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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Nearly Bedtime, by H. Mary Wilson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Nearly Bedtime
+       Five Short Stories for the Little Ones
+
+Author: H. Mary Wilson
+
+Release Date: May 31, 2011 [EBook #36293]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEARLY BEDTIME ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ NEARLY BEDTIME.
+
+ _FIVE SHORT STORIES FOR THE LITTLE ONES._
+
+
+ BY
+ H. MARY WILSON,
+
+ AUTHOR OF "CRIP," ETC.
+
+
+ PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE
+ OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION APPOINTED BY THE
+ SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.
+
+
+ LONDON:
+ SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE,
+ NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS, W.C.;
+ 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.
+ BRIGHTON: 135, NORTH STREET.
+ NEW YORK: E. &. J. B. YOUNG AND CO.
+
+
+
+
+  "Between the dark and the daylight,
+     When the night is beginning to lower,
+   Comes a pause in the day's occupations,
+     That is known as the Children's Hour.
+
+  "I hear in the chamber above me
+     The patter of little feet;
+   The sound of a door that is opened,
+     And voices soft and sweet.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "A sudden rush from the stairway,
+     A sudden raid from the hall!
+   By three doors left unguarded
+     They enter my castle wall!"
+                             LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+
+
+[Printer's decoration]
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+My motive in putting together these few short stories is twofold. I wish
+to help some elder sisters who have, like myself, occasionally found it
+difficult to keep the little ones happy when sleepiness is beginning
+to assert its claims--with pride in attendance to scorn any hint of
+weariness. For this reason the stories are quite short--of different
+lengths--and the time that they take in reading aloud is noted in
+the index. But I wish also, if I can, to add a little to the genuine
+happiness of that pleasant time when "big and little people" for a
+while are equals--before nurse comes to the door and says--
+
+"If you please, miss, it is the children's bedtime."
+
+Of course, when the summons does come, they all say "Good night" without
+any grumbling, and run away with bright faces, like my little Maggie,
+Dora, and Douglas.
+
+ KENLEY, 1888.
+
+[Printer's decoration]
+
+
+
+
+[Printer's decoration]
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+                                   THE TIME IT
+                                  TAKES TO READ.    PAGE
+
+ GENTLEMAN PHIL                    12 mins.           7
+
+ BOXER                              9  "             20
+
+ IT WAS ALL THOSE HORRID BELLOWS!   5  "             29
+
+ GULL'S "TWINSES"                  15  "             35
+
+ THE B. D. S                        7  "             57
+
+
+
+
+[Printer's decoration]
+
+NEARLY BEDTIME.
+
+
+
+
+_GENTLEMAN PHIL._
+
+ "He is gentil that doth gentil dedes."--CHAUCER.
+
+
+The birds have been awake, chirping and twittering for more than an
+hour, and the sun has stolen the first cool freshness from the clear
+dewdrops, as a pair of small feet come scudding across the lawn and
+down the gravel path.
+
+Phil is up betimes to-day. He had opened his eyes as he heard cook's
+heavy, deliberate tread on the stairs--she is stout and old, and he
+knows her step well--and then he knew that it must be quite early,
+about half-past five.
+
+Very gaily he tumbled out of his bed, and struggled into his white
+summer suit.
+
+He grew rather mixed over the buttons. There seemed so many along the
+top of his small knickerbockers! What could be the use of them all?
+_One_ was quite enough to hold the things together, and he made up
+his mind to ask nurse to cut off all the others.
+
+Not _now_, though! Oh no! He only peeped into her room through the
+half-open door, with a mischievous smile on his sweet bonny face, and
+looked at her still sleeping figure, until she stirred a little. Then
+he promptly drew back his head, and snatching up his garden shoes, ran
+noiselessly down the stairs.
+
+He watched from behind the hall curtain until cook had opened the garden
+door, and gone to fetch her pail.
+
+Now came his opportunity! Pulling on his shoes, he was quickly
+scuttling over the grass, looking very like a small white rabbit,
+as he disappeared among the trees and shrubs.
+
+I don't think that my little motherless, six-year-old friend knew that
+he was doing anything naughty when he escaped in this way from the
+vigilance of his lawful guardians.
+
+There was an honest, unselfish desire in his heart which had prompted
+this deeply laid plan, and he had been waiting for several days, with a
+patience rarely seen in a child his age, for an opportunity to carry it
+into effect.
+
+As he trotted past his own strip of garden, at the further end of the
+Rose Walk, he was thinking to himself--
+
+"Of course, nobody must see me do it. Gentlemen never do things because
+they want to be thanked. I should _hate_ it so if she said 'thank you,'
+even once."
+
+And away went the fat legs down the kitchen garden, and across the
+paddock, towards Farmer Greeson's corn field, where the golden grain
+stood helplessly in closely packed shocks.
+
+Poor Farmer Greeson thought it very hard that Club Day should come just
+in the middle of his "harvesting;" that his precious wheat must stand a
+whole day waiting to be carried; and that another field must wait uncut
+while the club enjoyed itself. But, then, the old man was obliged to
+remind himself that the harvest was much later than usual this year.
+Unsettled weather and frequent storms had upset so many farming
+operations.
+
+Ah! But what was a lost day to Farmer Greeson was Phil's golden
+opportunity.
+
+He had listened to the servants' talk about their holiday, and though he
+did not quite understand what "Club Day" meant, he was quite sure that
+he need not be afraid of intruders upon his darling scheme at this early
+hour, and so he climbed the farmer's gate, and dropped with a merry
+"hurrah" on to the stubbly ground.
+
+An hour later still finds Phil alone in the field, stooping over the
+ground and moving slowly along. He looks like a tiny old man, with his
+bent form and his hat pushed to the back of his head.
+
+Phil is gleaning.
+
+Steadily and laboriously he gathers up the scattered ears of corn.
+
+He finds it harder work than he thought, and he stops now and then to
+take out his handkerchief and wipe his hot face, with a quaint imitation
+of the labourers he has so often watched. Then he stands with his arms
+akimbo, to rest before setting to work again with determined energy.
+
+There is quite a large bundle of gleanings lying on his outspread
+handkerchief. He has brought his best and largest to hold his gains; and
+now the heap of corn almost eclipses the border of kittens and puppies,
+with arched backs and bristling tails, that Phil thinks "so jolly."
+
+Hark! What a delicious peal of laughter.
