"Oh, yes, you will. Have you thanked the good Lord for the cause of your happiness, Miss Una?"
"Yes, over and over again!"
"That's right! Sometimes when folks are very happy they forget to thank God, and that seems so ungrateful, just as though they only went to Him when they remembered something they wanted. Ah, we're ready enough to ask, but we're not always so ready to give thanks; we're too apt to take the good things as if they were our due."
Nanny tucked the bed-clothes around her little charge, and, after kissing her affectionately, put out the candle and drew up the blind to allow the moon to flood the room with its pale, peaceful light. Then she said, "Good-night," and went downstairs, smiling to herself as she thought of Una's secret, and wondering what it could possibly be.
Una lay awake for some time watching the moonlight and a little twinkling star that peeped at her through the window; but by-and-by her eyelids grew heavy, and she was soon wrapped in a sweet, dreamless sleep.
[CHAPTER VI]
UNA'S ACCIDENT
THE garden which surrounded Coombe Villa was what is generally called a wilderness garden, because plants and flowers of all descriptions and colours grew together, and flourished unchecked. On the morning following that day when Una had been told the secret which had given her so much joy she arose early, and went into the garden to have a run before breakfast with Crack. The little girl and her dog raced round the garden paths together till both were tired, and presently Mr. Manners joined them.
"Come and look at the flowers, Una," he said, "and gather a bouquet for the breakfast table. We will have some of these pansies to begin with. I believe there are some lilies of the valley in that shady corner!"
Una darted away to look, and returned with a few sprays.