he table.

Racey danced forward in delight.

"Audrey, Audrey," he cried, "her _has_ got a basket, and her _has_ come.
Her said she would."

Miss Goldy-hair stooped down to kiss his eager little face. Then she
turned to me and kissed me too, but I felt as if I hardly deserved it.

"Did you think I had forgotten you, Audrey?" she said.

I felt my cheeks get very red, but I didn't speak.

"Didn't you promise to trust me last night?" she said again.

"Yes, Miss Goldy-hair, but I didn't know that you'd come to see us
because Tom was ill. You said you'd come to fetch us to have dinner and
tea with you, but I didn't know you'd come when you heard Tom couldn't
go out."

"Why, don't you need me all the more because you can't go out?" she said
brightly. "I'm going to stay a good while with you, and I have brought
some little things to please you."

She turned to the basket which Racey had never taken his eyes off. We
all stood round her, gazing eagerly. There were all sorts of things to
please us--oranges, and a few grapes, and actually a little shape of
jelly and some awfully nice funny biscuits. Then there were a few books,
and two or three little dolls without any clothes on, and a little
packet of pieces of silk and nice stuffs to dress them with, and a roll
of beautiful coloured paper, and some canvas with patterns marked on it,
and bright-coloured wools.

"I've brought you some things to amuse you," said Miss Goldy-hair, "for
Tom can't go out, and it's a very cold, wet day, not fit for Audrey or
Racey to go out either. And as your tutor won't be coming as Tom's ill,
it would be a very long day for you all alone, wouldn't it?"

Then she went on to explain to us what she meant us to do with the
things she had brought. Some of them were the same that the children she
had told us about had to amuse them when they were ill, and she let Tom
and Racey choose a canvas pattern each, and helped them to begin working
them with the pretty wools.

"How nice it would be to make something pretty to send to your mother
for Christmas! Wouldn't she be surprised?" she said; and Tom was so
pleased at the thought that he set to work very hard and tried so much
that he soon learnt to do cross-stitch quite well. Racey did a little of
his too, but after a while he got tired of it and went back to his
horses, and we heard him "gee-up"-ing, and "gee-woh"-ing, and "stand
there, will you"-ing in his corner just as usual.

"What a merry