+
+The little gleaner has stopped again to straighten his back, and is
+watching the merry gambols of two brown baby rabbits that, quite
+unconscious of Phil's nearness, are playing round one of the shocks,
+as if they thought it had been put there solely for their amusement.
+
+Round and round, in and out, they scamper, until Phil's laughter breaks
+into a shout, and he claps his hands in keen delight.
+
+This brings the entertainment to an abrupt end.
+
+Off fly the terrified animals--their fun and frolic turned to fear by
+that very human and boyish cry; and the child's merriment dies too.
+
+He begins his labours again, saying to himself, "Well, you bunnies are
+awfully easily scared! It's a good thing gentlemen can be braver than
+that."
+
+And so the sturdy legs trudge backwards and forwards across the field.
+
+The sun shines warmly, and Phil's face grows hot and red. Phil begins to
+feel hungry too.
+
+"If I was a big man, I think I should have a nice lot of bread and
+cheese! I wish I _was_ a man. But I can be a gentleman _now_, father
+says so."
+
+He stands with his head on one side and his hands in his pockets,
+looking down thoughtfully at his gleanings. He is sure that he has got
+enough now; but he is not quite so sure that he can carry them all at
+once. However, he boldly grasps the corner of his gay handkerchief
+lifts the bundle, and staggers under its weight across the uneven
+ground.
+
+Through the little gate on the other side of the corn field, with his
+back turned to his own home, Phil pushes his way, and passes into the
+cool shadows of the lane, just as a servant-maid enters the field by
+the other gate.
+
+If you wanted to escape observation, you did not enter the lane a minute
+too soon, little Phil.
+
+Look at the earnest purpose in his blue eyes, and the brave determination
+with which he sets his teeth and struggles on with his load. A little
+further and he reaches an old broken gate, standing open and leading to
+a neglected garden.
+
+Phil stops for a moment and listens. He hears nothing.
+
+Yes; an old hen is clucking with motherly satisfaction over two
+long-legged chickens that are racing for a fat green caterpillar. That
+is all.
+
+So Phil is satisfied, and plods up the narrow garden footway until
+he comes to a standstill at an old cottage door. He has to put his
+precious bundle on the ground while he stands on tiptoe and raises the
+latch.
+
+"Who's there? Is any one there?" says a quavering old voice, and the
+child nods his curly head and smiles, but says nothing.
+
+Pushing the door open very softly, he enters the one room of which the
+cottage consists. On a bed in a corner lies a very old woman; her thin
+hands clasped patiently on the counterpane, and her sightless eyes
+covered with a broad white bandage.
+
+"Ah, daughter, I've had a long, long night; and I'll be glad of my cup
+of tea. But you're main early, ain't you, dearie? I don't feel the sun
+upon my face yet!"
+
+How difficult it is for Phil to hold his tongue, as he crosses the
+cottage floor and stands for a moment by Dame Christy's bedside, looking
+at her with a whole world of pity in his bonny eyes.
+
+This is by no means the first time that he has been in this humble
+home; but never has he come as the silent smiling visitor he is to-day.
+
+He puts his bundle on the bed by the old woman's side, looks wistfully
+at the bandaged eyes, and then creeps slowly and softly across the room
+and runs out into the sunlight--down the lane.
+
+With tired arms swinging from a sense of relief, with bright curls
+tossing, and dusty feet plodding over the ground, Phil enters the corn
+field, and runs--into the outstretched arms of Jane, the housemaid.
+
+And this is the greeting she gives him--
+
+"Well, you are a naughty boy, Master Phil! Nurse is in a rare taking,
+thinking you've gone and drownded yourself or got a sunstroke or
+something. You deserve to be kept in bed all day, you bad child! And
+I wish your pa was at home to whip you as well."
+
+Poor little Phil trudges back by the side of the scolding maid, feeling
+sobered and crestfallen. It has come upon him like a rough awakening
+from a sweet sleep that what he has done may look like naughtiness in
+the eyes of others.
+
+Would they understand if he told them all about it?
+
+But, then, if he told, it would spoil it all--for "gentlemen did kind
+things, but never talked about them." Those were the very words father
+had said. Father must know. He had been a gentleman all his life.
+
+Choking down a rebellious sob of disappointment, the child faces nurse's
+wrath with a brave heart. He says, "I'm very, very sorry, nursie," so
+humbly, when her half-angry, half-tearful scolding is over, and his
+winsome face looks so sweet in its unusual gravity, that her loving old
+heart melts at once.
+
+She hugs and kisses "her boy" again and again; telling him "not to go
+and get into mischief like this, and never to give her such another
+scare."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Three days later Phil's father comes home.
+
+Nurse finds an early opportunity for telling him the story of his
+little son's escapade, adding, however, a sequel of which Phil knows
+nothing. For on the previous day, Dame Christy's daughter had sent up a
+message to the nursery, "Might she trouble Mrs. Nurse to step downstairs
+for a minute?"
+
+And on her entering the housekeeper's room, she had displayed a large
+handkerchief, having an artistic and warlike border of quarrelsome cats
+and dogs. With tears in her eyes the young woman spoke of the dear
+little master's gift and the hard labour it must have cost him.
+
+"And we should never have knowed who did it, but for this, which told
+the tale. For he came and went so quiet, that mother she thought it must
+have been a dog as had got into her room, never speaking a word, and
+coming right away without any one knowing! His handkercher I knowed
+directly, 'cause he showed it to me only the other day. He's a rale
+little gentleman, isn't he now?"
+
+Nurse had wisely begged Dame Christy's daughter not to mention, or let
+her mother speak of the gift, but to leave the child in happy ignorance
+that his good deed had been discovered. She instinctively felt that "her
+boy" who would "do good by stealth" would "blush to find it fame."
+
+But now she tells her master all about it, dwelling with pardonable
+pride on the "sweet nature of the bairn."
+
+That same evening Phil's father stands by his boy's crib and looks down
+at the bonny face as it lies on the pillow, while he strokes the curly
+crop with a loving hand.
+
+The blue eyes are just a little bit sleepy. Nurse has tucked him up
+for the night, and drawn down the blind. But they are not too sleepy
+to shine with love and admiration as they look up into the kind face
+bending over him.
+
+"So, my little son gave nurse a fright the other day?"
+
+"Please, father, I'm _very_ sorry."
+
+The child's lips quiver, but the soft eyes still look trustingly
+upwards. "I was _really_ trying to be a gentleman--and--and you said
+gentlemen didn't tell when they tried to be kind, didn't you?"
