brother, and to-day sennight thy little cousins come to visit thee."
"How perfectly glorious!" said Dickie. "But you didn tell me."
"If I didn't 'twas because you never asked."
"I—I didn't dare to," he said dreamily; "I was so afraid. You see, I've never seen them."
"Afraid?" she said, laying away the folded cloth and taking out another from the deep press, oaken, with smooth-worn, brown iron hinges and lock; "never seen thy father and mother, forsooth!"
"Perhaps it was the fever," said Dickie, feeling rather deceitful. "You said it made me forget things. I don't remember them. Not at all, I don't."
"Do not say that to them," the nurse said, looking at him very gravely.
"I won't. Unless they ask me," he added. "Oh, nurse, let me do something too. What can I do to help?"
"Thou canst gather such flowers as are left in the garden to make a nosegay for thy mother's room; and set them in order in fair water. And bid thy tutor teach thee a welcome song to say to them when they come in."
Gathering the flowers and arranging them was pleasant and easy. Asking so intimate a favour from the sour-faced tutor whom he so much disliked was neither easy nor pleasant. But Dickie did it. And the tutor was delighted
