OUT OF TOWN.

we'll soon cure all that. You won't feel languid long here, I'll be bound. Eat
some more cake, dearies, do—eat as much as ever you can, I made it
a-purpose.”

Mary put Sybil and Lily to bed in a great carved oak bedstead ; Hugh had
a crib in a corner of their room; and Dudley a stiil smaller one beside Mary's
bed in the next room, which opened into theirs. When they woke in the
morning the window was wide open, and honeysuckle and roses were nodding
at them from outside, and such sounds of lowing and crowing, cackling, cooing,
and squeaking came up from the yard below, as the children had never heard
before.

Hugh jumped up and ran to the window “It’s fairyland,” he exclaimed :
‘we've woked in fairyland. Mary, Mary, do come and get us up quick, we
want to go and see fairyland outside.”

Mary came in smiling, with Dudley in her arms, and then went and brought
in a large washing tub, which, she said, was to do instead of a bath. After
breakfast “Our Jem” was ready to do the honors of the farmyard, which
seemed indeed fairyland to the city children. There were cows and calves,
pigs, turkeys, and flocks of hens and pigeons which were so tame that they flew
down and settled on the children’s heads and shoulders. Just outside in a
field was a white goat with a pair of prancing, dancing kids. None of them
had ever seen a kid before, and Jem
said that as long as they remained a
the farm, Sybil and Lily should have
them for their special pets. He pro-
duced a round black ball of a puppy

kitten for Dudley. Never were chil-

 

dren so happy before, they thought.

In the afternoon Mary took them
into the meadows, and sat and worked under a tree, whilst they played with
their pets. Jem came presently, and sat down by Mary — they seemed great
friends, Sybil thought to herself; but after a few days she changed her mind,
for when Jem came to talk to her, Mary turned away and would not answer.

Sybil called her kid Jack, and Lily’s was Jill. They tried to make their
pets follow as the puppy and kitten did— first by coaxing, and then with a
string, but they jumped and butted and turned heels over head in such an