+
+And now father quite understands the motive which has closed his child's
+lips--the tender sense of manly honour, which, even in its early growth,
+is strong enough to influence the heart of his boy.
+
+That Phil is already "learning the luxury of doing good," and beginning
+a chain of those "little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and
+of love," which form "the best portion of a good man's life," fills his
+heart with a glow of thankfulness.
+
+He stoops, and kissing the pleading, wistful face, says--
+
+"Yes, Phil. Yes, dear little lad, I _did_ say so. You need not tell me
+any more unless you like. I quite trust you. Remember always that you
+are a gentleman--or better still, try and follow in the steps of that
+Perfect Example of a loving and gentle Man--and you will make father
+very happy."
+
+
+
+
+[Printer's decoration]
+
+_BOXER._
+
+ "The poor dog, in life the firmest friend--
+  The first to welcome, foremost to defend--
+  Whose honest heart is still his master's own,
+  Who labours, fights, lives, breathes for him alone."
+                                                 BYRON.
+
+
+The electric-bell in the guard's van suddenly began to tinkle. Something
+was wrong with one of the passengers. The train slackened speed, and
+then stopped altogether.
+
+One by one the passengers' heads appeared at the windows. Such a variety
+of heads, too! Some wrapped in handkerchiefs, some with hats all awry,
+some wearing neither hat nor cap, and all looking ruffled and rubbed
+up, as if a minute before their owners had been snoring in peaceful
+forgetfulness that they were not in their own quiet beds at home.
+
+This, very likely, was the case, for it was five o'clock on a warm
+summer morning, and the train from the North had been tearing along with
+its burden of drowsy passengers ever since nine o'clock the evening
+before.
+
+Was it any wonder that this abrupt stoppage--here, where there was
+not even a platform in sight--somewhat disturbed and irritated the
+travellers?
+
+"A most irregular proceeding!" cried one indignant gentleman who, in his
+anxiety to see what was wrong, had pulled the blue window-blind over his
+bald head.
+
+"It's always the way," cried another fretfully. "Just my luck! Delaying
+the train, just when I particularly wished to be in town early."
+
+"Perhaps the train is on fire! Oh, guard! guard!" screamed a frightened
+old lady a few doors further down. "Help me out! This is dreadful!"
+
+But the guard, a kindly, warm-hearted Scotchman, was far too busy to
+attend to any one but the poor heart-broken young mother, who was
+clinging to him in her first paroxysm of grief and fear.
+
+"Noo! noo!" he was saying. "Dinna be greeting sae sairly, mem! We'll
+all be doing our best to find the bit bairn. Jack has gone to tak' a
+look along the line. But the train's o'erdue, and we maun get to yonder
+station before we can have asseestance."
+
+Then the news was carried the length of the Scotch express.
+
+A little child had fallen out of the train while his mother was asleep.
+The lady's dog had gone too!
+
+All the heads disappeared, with different expressions of sorrow for the
+poor young mother, and that was all.
+
+Not quite, though!
+
+One bright face reappeared. A girlish hand unfastened the carriage door,
+and in another moment a young lady had scrambled down to the six-foot
+way and, with her handbag and a bundle of wraps, was making her way to
+an open door, from which came the sound of bitter, hysterical weeping.
+
+"Guard, I have come to see if I can help in any way. What are you going
+to do?"
+
+"There is but one way, mem. Yonder comes Jack. He's seen nothing, I'm
+fearing. We must put the gude leddie down at the next station, and she
+maun get an engine there and go seek the puir bit bairn."
+
+"Very well, guard. Then I will stay with this lady until we stop." And
+as the old man thankfully returned to his duties and the train was
+quickly put in motion, she sat down and put a pair of sisterly arms
+round the distracted stranger.
+
+"Let us think what we will do," she said in her kind cheery voice, "and
+let us remember that the angels have been about your little one all this
+time. It may not be as bad as we think."
+
+"We? Who are you?" asked the dazed, bewildered mother. "I don't know
+you."
+
+"I am Hetty Saunders. I am going to London to spend the last days of my
+holiday with my brother. But I can spare the time to help you a little,
+you know. Let us forget that I am a stranger."
+
+And with true womanly capableness she took the management of affairs
+into her own hands, drawing Mrs. Hayling on to tell her all she would
+about her little Willie--and something, too, of Boxer, the gentle,
+clever Scotch collie.
+
+Half an hour ago they had both been with her. Where were they now?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Let us go back and look at the other side of this little story--Willie
+and Boxer's side.
+
+They were both of an inquiring turn of mind. This was only their second
+railway journey; and it was not, therefore, very wonderful that Willie's
+fingers and Boxer's sharp, inquisitive nose, seemed determined to
+examine everything.
+
+You can guess that it was with no small relief that Mrs. Hayling saw
+her little son's round blue eyes grow dim with sleep, as she tucked him
+up--for the sixth time at least--in the thick railway rug, and told
+Boxer to lie down beside him.
+
+But it was quite a long time after Willie's mouth opened, to let out
+some not unmusical snores, that Mrs. Hayling's thoughts were hushed into
+quiet dreams.
+
+Mothers have so many things to think about and puzzle over!
+
+About four o'clock her little son suddenly opened his eyes, and as
+suddenly remembered where he was.
+
+He was wide awake!
+
+Boxer did not like the vigorous shake that his little master gave him.
+He roused himself, it is true; but when Willie climbed on to the seat
+and looked out of the window, he curled himself round for another nap.
+Why did not his little master do the same?
+
+"Boxer, I'm 'samed of you! How lazy you are! Come and play wid me."
+
+And the fat arms dragged the dog up again and held him in a tight
+embrace, from which there seemed no escaping.
+
+"Mother is fast as'eep! We'll play widout her, _dis_ time," and Willie
+fixed his eyes longingly upon the window-strap. Then he looked back
+again at his mother's white tired face.
+
+He was thinking to himself, "Mother said, Willie mustn't play wid dat
+fing--and--and me wants to."
+
+Poor mother! why do you not wake? See! your little child is getting
+nearer and nearer to that forbidden plaything.
+
+He leant against the door and held the window-strap in one hand, while
+his little face grew grave and ashamed. It was not quite so nice to be
+disobedient as Willie thought it would be.
+
+Mother, mother! why do you not wake? There is something wrong with the
+fastening of the door, and even the child's light weight has made it
+shift a little.
+
+He was peeping down with eager eyes into the depths out of which the
+window-sash had been drawn.
