1 files changed, 4532 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/57309-0.txt b/57309-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aaa4b96
--- /dev/null
+++ b/57309-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,4532 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57309 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: NELLY'S HOSPITAL.--PAGE 54]
+
+
+
+
+  AUNT JO's SCRAP-BAG.
+
+  Volume III.
+
+  CUPID AND CHOW-CHOW, ETC.
+
+
+[Illustration: Scrap Bag Vol. III]
+
+
+  BY LOUISA M. ALCOTT,
+
+  AUTHOR OF "LITTLE WOMEN," "AN OLD-FASHIONED GIRL,"
+  "LITTLE MEN," "HOSPITAL SKETCHES."
+
+
+
+  BOSTON:
+  ROBERTS BROTHERS.
+  1896
+
+
+
+
+  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by
+
+  LOUISA M. ALCOTT
+
+  In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
+
+
+
+  UNIVERSITY PRESS : JOHN WILSON & SON,
+  CAMBRIDGE.
+
+
+
+
+  CONTENTS.
+
+  I. Cupid and Chow-Chow
+  II. Huckleberry
+  III. Nelly's Hospital
+  IV. Grandma's Team
+  V. Fairy Pinafores
+  VI. Mamma's Plot
+  VII. Kate's Choice
+  VIII. The Moss People
+  IX. What Fanny Heard
+  X. A Marine Merry-making
+
+
+
+
+AUNT JO'S SCRAP-BAG.
+
+
+
+I.
+
+CUPID AND CHOW-CHOW.
+
+(_With Illustrations by Addie Ledyard_)
+
+Mamma began it by calling her rosy, dimpled, year-old baby Cupid, and
+as he grew up the name became more and more appropriate, for the pretty
+boy loved every one, every one loved him, and he made those about him
+fond of one another, like a regular little god of love.
+
+[Illustration: Cupid.]
+
+Especially beautiful and attractive did he look as he pranced on the
+door-steps one afternoon while waiting the arrival of a little cousin.
+Our Cupid's costume was modernized out of regard to the prejudices of
+society, and instead of wings, bandage, bow and arrow, he was gorgeous
+to behold in small buckled shoes, purple silk hose, black velvet
+knickerbockers, and jacket with a lace collar, which, with his yellow
+hair cut straight across the forehead, and falling in long, curling
+love-locks behind, made him look like an old picture of a young
+cavalier.
+
+It was impossible for the little sprig to help being a trifle vain when
+every one praised his comeliness, and every mirror showed him a rosy
+face, with big blue eyes, smiling lips, white teeth, a cunning nose,
+and a dimple in the chin, not to mention the golden mane that hung
+about his neck.
+
+Yes, Cupid was vain; and as he waited, he pranced, arranged the dear
+buckled shoes in the first position, practised his best bow, felt of
+his dimple, and smiled affably as he pictured to himself the pleasure
+and surprise of the little cousin when he embraced her in the ardent
+yet gentle way which made his greetings particularly agreeable to those
+who liked such tender demonstrations.
+
+Cupid had made up his mind to love Chow-chow very much, both because
+she was his cousin, and because she must be interesting if all papa's
+stories of her were true.  Her very name was pleasing to him, for it
+suggested Indian sweetmeats, though papa said it was given to her
+because she was such a mixture of sweet and sour that one never knew
+whether he would get his tongue bitten by a hot bit of ginger, or find
+a candied plum melting in his mouth when he tried that little jar of
+Chow-chow.
+
+"I know I shall like her, and of course she will like me lots, 'cause
+everybody does," thought Cupid, settling his love-locks and surveying
+his purple legs like a contented young peacock.
+
+Just then a carriage drove up the avenue, stopped at the foot of the
+steps, and out skipped a tall, brown man, a small, pale lady, and a
+child, who whisked away to the pond so rapidly that no one could see
+what she was like.
+
+A great kissing and hand-shaking went on between the papas and mammas,
+and Cupid came in for a large share, but did not enjoy it as much as
+usual, for the little girl had fled and he _must_ get at her.  So the
+instant Aunt Susan let him go he ran after the truant, quite panting
+with eagerness and all aglow with amiable intentions, for he was a
+hospitable little soul, and loved to do the honors of his pleasant home
+like a gentleman.
+
+A little figure, dressed in a brown linen frock, with dusty boots below
+it, and above it a head of wild black hair, tied up with a large
+scarlet bow, stood by the pond throwing stones at the swans, who
+ruffled their feathers in stately anger at such treatment.  Suddenly a
+pair of velvet arms embraced her, and half turning she looked up into a
+rosy, smiling face, with two red lips suggestively puckered for a
+hearty kiss.
+
+Chow-chow's black eyes sparkled, and her little brown face flushed as
+red as her ribbon as she tried to push the boy away with a shrill
+scream.
+
+"Don't be frightened.  I'm Cupid.  I must kiss you.  I truly must.  I
+always do when people come, and I like you very much."
+
+[Illustration: "Don't be frightened.  I'm Cupid.  I must kiss you.  I
+truly must."]
+
+With this soothing remark, the velvet arms pressed her firmly, and the
+lips gave her several soft kisses, which, owing to her struggles, lit
+upon her nose, chin, top-knot, and ear; for, having begun, Cupid did
+not know when to leave off.
+
+But Chow-chow's wrath was great, her vengeance swift, and getting one
+hand free she flung the gravel it held full in the flushed and smiling
+face of this bold boy who had dared to kiss her without leave.
+
+Poor Cupid fell back blinded and heart-broken at such a return for his
+warm welcome, and while he stood trying to clear his smarting eyes, a
+fierce little voice said close by,--
+
+"Does it hurt?"
+
+"Oh! dreadfully!"
+
+"I'm glad of it."
+
+"Then you don't love me?"
+
+"I hate you!"
+
+"I don't see why."
+
+"I don't like to be hugged and kissed.  I don't let anybody but papa
+and mamma do it, ever,--so, now!"
+
+"But I'm your cousin, and you _must_ love me.  Won't you, please?"
+besought Cupid, with one eye open and a great tear on his nose.
+
+"I'll see about it.  I don't like crying boys," returned the
+hard-hearted damsel.
+
+"Well, you made me; but I forgive you," and Cupid magnanimously put out
+his hand for a friendly shake.  But Chow-chow was off like a startled
+deer, and vanished into the house, singing at the top of her voice a
+nursery rhyme to this effect,--
+
+  "And she bids you to come in,
+  With a dimple in your chin,
+  Billy boy, Billy boy."
+
+
+When Cupid, with red eyes and a sad countenance, made his appearance,
+he found Chow-chow on her father's knee eating cake, while the elders
+talked.  She had told the story, and now from the safe stronghold of
+papa's arm condescended to smile upon the conquered youth.
+
+Cupid went to mamma, and in one long whisper told his woes; then sat
+upon the cushion at her feet, and soon forgot them all in the mingled
+joys of eating macaroons and giving Chow-chow smile for smile across
+the hearth-rug.
+
+"I predict that we shall be much amused and edified by the progress of
+the friendship just begun," said Cupid's papa, a quiet man, who loved
+children and observed them with affectionate interest.
+
+"And I predict a hard time of it for your young man, if he attempts to
+tame my strong-minded little woman here.  Her mother's ideas are
+peculiar, and she wants to bring Chow-chow up according to the new
+lights,--with contempt for dress and all frivolous pursuits; to make
+her hardy, independent, and quite above caring for such trifles as
+love, domestic life, or the feminine accomplishments we used to find so
+charming."
+
+As Chow-chow's papa spoke, he looked from the child in her ugly gray
+frock, thick boots, and mop of hair tied up in a style neither pretty
+nor becoming, to his wife in _her_ plain dress, with _her_ knob of
+hair, decided mouth, sarcastic nose, and restless eyes that seemed
+always on the watch to find some new wrong and protest against it.
+
+"Now, George, how can you misrepresent my views and principles so?  But
+it's no use trying to convince or out-talk you.  We never get a chance,
+and our only hope is to bring up our girls so that they may not be put
+down as we are," returned Mrs. Susan, with a decided air.
+
+"Show us how you are going to defend your sex and conquer ours,
+Chow-chow; give us your views generally.  Now, then, who is in favor of
+the Elective Franchise?" said Uncle George, with a twinkle of the eye.
+
+Up went Aunt Susan's hand, and to the great amusement of all up went
+Chow-chow's also and, scrambling to her feet on papa's knee, she burst
+into a harangue which convulsed her hearers, for in it the child's
+voice made queer work with the long words, and the red bow wagged
+belligerently as she laid down the law with energy, and defined her
+views, closing with a stamp of her foot.
+
+"This is our platform: Free speech, free love, free soil, free every
+thing; and Woman's Puckerage for ever!"
+
+Even Aunt Susan had to laugh at that burst, for it was delivered with
+such vigor that the speaker would have fallen on her nose if she had
+not been sustained by a strong arm.
+
+Cupid laughed because the rest did, and then turned his big eyes full
+of wonder on his mother, asking what it all meant.
+
+"Only fun, my dear."
+
+"Now, Ellen, that's very wrong.  Why don't you explain this great
+subject to him, and prepare him to take a nobler part in the coming
+struggle than those who have gone before him have done?" said Mrs.
+Susan, with a stern look at her husband, who was petting the little
+daughter, who evidently loved him best.
+
+"I don't care to disturb his happy childhood with quarrels beyond his
+comprehension.  I shall teach him to be as good and just a man as his
+father, and feel quite sure that no woman will suffer wrong at his
+hands," returned Mrs. Ellen, smiling at Cupid's papa, who nodded back
+as if they quite understood each other.
+
+"We never did agree and we never shall, so I will say no more; but we
+shall see what a good effect my girl's strength of character will have
+upon your boy, who has been petted and spoiled by too much tenderness."
+
+So Aunt Susan settled the matter; and as the days went on, the elder
+people fell into the way of observing how the little pair got on
+together, and were much amused by the vicissitudes of that nursery
+romance.
+
+In the beginning Chow-chow rode over Cupid rough-shod, quite trampled
+upon him in fact; and he bore it, because he wanted her to like him,
+and had been taught that the utmost courtesy was due a guest.  But when
+he got no reward for his long-suffering patience he was sometimes
+tempted to rebel, and probably would have done so if he had not had
+mamma to comfort and sustain him.  Chow-chow was very quick at spying
+out the weaknesses of her friends and alarmingly frank in proclaiming
+her discoveries; so poor Cupid's little faults were seen and proclaimed
+very soon, and life made a burden to him, until he found out the best
+way of silencing his tormentor was by mending the faults.
+
+"My papa says you are a dandy-prat, and you are," said Chow-chow, one
+day when the desire to improve her race was very strong upon her.
+
+"What is a dandy-prat?" asked Cupid, looking troubled at the new
+accusation.
+
+"I asked him, and he said a vain fellow; and you are vain,--so now!"
+
+"Am I?" and Cupid stopped to think it over.
+
+"Yes; you're horrid vain of your hair, and your velvet clothes, and the
+dimple in your chin.  I know it, 'cause you always look in the glass
+when you are dressed up, and keep feeling of that ugly hole in your
+chin, and I see you brush your hair ever so much."
+
+Poor Cupid colored up with shame, and turned his back to the mirror, as
+the sharp-tongued young monitor went on:--
+
+"My mamma said if you were her boy she'd cut off your curls, put you in
+a plain suit, and stick some court-plaster over that place till you
+forgot all about it."
+
+Chow-chow expected an explosion of grief of anger after that last slap;
+but to her amazement the boy walked out of the room without a word.
+Going up to his mother as she sat busy with a letter, he asked in a
+very earnest voice,--
+
+"Mamma, am I vain?"
+
+"I'm afraid you are a little, my dear," answered mamma, deep in her
+letter.
+
+With a sad but resolute face Cupid went back to Chow-chow, bearing a
+pair of shears in one hand and a bit of court-plaster in the other.
+
+"You may cut my hair off, if you want to.  I ain't going to be a
+dandy-prat any more," he said, offering the fatal shears with the
+calmness of a hero.
+
+Chow-chow was much surprised, but charmed with the idea of shearing
+this meek sheep, so she snipped and slashed until the golden locks lay
+shining on the floor, and Cupid's head looked as if rats had been
+gnawing his hair.
+
+"Do you like me better now?" he asked, looking in her eyes as his only
+mirror, and seeing there the most approving glance they had ever
+vouchsafed him.
+
+"Yes, I do; girl-boys are hateful."
