It was a real pleasure to walk through such a nice, tidy garden. A long way off, Ally could see Grandpa working in the garden.

"Why, if it ain't our Glory!" declared Grandpa, and he gave her a kiss that smelt of earth and tobacco. He was a shrunken old man, but his face was rosy and he was always smiling and sunny. It was from him that Mum had got her gay temper to pass on to Ally. "Why ain't you been to see your old Granfer before?" he asked. There, you'm coming up a proper ‘andsome I’il maid. The boys'll be after ye like bees after honey." He pinched her arm.

"They said to tell you that tea'll be ready in ten minutes," said Ally, suddenly realizing all over again how much she liked her grandfather.

The old man winked. "That's to say as they women don't want you and me for a bit. Come along. I'll show you the place a. bit, and pick you a nice bunch of flowers over there."

So Grandpa and Ally slowly promenaded the garden paths, and he pointed out to her what the horrible slugs had done, and told her about other pests.

"In town, there's only fleas and flies," she said.

"I'd lie down and die right away, if I had to live in a dirty old town," said Grandpa.

When they got back to the house, Mum and Grandma must have had their talk, for they were sitting back, cups in hand, on either side of the hearth, all ready to greet the other two.

"Did you wipe your feet and shut the back door?" asked Grandma.

Ally said she had, and sat down in a small chair by the hearth.

While the grown-ups talked, Ally looked about her and wondered why she liked the cottage so much. It seemed to have been there for ever and ever, and it was as if Grandma and Grandpa could not live anywhere else. In the flats people were always moving and changing, but perhaps that was because they had not got a piece of real ground under them.

I think if I grew some flowers of my own. Thought Ally, I would never want to go away and leave them. It's so quiet too, no shouting like in the flats. I would like to live here.

Before dinner. Grandma took her visitors upstairs to get tidy.

Grandma had brought up hot water so that Mum and Ally could wash. There was no washing in the scullery at Wych Cottage.

They had a very good dinner; pork, and some of the vegetables from the garden, an apple tart and cream and then strong tea. When they could eat no more, and were sitting back before washing up, Ally ventured to ask about the glass walking stick.

"I gave it to your Grandma," said the old gardener, smiling all over his wrinkled face. "I bought it at the May fair."

Suddenly Grandma laughed too. and looked almost young for a moment. "That was when I was nurse at the Hall," she said.

"Go on, tell Glory the story, "cried Mum, who was looking better after her meal and rest. "I used to love it when I was a little girl."

Grandma began. "I was under nurse there. Well, of course, in those days we maids weren't supposed to have followers."

Mum laughed. "But you did?"

"Well," Grandma smiled. "They had to let the gardeners into the house, to bring the fruit and such, though the head nurse would have skinned us girls, if she'd seen us talking to them. Still, I did get "to know him." She nodded at her husband.

Grandpa chuckled. "Your Grandma was a pretty maid.

I sung in the choir and I used to see all the servant girls coming into church. I noticed your Grandma, and we had a talk or two in the shrubbery. If old Green, the head gardener, had seen us, there’d. Have been the devil to pay." The old man chuckled again.

"But what about the next generation?" cried Mum with feeling. "How did they expect you to get married if you weren't allowed to walk out?"

Grandpa nodded his head. "Well," he said, "the fair coming to the town, and that being Gertie's day off, I met her there."

Grandma gave the fire a poke, "Marched up to me as bold as brass, and asked me to go for a ride on the horses. The very idea!"

"And did you?" Ally asked eagerly.

"She did, but that was later," said Grandpa. "That was after us saw the glass walking stick. I said to her, 'Now, me maid.."

"That'll do," put in Grandma quickly.

"Anyway, I bought her the walking stick, though she told me not to."

"Well, how was I to carry it home? First thing the head nurse would have asked was where I got the thing."

"So then we had our fortunes told."

"Now, Bert, that's quite enough," said Grandma.

"And do you know what that fortune-teller said?" went on Grandpa. "Her said to Gertie, ‘You've a young man what rides a high horse.’ And that was the first I knew that your Grandma was keeping company with our groom."

"I never kept company with him," Grandma protested.

"A silly young chap, he was, thought the world of himself. Now the fortune-teller, a real gipsy she was, with gold rings to her ears, she says to your Grandma, ‘Yes, me maid, you've got a young man what rides a high horse, but you'll ride the high horse with him, and the two of you'll never marry. The man you marry will take a big stick to you.' ‘No, he won't,’ cried your Grandma. *No man'll ever beat me.' 'Won't he then?' says I, and with that, I ups and whacks her with the glass walking stick that her'd forgotten all about. So when the old estate carpenter died that spring, I got his cottage and we was married and lived there till we moved here to better ourselves."

On the way home in the coach. Mum asked, "Enjoyed your day?" "Oh, yes," cried Ally. "You know. Mum, I sort of wish I'd lived in Grandma's time. It sounds so romantic, not even allowed to meet your true love and all."

"It was hard work and low pay," said Mum. "But there's something I've got to tell you, Glory. I waited till I saw Grandma, but you'll have to know sometime. I'm going to have an operation next month, so you and Dad'll have to manage somehow."

“Oh, Mum!" cried Ally. "How long'll you be away?"

“A fortnight in the hospital, and then a spell in the convalescent home. Still, I know you'll do your best, and Dad’ll lend a hand.”

"You're going to be all right, aren't you, Mum?" Ally asked with sudden horror.

"Of course I am. It's nothing serious. I’ll be as right as rain," cried Mum, and she gave her old, cheerful laugh.