Mr. Gurney had a large family.  Cora, the eldest, was just out of her teens; then came Launcelot or Lancy, as he was usually called; then Elsie, and so on, till you came to an infant in arms.  As the cabs containing the Sherwood family drove up to the house, the nursery windows in the second story of the Gurney household were filled with childish faces, anxious to see what sort of playmates their new neighbors might be; and when the young strangers alighted on the sidewalk they observed the happy faces and smiled back in return, thus pleasantly intimating that they hoped to be friends.  But when Dinah appeared with the baby, the faces in the window betrayed their astonishment.  “Oh! a black nurse! and the baby don’t seem a bit frightened of her!” they exclaimed in surprise.

“I wonder if they love her when she is so very black,” said little Gracie.  “I shouldn’t love to kiss her, would you, Percy?” looking at their own fair-faced nurse in loving approval.

Mrs. Sherwood was surprised to find the house so neatly and comfortably arranged, but she soon learned that she was indebted to Mrs. Gurney for this pleasant state of affairs, for she had given Mr. Sherwood much material assistance in making the rooms look home-like and cheerful.

In the evening, when the family were assembled in the parlor, Mrs. Gurney tapped lightly at the door, and her cordial greeting seemed more like that of a friend than the first meeting of strangers, and when Mrs. Sherwood began to thank her for the thoughtful attentions that had made their home-coming so pleasant, she stopped her with a word.

“Do not thank me, I beg of you, Mrs. Sherwood,” she said, with a smile.  “I have only done for you what I wish someone had done for me when I first came to Halifax.  I know by experience,” she added, as a smile lit up her motherly face, “what it is to come into a strange place, among strange people, with a hundred things needing to be done at once, and a family of children to attend to besides.  I felt sure you would like the place better if you found it a bit home-like and settled, but I have come in to explain.  I was afraid you might think I was making myself too busy in your affairs.  Now, I do hope, Mrs. Sherwood, that you will not make strangers of us after this.”  Her face beamed with kindness as she spoke, and after a short and friendly conversation she withdrew.

The next day was a busy one in the Sherwood household, but in the afternoon the twin girls were invited to go for a walk with the young ladies next door, while Louie was persuaded to go up to the nursery with the Gurney children.