Little Sunbeam by Eleanora H. Stooke

ON a certain bright March morning, Mrs. Tiddy stood beneath the creeper-covered porch at the front door of Lower Brimley Farm, waiting for her husband, who had been up and out-of-doors since daybreak, to return to breakfast. Mr. Tiddy had arrived home from London on the previous evening, having brought Peggy Pringle with him. But the little girl, over-tired as the result of the long journey, had been sleeping firmly when her hostess had visited her bedroom half an hour before, and orders had been given that she was not to be awakened.

The mistress of Lower Brimley was a small-sized woman with a trim figure and a pleasant countenance, which wore a very contented expression at the present moment. The view over which Mrs. Tiddy's blue eyes wandered admiringly was a most beautiful one, for Lower Brimley was situated on the slope of a hill, not ten minutes' walk from the sea and the small fishing village which straggled in one steep street from the beach to the old grey church on the cliff.