"Milly," whispered Aunt Emma when they were all waiting for pudding, "do you see that little house down there by the water's edge? That's where the boat lives--we call it a boathouse. Do you think you'll be frightened of the water, little woman?" "No, I don't think so," said Milly, shaking her little wise head gravely. "I am frightened sometimes, very. Mother calls me a little goose because I run away from Jenny sometimes--that's our cow at home, Aunt Emma, but then she's got such long horns, and I can't help feeling afraid." "Well, the lake hasn't got horns, Milly," said Aunt Emma, laughing, "so perhaps you will manage not to be afraid of it." How kind and nice Aunt Emma looked as she sat between the children, with her pretty soft gray hair, and her white cap and large white collar. Mrs. Norton could not help thinking of the times when she was a little girl, and used always to insist on sitting by Aunt Emma at dinner-time. That was before Aunt Emma's hair had turned gray. And now here were her own little children sitting where she used to sit at their age, and stealing their small hands into Aunt Emma's lap as she used to do so long ago. After dinner the children had to sit quiet in the drawing-room for a time, while Aunt Emma and father and mother talked; but they had picture-books to look at, and Aunt Emma gave them leave to turn out everything in one of the toy-drawers, and that kept them busy and happy for a long time. But at last, just when Olly was beginning to get tired of the drawer, Aunt Emma called to them from the other end of the room to come with her into the kitchen for a minute. Up jumped the children and ran after their aunt across the hall into the kitchen. "Now, children," said Aunt Emma, pointing to a big basket on the kitchen table, "suppose you help me to pack up our tea-things. Olly, you go and fetch the spoons, and, Milly, bring the plates one by one." The tea things were all piled up on the kitchen table, and the children brought them one after another to Aunt Emma to pack them carefully into the big basket. "Ain't I a useful boy, Aunt Emma?" asked Olly proudly, coming up laden with a big table-cloth which he could scarcely carry. "Very useful, Olly, though our table-cloth won't look over tidy at tea if you crumple it up like that. Now, Milly, bring me that tray of bread and the little bundle of salt; and, Olly, bring me that bit of butter over there, done up in the green leaves, but mind you carry it carefully. Now for some knives too; and there are the cups and saucers, Milly, look, in that corner; and there is the cake all ready cut up, and there is the bread and butter. Now have we got everything? Everything, I think, but the kettle, and some wood and some matches, and these must go in another basket." "Aunt Emma," said Milly, creeping up close to her, "were you ever a fairy godmother?"