“My dear!” Hetty assured her, “that is past praying for.  She will be weary to death; and he, as you know, is in a mood to-day!  Though you thought it unfeeling, I rejoiced when he announced he was not riding to Bawtry to meet her but would send Sander instead:  for whatever news she brought he would have picked holes in it and wrangled all the way home.  But this is his masterpiece.  It contrives to get the most annoyance out of both plans.  I often wonder”—­here Hetty clasped her knee again, and, leaning back against the turf, let her eyes wander over the darkening landscape—­“if our father and mother love each other the better for living together in one perpetual rasp of temper?”

“What is the hour?” asked Emilia.

Hetty glanced at the sun.

“Six, or a few minutes past.”

“She cannot be here before half-past seven, and by then the moon will be rising.  We will give her a regal harvest-supper, and enthrone her on the last sheaf.  I have sent word to have it saved.  And there shall be a fire, and baked potatoes.”

Kitty clapped her hands.

“And,” Hetty took up the tale, “she shall sit by the embers and tell us all her wanderings, like Aeneas, till the break of morning.  But before we bid Johnny Whitelamb desist from drawing and build a fire, let us be six princesses here and choose the gifts our mother shall bring home from town.”

“You know well enough she has no money to buy gifts,” objected Patty.

“Be frugal, then, in wishing, dear Pat.  For my part, I demand only a rich Indian uncle:  but he must be of solid gold.  He should come to us along the Bawtry road in a palanquin with bells jingling at the fringes.  Ann, sister Ann, run you to the top of the mound and say if you see such an uncle coming.  Moll, dear, ’tis your turn to wish.”

“I wish,” said Molly, “for a magic mirror.”  Hetty gave a start, thinking she spoke of a glass which should hide her deformity.  But Molly went on gravely.  “I should call it my Why Mirror, for it would show us why we live as we do, and why mother goes ill-clothed and sometimes hungry.  No, I am not grumbling; but sometimes I wish to know—­only to know! I think my mirror would tell me something about my brothers, and what they are to do in the world.  And I am sure it would tell me that God is ordering this for some great end.  But I am weak and impatient, and, if I knew, I could be so much braver!” She ended abruptly, and for a moment or two all the sisters were silent.

“Come, Nancy,” said Hetty at length.  “Patty will wish for a harp, for certain”—­Patty’s burning desire to possess one was as notorious in the family as her absolute lack of ear for music—­“and Emmy will ask for a new pair of shoes, if she is wise.”  Emilia tucked a foot out of sight under her skirt.

“But I don’t understand this game,” put in Kezzy.  “A moment ago it was Blue Beard, and now it seems to be Beauty and the Beast.  Which is it?”