+
+He might have retorted, "So are boy-girls," but he was a gentleman, so
+he only smiled and held up his chin for her to cover the offending
+dimple, which she did with half a square of black plaster.
+
+"I shall never wear my velvet clothes any more unless mamma makes me,
+and I don't think she will when I tell her about it, 'cause she likes
+to have me cure my faults," said Cupid when the sacrifice was complete,
+and even stern Chow-chow was touched by the sweetness with which he
+bore the rebuke, the courage with which he began the atonement for his
+little folly.
+
+When he appeared at dinner, great was the outcry; and when the story
+was told, great was the effect produced.  Aunt Susan said with
+satisfaction,--
+
+"You see what an excellent effect my girl's Spartan training has on
+her, and how fine her influence is on your effeminate boy."
+
+Uncle George laughed heartily, but whispered something to Chow-chow
+that made her look ashamed and cast repentant glances at her victim.
+Cupid's papa shook hands with the boy, and said, smiling, "I am rather
+proud of my 'dandy-prat,' after all."
+
+But mamma grieved for the lost glory of her little Absalom, and found
+it hard to pardon naughty Chow-chow, until Cupid looked up at her with
+a grave, clear look which even the big patch could not spoil, and said
+manfully,--
+
+"You know I _was_ vain, mamma, but I won't be any more, and you'll be
+glad, because you love me better than my hair, don't you?"
+
+Then she hugged the cropped head close, and kissed the hidden dimple
+without a word of reproach; but she laid the yellow locks away as if
+she _did_ love them after all, and often followed the little lad in the
+rough gray suit, as if his sacrifice had only made him more beautiful
+in her eyes.
+
+Chow-chow was quite affable for some days after this prank, and treated
+her slave with more gentleness, evidently feeling that, though
+belonging to an inferior race, he deserved a trifle of regard for his
+obedience to her teachings.  But her love of power grew by what it fed
+on and soon brought fresh woe to faithful Cupid, who adored her, though
+she frowned upon his little passion and gave him no hope.
+
+"You are a 'fraid-cat," asserted her majesty, one afternoon as they
+played in the stable, and Cupid declined to be kicked by the horse
+Chow-chow was teasing.
+
+"No, I ain't; but I don't like to be hurt, and it's wrong to fret
+Charley, and I won't poke him with my hoe."
+
+"Well, it isn't wrong to turn this thing, but you don't dare to put
+your finger on that wheel and let me pinch it a little bit," added
+Chow-chow, pointing to some sort of hay-cutting machine that stood near
+by.
+
+"What for?" asked Cupid, who did object to being hurt in any way.
+
+"To show you ain't a 'fraid-cat.  I know you are.  I'm not, see there,"
+and Chow-chow gave her own finger a very gentle squeeze.
+
+"I can bear it harder than that," and devoted Cupid laid his plump
+forefinger between two wheels, bent on proving his courage at all costs.
+
+Chow-chow gave a brisk turn to the handle, slipped in doing so, and
+brought the whole weight of the cruel cogs on the tender little finger,
+crushing the top quite flat.  Blood flowed, Chow-chow stopped aghast;
+and Cupid, with one cry of pain, caught and reversed the handle, drew
+out the poor finger, walked unsteadily in to mamma, saying, with dizzy
+eyes and white lips, "She didn't mean to do it," and then fainted quite
+away in a little heap at her feet.
+
+The doctor came flying, shook his head over the wound, and drew out a
+case of dreadful instruments that made even strong-minded Aunt Susan
+turn away her head, and bound up the little hand that might never be
+whole and strong again.  Chow-chow stood by quite white and still until
+it was all over and Cupid asleep in his mother's arms; then she dived
+under the sofa and sobbed there, refusing to be comforted until her
+father came home.  What that misguided man said to her no one ever
+knew, but when Cupid was propped up on the couch at tea-time, Chow-chow
+begged piteously to be allowed to feed him.
+
+The wounded hero, with his arm in a sling, permitted her to minister to
+him; and she did it so gently, so patiently, that her father said low
+to Mrs. Ellen,--
+
+"I have hopes of her yet, for all the woman is not taken out of her, in
+spite of the new lights."
+
+When they parted for the evening, Cupid, who had often sued for a
+good-night kiss and sued in vain, was charmed to see the red top-knot
+bending over him, and to hear Chow-chow whisper, with a penitent kiss,
+"I truly didn't mean to, Coopy."
+
+[Illustration: "The wounded hero, with his arm in a sling, permitted
+her to minister to him."]
+
+The well arm held her fast as the martyr whispered back, "Just say I
+ain't a 'fraid-cat, and I don't mind smashing my finger."
+
+Chow-chow said it that night and thought it next day and for many
+following days, for each morning, when the doctor came to dress the
+"smashed" finger, she insisted on being by as a sort of penance.  She
+forced herself to watch the bright instruments without shivering, she
+ran for warm water, she begged to spread the salve on the bandage, to
+hold the smelling-bottle, and to pick all the lint that was used.
+
+And while she performed these small labors of love, she learned a
+little lesson that did her more good than many of mamma's lectures.
+For Cupid showed her the difference between the rash daring that runs
+foolish risks, and the steady courage that bears pain without
+complaint.  Every day the same scene took place; Chow-chow would watch
+for and announce the doctor; would bustle out the salve-box, bandage,
+and basin, set the chair, and call Cupid from his book with a new
+gentleness in her voice.
+
+The boy would answer at once, take his place, and submit the poor
+swollen hand to the ten minutes' torture of little probes and scissors,
+caustic and bathing, without a word, a tear, or sound of suffering.  He
+only turned his head away, grew white about the lips, damp on the
+forehead, and when it was all over would lean against his mother for a
+minute, faint and still.
+
+Then Chow-chow would press her hands together with a sigh of mingled
+pity, admiration, and remorse, and when the boy looked up to say
+stoutly, "It didn't hurt very much," she would put his sling on for
+him, and run before to settle the pillows, carry him the little glass
+of wine and water he was to take, and hover round him until he was
+quite himself again, when she would subside close by, and pick lint or
+hem sails while he read aloud to her from one of his dear books.
+
+"It is a good lesson in surgery and nursing for her.  I intend to have
+her study medicine if she shows any fondness for it," said Aunt Susan.
+
+"It is a good lesson in true courage, and I am glad to have her learn
+it early," added Uncle George, who now called Cupid a "trump" instead
+of a "dandy-prat."
+
+"It is a good lesson in loving and serving others for love's sake, as
+all women must learn to do soon or late," said gentle Mrs. Ellen.
+
+"It is teaching them both how to bear and forbear, to teach and help,
+and comfort one another, and take the pains and pleasures of life as
+they should do together," concluded Cupid's papa, watching the little
+couple with the wise kind eyes that saw a pretty story in their daily
+lives.
+
+Slowly the finger healed, and to every one's surprise was not much
+disfigured, which Cupid insisted was entirely owing to Chow-chow's
+superior skill in spreading salve and picking lint.  Before this time,
+however, Chow-chow, touched by his brave patience, his generous refusal
+to blame her for the mishap, and his faithful affection, had in a
+tender moment confessed to her little lover that she did "like him a
+great deal," and consented to go and live in the old swan-house on the
+island in the pond as soon as he was well enough.
+
+But no sooner had she enraptured him by these promises than she dashed
+his joy by adding certain worldly conditions which she had heard
+discussed by her mamma and her friends.
+
+"But we can't be married until we have a lot of money.  Nobody does,
+and we _must_ have ever so much to buy things with."
+
+"Yes, but papa said he'd give us some little furniture to put in our
+house, and mamma will let us have as much cake and milk-tea as we want,
+and I shall be very fond of you, and what's the use of money?" asked
+the enamoured Cupid, who believed in love in a cottage, or swan-house
+rather.
+
+"I shan't marry a poor boy, so now!" was the mercenary Chow-chow's
+decision.
+
+"Well, I'll see how much I've got; but I should think you would like me
+just as well without," and Cupid went away to inspect his property with
+as much anxiety as any man preparing for matrimony.
+
+But Cupid's finances were in a bad state, for he spent his pocket-money
+as fast as he got it, and had lavished gifts upon his sweetheart with
+princely prodigality.  So he punched a hole in his savings-bank and
+counted his small hoard, much afflicted to find it only amounted to
+seventy-eight cents, and a button put in for fun.  Bent on winning his
+mistress no sacrifice seemed too great, so he sold his live stock,
+consisting of one lame hen, a rabbit, and a choice collection of
+caterpillars.  But though he drove sharp bargains, these sales only
+brought him in a dollar or two.  Then he went about among his friends,
+and begged and borrowed small sums, telling no one his secret lest they
+should laugh at him, but pleading for a temporary accommodation so
+earnestly and prettily that no one could refuse.
+
+When he had strained every nerve and tried every wile, he counted up
+his gains and found that he had four dollars and a half.  That seemed a
+fortune to the innocent; and, getting it all in bright pennies, he
+placed it in a new red purse, and with pardonable pride laid his
+offering at Chow-chow's feet.
+
+But alas for love's labor lost! the cruel fair crushed all his hopes by
+saying coldly,--
+
+"That isn't half enough.  We ought to have ten dollars, and I won't
+like you until you get it."
+
+"O Chow-chow!  I tried so hard; do play it's enough," pleaded poor
+Cupid.
+
+"No, I shan't.  I don't care much for the old swan-house now, and you
+ain't half so pretty as you used to be."
+
+"You made me cut my hair off, and now you don't love me 'cause I'm
+ugly," cried the afflicted little swain, indignant at such injustice.
+
+But Chow-chow was in a naughty mood, so she swung on the gate, and
+would not relent in spite of prayers and blandishments.
+
+"I'll get some more money somehow, if you will wait.  Will you, please?"
+
+"I'll see 'bout it."
+
+And with that awful uncertainty weighing upon his soul, poor Cupid went
+away to wrestle with circumstances.  Feeling that matters had now
+reached a serious point, he confided his anxieties to mamma; and she,
+finding that it was impossible to laugh or reason him out of his
+untimely passion, comforted him by promising to buy at high prices all
+the nosegays he could gather out of his own little garden.
+
+"But it will take a long time to make ten dollars that way.  Don't you
+think Chow-chow might come now, when it is all warm and pleasant, and
+not stop until summer is gone, and no birds and flowers and nice things
+to play with?  It's so hard to wait," sighed Cupid, holding his cropped
+head in his hands, and looking the image of childish despair.
+
+"So it is, and _I_ think Chow is a little goose not to go at once and
+enjoy love's young dream without wasting precious time trying to make
+money.  Tell her papa said so, and he ought to know," added Uncle
+George, under his breath, for he _had_ tried it, and found that it did
+not work well.
+
+Cupid did tell her, but little madam had got the whim into her perverse
+head; and the more she was urged to give in, the more decided she grew.
+So Cupid accepted his fate like a man, and delved away in his garden,
+watering his pinks, weeding his mignonette, and begging his roses to
+bloom as fast and fair as they could, so that he might be happy before
+the summer was gone.  Rather a pathetic little lover, mamma thought, as
+she watched him tugging away with the lame hand, or saw him come
+beaming in with his posies to receive the precious money that was to
+buy a return for his loyal love.
+
+Tender-hearted Mrs. Ellen tried to soften Chow-chow and teach her
+sundry feminine arts against the time she went to housekeeping on the
+island, for Mrs. Susan was so busy hearing lectures, reading reports,
+and attending to the education of other people's children that her own
+ran wild.  In her good moods, Chow-chow took kindly to the new lessons,
+and began to hem a table-cloth for the domestic board at which she was
+to preside; also swept and dusted now and then, and once cooked a
+remarkable mess, which she called "Coopy's favorite pudding," and
+intended to surprise him with it soon after the wedding.  But these
+virtuous efforts soon flagged, the table-cloth was not finished, the
+duster was converted into a fly-killer, and her dolls lay unheeded in
+corners after a few attempts at dressing and nursing had ended in
+_ennui_.
+
+How long matters would have gone on in this unsatisfactory way no one
+knows; but a rainy day came, and the experiences it gave the little
+pair brought things to a crisis.
+
+The morning was devoted to pasting pictures and playing horse all over
+the house, with frequent pauses for refreshment and an occasional
+squabble.  After dinner, as the mammas sat sewing and the papas talking
+or reading in one room, the children played in the other, quite
+unconscious that they were affording both amusement and instruction to
+their elders.
+
+"Let's play house," suggested Cupid, who was of a domestic turn, and
+thought a little rehearsal would not be amiss.
+
+"Well, I will," consented Chow-chow, who was rather subdued by the
+violent exercises of the morning.
