66 VIII A brave old house! A garden full of bees, Large, dropping poppies, and queen hollyhocks And pinks and goldilocks." -Jean Ingelow. "How do you like to go up in a swing, Up in the air so blue? Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing Ever a child can do." -Robert Louis Stevenson. H! how sweet the air is, and how the birds do sing!" exclaimed Janet. The little golden-haired girl came running to meet them. "Now you can play with me," she said, joyously. "My name is Althea. What are your names?" The Kanter girls told their names, and then, as they said they wanted to see the flower-beds first of all, she moved ahead of them up and down the little pebbly paths. “I never saw so many kinds of roses in all my life," cried Janet; “and, oh! Prue, see all those mountain daisies, red ones and white ones." "Couldn't we have some roots to carry home?" asked Prue, eagerly. "Yes, you may have all you want," said Althea. “And see all the trellises full of sweet-peas," went on Janet, in a rapture; "and I never saw pink peonies before, nor such big, big white lilies." "Nor scarlet lilies either, nor double violets," said Prue. It did seem, indeed, as if so many beautiful flowers had never bloomed together before in all the world; such masses of phlox, and of geraniums, such clumps of pansies, such beds of great, glowing poppies, banks of sweet honeysuckles, stalks of hollyhocks, and a countless crowd of sweet-williams, carnations, and gilliflowers. "I wish I could have some gilliflower seed for mother," said Prue. 66 You may have all you want," said Althea. She had a curiously soft, slow, measured way of speaking, which the Kanter girls wondered at a little, it was so different from their own impulsive speech. They went along by the fountains next, and across the lawn, where the pretty brown and white deer came up to them confidingly, and allowed their gen some were like huge baskets. But the largest tree was trimmed in the shape of an open umbrella, and it gave a beautiful shade. Under it, Prue found pretty, little white flowers, closed up like buds. "Oh! here are go-to-bed-noons," she cried, and they are all closed up, so it must be after twelve o'clock, Janet." "I am glad you have come to play with me," said Althea. "Let us go and have a swing." "Oh! yes," said the Kanter girls. She then led them to another part of the lawn, where there was a fine swing, fastened to one of the limbs of an apple-tree. "Who shall swing first?" asked Janet. "Let's count around." She did the counting-around herself, beginning with Prue. "Six-men-driving-cattle-don't-you-hear-their buckets-rattle-one-two-three-out-goes-she!" It was Janet who was left, when the others were counted out, and she stepped toward the swing, saying, "You swing me, and afterward I will swing you." "Tom will swing us," said Althea; "he's here on purpose for that." He The Kanter girls now, for the first time, noticed a man standing motionless close by the tree. had a light brown complexion and dull eyes, and was dressed in sort of a gray livery. "Will you please swing me, sir?" asked Janet, addressing him in a very polite manner, but he made no reply and did not stir. "He isn't one of the talking kind," said Althea; "but if you will get in, he will swing you.' "Dumb, I suppose," thought Janet, as she took her seat in the swing. Immediately the man moved forward, and began to push her with a strong, even motion, so that presently her feet touched the green leaves when she went up, and she shouted with delight. But she felt that the others ought to have their turn, so in a minute more she called out to the man, "Now stop, and let the old cat die !” But the man kept right on pushing the same as before. "He'll stop when it's a hundred," said Althea. "He pushes just a hundred times, and then he stops." Janet was very willing to finish her hundred, and when at last the swing stopped, she sprang out and said, |