+
+"I'll send dis strap down dere, and fis' somefing up. S'all I, Boxer?"
+
+The dog stood close beside him, wagging his bushy tail and looking up
+with two bright loving eyes.
+
+And then the train gave a sudden lurch, the door flew open, and as the
+child fell forward with a little cry, Boxer sprang after him and seized
+him by his sailor-collar. Powerless to save his little master from
+falling, he yet dragged him sideways to the ground, and received the
+full force of the fall, as they rolled over and over down the long green
+bank.
+
+And yet mother did not wake! No! not until that motionless bundle--the
+child and the dog--had been left many miles away.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Boxer! wake up! It's time for bekfust."
+
+Boxer did not move.
+
+"I said I was 'samed of you. _Now_ I'm 'sameder. You _are_ a lazy dog!"
+
+And then Willie's eyes opened wider, and he turned over on his bed. His
+bed? Why! it was soft green grass! and that was not a bed-curtain up
+there. It was a tree, and branches of whispering leaves.
+
+Slowly the truth crept into the child's mind, and very slowly it drove
+two large tears into his blue eyes. Where was mother--dear, dear mother?
+
+He sat up and looked round him. "Mother! mother! I'm very, _very_
+sorry!" he cried; the remembrance of his disobedience being full upon
+him. But his voice ended in sobs, as he buried his face in the grass
+again. "Oh, mother! Willie _does_ want you so!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mother was coming. Her strained, anxious eyes had already discovered the
+little figure lying stretched upon the ground.
+
+In another moment the pilot-engine had stopped, and she had clasped her
+darling in her arms--alive--unhurt--and was covering him with kisses,
+while thankful tears ran down her cheeks.
+
+It was left to Hetty Saunders to stoop down and stroke Boxer's
+motionless figure, and in that touch to learn how the dear doggie had
+lost his life for his little master.
+
+
+
+
+[Printer's decoration]
+
+_IT WAS ALL THOSE HORRID BELLOWS!_
+
+A STORY TOLD BY A LITTLE GIRL.
+
+
+I heard Dick--he's my biggest brother--learning his "Rep" the other day.
+I don't quite know what "Rep" is; but he was saying some words over and
+over again, and some of them stuck in my head. I can remember them now.
+
+I don't often remember things; but that is because I've got a head like
+a sieve--nurse says so.
+
+"What's in a name?" he read out of the book--and then something about a
+rose smelling sweet. _That_ part doesn't matter.
+
+If Dick had asked _me_ "What's in a name?" I could have told him quite
+well. But Dick didn't ask me, and so I will tell you instead. I think
+there's a great deal in a name--at least, in a nickname. There are all
+kinds of spiteful little prickles that hurt ever so much more than
+others, because they stick in our _feelings_.
+
+I think I must have got a whole lot of that kind of thorn in me just
+now, for I _do_ feel sore.
+
+Every one has begun to call me Matty, and I can't _bear_ it!
+
+Did you say Matty was rather a pretty name?
+
+Perhaps it is, if it is the proper short for your name; I mean, if you
+were christened Matilda. But _my_ name's Ginevra!
+
+Now, do you understand that they all call me Matty just to tease me, and
+I _hate_ it. I do.
+
+I've got as far as adjectives in grammar, so I know that the long horrid
+word which they put before Matty sometimes is an adjective. I'm not
+going to write it down here--no, not for any one--because it is such a
+nasty, unkind word. But it begins with an M. The next letter is an E,
+and then comes D, and there are seven more letters, I think.
+
+And this is all because the other day it was raining very fast, and
+there was nothing to do!
+
+There never is anything to do on a wet day; I mean, nothing interesting.
+Dick plays with me sometimes; but he was reading a story, with dreadful
+_fighting_ pictures to it, in the _Boy's Own Paper_, so I knew he
+wouldn't want to come. And Teddie had gone to sleep in the armchair.
+
+Wasn't that a stupid thing to do?
+
+Well! I was obliged to get something to do--wasn't I? And it wasn't my
+fault that Ann left the dear little drawing-room bellows behind her,
+when she came to make up the fire, was it?
+
+You can do nice, funny things with bellows.
+
+I've tried.
+
+But Dick didn't like me to blow down his neck; and Teddie got quite
+cross when I sent a puff of wind into his ear and woke him up. He
+needn't have thrown the footstool at me, need he?
+
+I went out of the schoolroom after that, and such a _nice_ thought came
+into my head.
+
+I would be a wind-fairy.
+
+I would be a _naughty_ wind-fairy first, and go and blow everything out
+of its place--all untidy and crooked; and then I could change, and be a
+_good_ wind-fairy, and go and blow all the things straight again.
+
+So I went into all the rooms.
+
+It _was_ funny!
+
+I blew the antimacassars on to the floor, and the visiting-cards out of
+the china-plate.
+
+That was in the drawing-room.
+
+The best fun was in the nursery, where all the clean handkerchiefs and
+collars and cuffs were on the table. They went puff, puff, all over the
+floor, just like big snowflakes, and I could hardly help stepping on
+them.
+
+The bedrooms were not so much fun. So I finished by going to the
+dining-room, as soon as Ann had gone away, after setting the tea.
+
+Nobody will believe me when I say that I really _was_ going to put
+everything tidy again! But I never got so far as being the good
+wind-fairy. Everything always goes just the wrong way!
+
+First of all, the servants finished their tea sooner than they generally
+do, and nurse went straight back to the nursery. She might have
+waited--mightn't she?
+
+And wasn't it unkind of Mrs. Rose to come and call, and to have to be
+shown into the drawing-room? She is our doctor's sister, and she is so
+stiff and white that we call her Mrs. _Prim_rose. That's _her_ nickname.
+But it never pricks _her_, because she never hears it.
+
+I wonder if nurse is right when she says, "It is going against the
+Catechism to make nicknames for grown-up people"?
+
+Well! I didn't know that if you blew a flame with the bellows it would
+make it run about everywhere. Did you?
+
+I was only trying to make the spirit-lamp burn faster under the kettle.
+
+I was just beginning to be the _good_ wind-fairy then. And the silly
+flame ran all over the table-cloth, and there was such a flare-up!
+
+I _was_ frightened.
+
+The tea-cosy was burnt. So was the table-cloth. Ann had 'stericks. I
+think that is what nurse called them. Mrs. Primrose came running in with
+mother from the drawing-room, and she fainted.
+
+That was all!
