brother, who had come unexpectedly to see them. Uncle Philip was a great favourite with his nieces and nephew. He was & young man of about three-andtwenty, extremely good-natured, and always ready for a game with the children, for whom, moreover, he generally brought some present when he came to see them.

"Have you brought any sweeties, uncle?" asked Claude at once.

"For shame, Claudie," said his mother. "Your uncle will think you do not care for him, but only for what he brings yon."

Poor Claude turned very red at this rebuke, and, climbing on to his uncle's knee, hid his face against his broad shoulder; upon which he found himself tossed into the air and caught again, and a tremendous scuffle ensued; Nellie joining, quite regardless of tumbles, while Mrs. Fellowes sat by, laughing, and telling her brother he was an overgrown boy. Maggie half-longed to join in the fun, but thought it not quite consistent with her dignity to do so. When Uncle Philip and the children were quite out of breath, the former sat down, with a child on each knee. "And now,

Master Claude," said he, "what would you like, I wonder?" producing at the same time a fat blue paper parcel out of his pocket, and holding it up.

"Some sweeties," exclaimed Claude; then in a lower tone, "but I like you best, Uncle Phil," giving him at the same time a tremendous hug.

"Here, Maggie," said her uncle, "I'll make this trash over to you, who have more nearly arrived at years of discretion than these two."

So Maggie untied the parcel, which proved to be full of sugarplums of all kinds. Then the children, after promising their mother only to eat a few, and give the rest to nurse to put away, were told to say "Good-bye" to their uncle, and go back to the nursery. Just as they were leaving the room, after nearly throttling long-suffering Uncle Philip with their embraces, he shouted after them, "Stop, and look here!" Back they came pell mell, and he brought out of his pocket three hyacinth roots. "There's one for each," said he. "Which will you have, Maggie? the pink, the blue, or the white one?"

Maggie could not quite make up her mind. "Which would you choose, mother?" asked she. Mrs. Fellowes said she should like the white one, but then Maggie changed her mind, and thought she would have the pink. Finally she chose the blue, and Claude wanted the pink one, so leaving the white for Nellie, who was quite contented with her lot, a good many more kisses were bestowed on Uncle Philip, and the children went up to the nursery, leaving the hyacinth roots with their mother, who had promised to find some glasses for them in the afternoon.

After the children's dinner Mrs. Fellowes brought them three very smart hyacinth glasses, yellow, green, and pink, and said she thought the blue hyacinth would look best in the yellow glass, the pink one in the green, and Nellie's white one in the pink. The children were quite satisfied with this arrangement, and the hyacinths were placed in their respective glasses, which Mrs. Fellowes filled with water and placed in a dark closet. This was a great disappointment to the children, who wanted them to be put in a place

where they could watch them grow; but they were told that when the leaves began to sprout the glasses would be brought out of the cupboard and placed in the window, so they had to wait and look forward to the time when the hyacinths should "begin to grow," as Claude said.

Weeks passed away, and merry Christmas came, bringing frost and snow and plenty of brightly-berried holly, with which Maggie was allowed, for the first time, to help her mother decorate the church. Of course, being such a little girl, she could not do much, but she was very useful in breaking off bits of holly, ivy, box, and yew, ready for Mrs. Fellowes to make into wreaths for the pillars and arches; and when all the decorations were put up, Maggie thought she had never seen the church look so pretty before, the reason of which probably was that she had used her eyes more than she had hitherto done. Besides, had she not made a little wreath for one of the poppy heads all by herself? Uncle Philip came to stay with the Felloweses for Christmas, and great was the joy that prevailed throughout the house,

especially in the nursery. Directly he came into the house he was dragged off by the children to the window where the hyacinths stood, coming on well. Claude was exceedingly proud, because his was slightly more forward than the other two; and when his uncle promised a half-a-crown to the child whose hyacinth should be fairly in bloom the first, he clapped his hands with joy, making sure that the prize would he his. "But don't be too triumphant, young man," said Uncle Philip. "Don't you know that 'slow and steady' wins the race? and I've no doubt that yours will be the last to come out, after all." Claude looked rather crest-fallen at this, but soon got over it. One day, soon after Christmas, Maggie went into the library, where the hyacinths were, for a book, and she went to the window to see how they were getting on. She found, to her great

disgust, that Claude's was still ahead of hers, although the latter was coming on fast too. Then she looked at the glasses, and the thought struck her that the other two were much prettier than hers. "I don't like yellow," she thought.

"I wish I had Claude's glass." Then she wondered how her hyacinth would look in the green glass, spent a few minutes in lifting it half out of the water and letting it drop in again, and finally took it out and laid it on the window sill, afterwards doing the same to Claude's hyacinth. The next thing to do was to put them into the opposite glasses, which was not so easily accomplished as Maggie had expected. The roots were obstinate, and would stick out in opposite directions, instead of going straight into the water.

"Stupid things!" said Maggie, quite forgetting the cause of their stupidity, and she pushed them in so roughly that two or three broke off. This made her rather more careful, and Claude's hyacinth was established in the other glass without any accident. Maggie arranged the glasses in a row, and looked at them very gravely for some minutes. "Claude's plant looked so nice and tall in her glass," she said to herself. "She wished it was hers: besides, she was sure, he did not care for it half as much as she did. She had a great mind to leave it where it was, and see