and shook, and two bright black eyes peeped between the leaves.
"Tweet!" said the robin, ruffling his scarlet waistcoat a little. "When
you have quite finished your worms, you may come out, and I will show
you the garden. There are cherries!" and away he flew, while Hilda
laughed and clapped her hands, for she had understood every word.

"May I go out into the garden?" she asked, when she had finished her
breakfast and taken her first lesson in dish-washing, in spite of Dame
Hartley's protest. "And isn't there something I can do there, please? I
want to work; I don't want to be idle any longer."

"Well, honey," replied the dame, "there are currants to pick, if you
like such work as that. I am going to make jelly to-morrow; and if you
like to begin the picking, I will come and help you when my bread is out
of the oven."

Gladly Hilda flew up to her room for the broad-leaved hat with the
daisy-wreath; and then, taking the wide, shallow basket which Dame
Hartley handed her, she fairly danced out of the door, over the bit of
green, and into the garden.

Ah! the sweet, heartsome country garden that this was,--the very thought
of it is a rest and a pleasure. Straight down the middle ran a little
gravel path, with a border of fragrant clove-pinks on either side,
planted so close together that one saw only the masses of pale pink
blossoms resting on their bed of slender silvery leaves. And over the
border! Oh the wealth of flowers, the blaze of crimson and purple and
gold, the bells that swung, the spires that sprang heavenward, the
clusters that nodded and whispered together in the morning breeze! Here
were ranks upon ranks of silver lilies, drawn up in military fashion,