+
+At least, I was sent to bed, and now they call me Matty. Don't you think
+it is unkind of them? Ginevra is such a pretty name too!
+
+I didn't _mean_ to be naughty. And I do wish mother would make me
+understand all about it; but Teddie is ill, and, of course, she can't
+leave him until he's better. I shall have to wait, I suppose. But I
+can't be happy again until I have had a nice talk with mother. She
+makes everything so _understand-ible_.
+
+What did nurse mean when she said, the other day, "There's one comfort;
+Miss Ginevra's character is still unformed"?
+
+
+
+
+[Printer's decoration]
+
+_GULL'S "TWINSES."_
+
+ "Children of wealth or want, to each is given
+  One spot of green, and all the blue of heaven!"
+
+
+"Mind! mind! I say, Tom, you're frizzing that 'erring black!"
+
+"I ain't."
+
+"My eyes! don't it smell fine? Oh! I do wish father'd come. He's allus a
+long time when the supper's 'ot;" and Bob, as he spoke, heaved a sigh of
+such prodigious depth that it might have come from his boots--if he had
+possessed any, poor little man!
+
+These two small boys, Tom and Bob Gull, were six years old.
+
+"We is only twinses," Bob would say.
+
+Perhaps he said "only" to make us understand that they were just alike
+in the matter of age, but that there the likeness ended.
+
+Bob, the merry and talkative, was the one who led Tom, the quiet and
+silent. Bob's twinkling, puppy-like eyes--which peeped at you through a
+tangled fringe of brown hair--were the exact contrast to Tom's shy blue
+eyes, shaded by long, fair, girlish lashes. And Bob's jolly little round
+figure seemed to say, "Anything, be it meagre soup or even dry bread,
+fattens _me_;" while Tom's thin little limbs gave one a thought of
+unconscious cravings for appetising food.
+
+The room where they were watching for father was a third floor front
+in Pleasant Court, not far from Waterloo Junction. Like many such
+"living-rooms," it can be best described by telling you that everything
+in it which should be large was small, and the other way about.
+
+For instance, the fireplace was small and the crack under the door very
+large. The cupboard was very roomy, but the things kept in it very much
+too small and scarce. The bed was wide, but the blanket and counterpane
+sadly narrow.
+
+Was there nothing that was as big as it should be?
+
+Yes, indeed! In spite of these unsatisfactory surroundings, there was as
+large-hearted a love to be found in the small family which these four
+walls sheltered from the cold outside world, as any one could wish to
+see.
+
+"I don't believe father's _never_ coming;" and Bob sighed again.
+
+By this time the herring had found a cindery resting-place on a plate
+before the fire, and the twins were sitting side by side, with their
+bare toes on the fender and their eyes fixed upon the door, watching
+eagerly, like two little terriers.
+
+But the sigh was answered by a distant sound, the plod--plod--plodding
+of weary feet up the two flights of uncarpeted stairs.
+
+Then there was a grand commotion! The cushionless armchair was dragged
+nearer the fire; the old slippers dropped sole uppermost into the
+fender. And then Bob and Tom clung with a vice-like embrace each to
+an arm of the tall, gaunt, kindly eyed man who had opened the door.
+
+"Father, father! the 'erring's done just lubly. I _am_ glad you're come
+at last!" This from Bob.
+
+The father's hard, rough hand rested upon his tangled crop, but his eyes
+were looking into Tom's upturned face.
+
+"And Tom, eh?" he asked.
+
+"Jolly glad," answered the child readily.
+
+Then the three sat down to their evening meal.
+
+Would you like to know what it consisted of?
+
+Tea, of a watery description, but _hot_ (Bob took care of that) and
+_sweet_--at least, father's cup, owing to Tom's kindly attentions with a
+grimy thumb and finger. The herring. This, of course, was the chief
+dish. Several tit-bits, trembling upon father's fork, find their way
+into the "twinses'" mouths.
+
+Lastly, bread and dripping.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Gull had tried to teach his motherless lads "to do as mother used." So
+there followed a systematic cleaning and arranging of the small supply
+of crockery.
+
+Tom was the first to find a seat upon father's knee as he sat by the
+fire; but Bob soon climbed opposite to him, and together they looked
+with expectant eyes into father's face.
+
+And father rubbed his head ruefully as he said, "Eh! I've got to tell
+the little lads summat to-night, have I? But there's nothing new been
+done, as far as I knows. It's the old dull story, bairnies. The fewest
+tips when the weather's the bitterest."
+
+Gull was an outside porter at Waterloo Junction; and a slight lameness,
+caused by rheumatism, often cost him dearly. If his step could have
+been quicker, it would many times have taken him in the front of the
+younger porters, who darted forward and seemed to get all the jobs. The
+sixpences came very slowly into his pocket.
+
+To-night he felt more than usually _down_, as he expressed it; and when
+he felt Tom's little bare toes slipping for warmth under his strong
+brown hand, tears crept into his eyes, and had to be rubbed away with
+the back of his sleeve.
+
+Bob was very quick to notice this.
+
+"I say," he cried, "you've been and gone and got something in your eye!"
+
+"Smuts," suggested Tom.
+
+"Oh, let me get them out, father! _Do!_ I'll be ever so gentle." And Bob
+suited the action to the word by raising himself on his knees to a level
+with Gull's face, and thrusting a screw of his old jacket into the
+corner of the suffering eye.
+
+The operation ended in merry laughter, and the boys never knew that the
+smuts were really tears forced to the surface by an overburdened heart.
+
+"Father was just _real_ funny," that evening, as Bob whispered to Tom,
+when half the blanket covered them, later on--"just _real_ funny, wasn't
+he?"
+
+And Tom answered sleepily, but happily, "Yes, jolly."
+
+Meanwhile, the tired bread-winner sat alone by the fire, with all the
+fun faded from his face as he wondered "how long bad times lasted with
+most folks?" It was not until, with the childlike simplicity that was
+part of his nature, he had knelt and repeated the short and perfect
+prayer with which his little lads had made him so familiar, that any
+look of comfort or hope returned to his care-lined face.
+
+A little anxiety, but a very pressing one just now, came with the
+thought that the four dear little feet, which had been treading the
+world for the past weeks chilled and barefooted, would very probably
+have to curl up piteously on the cold pavement for some time longer.
+To get two pairs of small boots, and hope for money to pay for them
+by-and-by, never entered Gull's head. He had always paid his way
+without owing any man anything, as his father had before him.
