table for tea already. Let us go downstairs into the garden."

So they all went down to watch Sarah lay the cloth, and put the bread
and butter and cake on the table, then the milk and sugar, and last of
all she brought the teapot.

"Here comes Aunt Lizzie," said Annie; and all the children joined in the
request that when tea was over she would show them her paintings of
flowers.

"To be sure I will," she said; "and we will look at them out of doors as
soon as the tea-table is cleared."

"I _do_ like having tea out of doors," said Annie; "we can never have
it in London, however hot it is."

[Illustration: THE TEA ON THE LAWN.
_Page 82._]

"We cannot have it for very long in the country either," said Aunt
Lizzie, "because our weather is so changeable. Sometimes we have cold
winds with bright sunshine, or it rains, or the grass is damp. Still,
during the long summer days we can frequently manage it; but it is not
always summer even in the country."

"Do the woods seem very dreary to you in the winter, aunt?"

"No; I have known and loved them all my life, and they have a very
different look in winter from what they have in summer."