"I am so sorry you spoiled Tommy's garden this afternoon, Annabel," she ventured.
Annabel's eyes were still on the carpet, and with her toe she outlined a full-blown rose. "It wasn't a garden; it was just bits of grass," she asserted.
"It was only bits of grass to you," Miss Margaret agreed, "but Tommy had watched it and watered it for weeks, and to him it was a real garden. Now you have spoiled it all, and made Tommy very unhappy."
"_I hate him_," said Annabel, defiantly, between closed teeth.
"Yes, I know, of course you do," and for the first time Annabel looked up.
Then Miss Margaret drew her to her. "I say, Annabel, don't you think you and Tommy and I might be real good friends now, and all just be very nice to each other?"
Then Annabel's lips trembled; but no tears fell.
"Does Tommy know?" she asked, and when she was told that he did not she went out of the room and stood at the top of the stairs. Bending forward, her hands resting on her knees, she peered down the steep staircase.
"Tommy," she called, "Tommy Tregennis," but there was no response.
"Tommy Tregennis, come here!" The call was louder this time.
At this Tommy's head was poked round the kitchen door.
All Annabel's usual diffidence in Tommy's company had vanished.
"Come here, Tommy!" she insisted, and Tommy, impelled by some new quality in her, walked slowly up the stairs.
"Tommy," said Annabel, rather hesitatingly, but looking straight into his eyes; "Tommy, I rooted up your garden."
For the second time that day Tommy hit her quite hard.
"Tommy!" called Miss Margaret, in a stern voice, and Tommy, followed by Annabel, obeyed the summons.
Then Miss Margaret explained to Tommy that he had often been very rude and unkind to Annabel, and that in the future they must all be friends. Whereupon Annabel held out her hand to Tommy, and Tommy promptly pushed it away.
Miss Margaret was wisely blind to this by-play, and began to unfold a plan she had formed.
"I'm thinking about the garden," she said, meditatively, and the children forgot each other and gave their attention to her.
"I think it will grow again; but it will be very slow. Wouldn't it be rather nice to plant some other flowers, and take care of them until the grasses come again?"