+
+Poor father! and poor little twins!
+
+Yet wishes are sometimes carried quickly to their fulfilment; for a
+divine Lord changes them into prayers as they go upward.
+
+The following evening, just at the hour when his boys were again
+straining their ears for the first sound of his footsteps, Gull was
+standing against one of the lamp posts outside Waterloo Station. He
+was peering anxiously into the face of every passenger who entered
+the station, every traveller who drove up from the busy streets,
+every business man who hurried in from the City.
+
+Gull's lips were hard set. His eyes had a strained, anxious look; his
+expression was that of a warrior who was fighting a battle against heavy
+odds.
+
+All day long there had been an inward struggle. Hour by hour the fight
+had been prolonged. Would honesty win the day? Was Gull leaning upon a
+strength mightier than his own?
+
+He kept one hand buried in his pocket, always fingering there a
+_something_ which was the cause of all this mental disturbance. His
+other hand buttoned and unbuttoned his overcoat with nervous
+restlessness.
+
+And as he watched, two gentlemen came towards him under the gas lamps.
+They were walking arm-in-arm, and talking earnestly about shares and
+stocks, and all those mysterious and fascinating things, that a certain
+Mr. Weller said "always went up and down in the city."
+
+When Gull saw them he started forward, and looked searchingly into the
+face of the elder of the two. Then he followed them closely into the
+station--shuffling along lamely but resolutely.
+
+Twice he put out his hand to touch this gentleman's sleeves, but
+something stronger than his will seemed to hold him back.
+
+At the platform gate the ticket collector spoke to him.
+
+"What! are you going by the 6.5, Gull?"
+
+"No," he answered; "but I'm bound to have a word with yon gent before he
+goes."
+
+"If it's a tip you're after, you're on the wrong tack, mate. I know yon
+gentleman too well." But he let Gull through the gate.
+
+Mr. Kingsley, the elder traveller, was settling himself in a
+first-class carriage, and leisurely enjoying the delightful employment
+of lighting his first cigar after a long day's work, when Gull opened
+the door and looked in.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," he began, "but did I carry a box for you this morning
+to the South Eastern, sir?"
+
+Mr. Kingsley looked him well over before he answered, with a twinkle of
+amusement in his little bright eyes--
+
+"What if you did, man? Wasn't the sixpence heavy enough?"
+
+Gull knew now that he had found the man he wanted. He drew his hand from
+his pocket and held a bright half-sovereign towards Mr. Kingsley.
+
+"That's what you give me, in mistake, sir," he said huskily, adding,
+"I'm glad I remembered who 'twas as give it to me."
+
+Again Mr. Kingsley looked the porter well over. Then he turned his eyes
+to the further end of the railway carriage, and was relieved to see that
+his fellow-passenger was, to all appearance, deeply interested in his
+evening paper. I say, to all appearance, for the truth is that he was
+listening to all that passed; and it is from him that I heard this
+story, which is no fiction.
+
+Still, though satisfied that he was unnoticed, Mr. Kingsley did not take
+the proffered coin. After a moment's pause he said--
+
+"How did you find out that I was coming back this way to-night?"
+
+"I seemed to know as you was a 'season,' sir," Gull answered, "and I
+watched for you."
+
+"Well, well, man! and now, as to that half-sovereign. I expect it will
+be of more use to you than to me--eh? Keep it, man; keep it."
+
+Gull's pale cheeks flushed.
+
+He stammered out, "You'd--you'd best take it back, sir." It seemed to
+him as if this was some new form of that terrible temptation which had
+been assailing him all that long day; and he thrust the half-sovereign
+forward again.
+
+"No, no! Keep it, man!" repeated Mr. Kingsley. "I'm not going to say a
+word about your honesty. You are just as much a man as I am; and a true
+man is always honest. But keep it, _because_ the Christmas bells will
+ring to-night."
+
+"Thank you, sir."
+
+Written, the words appear cold; but said, as Gull said them, they
+carried an amount of warmth and gratitude which quite satisfied Mr.
+Kingsley without the half-involuntary speech that followed, "So there
+_will_ be boots for the little lads, after all!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Bless the man! How jolly you look! Did you get your tanner, then?"
+
+This was the ticket collector's greeting as Gull passed.
+
+"Yon gent's a trump, and no mistake!" answered the other as he hurried
+along, eager for the delight which _such_ a story would bring to the
+little ears now listening for his coming in that third floor front in
+Pleasant Court.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I wonder what it was that moved Mr. Kingsley to a wider generosity that
+evening than was at all usual in the money-wise, business man? Could
+it have been that he was led to it partly by the fact--though he was
+quite unconscious of it--that there was something similar in the home
+relations of these two men?
+
+For Mr. Kingsley was also a widower; and it was his little only daughter
+who was pressing her tiny nose against the window-pane, and trying to
+guess how many people would go by the gate before daddy set it swinging
+and came up the drive.
+
+Patsy's greeting was quite as loving and vigorous as the one the
+"twinses" gave their father every day. The slippers warming at the fire
+were elegant braided ones, bound round with velvet. Well! what of that?
+It was the love that thought of putting them there which made them so
+comfortable; and so, in that respect, Gull's were quite as good to wear
+as Mr. Kingsley's.
+
+When the two were comfortably settled, Patsy began to rummage in all
+daddy's pockets.
+
+"It's Christmas present night!" she cried. "Where's my little yellow
+money?"
+
+Mr. Kingsley felt in his pockets with a musing air.
+
+"I don't know what my little maid will say," he said at last,
+producing four half-crowns; "but I have no nice half-sovereign for her
+to-night--only these big ugly white things. It is true they will buy
+quite as many toys. And I _might_ have had 'the yellow money,' only now,
+I expect, it is turned into shoeleather."
+
+At the opening of this speech Patsy's face had borne an expression of
+disgust and disappointment; but before it was finished, it changed to
+one of undisguised interest.
+
+"Oh! I'm _sure_ you've been in a fairy tale to-day, daddy! You know I
+just _love_ fairy stories. _Do_ begin at once, before nurse comes. Tell
+me about it quickly--do, _please_."
+
+And so, out of the materials that Gull had given him, Mr. Kingsley
+pleased his little daughter by weaving a wonderful modern fairy story.
+He had rather a talent that way, and had learnt by experience the kind
+of stories that the little ones like best. This time his narrative was
+"truer" than he knew; and Patsy acknowledged, when it was done, that it
+was "the nicest and beautifullest that she had heard for a long time."