+
+So a palatial mansion was made of chairs, the dolls' furniture
+arranged, the stores laid in, and housekeeping begun.
+
+[Illustration: "'Let's play house,' suggested Cupid, who was of a
+domestic turn."]
+
+"Now, you must go off to your business while I 'tend to my work," said
+Chow-chow, after they had breakfasted off a seed-cake and sugar and
+water tea in the bosom of their family.
+
+Cupid obediently put on papa's hat, took a large book under his arm,
+and went away to look at pictures behind the curtains, while Mrs. C.
+bestirred herself at home in a most energetic manner, spanking her nine
+dolls until their cries rent the air, rattling her dishes with perilous
+activity, and going to market with the coal-hod for her purchases.
+
+Mr. Cupid returned to dinner rather early, and was scolded for so
+doing, but pacified his spouse by praising her dessert,--a sandwich of
+sliced apple, bread, and salt, which he ate like a martyr.
+
+A ride on the rocking-horse with his entire family about him filled the
+soul of Mr. Cupid with joy, though the trip was rendered a little
+fatiguing by his having to dismount frequently to pick up the various
+darlings as they fell out of his pockets or their mother's arms as she
+sat behind him on a pillion.
+
+"Isn't this beautiful?" he asked, as they swung to and fro,--Mrs. Cupid
+leaning her head on his shoulder, and dear little Claribel Maud peeping
+out of his breast-pocket, while Walter Hornblower and Rosie Ruth, the
+twins, sat up between the horse's ears, their china faces beaming in a
+way to fill a father's heart with pride.
+
+"It will be much nicer if the horse runs away and we all go smash.
+I'll pull out his tail, then he'll rear, and we must tumble off,"
+proposed the restless Mrs. C., whose dramatic soul delighted in tragic
+adventures.
+
+So the little papa's happy moment was speedily banished as he dutifully
+precipitated himself and blooming family upon the floor, to be gathered
+up and doctored with chalk and ink, and plasters of paper stuck all
+over their faces.
+
+When this excitement subsided, it was evening, and Mrs. Cupid bundled
+her children off to bed, saying,--
+
+"Now, you must go to your club, and I am going to my lecture."
+
+"But I thought you'd sew now and let me read to you, and have our
+little candles burn, and be all cosey, like papa and mamma," answered
+Cupid, who already felt the discomfort of a strong-minded wife.
+
+"My papa and mamma don't do so.  He always goes to the club, and smokes
+and reads papers and plays chess, and mamma goes to Woman's Puckerage
+meetings,--so I must."
+
+"Let me go too; I never saw a Puckerage lecture, and I'd like to," said
+Cupid, who felt that a walk arm-in-arm with his idol would make any
+sort of meeting endurable.
+
+"No, you can't!  Papa _never_ goes; he says they are all gabble and
+nonsense, and mamma says his club is all smoke and slang, and they
+_never_ go together."
+
+So Chow-chow locked the door, and the little pair went their separate
+ways; while the older pair in the other room laughed at the joke, yet
+felt that Cupid's plan was the best, and wondered how Ellen and her
+husband managed to get on so well.
+
+Chow-chow's lecture did not seem to be very interesting, for she was
+soon at home again.  But Mr. Cupid, after smoking a lamp-lighter with
+his feet up, fell to reading a story that interested him, and forgot to
+go home until he finished it.  Then, to his great surprise, he was told
+that it was morning, that he had been out all night, and couldn't have
+any breakfast.  This ruffled him, and he told madam she was a bad wife,
+and he wouldn't love her if she did not instantly give him his share of
+the little pie presented by cook, as a bribe to keep them out of the
+kitchen.
+
+Mrs. C. sternly refused, and locked up the pie, declaring that she
+hated housekeeping and wouldn't live with him any more, which threat
+she made good by quitting the house, vowing not to speak to him again
+that day, but to play alone, free and happy.
+
+The deserted husband sat down among his infants with despair in his
+soul, while the spirited wife, in an immense bonnet, pranced about the
+room, waving the key of the pie-closet and rejoicing in her freedom.
+Yes, it was truly pathetic to see poor Mr. Cupid's efforts at
+housekeeping and baby-tending; for, feeling that they had a double
+claim upon him now, he tried to do his duty by his children.  But he
+soon gave it up, piled them all into one bed, and covered them with a
+black cloth, saying mournfully, "I'll play they all died of mumps, then
+I can sell the house and go away.  I can't bear to stay here when _she_
+is gone."
+
+The house was sold, the dead infants buried under the sofa, and then
+the forsaken man was a homeless wanderer.  He tried in many ways to
+amuse himself.  He travelled to China on the tailless horse, went to
+California in a balloon, and sailed around the world on a raft made of
+two chairs and the hearth-brush.  But these wanderings always ended
+near the ruins of his home, and he always sat down for a moment to
+watch the erratic movements of his wife.
+
+That sprightly lady fared better than he, for her inventive fancy kept
+her supplied with interesting plays, though a secret sense of remorse
+for her naughtiness weighed upon her spirits at times.  She had a
+concert, and sang surprising medleys, with drum accompaniments.  She
+rode five horses in a circus, and jumped over chairs and foot-stools in
+the most approved manner.  She had a fair, a fire, and a shipwreck;
+hunted lions, fished for crocodiles, and played be a monkey in a style
+that would have charmed Darwin.
+
+But somehow none of these festive games had their usual relish.  There
+was no ardent admirer to applaud her music, no two-legged horse to help
+her circus with wild prancings and life-like neighs, no devoted friend
+and defender to save her from the perils of flood and fire, no comrade
+to hunt with her, no fellow-monkey to skip from perch to perch with
+social jabberings, as they cracked their cocoa-nuts among imaginary
+palms.  All was dull and tiresome.
+
+A strong sense of loneliness fell upon her, and for the first time she
+appreciated her faithful little friend.  Then the pie weighed upon her
+conscience; there it was, wasting its sweetness in the closet, and no
+one ate it.  She had not the face to devour it alone; she could not
+make up her mind to give it to Cupid; and after her fierce renunciation
+of him, how could she ask him to forgive her?  Gradually her spirits
+declined, and about the time that the other wanderer got back from his
+last trip she sat down to consider her position.
+
+Hearing no noise in the other room, Uncle George peeped in and saw the
+divided pair sitting in opposite corners, looking askance at each
+other, evidently feeling that a wide gulf lay between them, and longing
+to cross it, yet not quite knowing how.  A solemn and yet a comical
+sight, so Uncle George beckoned the others to come and look.
+
+"My boy will give in first.  See how beseechingly he looks at the
+little witch!" whispered Mrs. Ellen, laughing softly.
+
+"No, he won't; she hurt his feelings very much by leaving him, and he
+won't relent until she goes back; then he'll forgive and forget like a
+man," said Cupid's papa.
+
+"I hope my girl will remain true to her principles," began Aunt Susan.
+
+"She'll be a miserable baby if she does," muttered Uncle George.
+
+"I was going on to say that, finding she has done wrong, I hope she
+will have the courage to say so, hard as it is, and so expiate her
+fault and try to do better," added Aunt Susan, fast and low, with a
+soft look in her eyes, as she watched the little girl sitting alone,
+while so much honest affection was waiting for her close by, if pride
+would let her take it.
+
+Somehow Uncle George's arm went round her waist when she said that, and
+he gave a quick nod, as if something pleased him very much.
+
+"Shall I speak, and help the dears bridge over their little trouble?"
+asked Mrs. Ellen, pretending not to see the older children making up
+their differences behind her.
+
+"No; let them work it out for themselves.  I'm curious to see how they
+will manage," said papa, hoping that his boy's first little love would
+prosper in spite of thorns among the roses.
+
+So they waited, and presently the affair was settled in a way no one
+expected.  As if she could not bear the silence any longer, Chow-chow
+suddenly bustled up, saying to herself,--
+
+"I haven't played lecture.  I always like that, and here's a nice
+place."
+
+Pulling out the drawers of a secretary like steps, she slowly mounted
+to the wide ledge atop, and began the droll preachment her father had
+taught her in ridicule of mamma's hobby.
+
+"Do stop her, George; it's so absurd," whispered Mrs. Susan.
+
+"Glad you think so, my dear," laughed Uncle George.
+
+"There is some sense in it, and I have no doubt the real and true will
+come to pass when we women learn how far to go, and how to fit
+ourselves for the new duties by doing the old ones well," said Mrs.
+Ellen, who found good in all things, and kept herself so womanly sweet
+and strong that no one could deny her any right she chose to claim.
+
+"She is like so many of those who mount your hobby, Susan, and ride
+away into confusions of all sorts, leaving empty homes behind them.
+The happy, womanly women will have the most influence after all, and do
+the most to help the bitter, sour, discontented ones.  They need help,
+God knows, and I shall be glad to lend a hand toward giving them their
+rights in all things."
+
+As papa spoke, Chow-chow, who had caught sight of the peeping faces,
+and was excited thereby, burst into a tremendous harangue, waving her
+hands, stamping her feet, and dancing about on her perch as if her
+wrongs had upset her wits.  All of a sudden the whole secretary lurched
+forward, out fell the drawers, open flew the doors, down went Chow-chow
+with a screech, and the marble slab came sliding after, as if to
+silence the irrepressible little orator forever.  How he did it no one
+knew, but before the top fell Cupid was under it, received it on his
+shoulders, and held it up with all his might, while Chow-chow scrambled
+out from the ruins with no hurt but a bump on the forehead.  Papa had
+his boy out in a twinkling, and both mammas fell upon their rescued
+darlings with equal alarm and tenderness; for Susan got her little girl
+in her arms before Mr. George could reach her, and Chow-chow clung
+there, sobbing away her fright and pain as if the maternal purring was
+a new and pleasant solace.
+
+"I'll never play that nasty old puckerage any more," she declared,
+feeling of the purple lump on her brow.
+
+"Nor I either, in that way," whispered her mamma, with a look that made
+Chow-chow ask curiously,--
+
+"Why, did you hurt yourself too?"
+
+"I am afraid I did."
+
+"Be sure that your platform is all right before you try again, Poppet,
+else it will let you down when you least expect it, and damage your
+best friends as well as yourself," said Mr. George, setting up the
+fallen rostrum.
+
+"I'm not going to have any flatporm; I'm going to be good and play with
+Coopy, if he'll let me," added the penitent Chow-chow, glancing with
+shy, wet eyes at Cupid, who stood near with a torn jacket and a bruise
+on the already wounded hand.
+
+His only answer was to draw her out of her mother's arms, embrace her
+warmly, and seat her beside him on the little bench he loved to share
+with her.  This ready and eloquent forgiveness touched Chow-chow's
+heart, and the lofty top-knot went down upon Cupid's shoulder as if the
+little fortress lowered its colors in token of entire surrender.
+Cupid's only sign of triumph was a gentle pat on the wild, black head,
+and a nod towards the spectators, as he said, smiling all over his
+chubby face,--
+
+"Every thing is nice and happy now, and we don't mind the bumps."
+
+"Let us sheer off, we are only in the way," said Mr. George, and the
+elders retired, but found it impossible to resist occasional peeps at
+the little pair, as the reconciliation scene went on.
+
+"O Coopy!  I _was_ so bad, I don't think you can love me any more,"
+began the repentant one with a sob.
+
+"Oh yes I can; and just as soon as I get money enough, we'll go and
+live in the swan-house, won't we?" returned the faithful lover, making
+the most of this melting mood.
+
+"I'll go right away to-morrow, I don't care about the money.  I like
+the nice bright pennies, and we don't need much, and I've got my new
+saucepan to begin with," cried Chow-chow in a burst of generosity, for,
+like a true woman, though she demanded impossibilities at first, yet
+when her heart was won she asked nothing but love, and was content with
+a saucepan.
+
+"O Goody! and I've got my drum," returned the enraptured Cupid, as
+ready as the immortal Traddles to go to housekeeping with a toasting
+fork and a bird-cage, or some such useful trifles.
+
+"But I _was_ bad about the pie," cried Chow-chow as her sins kept
+rising before her; and, burning to make atonement for this one, she ran
+to the closet, tore out the pie, and, thrusting it into Cupid's hands,
+said in a tone of heroic resolution, "There, you eat it _all_, and I
+won't taste a bit."
+
+"No, _you_ eat it all, I'd like to see you.  I don't care for it,
+truly, 'cause I love you more than a million pies," protested Cupid,
+offering back the treasure in a somewhat ruinous state after its
+various vicissitudes.
+
+"Then give me a tiny bit, and you have the rest," said Chow-chow, bent
+on self-chastisement.
