Page:Burnett - Two Little Pilgrims' Progress A Story of the City Beautiful.djvu/25

Rh head man. Aunt Matilda had no objection to his odd jobs.

"He has his living to earn, and he may as well begin," she said.

So Meg had been alone since morning. She had only one duty to perform and then she was free. The first Spring they had been with Aunt Matilda Robin had invested in a few chickens, and their rigorous care of them had resulted in such success that the chickens had become a sort of centre of_ existence to them. They could always build any dreams of the future upon the fortune to be gained by chickens. You could calculate on bits of paper about chickens and eggs until your head whirled at the magnitude of your prospects. Meg's duty was to feed them and show them scrupulous attention when Robin was away.

After she had attended to them she went to the barn and, finding it empty, climbed up to the Straw Parlour with an old Pilgrim's Progress to spend the day.

She was particularly fond of the Pilgrim's Progress, and she had made Rob fond of it. She used to read it aloud to him as they lay on the straw. She was a child with an imagination, and she used to invent new adventures for Christian as he toiled up the Hill of Difficulty. Robin thought her incidents more exciting