'Well, what?' said Claude.

'I should like to kiss you.'

Then away she bounded, clattered down stairs, and flew across the
lawn to tell every one she met that Claude had helped her to do her
sum, and that it was quite right.

'Did you expect that it would be too hard for him, Phyl?' said Jane,
laughing.

'No,' said Phyllis, 'but he said he could not do it as it was set.'

'And whose fault was that?' said Jane.

'Oh! but he showed me how to set it better,' said Phyllis, 'and he
said that when he learnt the beginning of fractions, he thought them
as hard as I do.'

'Fractions!' said Jane, 'you do not fancy you have come to fractions
yet! Fine work you will make of them when you do!'

In the evening, as soon as the children were gone to bed, Jane took a
paper out of her work-basket, saying, 'There, Emily, is my account of
Phyl's scrapes through this whole week; I told you I should write
them all down.'

'How kind!' muttered Claude.

Regardless of her brother, who had not looked up from his book, Jane