eggs up to Miss
Bazeley. She has a lady lodging there who is ill, and Miss Bazeley's hens
seem to have all stopped laying just as she most wants fresh eggs."

"I'd like to go. I'll go now," said Angela, running off to get her hat.

"You can take Poppy with you, dear. It is not far, and you can't make a
mistake. Miss Bazeley's house is the very last in the village; it stands
at the side of the hill on the way to Four Winds."

"I think I know; it has a honeysuckle arch over the gate, hasn't it?"

"Yes, sharp eyes. Now run along."

Esther was up in her room, trying to work herself into a better state of
mind. She knew she was jealous of Penelope's good fortune, and she was
vexed with herself for being so. When people recognise their weaknesses,
and see the wrong of them, they are on a fair way to recovery--if they
choose.

Esther did really want to get the better of the nasty moods and tempers
that she, better than any one, knew she suffered from, and presently she
came down in quite an altered frame of mind, though a little embarrassed
to know how to express herself.

Penelope was in the garden alone, busy over her flower-pots once more.
Esther went up to her wondering what she could say, but Penelope looked up
with so grave a face Esther found her speech at once.

"Aren't you glad?" she asked in surprise.

"Oh yes," cried Penelope enthusiastically.

"So am I," said Esther, and with the same felt her burden of jealousy fall
from her. "It will be fine; it was the very thing you wanted. But you
do