+
+"The fairest way is to cut it 'zactly in halves, and each have a piece.
+Mamma says that's the right thing to do always."  And Cupid, producing
+a jack-knife, proceeded to settle the matter with masculine justice.
+
+[Illustration: "NOW LET'S KISS AND BE FRIENDS."]
+
+So side by side they devoured the little bone of contention, chattering
+amicably about their plans; and as the last crumb vanished, Cupid said
+persuasively, as if the league was not quite perfect without that
+childish ceremony,--
+
+"Now let's kiss and be friends, and never quarrel any more."
+
+As the rosy mouths met in a kiss of peace, the sound was echoed from
+the other room, for Mr. George's eyes made the same proposal, and his
+wife answered it as tenderly as Chow-chow did Cupid.  Not a word was
+said, for grown people do not "'fess" and forgive with the sweet
+frankness of children; but both felt that the future would be happier
+than the past, thanks to the lesson they had learned from the little
+romance of Cupid and Chow-chow.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+HUCKLEBERRY.
+
+Coming home late one night, my eye was caught by the sight of a spotted
+dog sitting under a lamp all alone, and, as I passed, I said to him,--
+
+"Go home, little doggie!  It is too late for you to be out, and you'll
+get rheumatism if you stay there."
+
+Alas for the poor fellow! he had no home to go to; and, evidently
+feeling that I had invited him to share mine by a friendly remark, he
+came pattering after us down the street, and when we reached our door
+stood wagging his tail, as if to say,--
+
+"Thank you; yes, I _should_ be most grateful if you'd allow me to lie
+on your door-mat till morning."
+
+His handsome, wistful eyes, and the insinuating wag of his thin tail,
+expressed this as plainly as any words could have done, and it grieved
+me much to see that I had awakened hopes which I could not fulfil.
+
+I explained to him how it was; that this was not my house, and I really
+could not take him into my room; that there were five cats downstairs,
+and several old ladies upstairs; one snarly, fat poodle on the first
+floor; and half-a-dozen young men about the house, ready for mischief
+at all hours of the day or night.  Such being the case, it was
+evidently no home for a strange doggie, so like a huckleberry pudding
+in appearance that I named him Huckleberry on the spot.
+
+He seemed to understand it, for he stopped wagging and retired from the
+steps; but he was bitterly disappointed; and when I had gently closed
+the door, apologizing as I did so, he gave one disconsolate howl, and
+went to sit under the lamp again, as if that little circle of light
+made the dull November night less cold and lonely.
+
+A day or two afterward, as I stood looking at the ruins of the great
+fire, a spotted dog lying on the edge of a smoking cellar attracted my
+attention.
+
+"Faithful fellow! he is still watching his master's property, I dare
+say, though every thing is ashes.  How beautiful that is!" I thought to
+myself, and went a little nearer to enjoy the touching spectacle.
+
+As I approached, doggie looked up, and I knew him at once by the queer
+black patch on his left eye, and he knew me, for he sat up and began to
+beat the ground with his tail by way of welcome.
+
+"Why, Huckleberry, is it you?  Was your master burned out? and don't
+you know where he is gone?" I asked.
+
+Now, I am very stupid about learning languages, and nearly died of
+German; but the language of animals I understand without any grammar or
+dictionary; and I defy any one to read it better than myself.  So, when
+Huckleberry gave a bark, I knew it meant, "Yes, ma'am;" and when he
+came fawning about my very muddy boots, he added this touching remark
+as plainly as if he had said it in the most elegant English:--
+
+"Dear woman, I'm homeless, friendless, and forlorn; pity me, and I will
+be a faithful servant to you, on the word of an honest, grateful dog!"
+
+It was very hard to say no, but I tried to soften my refusal by
+offering him some nice little cakes which I was intending to give my
+boys that evening; for when they come home from college Saturday night,
+we always have a jubilee in honor of the class of '76, to which I
+belong.
+
+Doggie evidently needed them more than the lads, and gobbled up the
+whole dozen with a rapidity that made me wish I had a beefsteak or two
+in my pocket.  While he was finishing the last one, I slipped away, and
+devoutly hoped I should see the poor, dear thing no more, for it rent
+my heart to leave him out in the cold; yet what could I do with him in
+my one room?
+
+A week or two passed, and I forgot my spotted friend in the absorbing
+task of getting Christmas presents ready.  Every one else seemed to
+have forgotten him, too; for, late one snowy afternoon, as I hurried
+home, quite worn out with trying to shop among a mob of other women as
+busy and as impatient as myself, I saw a sight that made the tears come
+to my eyes in spite of the snow-flakes roosting on my lashes.
+
+On the upper step of a church, close to the door, is if waiting for it
+to open to him, lay poor Huckleberry, dirty, thin, and evidently worn
+out with the hardships of his lot.  Tired of asking for admittance at
+men's doors, he had gone to God's house, and no one had turned him
+away.  If he had lain there all that stormy night, I think by morning
+he would have been safe in the little lower heaven which I am sure
+awaits the faithful, brave, and good among animals, when their long and
+often unacknowledged service is over in this world.
+
+That mute reproach went to my heart, for now it seemed as if this small
+charity had been sent to me especially, and that I had neglected it
+till it was nearly too late.  Huckleberry seemed to feel as if it was
+no use to appeal to human kindness any more, for he made no sign of
+recognition, and lay quite still, as if waiting till his dumb prayer
+for help was heard and answered by Him who sees the sparrow's fall.
+
+Up the steps I went, and, putting down my parcels, patted the head that
+seemed almost too tired to be lifted up, and with remorseful tenderness
+I said,--
+
+"My poor dear, come home with me.  I truly mean it now.  Forgive me,
+and let me show you that in charitable Boston not even a dog need
+starve!"
+
+He didn't believe me.  He was tired of false hopes, worn out with
+following people home to find the doors shut in his face, and seemed to
+have made up his mind to stay in the only refuge left him.
+
+I wondered as I watched him if he had ever seen that door open, and,
+remembering the light, the warmth, the music, and the quiet figures
+moving in and out, had thought it was a better world, and so, when
+every other hope failed, came back to wait for a chance to creep in and
+lie humbly in some corner, feeling safe and happy.
+
+I shall never know, for I had not time to ask about it, and he was too
+tired to talk.  Feeling that my duty was very plainly to give poor
+doggie a lift, I coaxed him home with great difficulty, and he slowly
+followed, looking so incredulous and amazed that I felt bound to redeem
+the character of the human race in his eyes.
+
+Once in my room, with a plate of cold meat before him and a warm rug
+placed at his disposal, Huckleberry gave in, believed, rejoiced, and
+was so grateful that he stopped now and then, even when bolting lumps
+of cold steak, to look at me and wag his tail with a whine of thanks.
+
+Dear thing! how dirty, lean, and ugly he was! with one lame foot, a
+torn ear, and a bit of old rope round his neck where the collar should
+have been.  Never mind; I loved him, and went on petting him with a
+reckless disregard of consequences and fleas.  I had no more idea what
+I should do with him than if he had been an elephant; but remembering
+the blessed society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, I felt
+that I could fall back on them when all other hopes failed.
+
+So, while Huckleberry lay on the rug, roasting first one side and then
+the other, with his nose on a bone, just to make him feel sure it
+wasn't all a dream, I sat staring at him and planning a future for him
+such as few dogs enjoy.  He seemed to feel this, for he gurgled and
+grunted in his sleep, woke up now and then with a start, and stared
+back at me with eyes full of doggish loyalty as he whacked the floor
+with his grateful tail.
+
+"One of our fellows shall take him!" I decided; and, having picked out
+the most tender-hearted boy among my large and choice collection, I
+wrote to this victim an alluring epistle, offering him a lovely
+carriage-dog whom I had been so fortunate as to find.  Would he like to
+have the first look at him and become his owner free of cost?
+
+This being finished and sent to the post, I ordered a big tub of hot
+water to be ready early in the morning for my dog's bath, and heartily
+wished I could fatten him up over night, as at present he was not an
+inviting animal.
+
+Then I retired to my bed, leaving Huckleberry asleep on the rug.  Bless
+my heart, how he did snore! and when a very loud one woke him up, he
+seemed to feel that it was necessary for him to come and put his cold
+nose on my face, or paw at the pillow, till I flew up, thinking it was
+robbers.  Then he would apologize in the most contrite manner, and
+explain that he only came to see if I was all right, and to express his
+thanks all over again.
+
+After which he returned to his rug with a sigh of satisfaction, and
+fell asleep much quicker than I could.
+
+In the morning he was escorted to the shed for his bath, to the great
+amusement of the servants and the fierce indignation of the cats.  All
+five spit and glared from the various elevated refuges to which they
+had flown on his entrance; and one black kit made darts at him, looking
+like a little demon in her wrath.
+
+Huckleberry behaved like a dog of good manners and temper, and, after
+vainly trying to appease the irate pussies, took no notice of them,
+being absorbed in his own afflictions.
+
+He did not like the bath, but bore it like a hero, and let me scrub him
+till he was as clean as a very spotted bow-wow could be.  He even
+submitted to the indignity of a little blanket pinned about his neck
+like an old woman, and trotted meekly upstairs after me, leaving the
+men and maids in fits of laughter, and the cats curling their whiskers
+with scorn at the whole proceeding.
+
+Leaving my wash to dry, I flew out and bought a fine red collar for
+him; then I devoted the rest of my day to fussing over him, that he
+might be as presentable as possible.
+
+Charley did not come till the next day, and the agonies I went through,
+meantime, with that blessed dog, "no mortal creeter knows," as Mrs.
+Gamp would say.
+
+I'm afraid I gave him too much meat, or else joy flew to his head and
+made him wild, for he developed such a flow of spirits that I felt as
+if I had an unchained whirlwind in my room.  He bounced to the window
+every time a cart went by; growled at every dog he saw; barked at every
+one who entered the room; drank out of my pitcher; worried the rosettes
+off my slippers; upset my work-basket, the fire-irons, and two bottles
+in his artless play; scratched the paint off the door trying to get
+out, and, when he got to the yard, chased all the cats till they fled
+over the walls in every direction.
+
+When exhausted with these little amusements, he would come and try to
+lick my face, put his paws in my lap, and languish at me with his fine
+eyes; and when I told him I couldn't have it, he cast himself at my
+feet and squirmed rapturously.
+
+He was a great plague, but I was fond of him, and when Charley came was
+sorry that he must leave me.  But he had been on the rampage all that
+second night, for I put him in the hall to sleep, and he had scratched
+and howled at every door till I let him in to save him from the shower
+of boots hurled at him by the young gentlemen whose slumbers he had
+disturbed; so it was high time he went.
+
+Charley laughed at him, but, when I had told the story, the good lad
+took pity on him and led him away after I had kissed and bade him be a
+good dog.  He didn't seem satisfied, but consented to go to please me,
+and trotted round the corner, looking so neat and respectable it did my
+heart good to see him.
+
+"Now he is settled, and what a comfort that is!" I said to myself as I
+restored my devastated home to order.
+
+But he wasn't: oh, dear, no; for in two days back he came, all his own
+naughty self, and I found him boldly erect upon the steps waiting for
+me.  He had run away and come home to his first friend, sure of a
+welcome.
+
+It was very flattering, but also inconvenient; so he was restored to
+his master after a scolding and a patting which probably spoilt the
+effect of the lecture.
+
+Three times did that dear deluded dog come back, and three times was he
+bundled home again.  Then Charley shut him up in an old shed, and kept
+him there except when he led him out by a chain for an airing.
+
+But Huckleberry's grateful passion could not be restrained, and cost
+him his life in the end.  He amused his leisure hours scratching and
+burrowing at the foundation stones of the shed wall, and, being loosely
+built, a big one fell on him in some way, hurting him so badly that
+there was no cure for his broken bones.
+
+A note from Charley came to me, saying, "If you want to say good-by to
+poor old Huckleberry, come out and do it, for I've got to kill him, he
+is so hurt."
+
+Of course I went, and there I found him lying on a soft bed of hay,
+with his wounds bound up, and tender-hearted Charley watching over him.
+How glad he was to see his "missis!"  How hard he tried to come and
+meet me! and how satisfied he looked when I bent down to stroke him,
+and let him feebly lick my hand as much as he liked!
+
+He could hardly breathe for pain, and his eyes were already dim, but
+his dear old tail wagged to the last; and when I had said the tenderest
+good-by I knew, he laid down his head with a sigh that seemed to say,--
+
+"Now I'm content, and can die in peace.  I've thanked her, and she is
+sorry for me, so it's all right.  You may put me out of pain as soon as
+you like.  Master Charley; I'm ready."
