GOOD ENDINGS.

It did however! Fletcher appeared with one
in another minute,—the thin, large envelope,
and the black, rather scrawly writing that
Floss and Carrots knew’ so well. It would

have been no use trying to conceal it from

them, so auntie opened it quickly; it was not -

a long letter, and then she looked up with
the tears in her eyes. “Children, dear chil-
-dren,” she said, “it zs good news. Your dear
mother is a little better, and they have good
‘hopes of her.”

Oh, how glad they were! They kissed auntie
and Sybil and each other, and it seemed as if
a great heavy stone had been lifted off their
hearts. There was still of course reason for
anxiety, but there was hope, “good hope,”
‘wrote Captain Desart, and what does not that
‘mean? Auntie felt so hopeful herself that
‘she could not find it in her heart to check
‘the children for being so.

“It is because you made the story of the
‘trots end nicely that that nice letter came,”
said Sybil; and nothing that her mother could

Es as ip
test >
= < ie 63.

—