THE ORCHARD PARTY 49 
sniff of scorn, a vulgar travesty that the pounding of her 
heart. belied. 
“JT don’t think those stiff regret feathers in your mother’s 
hat are stylish,” said Sarah Barnes, quickly taking up the 
cudgels; “I think they look lke fish-bones!’”’ Then 
Eliza began to cry, and both Goldilocks and Sarah looked 
distressed. 
Gray Lady hesitated a moment and then said, “Eliza, 
dear, I’m sorry that this has happened just now. It is 
not generally a good plan for us to criticise one another’s 
clothing or habits, but there are times when it is necessary. 
Sooner or later I should have told you the reasons why 
people who stop to think and have kind hearts are no 
longer willing to wear the feathers of wild birds, and I’m 
sure that presently, when you stop and think, you will see 
that it is so.” 
Then they all walked very quietly up to the library 
that had belonged to Goldilocks’ father, and when they 
were seated and had time to look about they saw that the 
walls above the book-cases were covered by pictures of 
birds in their natural colours 
On the table at one end of the room were piled some 
books, and by this Gray Lady seated herself, her scrap-book 
by her elbow,—a book, by the way, with which, before an- 
other season, they were to become as well acquainted as 
with their friend herself. 
Tommy Todd could not take his eyes from a picture 
of a tall white bird, with long neck and legs and a graceful 
sweep of slender feathers that drooped from its back over 
the tail. Holding up his hand, which at school always 
means that you wish to ask a question, Tommy said, 
E 