+
+It was soon done.  I heard a shot, saw my lad go into the garden with a
+pick-axe and a spade, and then I knew that doggie was ready for his
+grave.  We wrapped him in a bit of cheerful red carpet, and when a bed
+had been delved out for him, we laid the little bundle in, covered it
+up, and left the winter snow to spread a soft white pall over poor
+Huckleberry's last home.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+NELLY'S HOSPITAL.
+
+Nelly sat beside her mother picking lint, but while her fingers flew,
+her eyes often looked wistfully out into the meadow, golden with
+buttercups, and bright with sunshine.  Presently she said, rather
+bashfully, but very earnestly, "Mamma, I want to tell you a little plan
+I've made, if you'll please not laugh."
+
+"I think I can safely promise that, my dear," said her mother, putting
+down her work that she might listen quite respectfully.
+
+Nelly looked pleased, and went on confidingly.  "Since brother Will
+came home with his lame foot, and I've helped you tend him, I've heard
+a great deal about hospitals, and liked it very much.  To-day I said I
+wanted to go and be a nurse, like Aunt Mercy; but Will laughed, and
+told me I'd better begin by nursing sick birds and butterflies and
+pussies before I tried to take care of men.  I did not like to be made
+fun of, but I've been thinking that it would be very pleasant to have a
+little hospital all my own, and be a nurse in it, because, if I took
+pains, so many pretty creatures might be made well, perhaps.  Could I,
+mamma?"
+
+Her mother wanted to smile at the idea, but did not, for Nelly looked
+up with her heart and eyes so full of tender compassion, both for the
+unknown men for whom her little hands had done their best, and for the
+smaller sufferers nearer home, that she stroked the shining head, and
+answered readily: "Yes, Nelly, it will be a proper charity for such a
+young Samaritan, and you may learn much if you are in earnest.  You
+must study how to feed and nurse your little patients, else your pity
+will do no good, and your hospital become a prison.  I will help you,
+and Tony shall be your surgeon."
+
+"O mamma, how good you always are to me!  Indeed, I am in truly
+earnest; I will learn, I will be kind, and may I go now and begin?"
+
+"You may, but tell me first where will you have your hospital?'
+
+"In my room, mamma; it is so snug and sunny, and I never should forget
+it there," said Nelly.
+
+"You must not forget it anywhere.  I think that plan will not do.  How
+would you like to find caterpillars walking in your bed, to hear sick
+pussies mewing in the night, to have beetles clinging to your clothes,
+or see mice, bugs, and birds tumbling downstairs whenever the door was
+open?" said her mother.
+
+Nelly laughed at that, thought a minute, then clapped her hands, and
+cried: "Let us have the old summer-house!  My doves only use the upper
+part, and it would be so like Frank in the story-book.  Please say yes
+again, mamma."
+
+Her mother did say yes, and, snatching up her hat, Nelly ran to find
+Tony, the gardener's son, a pleasant lad of twelve, who was Nelly's
+favorite playmate.  Tony pronounced the plan a "jolly" one, and,
+leaving his work, followed his young mistress to the summer-house, for
+she could not wait one minute.
+
+"What must we do first?" she asked, as they stood looking in at the
+dim, dusty room, full of garden tools, bags of seeds, old flower-pots,
+and watering-cans.
+
+"Clear out the rubbish, miss," answered Tony.
+
+"Here it goes, then," and Nelly began bundling every thing out in such
+haste that she broke two flower-pots, scattered all the squash-seeds,
+and brought a pile of rakes and hoes clattering down about her ears.
+
+"Just wait a bit, and let me take the lead, miss.  You hand me things,
+I'll pile 'em in the barrow and wheel 'em off to the barn; then it will
+save time, and be finished up tidy."
+
+Nelly did as he advised, and very soon nothing but dust remained.
+
+"What next?" she asked, not knowing in the least.
+
+"I'll sweep up, while you see if Polly can come and scrub the room out.
+It ought to be done before you stay here, let alone the patients."
+
+"So it had," said Nelly, looking very wise all of a sudden.  "Will says
+the wards--that means the rooms, Tony--are scrubbed every day or two,
+and kept very clean, and well venti--something--I can't say it; but it
+means having a plenty of air come in.  I can clean windows while Polly
+mops, and then we shall soon be done."
+
+Away she ran, feeling very busy and important Polly came, and very soon
+the room looked like another place.  The four latticed windows were set
+wide open, so the sunshine came dancing through the vines that grew
+outside, and curious roses peeped in to see what frolic was afoot.  The
+walls shone white again, for not a spider dared to stay; the wide seat
+which encircled the room was dustless now, the floor as nice as willing
+hands could make it; and the south wind blew away all musty odors with
+its fragrant breath.
+
+"How fine it looks!" cried Nelly, dancing on the doorstep, lest a
+footprint should mar the still damp floor.
+
+"I'd almost like to fall sick for the sake of staying here," said Tony,
+admiringly.  "Now, what sort of beds are you going to have, miss?"
+
+"I suppose it won't do to put butterflies and toads and worms into beds
+like the real soldiers where Will was?" answered Nelly, looking anxious.
+
+Tony could hardly help shouting at the idea; but rather than trouble
+his little mistress, he said very soberly: "I'm afraid they wouldn't
+lay easy, not being used to it.  Tucking up a butterfly would about
+kill him; the worms would be apt to get lost among the bedclothes; and
+the toads would tumble out the first thing."
+
+"I shall have to ask mamma about it.  What will you do while I'm gone?"
+said Nelly, unwilling that a moment should be lost.
+
+"I'll make frames for nettings to the window, else the doves will come
+in and eat up the sick people."
+
+"I think they will know that it is a hospital, and be too kind to hurt
+or frighten their neighbors," began Nelly; but, as she spoke, a plump
+white dove walked in, looked about with its red-ringed eyes, and
+quietly pecked up a tiny bug that had just ventured out from the crack
+where it had taken refuge when the deluge came.
+
+"Yes, we must have the nettings.  I'll ask mamma for some lace," said
+Nelly, when she saw that; and, taking her pet dove on her shoulder,
+told it about her hospital as she went toward the house; for, loving
+all little creatures as she did, it grieved her to have any harm befall
+even the least or plainest of them.  She had a sweet child-fancy that
+her playmates understood her language as she did theirs, and that
+birds, flowers, animals, and insects felt for her the same affection
+which she felt for them.  Love always makes friends, and nothing seemed
+to fear the gentle child; but welcomed her like a little sun who shone
+alike on all, and never suffered an eclipse.
+
+She was gone some time, and when she came back her mind was full of new
+plans, one hand full of rushes, the other of books, while over her head
+floated the lace, and a bright green ribbon hung across her arm.
+
+"Mamma says that the best beds will be little baskets, boxes, cages,
+and any sort of thing that suits the patient; for each will need
+different care and food and medicine.  I have not baskets enough; so,
+as I cannot have pretty white beds, I am going to braid pretty green
+nests for my patients, and, while I do it, mamma thought you'd read to
+me the pages she has marked, so that we may begin right."
+
+"Yes, miss; I like that.  But what is the ribbon for?" asked Tony.
+
+"Oh, that's for you.  Will says that if you are to be an army surgeon,
+you must have a green band on your arm; so I got this to tie on when we
+play hospital."
+
+Tony let her decorate the sleeve of his gray jacket, and, when the
+nettings were done, the welcome books were opened and enjoyed.  It was
+a happy time, sitting in the sunshine, with leaves pleasantly astir all
+about them, doves cooing overhead, and flowers sweetly gossiping
+together through the summer afternoon.  Nelly wove her smooth, green
+rushes, Tony pored over his pages, and both found something better than
+fairy legends in the family histories of insects, birds, and beasts.
+All manner of wonders appeared, and were explained to them, till Nelly
+felt as if a new world had been given her, so full of beauty, interest,
+and pleasure that she never could be tired of studying it.  Many of
+these things were not strange to Tony, because, born among plants, he
+had grown up with them as if they were brothers and sisters, and the
+sturdy, brown-faced boy had learned many lessons which no poet or
+philosopher could have taught him, unless he had become as childlike as
+himself, and studied from the same great book.
+
+When the baskets were done, the marked pages all read, and the sun
+began to draw his rosy curtains round him before smiling "Good-night,"
+Nelly ranged the green beds round the room, Tony put in the screens,
+and the hospital was ready.  The little nurse was so excited that she
+could hardly eat her supper, and directly afterwards ran up to tell
+Will how well she had succeeded with the first part of her enterprise.
+Now brother Will was a brave young officer, who had fought stoutly and
+done his duty like a man.  But, when lying weak and wounded at home,
+the cheerful courage which had led him safely through many dangers
+seemed to have deserted him, and he was often gloomy, sad, or fretful,
+because he longed to be at his post again, and time passed very slowly.
+This troubled his mother, and made Nelly wonder why he found lying in a
+pleasant room so much harder than fighting battles or making weary
+marches.  Any thing that interested and amused him was very welcome,
+and when Nelly, climbing on the arm of his sofa, told her plans,
+mishaps, and successes, he laughed out more heartily than he had done
+for many a day, and his thin face began to twinkle with fun as it used
+to do so long ago.  That pleased Nelly, and she chatted like any
+affectionate little magpie, till Will was really interested; for when
+one is ill, small things amuse.
+
+"Do you expect your patients to come to you, Nelly?" he asked.
+
+"No, I shall go and look for them.  I often see poor things suffering
+in the garden, and the woods, and always feel as if they ought to be
+taken care of as people are."
+
+"You won't like to carry insane bugs, lame toads, and convulsive
+kittens in your hands, and they would not stay on a stretcher if you
+had one.  You should have an ambulance, and be a branch of the Sanitary
+Commission," said Will.
+
+Nelly had often heard the words, but did not quite understand what they
+meant.  So Will told her of that great and never-failing charity, to
+which thousands owe their lives; and the child listened with lips
+apart, eyes often full, and so much love and admiration in her heart
+that she could find no words in which to tell it.  When her brother
+paused, she said earnestly: "Yes, I will be a Sanitary.  This little
+cart of mine shall be my ambulance, and I'll never let my water-barrels
+go empty, never drive too fast, or be rough with my poor passengers,
+like some of the men you tell about.  Does this look like an ambulance,
+Will?"
+
+"Not a bit; but it shall, if you and mamma like to help me.  I want
+four long bits of cane, a square of white cloth, some pieces of thin
+wood, and the gum-pot," said Will, sitting up to examine the little
+cart, feeling like a boy again, as he took out his knife and began to
+whittle.
+
+Upstairs and downstairs ran Nelly till all necessary materials were
+collected, and almost breathlessly she watched her brother arch the
+canes over the cart, cover them with the cloth, and fit in an upper
+shelf of small compartments, each lined with cotton wool to serve as
+beds for wounded insects, lest they should hurt one another or jostle
+out.  The lower part was left free for any larger creatures which Nelly
+might find.  Among her toys she had a tiny cask which only needed a peg
+to be water-tight: this was filled and fitted in before, because, as
+the small sufferers needed no seats, there was no place for it behind,
+and, as Nelly was both horse and driver, it was more convenient in
+front.  On each side of it stood a box of stores.  In one were minute
+rollers, as bandages are called, a few bottles not yet filled, and a
+wee doll's jar of cold-cream, because Nelly could not feel that her
+outfit was complete without a medicine-chest.  The other box was full
+of crumbs, bits of sugar, bird-seed, and grains of wheat and corn, lest
+any famished stranger should die for want of food before she got it
+home.  Then mamma painted "U. S. San. Com." in bright letters on the
+cover, and Nelly received her charitable plaything with a long sigh of
+satisfaction.
+
+"Nine o'clock already!  Bless me, what a short evening this has been!"
+exclaimed Will, as Nelly came to give him her good-night kiss.
+
+"And such a happy one," she answered.  "Thank you very, very much, dear
+Will.  I only wish my little ambulance was big enough for you to go
+in,--I'd so like to give you the first ride."
+
+"Nothing I should like better, if it were possible, though I've a
+prejudice against ambulances in general.  But, as I cannot ride, I'll
+try and hop out to your hospital to-morrow, and see how you get
+on,"--which was a great deal for Captain Will to say, because he had
+been too listless to leave his sofa for several days.
+
+That promise sent Nelly happily away to bed, only stopping to pop her
+head out of the window to see if it was likely to be a fair day
+to-morrow, and to tell Tony about the new plan as he passed below.
