Henry fixed upon a large Noah's ark, and when it was reached down, he placed himself on the floor, and made a procession of its inmates. He placed Noah himself in front, with his little painted wife, and Shem, Ham, and Japhet, and their wives after him. Then came the beasts, and then the birds, and then the insects and creeping things. Lucy chose a dissected map of England and Wales, and another which formed a picture; and Emily, a box of bricks and doorways, and pillars and chimneys, and other things for building houses. Mrs. Colvin had told the children that they were to keep themselves quiet till dinner-time; so Miss Darwell took her doll, and for a long time they were all very still with their toys: they were to dine at half-past one, and Henry had not done with his ark when a female servant came into the outer room to lay the cloth. [Illustration: "_For a long time they all very still with their toys._" --Page 389.] "It is time to put up now," said Mrs. Colvin, calling from the next room. Lucy and Emily and Henry began immediately to put the things they had been playing with into the cases, and Lucy was putting her dissected map into the place from which she had taken it, when Miss Darwell said: "Don't put it away, Miss Fairchild; it shall be tied up ready to go with the carriage." Lucy did not understand her. "Did you not choose it, Miss Lucy?" said Miss Darwell; "if you please to accept it, I will send it in the carriage to-night with the bricks and the ark." "Thank you, dear Miss Darwell," Lucy answered; "but we must not take anything, unless your mamma and my mamma give leave." At that instant Mrs. Colvin called Lucy. "I called you, my dear, to tell you that you are quite right: you ought never to receive a present without your mamma's leave, and ought never to desire to receive one. But I have no doubt that Miss Darwell will remember to ask Mrs. Fairchild this evening if you may have them." "I will," said Miss Darwell; "I hope I shall not forget it in the bustle." "Shall I tell you of it?" said Henry. Lucy and Emily got as red as scarlet when Henry said these words; but Mrs. Colvin whispered: "Let him alone, he is very young, and he will get wiser as he gets older." "I shall be obliged to you to remind me of it, Henry," said Miss Darwell; "and I will speak the moment I see Mrs. Fairchild." How happily did the four children and the good governess dine together that day before the open window, where they could smell the sweet flowers in the garden below, and see a large pool which was beyond the trees, and still beyond that the green heights of the park. "I see people," said Henry, whose eyes were everywhere, "going up the park by that pretty white building which looks like a temple with a porch--there they go--I see women and children--and there are men carrying baskets. What are they doing, ma'am?" he added, looking at Mrs. Colvin.