ng as usual with his beloved horses, not
seeming to pay any attention to what we were saying. But he was
attending all the time, and the squeal was a squeal of delight at
hearing that the new nurse was not coming.

"What is the matter, Racey?" I said.

"Her's not tumming," he shouted. "Her won't whip us."

"Who said anything about being whipped?" said Uncle Geoff.

We hesitated.

"I don't quite know," I said. "Mrs. Partridge said we should have a very
strict nurse, and I don't know how it was the boys thought she'd whip
them."

Uncle Geoff looked rather grave again.

"I must go," he said. "I will let Miss Goldy-hair,"--he smiled again
when he said it--"I will let her know that I can't let Tom out to-day
and that his good little sister won't leave him;"--how kind I thought
it of Uncle Geoff to say that!--"and I must do the best I can to find a
nice nurse for you--one that won't whip you, Racey."

"Must Tom go to bed?" I asked.

"No," said Uncle Geoff, "if he keeps warm and out of the draughts. Mrs.
Partridge will come up to see him; but you needn't be afraid, Audrey,
I'm not going to say anything about last night to her. You and I have
made an agreement, you know."

Mrs. Partridge did come up, and she was really very kind--much kinder
than she had been before. She was one of those people that get nicer
when you're ill; and besides, Uncle Geoff had said something to her, I'm
sure, though I never knew exactly what. Any way she left off calling us
naughty and telling us what a trouble we were. But it was all thanks to
Miss Goldy-hair, Tom and I said so to each other over and over again. No
one else could have put things right the way she had done.

Tom was very good and patient, though his throat was really pretty bad
and his head ached. Mrs. Partridge sent him some black currant tea to
drink a little of every now and then, and Uncle Geoff sent Benjamin to
the chemist's with some doctor's writing on a paper and he brought back
some rather nasty medicine which poor Tom had to take every two hours.
But though I did my very best to amuse him, and read him over and over
again all the stories I could find, it seemed a very long, cold, dull
morning, and we couldn't help thinking how different it was from what we
had hoped for--spending the day with Miss Goldy-hair, I mean.

"If only we hadn't gone out in the cold last night you'd have been quite
well to-day, Tom," I said sadly.

"Yes, but then we wouldn't have fou