+
+"Where shall you go to look for your first load of sick folks, miss?"
+he asked.
+
+"All round the garden first, then through the grove, and home across
+the brook.  Do you think I can find any patients so?" said Nelly.
+
+"I know you will.  Good-night, miss," and Tony walked away with a merry
+look on his face, that Nelly would not have understood if she had seen
+it.
+
+Up rose the sun bright and early, and up rose Nurse Nelly almost as
+early and as bright.  Breakfast was taken in a great hurry, and before
+the dew was off the grass this branch of the S. C. was all astir.
+Papa, mamma, big brother and baby sister, men and maids, all looked out
+to see the funny little ambulance depart, and nowhere in all the summer
+fields was there a happier child than Nelly, as she went smiling down
+the garden path, where tall flowers kissed her as she passed, and every
+blithe bird seemed singing a "Good speed."
+
+"How I wonder what I shall find first," she thought, looking sharply on
+all sides as she went.  Crickets chirped, grasshoppers leaped, ants
+worked busily at their subterranean houses, spiders spun shining webs
+from twig to twig, bees were coming for their bags of gold, and
+butterflies had just begun their holiday.  A large white one alighted
+on the top of the ambulance, walked over the inscription as if spelling
+it letter by letter, then floated away from flower to flower, like one
+carrying the good news far and wide.
+
+"Now every one will know about the hospital, and be glad to see me
+coming," thought Nelly.  And indeed it seemed so, for just then a
+blackbird, sitting on the garden wall, burst out with a song full of
+musical joy, Nelly's kitten came running after to stare at the wagon
+and rub her soft side against it, a bright-eyed toad looked out from
+his cool bower among the lily-leaves, and at that minute Nelly found
+her first patient.  In one of the dewy cobwebs hanging from a shrub
+near by, sat a fat black and yellow spider, watching a fly whose
+delicate wings were just caught in the net.  The poor fly buzzed
+pitifully, and struggled so hard that the whole web shook; but the more
+he struggled, the more he entangled himself, and the fierce spider was
+preparing to descend that it might weave a shroud about its prey, when
+a little finger broke the threads and lifted the fly safely into the
+palm of a hand, where he lay faintly humming his thanks.
+
+Nelly had heard much about contrabands, knew who they were, and was
+very much interested in them; so, when she freed the poor black fly,
+she played he was her contraband, and felt glad that her first patient
+was one that needed help so much.  Carefully brushing away as much of
+the web as she could, she left small Pompey, as she named him, to free
+his own legs, lest her clumsy fingers should hurt him; then she laid
+him in one of the soft beds with a grain or two of sugar if he needed
+refreshment, and bade him rest and recover from his fright, remembering
+that he was at liberty to fly away whenever he liked, because she had
+no wish to make a slave of him.
+
+Feeling very happy over this new friend, Nelly went on singing softly
+as she walked, and presently she found a pretty caterpillar dressed in
+brown fur, although the day was warm.  He lay so still she thought him
+dead, till he rolled himself into a ball as she touched him.
+
+"I think you are either faint from the heat of this thick coat of
+yours, or that you are going to make a cocoon of yourself, Mr. Fuzz,"
+said Nelly.  "Now I want to see you turn into a butterfly, so I shall
+take you, and if you get lively again I will let you go.  I shall play
+that you have given out on a march, as the soldiers sometimes do, and
+been left behind for the sanitary people to see to."
+
+In went sulky Mr. Fuzz, and on trundled the ambulance till a
+golden-green rose-beetle was discovered, lying on his back kicking as
+if in a fit.
+
+"Dear me, what shall I do for him?" thought Nelly.  "He acts as baby
+did when she was so ill, and mamma put her in a warm bath.  I haven't
+got my little tub here, or any hot water, and I'm afraid the beetle
+would not like it if I had.  Perhaps he has pain in his stomach; I'll
+turn him over, and pat his back, as nurse does baby's when she cries
+for pain like that."
+
+She set the beetle on his legs, and did her best to comfort him; but he
+was evidently in great distress, for he could not walk, and instead of
+lifting his emerald overcoat, and spreading the wings that lay
+underneath, he turned over again, and kicked more violently than
+before.  Not knowing what to do, Nelly put him into one of her soft
+nests for Tony to cure if possible.  She found no more patients in the
+garden except a dead bee, which she wrapped in a leaf, and took home to
+bury.  When she came to the grove, it was so green and cool she longed
+to sit and listen to the whisper of the pines, and watch the
+larch-tassels wave in the wind.  But, recollecting her charitable
+errand, she went rustling along the pleasant path till she came to
+another patient, over which she stood considering several minutes
+before she could decide whether it was best to take it to her hospital,
+because it was a little gray snake, with a bruised tail.  She knew it
+would not hurt her, yet she was afraid of it; she thought it pretty,
+yet could not like it; she pitied its pain, yet shrunk from helping it,
+for it had a fiery eye, and a sharp quivering tongue, that looked as if
+longing to bite.
+
+"He is a rebel, I wonder if I ought to be good to him," thought Nelly,
+watching the reptile writhe with pain.  "Will said there were sick
+rebels in his hospital, and one was very kind to him.  It says, too, in
+my little book, 'Love your enemies.'  I think snakes are mine, but I
+guess I'll try and love him because God made him.  Some boy will kill
+him if I leave him here, and then perhaps his mother will be very sad
+about it.  Come, poor worm, I wish to help you, so be patient, and
+don't frighten me."
+
+Then Nelly laid her little handkerchief on the ground, and with a stick
+gently lifted the wounded snake upon it, and, folding it together, laid
+it in the ambulance.  She was thoughtful after that, and so busy
+puzzling her young head about the duty of loving those who hate us, and
+being kind to those who are disagreeable or unkind, that she went
+through the rest of the wood quite forgetful of her work.  A soft
+"Queek, queek!" made her look up and listen.  The sound came from the
+long meadow grass, and, bending it carefully back, she found a
+half-fledged bird, with one wing trailing on the ground, and its eyes
+dim with pain or hunger.
+
+"You darling thing, did you fall out of your nest and hurt your wing?"
+cried Nelly, looking up into the single tree that stood near by.  No
+nest was to be seen, no parent-birds hovered overhead, and little Robin
+could only tell its troubles in that mournful "Queek, queek, queek!"
+
+Nelly ran to get both her chests, and, sitting down beside the bird,
+tried to feed it.  To her great joy it ate crumb after crumb as if it
+were half starved, and soon fluttered nearer with a confiding
+fearlessness that made her very proud.  Soon Baby Robin seemed quite
+comfortable, his eye brightened, he "queeked" no more, and but for the
+drooping wing would have been himself again.  With one of her bandages
+Nelly bound both wings closely to his sides for fear he should hurt
+himself by trying to fly; and, though he seemed amazed at her
+proceedings, he behaved very well, only staring at her, and ruffling up
+his few feathers in a funny way that made her laugh.  Then she had to
+discover some way of accommodating her two larger patients, so that
+neither should hurt nor alarm the other.  A bright thought came to her
+after much pondering.  Carefully lifting the handkerchief, she pinned
+the two ends to the roof of the cart, and there swung little
+Forked-tongue, while Rob lay easily below.
+
+By this time Nelly began to wonder how it happened that she found so
+many more injured things than ever before.  But it never entered her
+innocent head that Tony had searched the wood and meadow before she was
+up, and laid most of these creatures ready to her hands, that she might
+not be disappointed.  She had not yet lost her faith in fairies, so she
+fancied they too belonged to her small sisterhood, and presently it did
+really seem impossible to doubt that the good folk had been at work.
+
+Coming to the bridge that crossed the brook, she stopped a moment to
+watch the water ripple over the bright pebbles, the ferns bend down to
+drink, and the funny tadpoles frolic in quieter nooks where the sun
+shone, and the dragon-flies swung among the rushes.  When Nelly turned
+to go on, her blue eyes opened wide, and the handle of the ambulance
+dropped with a noise that caused a stout frog to skip into the water
+heels over head.  Directly in the middle of the bridge was a pretty
+green tent, made of two tall burdock leaves.  The stems were stuck into
+cracks between the boards, the tips were pinned together with a thorn,
+and one great buttercup nodded in the doorway like a sleepy sentinel.
+Nelly stared and smiled, listened, and looked about on every side.
+Nothing was seen but the quiet meadow and the shady grove, nothing was
+heard but the babble of the brook and the cheery music of the bobolinks.
+
+"Yes," said Nelly softly to herself, "that is a fairy tent, and in it I
+may find a baby elf sick with whooping-cough or scarlet fever.  How
+splendid it would be! only I could never nurse such a dainty thing."
+
+Stooping eagerly, she peeped over the buttercup's drowsy head, and saw
+what seemed a tiny cock of hay.  She had no time to feel disappointed,
+for the haycock began to stir, and, looking nearer, she beheld two
+silvery-gray mites, who wagged wee tails, and stretched themselves as
+if they had just waked up.  Nelly knew that they were young field-mice,
+and rejoiced over them, feeling rather relieved that no fairy had
+appeared, though she still believed them to have had a hand in the
+matter.
+
+"I shall call the mice my Babes in the Wood, because they are lost and
+covered up with leaves," said Nelly, as she laid them in her snuggest
+bed, where they nestled close together, and fell fast asleep again.
+
+Being very anxious to get home, that she might tell her adventures, and
+show how great was the need of a sanitary commission in that region,
+Nelly marched proudly up the avenue, and, having displayed her load,
+hurried to the hospital where another applicant was waiting for her.
+On the step of the door lay a large turtle, with one claw gone, and on
+his back was pasted a bit of paper with his name, "Commodore Waddle,
+U.S.N."  Nelly knew this was a joke of Will's, but welcomed the ancient
+mariner, and called Tony to help her get him in.
+
+All that morning they were very busy settling the new-comers, for both
+people and books had to be consulted before they could decide what diet
+and treatment was best for each.  The winged contraband had taken Nelly
+at her word, and flown away on the journey home.  Little Rob was put in
+a large cage, where he could use his legs, yet not injure his lame
+wing.  Forked-tongue lay under a wire cover, on sprigs of fennel, for
+the gardener said that snakes were fond of it.  The Babes in the Wood
+were put to bed in one of the rush baskets, under a cotton-wool
+coverlet.  Greenback, the beetle, found ease for his unknown aches in
+the warm heart of a rose, where he sunned himself all day.  The
+Commodore was made happy in a tub of water, grass, and stones, and Mr.
+Fuzz was put in a well-ventilated glass box to decide whether he would
+be a cocoon or not.
+
+Tony had not been idle while his mistress was away, and he showed her
+the hospital garden he had made close by, in which were cabbage,
+nettle, and mignonette plants for the butterflies, flowering herbs for
+the bees, chickweed and hemp for the birds, catnip for the pussies, and
+plenty of room left for whatever other patients might need.  In the
+afternoon, while Nelly did her task at lint-picking, talking busily to
+Will as she worked, and interesting him in her affairs, Tony cleared a
+pretty spot in the grove for the burying-ground, and made ready some
+small bits of slate on which to write the names of those who died.  He
+did not have it ready an hour too soon, for at sunset two little graves
+were needed, and Nurse Nelly shed tender tears for her first losses as
+she laid the motherless mice in one smooth hollow, and the gray-coated
+rebel in the other.  She had learned to care for him already, and, when
+she found him dead, was very glad she had been kind to him, hoping that
+he knew it, and died happier in her hospital than all alone in the
+shadowy wood.
+
+The rest of Nelly's patients prospered, and of the many added afterward
+few died, because of Tony's skilful treatment and her own faithful
+care.  Every morning when the day proved fair the little ambulance went
+out upon its charitable errand; every afternoon Nelly worked for the
+human sufferers whom she loved; and every evening brother Will read
+aloud to her from useful books, showed her wonders with his microscope,
+or prescribed remedies for the patients, whom he soon knew by name and
+took much interest in.  It was Nelly's holiday; but, though she studied
+no lessons, she learned much, and unconsciously made her pretty play
+both an example and a rebuke for others.
+
+At first it seemed a childish pastime, and people laughed.  But there
+was something in the familiar words "Sanitary," "hospital," and
+"ambulance" that made them pleasant sounds to many ears.  As reports of
+Nelly's work went through the neighborhood, other children came to see
+and copy her design.  Rough lads looked ashamed when in her wards they
+found harmless creatures hurt by them, and going out they said among
+themselves, "We won't stone birds, chase butterflies, and drown the
+girls' little cats any more, though we won't tell them so."  And most
+of the lads kept their word so well that people said there never had
+been so many birds before as all that summer haunted wood and field.
