lovely flowers, as though it felt that the first of its children to see
the sky and the sun and the familiar garden after the winter sleep ought
to put on the very daintiest clothes they can muster for such a festal
occasion.

Through the open schoolroom windows I can hear the two eldest babies at
their lessons. The village schoolmaster comes over every afternoon and
teaches them for two hours, so that we are free from governesses in the
house, and once those two hours are over they are free for twenty-four
from anything in the shape of learning. The schoolroom is next to the
verandah, and as two o'clock approaches their excitement becomes more
and more intense, and they flutter up and down the steps, looking in
their white dresses like angels on a Jacob's ladder, or watch eagerly
among the bushes for a first glimpse of him, like miniature and
perfectly proper Isoldes. He is a kind giant with that endless supply of
patience so often found in giants, especially when they happen to be
village schoolmasters, and judging from the amount of laughter I hear,
the babies seem to enjoy their lessons in a way they never did before.
Every day they prepare bouquets for him, and he gets more of them than a
_prima donna_, or at any rate a more regular supply. The first day he
came I was afraid they would be very shy of such a big strange man, and
that he would extract nothing from them but tears; but the moment I left
them alone together and as I shut the door, I heard them eagerly
informing him, by way of opening the friendship, that their heads were
washed every Saturday night, and that their hair-ribbons did not match
because there had not been enough of the one sort to go round. I went
away hoping that they would not think it necessary to tell him how often
my head is washed, or any other news of a personal nature about me; but
I believe by this time that man knows everything there is to know about
the details of my morning toilet, which is daily watched with the