could see the sun of peace behind the cloud, was half angry herself at
this speech, and said to Mr. Parker, "If she looks cross she is not
cross, Sir, but I think she is not in very good spirits. Every one looks
a little sad sometimes;" and Mr. Porker, happily, being called out to a
patient at that moment, gave Edith opportunity to swallow her grief.

After tea the boys prepared to accompany their sister and her governess
in the usual evening walk. Edith did not desire their company, but she
did not say so; and they all went out very silent for them. On their
road to the beach they met a man who had a cage of canaries to sell, the
very things that Fred had desired so long, and to purchase which he had
saved his money.

Edith had no taste for noisy canaries; few great talkers have, for they
do interrupt conversation must undeniably, but Fred thought it would be
most delightful to have them, and as he had a breeding cage which had
belonged to one of his elder sisters years before, he asked the price
and began to make his bargain. The birds were bought and the man
dispatched to the house with them, with orders to call for payment at
nine o'clock, before Fred remembered that he did not exactly know where
he should keep them. In the sitting room it would be quite out of the
question he knew, for the noise would distract his mother. Papa was not
likely to admit canaries into his study for consultations; and Fred knew
only of one likely or possible place, but the door to that was closed,
unless he could find a door to Edith's heart, and he had just quarrelled
with Edith; what a pity! To make it up with her, however, just to gain
his point, he was too proud to do, and was therefore gloomy and uncivil.

"Where are you going to keep your canaries Fred?" asked his sister.