+Tender-hearted playmates brought their pets to be cured; even busy
+fathers had a friendly word for the small charity, which reminded them
+so sweetly of the great one which should never be forgotten; lonely
+mothers sometimes looked out with wet eyes as the little ambulance went
+by, recalling thoughts of absent sons who might be journeying painfully
+to some far-off hospital, where brave women waited to tend them with
+hands as willing, hearts as tender, as those the gentle child gave to
+her self-appointed task.
+
+At home the charm worked also.  No more idle days for Nelly, or fretful
+ones for Will, because the little sister would not neglect the helpless
+creatures so dependent upon her, and the big brother was ashamed to
+complain after watching the patience of these lesser sufferers, and
+merrily said he would try to bear his own wound as quietly and bravely
+as the "Commodore" bore his.  Nelly never knew how much good she had
+done Captain Will till he went away again in the early autumn.  Then he
+thanked her for it, and though she cried for joy and sorrow she never
+forgot it, because he left something behind him which always pleasantly
+reminded her of the double success her little hospital had won.
+
+When Will was gone, and she had prayed softly in her heart that God
+would keep him safe and bring him home again, she dried her tears and
+went away to find comfort in the place where he had spent so many happy
+hours with her.  She had not been there before that day, and when she
+reached the door she stood quite still and wanted very much to cry
+again, for something beautiful had happened.  She had often asked Will
+for a motto for her hospital, and he had promised to find her one.  She
+thought he had forgotten it; but even in the hurry of that busy day he
+had found time to do more than keep his word, while Nelly sat indoors,
+lovingly brightening the tarnished buttons on the blue coat that had
+seen so many battles.
+
+Above the roof, where the doves cooed in the sun, now rustled a white
+flag with the golden "S.C." shining on it as the west wind tossed it to
+and fro.  Below, on the smooth panel of the door, a skilful pencil had
+drawn two arching ferns, in whose soft shadow, poised upon a mushroom,
+stood a little figure of Nurse Nelly, and underneath it another of Dr.
+Tony bottling medicine, with spectacles upon his nose.  Both hands of
+the miniature Nelly were outstretched, as if beckoning to a train of
+insects, birds, and beasts, which was so long that it not only circled
+round the lower rim of this fine sketch, but dwindled in the distance
+to mere dots and lines.  Such merry conceits as one found there!  A
+mouse bringing the tail it had lost in some cruel trap, a dor-bug with
+a shade over its eyes, an invalid butterfly carried in a tiny litter by
+long-legged spiders, a fat frog with gouty feet hopping upon crutches,
+Jenny Wren sobbing in a nice handkerchief, as she brought poor dear
+dead Cock Robin to be restored to life.  Rabbits, lambs, cats, calves,
+and turtles, all came trooping up to be healed by the benevolent little
+maid who welcomed them so heartily.
+
+Nelly laughed at these comical mites till the tears ran down her
+cheeks, and thought she never could be tired of looking at them.  But
+presently she saw four lines clearly printed underneath her picture,
+and her childish face grew sweetly serious as she read the words of a
+great poet, which Will had made both compliment and motto:--
+
+  "He prayeth best who loveth best
+    All things, both great and small;
+  For the dear God who loveth us,
+    He made and loveth all."
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+GRANDMA'S TEAM.
+
+"It's no use, I can't find a horse anywhere, for love or money.  All
+are either sick or kept quiet to-day for fear of being sick.  I declare
+I'd almost rather lose Major than disappoint mother," said Farmer
+Jenks, coming in on Sunday morning from a fruitless visit to his
+neighbors.
+
+It was in the height of the horse distemper, and his own valuable beast
+stood in the stall, looking very interesting, with his legs in red
+flannel bandages, an old shawl round his neck, his body well covered by
+blankets, and a pensive expression in his fine eyes as he coughed and
+groaned distressfully.
+
+You see it was particularly unfortunate to have Major give out on
+Sunday, for grandma had been to church, rain or shine, every Sunday for
+twenty years, and it was the pride of her life to be able to say this.
+She was quite superstitious about it, and really felt as if her
+wonderful health and strength were given her as a reward for her
+unfailing devotion.
+
+A sincerely pious and good old lady was Grandma Jenks, and her entry
+into the church always made a little sensation, for she was eighty-five
+years old, yet hale and hearty, with no affliction but lame feet.  So
+every Sunday, all the year round, her son or grandsons drove her down
+to service in the wide, low chaise, got expressly for her benefit, and
+all the week seemed brighter and better for the quiet hour spent in the
+big pew.
+
+"If the steeple should fall, folks wouldn't miss it any more than they
+would old Mrs. Jenks from her corner," was a saying among the people,
+and grandma felt as if she was not only a public character, but a
+public example for all to follow, for another saying in the town was,--
+
+"Well, if old Mrs. Jenks can go to meeting, there's no excuse for our
+staying at home."
+
+That pleased her, and so when the farmer came in with his bad news, she
+looked deeply disappointed, sat still a minute tapping her hymn-book,
+then took her two canes and got up, saying resolutely,--
+
+"A merciful man is merciful to his beast, so I won't have poor Major
+risk his life for me, but I shall walk."
+
+A general outcry followed, for grandma was very lame, church a mile
+away, and the roads muddy after the rain.
+
+"You can't do it mother, and you'll be sick for the winter if you try,"
+cried Mrs. Jenks, in great trouble.
+
+"No, dear; I guess the Lord will give me strength, since I'm going to
+His house," answered the old lady, walking slowly to the door.
+
+"Blest if I wouldn't carry you myself if I only could, mother,"
+exclaimed the farmer, helping her down the steps with filial gentleness.
+
+Here Ned and Charley, the boys, laughed, for grandma was very stout,
+and the idea of their father carrying her tickled them immensely.
+
+"Boys, I'm ashamed of you!" said their mother, frowning at them.  But
+grandma laughed too, and said pleasantly,--
+
+"I won't be a burden, Moses; give me your arm and I'll step out as well
+as I can, and mebby some one may come along and give me a lift."
+
+So the door was locked and the family set off.  But it was hard work
+for the old lady, and soon she said she must sit down and rest a spell.
+As they stood waiting for her, all looking anxious, the boys suddenly
+had a bright idea, and, merely saying they had forgotten something,
+raced up the hill again.
+
+"I'm afraid you won't be able to do it, mother," the farmer was just
+saying, when the sound of an approaching carriage made them all turn to
+look, hoping for a lift.
+
+Nearer and nearer drew the rattle, and round the corner came, not a
+horse's head, but two felt hats on two boys' heads, and Charley and Ned
+appeared, trotting briskly, with the chaise behind them.
+
+"Here's your team, grandma!  Jump in, and we'll get you to meeting in
+good time yet," cried the lads, smiling and panting as they drew up
+close to the stone where the old lady sat.
+
+"Boys, boys, it's Sunday, and we can't have any jokes or nonsense now,"
+began Mrs. Jenks, looking much scandalized.
+
+"Well, I don't know, wife.  It's a new thing, I allow, but considering
+the fix we are in, I'm not sure it isn't a good plan.  What do _you_
+think, mother?" asked the farmer, laughing, yet well pleased at the
+energy and good-will of his lads.
+
+"If the boys behave themselves, and do it as a duty, not a frolic, and
+don't upset me, I reckon I'll let 'em try, for I don't believe I can
+get there any other way," said grandma.
+
+"You hoped the Lord would give you strength, and so He has, in this
+form.  Use it, mother, and thank Him for it, since the children love
+you so well they would run their legs off to serve you," said the
+farmer, soberly, as he helped the old lady in and folded the robes
+round her feet.
+
+"Steady, boys, no pranks, and stop behind the sheds.  I can lend mother
+an arm there, and she can walk across the green.  This turn-out is all
+very well, but we won't make a show of it."
+
+Away went the chaise rolling gently down the hill, and the new span
+trotted well together, while the old lady sat calmly inside, frequently
+saying,--
+
+"Don't pull too hard, Ned.  I'm afraid I'm very heavy for you to draw,
+Charley.  Take it easy, dears; there's time enough, time enough."
+
+"You'll never hear the last of this, Moses; it will be a town joke for
+months to come," said Mrs. Jenks, as she and her husband walked briskly
+after the triumphal car.
+
+"Don't care if I do hear on't for a considerable spell.  It's nothing
+to be ashamed of, and I guess you'll find that folks will agree with
+me, even if they do laugh," answered the farmer, stoutly; and he was
+right.
+
+Pausing behind the sheds, grandma was handed out, and the family went
+into church, a little late but quite decorously, and as if nothing
+funny had occurred.  To be sure, Ned and Charley were very red and hot,
+and now and then stole looks at one another with a roguish twinkle of
+the eye; but a nudge from mother or a shake of the head from father
+kept them in good order, while dear old grandma couldn't do enough to
+show her gratitude.  She passed a fan, she handed peppermints in her
+hymn-book, and when Ned sneezed begged him to put her shawl over his
+shoulders.
+
+After church the lads slipped away and harnessed themselves all ready
+for the homeward trip.  But they had to wait, for grandma met some
+friends and stopped to "reminiss," as she called it, and her son did
+not hurry her, thinking it as well to have the coast clear before his
+new team appeared.
+
+It was dull and cold behind the sheds, and the boys soon got impatient.
+Their harness was rather intricate, and they did not want to take it
+off, so they stood chafing and grumbling at the delay.
+
+"You are nearest, so just hand out that blanket and put it over me; I'm
+as cold as a stone," said Ned, who was leader.
+
+"I want it myself, if I've got to wait here much longer," grumbled
+Charley, sitting on the whiffletree, with his legs curled up.
+
+"You're a selfish pig!  I'm sure I shall have the horse-cough to-morrow
+if you don't cover me up."
+
+"Now you know why father is so particular about making us cover Major
+when we leave him standing.  You never do it if you can help it, so how
+do you like it yourself?"
+
+"Whether I like it or not, I'll warm you when we get home, see if I
+don't, old fellow."
+
+Up came the elders and away went the ponies, but they had a hard tug of
+it this time.  Grandma was not a light weight, the road pretty steep in
+places, and the mud made heavy going.  Such a puffing and panting,
+heaving and hauling, was never heard or seen there before.  The farmer
+put his shoulder to the wheel, and even Mrs. Jenks tucked up her black
+silk skirts, and gave an occasional tug at one shaft.
+
+Grandma bemoaned her cruelty, and begged to get out, but the lads
+wouldn't give up, so with frequent stoppages, some irrepressible
+laughter, and much persistent effort, the old lady was safely landed at
+the front door.
+
+No sooner was she fairly down than she did what I fancy might have a
+good effect on four-legged steeds, if occasionally tried.  She hugged
+both boys, patted and praised them, helped pull off their harness, and
+wiped their hot foreheads with her own best Sunday handkerchief, then
+led them in and fed them well.
+
+The lads were in high feather at the success of their exploit, and each
+showed it in a different way.  Charley laughed and talked about it,
+offered to trot grandma out any day, and rejoiced in the strength of
+his muscles, and his soundness in wind and limb.
+
+But Ned sat silently eating his dinner, and when some one asked him if
+he remembered the text of the sermon, he answered in grandma's words,
+"A merciful man is merciful to his beast."
+
+"Well, I don't care, that's the only text I remember, and I got a
+sermon out of it, any way," he said, when the rest laughed at him, and
+asked what he was thinking about.
+
+"I seem to know now how Major feels when we keep him waiting, when I
+don't blanket him, and when I expect him to pull his heart out, with no
+time to get his breath.  I'm going to beg his pardon after dinner, and
+tell him all about it."
+
+Charley stopped laughing when sober Ned said that, and he saw his
+father and mother nod to one another as if well pleased.
+
+"I'll go too, and tell the old fellow that I mean to uncheck him going
+up hill, to scotch the wheels so he can rest, and be ever so good to
+him if he'll only get well."
+
+"You might add that you mean to treat him like a horse and a brother,
+for you have turned pony yourself," said his father, when Charley
+finished his virtuous remarks.
+
+"And don't forget to pet him a good deal, my dears, for horses like to
+be loved, and praised, and thanked, as well as boys, and we can't do
+too much for the noble creatures who are so faithful and useful to us,"
+said Mrs. Jenks, quite touched by the new state of feeling.
