to drag her to see the wonderful sight.

Gregory, I need hardly say, was already on the box with the whip in his
hand, while all the others were inside, except
Horace Campbell, who had climbed on the roof, and was telephoning down the
chimney. The men and horse that had brought it were gone.

"Oh, mother," cried Hester, "whose is it? Is it ours? "

"I expect the letter tells us everything," said Mrs. Avory, and, sitting on
the top of the steps, she unfolded the letter, and, after looking through,
read it aloud.

This is what it said:

DEAR CHILDREN,

"It has long been my wish to give you a new kind of present, but I have
hitherto had no luck. I thought once of an elephant, and even wrote to
Jamrach about the idea--a small elephant, not a mountain---but I gave that
up. Chiswick is too crowded, and your garden is too small. But now I think
I have found the very thing. A caravan. It belonged to a lady artist, who,
having to live abroad, wished to sell it; and it is now yours. I tell you
this so that mother need not be afraid that it is dirty. It should reach
you this week, and can stand in the old coach house until you are ready to
set forth on the discovery of your native land. I should have liked also to
have added a horse and a man; but you must do that and keep an account of
what everything costs, and let me know when I come back from abroad. I
shall expect some day a long account of your adventures, and if you keep a
logbook, so much the better.