She looked into her mother’s face with a little laugh, and kissed the soft hand she still held in her own small one. “I dreamt I was flying with the swallows, mamma. One of them took me on his back and carried me; but he brought me back home again, you see.” Was mamma crying? Winifred wondered, for Mrs. Digby had turned quickly away, and the child fancied she put her handkerchief to her eyes. Nurse, however, came in just then, and Winnie’s thoughts were directed into a different channel. “Nursey,” she called eagerly, “did Charley and Ronald finish the kite-tail yesterday?” “No, Miss Winnie, they went out to the Rectory instead, and never touched it. I heard them this morning wishing it was done; and then they’d have time to fly it before dark, when they came home in the evening.” “Oh, I am so glad! now I can finish it for them!” cried Winnie eagerly. “Please go and fetch it for me, Nursey--I mean when you have time to spare.” “Won’t it tire you, dear?” “Oh no, not to-day.” “You haven’t got anything to do to-day then?” asked nurse with a smile, and Winifred smiled too as she answered: “Oh, I can think and work to-day both; and I should so like to finish the boys’ kite for them.” So in a very short while the child was hard at work, and before her dinner-time came the long tail of the kite was quite finished. “Mamma,” she asked whilst she was taking her dinner, “can I go and see little Phil to-day? I haven’t been for a long while. I thought he looked as if he would like to see somebody, when we passed yesterday. May I take him the jelly?” “The jelly will not be ready till to-morrow, Winnie; and I think I must keep you indoors to-day; but if you have taken no cold, you shall go out to-morrow if it is fine. Will that do as well, darling?” Mrs. Digby looked with an inquiring glance into her little daughter’s face; for when Winifred had taken a fancy into her head, she was not always ready to give up without a struggle. The gentle little girl had a good deal of self-will in her composition. But to-day, after one little struggle, she looked up and smiled cheerfully. “To-morrow will be just as nice; and then I can put the boys’ toy-cupboard tidy for them this afternoon. It is in such a mess!” “Why, Winnie, I thought that toy-cupboard was your pet horror!” said the mother with a smile. “I want to put it tidy to-day, mamma,” answered Winifred gravely. “I know I shall find ever so many things that the boys have lost. You see the boys have their lessons, and so much to do, and I have hardly anything. I ought to do little things for them when I can.” So the little girl got a duster and went up to the play-room, and opened the cupboard-door. It was rather a dreadful sight that met her eyes--toys, books, papers, string, nails, pieces of wood, bottles, baskets, battered pieces of metal, odds and ends of every description all tumbled together in one heterogeneous mass of disorder. “Oh dear!” exclaimed Winnie, “what a mess!”