"What hands!" exclaimed Mr. Dalton: but the invalid only smiled at the soil which their eager grasp had left on her white dressing-gown.
"We were at work in our garden," said the eldest girl, colouring at the implied rebuke, "when we heard that Mamma was come out, and so we ran here"
"That she might not have a moment's peace," said their father; but his voice was softer than his words, and, emboldened by his smile, the youngest added:
"We will be so quiet, now." And both sat down on the grass at their mother's feet. Mrs. Dalton was far too indulgent to permit such a penance as doing nothing is to the native activity of childhood, and a thousand slight commissions were devised, which, with little fatigue to herself, gave full occupation to their restless spirits. Now they were despatched to the further side of the opposite meadow to fetch some of the violets which grew on the southern bank in such profusion; and then it was a task of equal interest to