+
+And while Patsy's father was telling the story in his way, another
+version of it was being repeated again and again to the twins, high up
+in that old London house.
+
+They were never tired of hearing it, never tired of asking questions;
+and all the time the feeling of gratitude in their father's heart--which
+had been like a little seed, planted there by the kind words and gift
+of Mr. Kingsley--grew and grew until he _longed_ to _do_ something. He
+had only as yet said, "Thank you, sir;" but now he longed to show his
+gratitude in a more fitting way. So thought the "twinses," too, for Bob
+said presently--
+
+"Father, shouldn't I just like to do something nice for that gentleman!
+I wonder whether you're like to see him again?"
+
+"In course, lad. I shall often see him pass, I'll never forget him;
+but it's not so likely as he'll remember me. Got summat better to do,
+I reckon. Yes; he'll come most days, seeing as he's a 'season.' But,
+there--you're right! I don't feel as if I shall be able to rest until
+I've done 'summat nice for him,' as you says, if it's only to carry his
+bag for nothing. But summat bigger nor that would _ease_ me more. What a
+rale gent he is, to be sure!"
+
+There was no disguising the tears that stood in Gull's eyes now; and
+strange to say, he did not try to hide from his "little lads" that they
+were there.
+
+He made the boys put their feet, now so stoutly booted, in a row upon
+the fender. How the brass tips shone in the firelight! And there was
+_such_ a jolly noise when the heels knocked against the floor! Bob made
+the grand discovery that he could dance a hornpipe. And his sturdy feet
+careered over the floor, clattering, tapping, and jumping, until the
+quiet Tom was roused into clapping and "hurrahing" with delight.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+His "act of irregular charity," as he called it, quickly faded from Mr.
+Kingsley's mind--so quickly, too, that when one of the outside porters
+occasionally helped him more readily than usual, or seemed less eager
+for the accustomed "tip," he never thought that it might have any
+connection with that Christmas Eve adventure. He was short-sighted, too,
+and not very quick to recognize faces. He did not know that as he passed
+out of the station every morning, Gull's eyes followed him with a
+pleasant _remembering_ look, that Gull's hand was always ready to throw
+back the doors of the hansom if the day was wet and he drove, and that
+Gull's feet were swift to carry their owner away before the accustomed
+"coppers" could be offered.
+
+The first question that always greeted Gull when he got home to his boys
+in the evening was, from Bob--
+
+"Did you see _our_ gentleman to-day, father?" echoed by Tom's eager--
+
+"Did you, father?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A year had nearly passed away. Christmas was coming again, this time
+dressed in a mantle of thick, choking fog and biting frost. The days
+seemed to be turned into night. People and things looked queerly
+distorted and unnaturally large. The street lamps tried to pierce the
+gloom all day with foolish, blinking eyes; and every one took his full
+measure of grumbling.
+
+One evening Mr. Kingsley hurried up the steps to Waterloo Junction with
+a feeling of relief that the unknown perils of the gloomy streets were
+safely past. He pushed his way through a little group of idlers near one
+of the doors, and was turning towards the booking-office, when he was
+startled by a violent commotion close behind him. He turned to find two
+men--both tall, but one powerful and thick-set, the other meagre and
+ill-clad--engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle.
+
+His first impulse was to continue his way and leave them to fight it
+out.
+
+"It is some wretched, drunken tramp," he said to himself. But a second
+look showed him that there was too much desperate method on the part of
+both for this to be the case; and he was looking round for a policeman
+to interpose the "stern arm of the law," when the struggle was ended as
+abruptly as it had begun.
+
+The stronger man of the two suddenly flung his antagonist from him with
+an angry oath, and then disappeared in the fog. He left the other lying
+almost at Mr. Kingsley's feet--flung there upon his back, with one hand
+hidden beneath him. He lay motionless as death, silenced by the force
+with which his head had struck the ground. His white face and closed
+eyes sent a quick fear to Mr. Kingsley's kindly heart as he bent over
+him, and he turned to the two porters who hurried up, to say--
+
+"The man's terribly hurt, I'm afraid. There was a quarrel, and he was
+thrown down."
+
+While one of the men answered him the other stooped down to look at the
+prostrate figure, and then started to his feet again, crying--
+
+"Mate--it's Gull! It's Gull, I tell you! What does it mean?"
+
+With the help of the policeman, who appeared at this moment, and watched
+by the usual curious crowd of onlookers, they bathed Gull's face with
+cold water, forced brandy between his lips, and chafed his cold hands.
+Then it was that they discovered, tightly clasped in the hand upon which
+he had been lying, a folded leather case. The policeman unbent the
+convulsive fingers, and examined this with careful eyes.
+
+"However did Gull get hold of _this_, I wonder?" was his exclamation.
+
+Mr. Kingsley looked at it with a puzzled expression. It had a strange
+resemblance to his own pocket-book! Thrusting his hand hurriedly into
+his various pockets proved to him, without a doubt, that his it was
+indeed. And a few words were sufficient to convince the policeman of his
+right to claim it.
+
+But here a sudden movement from Gull turned all eyes towards him once
+more.
+
+He raised himself to a sitting position, and with one hand to his poor
+dazed head, gazed with dim, half-unconscious eyes at the other held
+before him--wide open and empty!
+
+As he gazed, a bitter cry escaped his lips.
+
+"Then the brute has made off with it, after all!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+This, you see, was the way in which Gull "eased himself," as he
+expressed it, and satisfied the demands that gratitude made upon his
+honest heart.
+
+I have very little more to tell you, and that you could almost guess for
+yourself.
+
+Gull spent a few quiet days on his bed, attended devotedly by his little
+lads, who were much over-awed at father's "bein' took bad," and filled
+with wide-eyed wonder when "our gentleman" climbed the old staircase
+more than once, to see how father was, and to provide for him some new
+comfort.
+
+Once again, two versions of a true story were told in two separate
+homes. It was the version that the "twinses" heard which was the
+shortest in the telling.
+
+"Tell us all about it, father," said Bob, when Gull was "rested" enough
+to talk to his boys.
+
+"Nay, lad, there ain't much to tell. I just collared the thief as he
+was making off with Mr. Kingsley's pocket-book, and he didn't like it
+somehow, and threw me down. But that's all about it."
+
+"Oh! but you got the pocket-book from him first, you know, father."
