s, Miss Kerr, was a very different person from
the last, and resolved to do her best to make her little pupil a
good well-behaved child. She was a kind, warm-hearted girl, who had
a great many small brothers and sisters of her own, and she never
doubted that in a short time Bunny would become as good and obedient
as they were. She soon found, however, that the task was not as easy
as she had fancied, and when she had been a few days at Holly Lodge
she began to fear that it would be a very long time before her
lectures and advice would have the smallest effect upon the wayward
little child.

She had now been a whole week in charge of the girl, and she feared
that Bunny would never learn to love her.

About half an hour before our story begins, Bunny and her governess
had been seated on the lawn together. Mrs. Dashwood sent to ask Miss
Kerr to go to her for a few moments, and that young lady had
hastened into the house, leaving her little charge upon the grass
with her book.

"Do not stir from here till I return, Bunny," she said; "you can go
over that little lesson again, and I shall not be long."

But as time went on and she did not return the child grew restless,
and feeling very tired of sitting still, began to look about to see
what there was for her to do.

"Governesses are great bothers," she grumbled to herself as she
rolled about on the grass. "And now as Miss Kerr does not seem to be
coming back, I think I will have a climb up that tree--it looks so
easy I'm sure I could go up ever so high. There's nobody looking, so
I'll just see if I can go right away up--as high as that little bird
up there."

Bunny was very quick in her movements, and a minute later her white
frock and blue sash were fluttering about among the leaves and
branches of a fine old tree that grew in the middle of the lawn.

"Oh, dear! How lovely it would be to be a bird--cheep, cheep! If I
only had wings I should just feel like one this minute, perched up
so high," she said with a merry laugh, as she jumped and wriggled
about on the branch.

But she quite forgot that the nursery window overlooked the lawn,
and that Sophie was sure to be sitting there at her work. In a
moment, however, this fact was recalled to her mind by the sound of
a wild shriek from the terrified maid.

"Mademoiselle! Miss Bunny, you want to kill yourself, or tear your
sweet frock. Ah! naughty child, get down this instants, or I will
tell monsieur your papa."