It must be broken gently to them; and how to do this had been on Barbara's mind all the time they had been in the cart, for up till then she had been able to think of nothing but how to get the children along. They, of course--except perhaps that they were too tired for any more excitement--would have been for running straight in with joyful cries. But they were so subdued by fatigue that their old friend found no difficulty in persuading them to sit down quietly by the hedge, guarded by Tim, while she and Toby went in to prepare the way. "For you know, my dearies, your poor Grandmamma has not been well and the start might be bad for her," she explained. "But you're sure Grandmamma isn't _dead_?" said poor Pamela, looking up piteously in Barbara's face. "Duke was afraid she might be if us didn't come soon." "But now you _have_ come she'll soon get well again, please God," said Barbara, though her own heart beat tremulously as she made her way round by the back entrance. It was Toby after all who "broke" the happy tidings. In spite of all Barbara could do--of all her "Hush, Toby, then,"'s "Gently my little doggie,"'s--he _would_ rush in to the parlour as soon as the door was opened in such a rapture of joyful barking, tail wagging and rushing and dashing, that Grandmamma looked up from the knitting she was trying to fancy she was doing in her arm-chair by the fire, and Grandpapa put down his five days' old newspaper which he was reading by the window, with a curious flutter of sudden hope all through them, notwithstanding their many disappointments. "It is you, Barbara, back again at last," began Grandmamma. "How white you look, my poor Barbara--and--why, what's the matter with Toby? Is he so pleased to see us old people again?" "He _is_ very pleased, ma'am--he's a very wise and a very good feeling dog is Toby, there's no doubt. And one that knows when to be sad and--and when to be rejoiced, as I might say," said Barbara, though her voice trembled with the effort to speak calmly. Something seemed to flash across the room to Grandmamma as Mrs. Twiss spoke--down fell the knitting, the needles, and the wool, all in a tangle, as the old lady started to her feet.