+
+"Ay! I did that," Gull answered, with a smile; and there the _telling_
+of the story ended. I don't know when the _acting_ of it will be
+finished, for there was a difference in the lives of Gull and his
+"twinses" from that day forward--"all along of Mr. Kingsley's kindness,"
+as they would tell you; but "because I have found an honest man," as Mr.
+Kingsley himself would say to little Patsy.
+
+[Printer's decoration]
+
+
+
+
+[Printer's decoration]
+
+_THE B. D. S._
+
+
+The Bill had passed the House of Commons [I mean, you know, that nurse
+had approved of it], and much anxiety was felt among the little pleaders
+as to its first reading in the Upper House--_i. e._ would mother say
+"Yes!"
+
+They all knew that mother had a clear judgment; but it was just her
+far-seeing power that made them tremble. She might see breakers ahead
+which they knew nothing about.
+
+And perhaps mother _did_ see a few objections to this new plan. However
+that may be, as the little ones presented their petition, she smiled.
+
+This was, indeed, a good sign, and more than that, the smile was
+followed by a ready consent as the plan was unfolded.
+
+The Bill was passed. Hurrah!
+
+The B. D. Society was allowed; and mother had actually agreed to be
+patroness and prize-giver.
+
+"What a dear, jolly mother she is!"
+
+"She's a duck, and no mistake!"
+
+Rather unbusinesslike language, but very expressive!
+
+Well, but what did it mean, this B. D. S.?
+
+It was only a Bedroom Decorating Society. But it seemed a very beautiful
+idea to the four curly headed little girls who sat squeezed up together
+in the large nursery armchair.
+
+Pattie, Mollie, Kitty, and Norah. Four little Irish maidens, with this
+lovely plan to talk over and make perfect, while a snowstorm kept them
+indoors to-day.
+
+_Pattie._ "Don't let's tell each other how we'll do our rooms until
+afterwards."
+
+_Norah._ "You'll _never_ keep your plans to yourself. You never _could_
+keep anything in."
+
+_Mollie (up in arms for her sister)._ "Don't be nasty, Norah, or
+something _bad_ will happen to you!"
+
+_Norah (looking a little ashamed of herself and wisely changing the
+subject)._ "Let's begin now. We'll take all the things out of our rooms
+first, and then put them back in new places--shall us?"
+
+As you may guess, the B. D. S. was intended to promote a general taste
+for artistic style in the children's bedrooms, or as Kitty expressed it,
+simply and to the point, "It is to make us put our things _illigantly_."
+
+Mother determined to let this new idea have a fair trial; though she
+could not help feeling a little nervous as she heard the scrimmaging of
+the furniture, and thought of possible breakages.
+
+She sat at her needlework, and listened to the distant sounds which
+reached her faintly from the rooms above. Then she began to wonder
+whether the excitement and interest would last out the fortnight, at
+the end of which she had been asked to present a prize.
+
+Suddenly her motherly heart gave a terrible throb.
+
+There was a thud--thud--thud, and that horrid bumping sound, as
+something soft tumbled over and over down the stairs.
+
+With a white face she rushed out of the dining-room, to see little Norah
+and a large bolster roll on to the floor at her feet!
+
+A breathless scream escaped from the terrified child.
+
+The three other curly heads were peeping through the banisters, and
+three pairs of Irish blue eyes were looking horribly scared and unhappy.
+
+But mother did not see them.
+
+She picked up the screaming Norah, and carried her into the dining-room,
+while nurse came running from the kitchen and her ironing.
+
+All the time that the sobbing little victim of the B. D. S. was being
+soothed into calmness, and the big swelling wheal on her forehead bathed
+and tended, Pattie, Mollie, and Kitty--upstairs--looked at one another
+in frightened silence. Then Mollie said sadly--
+
+"I _knew_ something would happen to Norah. It always does if she says
+nasty things."
+
+"Rubbish, Mollie! That's nonsense! She fell down because her bolster was
+so big, and she couldn't see where the stairs came!" cried Pattie.
+
+"I'm going to see where she's hurted herself," announced little Kitty;
+and she trudged off, leaving Pattie and Mollie to sort the heap of odds
+and ends that lay on the landing.
+
+They went about it in doleful silence at first.
+
+Then Mollie said, "This _is_ my counterpane--isn't it, Pattie?"
+
+"No; that's Norah's. Don't you see the corner all crumpled up which she
+holds in her hand when she goes to sleep?"
+
+"Oh dear! oh dear! I don't think, after all, that it's _easy_ having
+a B. D. S. It seemed just to spoil it all when Norah went thumping
+down--down, like a big ball."
+
+Pattie gave a little sigh, too, and was putting down the chair she was
+carrying that she might rest her arms and have room for another deeper
+sigh, when mother's voice was heard calling--
+
+"Mollie! Pattie! I want you down here!"
+
+Off they ran, feeling down in their little hearts that mother _must_
+know how to put things happy again.
+
+First of all they looked with interested and pitying eyes at Norah,
+whose head had become an odd shape, and whose face was white and patchy.
+Then they stood side by side with Kitty, watching mother's face, and
+waiting.
+
+"The B. D. S. has had a bad beginning, dears," she said. "I don't think
+it was a good plan to pull everything out of your rooms to start with.
+But never mind that now."
+
+As mother spoke she kept one hand behind her chair, and she smiled.
+
+She was sorry for her little girls.
+
+"I am going to propose," she went on, "that you should alter your
+society a little bit. The _letters_ will be the same. It will still be
+the B. D. S.; but the work will be different and easier."
+
+The little faces all brightened as she continued--
+
+"I like my little girls to be tidy and neat in their rooms; but I think
+mother knows best how the furniture should stand, and where the things
+look nicest. So I suggest that we call our society the Bedroom _Dusting_
+Society. I will give you each a little cloth, and you shall dust your
+rooms every morning after nurse has made the beds. And _once a week_ I
+will award a prize."
+
+Then mother drew her hand forward and held before their eyes a Japanese
+fan, with a long handle, to which was tied a dainty bow of blue ribbon.
+
+"This," she said, "shall be given next Saturday to the tidiest of the
+four members of your society. Now, what do you think of my plan?"
+
+"It's just splendid, mother darling!" was the unanimous cry of the
+listeners; and a tangle of soft loving arms nearly throttled her in a
+sudden embrace.
+
+"And you _know_," came in a plaintive voice from Norah, "if you always
+give us a pretty thing like that for a prize, it _will_ be the Bedroom
+_Decorating_ Society, too!"
+
+
+THE END.
+
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