Page:Stories told to a child.djvu/31

 'That's well,' she replied; 'we desire to see thee happy and satisfied; but thou knowest that my father considers thee under his authority while thou art here, and will not alter his rule for thy sake; but as thou hast been used to gather fruit for thyself, I advise thee not to go into the fruit-garden, if thou art tempted to transgress. There are other walks where thou canst bowl thy hoop.'

'I wonder you should suppose such a thing,' I interrupted, quite vexed at her plain speaking, and the implied supposition that I could be tempted to such a greedy and disobedient act.

She smiled at my speech, but there was nothing sarcastic in the smile; and she answered, 'I do not suppose thee to be any better than thy first mother; yet she was tempted with an apple.'

'And apples are not half so good as plums,' observed one of the little brothers, sagely nodding his head.

'No one asked for thy opinion,' said my champion Lucy, in a low voice; 'does thee wish Sophia to be kept out of the garden?'

Sister cut the conference short, by giving us each a piece of seed-cake, and sending us out with general directions to be good, and not get into mischief; and there was such ample space to play in, and we had so many means of amusing ourselves, that we should have been more culpable than most children, if we had disobeyed them.

The garden, with all its walks, the orchard, where we sometimes sauntered early in the morning, and saw the greengages which had fallen in the night lying 2