+
+"It's my opinion that this sickness among the horses will do a deal of
+good, by showing folks the great value of the beasts they abuse and
+neglect.  Neighbor Stone is fussing over his old Whitey as if he was a
+child, and yet I've seen that poor brute unmercifully beaten, and kept
+half starved.  I told Stone that if he lost him it would be because
+kind treatment came too late; and Stone never got mad, but went and
+poured vinegar over a hot brick under Whitey's nose till he 'most
+sneezed his head off.  Stone has got a lesson this time, and so have
+some other folks."
+
+As the farmer spoke, he glanced at the boys, who remorsefully recalled
+the wrongs poor Major had suffered at their hands, not from cruelty,
+but thoughtlessness, and both resolved to treat him like a friend for
+evermore.
+
+"Well," said grandma, looking with tender pride at the ruddy faces on
+either side of her, "I'm thankful to say that I've never missed a
+Sunday for twenty year, and I've been in all sorts of weather, and in
+all sorts of ways, even on an ox sled one time when the drifts were
+deep, but I never went better than to-day; so in this dish of tea I'm
+going to drink this toast: 'Easy roads, light loads, and kind drivers
+to grandma's team.'"
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+FAIRY PINAFORES.
+
+After Cinderella was married and settled, her god-mother looked about
+for some other clever bit of work to do, for she was not only the best,
+but the busiest little old lady that ever lived.  Now the city was in a
+sad state, for all it looked so fine and seemed so gay.  The old king
+was very lazy and sat all day in his great easy-chair, taking naps and
+reading newspapers, while the old queen sat opposite in _her_
+easy-chair, taking naps and knitting gold-thread stockings for her son.
+The prince was a fine young man, but rather wild, and fonder of running
+after pretty young ladies with small feet than of attending to the
+kingdom.
+
+The wise god-mother knew that Cinderella would teach him better things
+by and by, but the old lady could not wait for that.  So, after talking
+the matter over with her ancient cat, Silverwhisker, she put on her red
+cloak, her pointed hat and high-heeled shoes, took her cane and trotted
+away to carry out her plan.  She was so fond of making people happy
+that it kept her brisk and young in spite of her years; and, for all I
+know, she may be trotting up and down the world this very day, red
+cloak, pointed hat, high-heeled shoes, and all.
+
+In her drives about the city, she had been much grieved to see so many
+beggar-children, ragged, hungry, sick, and cold, with no friends to
+care for them, no homes to shelter them, and no one to teach, help, or
+comfort them.  When Cinderella's troubles were well over, the good
+god-mother resolved to attend to this matter, and set about it in the
+following manner:--
+
+She went into the poor streets, and whenever she found a homeless child
+she bade it come with her; and so motherly was her face, so kind her
+voice, that not one feared or refused.  Soon she had gathered a hundred
+little boys and girls,--a sad sight, for some were lame, some blind,
+some deformed, many black and many ugly, all hungry, ragged, and
+forlorn, but all dear children in her sight, for the little hearts were
+not spoilt, and her fairy power could work all miracles.  When she had
+enough, she led them beyond the city gates into the beautiful country
+and no one saw them go, for she made them invisible to other eyes.
+Wondering, yet contented, they trooped along, delighted with all they
+saw.  The strong helped the weak; those who could see described the
+lovely sights to the blind; the hungry found berries all along the
+road; the sick gladly breathed the fresh air, and to none did the way
+seem long, for green grass was underneath their feet, blue sky
+overhead, and summer sunshine everywhere.
+
+As they came out from a pleasant wood, a great shouting arose, when the
+god-mother pointed to a lovely place and told them that was home.  She
+had but to wish for any thing and it was hers; so she had wished for a
+Children's Home, and there it was.  In a wide meadow stood a large, low
+house, with many blooming little gardens before it, and sunny fields
+behind it, full of pretty tame creatures, who came running as if to
+welcome and tell the children that their holiday had begun.  In they
+went, and stood quite breathless with wonder and delight, all was so
+pleasant and so new.  There were no stairs to tire little feet with
+climbing up, or to bump little heads with tumbling down, but four large
+rooms opening one into the other, with wide doors and sunny windows on
+every side.
+
+In one stood a hundred clean white beds, with a hundred little, clean
+white caps and gowns ready for the night.  Dark curtains made a
+comfortable twilight here, and through the room sounded a soft lullaby
+from an unseen instrument, so soothing that all the children gaped at
+once and began to nod like a field of poppies.
+
+"Yes, yes, that will work well, I see; but it is not yet time for bed,"
+said the god-mother, and, touching another spring, there instantly
+sounded a lively air, which would wake the soundest sleeper and make
+him skip gayly out of bed.
+
+In the second room was a bath, so large that it looked like a shallow
+lake.  A pretty marble child stood blowing bubbles in the middle, and
+pink and white shells, made of soap, lay along the brim.  The pool was
+lined with soft sponges, and heaps of towels were scattered about, so
+that while the little folks splashed and romped they got finely washed
+and wiped before they knew it.
+
+In the third room stood a long table, surrounded by low chairs, so no
+one could tip over.  Two rows of bright silver porringers shone down
+the table; a fountain of milk played in the middle, and on a little
+railway, that ran round the table, went mimic cars loaded with bread,
+funny donkeys with panniers of berries on either side, and small men
+and women carrying trays of seed-cakes, gingerbread, and all the
+goodies that children may safely eat.  Thus every one got quickly and
+quietly served, and meals would be merry-makings, not scenes of noise
+and confusion, as is often the case where many little mouths are to be
+filled.
+
+The fourth room was larger than any of the others, being meant for both
+work and play.  The wails were all pictures, which often changed,
+showing birds, beasts, and flowers, every country, and the history of
+the world; so one could study many things, you see.  The floor was
+marked out for games of all kinds, and quantities of toys lay ready for
+the little hands that till now had owned so few.  On one side long
+windows opened into the gardens, and on the other were recesses full of
+books to study and to read.
+
+At first, the poor children could only look and sigh for happiness,
+finding it hard to believe that all this comfort could be meant for
+them.  But the god-mother soon made them feel that this was home, for,
+gathering them tenderly about her, she said,--
+
+"Dear little creatures, you have had no care, no love or happiness, all
+your short, sad lives; but now you are mine, and here you shall soon
+become the blithest, busiest children ever seen.  Come, now, and splash
+in this fine pond; then we will have supper and play, and then to bed,
+for to-morrow will be a long holiday for all of us."
+
+As she spoke, the children's rags vanished, and they sprang into the
+bath, eager to pick up the pretty shells and see the marble child, who,
+smiling, blew great bubbles that sailed away over their heads.
+
+Great was the splashing and loud the laughter as the little people
+floated in the warm pool and romped among the towel-cocks, while the
+god-mother, in a quiet corner, bathed the sick and bound up the hurts
+of those whom cruel hands had wounded.
+
+As fast as the children were washed, they were surprised to find
+themselves clothed all in a minute in pretty, comfortable suits, that
+pleased their eyes, and yet were not too fine for play.  Soon a ring of
+happy faces shone round the table.  The fountain poured its milky
+stream into every porringer, the mimic cars left their freight at each
+place, the donkeys trotted, and the little market-men and women tripped
+busily up and down, while the god-mother went tapping about, putting on
+bibs, helping the shy ones, and feeding the babies who could not feed
+themselves.  When all were satisfied, the fountain ceased to play, the
+engine let off steam, the donkeys kicked up their heels to empty the
+panniers, the bibs folded themselves up, the porringers each turned a
+somerset and came down clean, and all was ready for breakfast.
+
+Then the children played for an hour in the lovely play-room, often
+stopping to wonder if they wouldn't presently wake up and find it all a
+dream.  Lest they should get quite wild with excitement, the god-mother
+soon led them to the great bedroom, and ordered on the caps and gowns,
+which was done before the children could wink.  Then she taught them
+the little prayer all children love, and laid them in their cosey beds,
+with a good-night kiss for each.  The lullaby-flute began to play,
+weary eyelids to close, and soon a hundred happy little souls lay fast
+asleep in the Children's Home.
+
+For a long time the old lady let her family do nothing but enjoy
+themselves.  Every morning they were led out into the meadow like a
+flock of lambs, there to frisk all day with their healthful playmates,
+sun and air, green grass, and exercise, for, being a wise woman, she
+left them to the magic of a better nurse than herself, and Nature, the
+dear god-mother of the world, did her work so well that soon no one
+would have known the rosy, happy troop for the forlorn little creatures
+who had come there.
+
+Then the old lady was satisfied, and said to herself,--
+
+"Now they may work a little, else they will learn to love idleness.
+What shall I give them to do that will employ their hands, make them
+happy, and be of use to others?"
+
+Now, like many other excellent old ladies, the god-mother had a pet
+idea, and it was _pinafores_.  In her day all children wore them, were
+simply dressed, healthy, gay, and good.  At the present time foolish
+mothers dressed their little ones like dolls, and the poor things were
+half-smothered with finery.  At home there was a constant curling and
+brushing, tying of sashes and fussing with frills, abroad there was no
+fun, for hats, top-heavy with feathers, burdened their heads, fine
+cloaks and coats were to be taken care of, smart boots, in which they
+couldn't run, were on their feet, and dainty little gloves prevented
+their ever making dear dirt-pies.  Very cross and fretful were the poor
+little people made by all this, though they hardly knew what the matter
+was, and the foolish mammas wondered and sighed, sent for Dr. Camomile,
+and declared there were never seen such naughty children before.
+
+"Put on pinafores, and let them romp at their ease, and you will mend
+all this," said the god-mother, who knew everybody.
+
+But the fine ladies were shocked, and cried out: "My dear madam, it is
+impossible, for pinafores are entirely out of fashion," and there it
+ended.
+
+But the old lady never gave up her idea, and when she had successfully
+tried it with her large family, she felt sure that much of the health
+and happiness of children lay in big, sensible pinafores and plenty of
+freedom.
+
+"I'll show them the worth of my idea," she said, as she sat thinking,
+with her eyes on the blue flax-fields shining in the sun.  "These poor
+children shall help the rich ones, who never helped them, and we will
+astonish the city by the miracles we'll work."
+
+With that she clapped her hands, and in a minute the room was filled
+with little looms and spinning-wheels, thimbles and needles, reels for
+winding thread, and all necessary tools for the manufacture of fairy
+pinafores.  She could have wished for them already made, but she
+thought it better to teach the children some useful lessons, and keep
+them busy as well as happy.
+
+Soon they were all at work, and no one was awkward or grew tired, for
+the wheels and looms were enchanted; so, though the boys and girls knew
+nothing of the matter when they began, they obeyed the old lady, who
+said,--
+
+  "A good will
+  Giveth skill,"
+
+and presently were spinning and weaving, reeling and sewing, as if they
+had done nothing else all their lives.
+
+Many days they worked, with long play spells between, and at last there
+lay a hundred wonderful pinafores before their eyes.  Each was white as
+snow, smooth as satin, and all along the hem there shone a child-name
+curiously woven in gold or silver thread.  But the charm of these
+"pinnies," as the children called them, was that they would never tear,
+get soiled, or wear out, but always remain as white and smooth and new
+as when first made, for they were woven of fairy flax.  Another fine
+thing was that whoever wore one would grow gentle and good, for the
+friendly little weavers and spinners had put so much love and good-will
+into their work that it got into the pinafores and would never come
+out, but shone in the golden border, and acted like a charm on the
+childish hearts the aprons covered.
+
+Very happy were the little people as they saw the pile grow higher and
+higher, for they knew what they were doing, and wondered who would wear
+each one.
+
+"Now," said the god-mother, "which of my good children shall go to the
+city and sell our pinnies?"
+
+"Send Babie, she is the best and has worked harder than all the rest,"
+answered the children, and little Barbara quite blushed to be so
+praised.
+
+"Yes, she shall go," said the god-mother, as she began to lay the
+aprons in a little old-fashioned basket.
+
+As soon as the children saw it, they gathered about it like a swarm of
+bees, exclaiming,--
+
+"See! see! it is Red Riding-Hood's little basket in which she carried
+the pot of butter.  Dear grandma, where did you get it?"
+
+"The excellent old lady whom the wolf ate up was a friend of mine, and
+after that sad affair I kept it to remember her by, my dears.  It is an
+immortal basket, and all children love it, long to peep into it, and
+would give much to own it."
+
+"What am I to do?" asked Babie, as the god-mother hung the basket on
+her arm.
+
+"Go to the Royal Park, my dear, where all the young lords and ladies
+walk; stand by the great fountain, and when any children ask about the
+basket, tell them they may put in their hands and take what they find
+for a silver penny.  They will gladly pay it, but each must kiss the
+penny and give it with a kind word, a friendly wish, before they take
+the pinnies.  When all are sold, lay the silver pennies in the
+sunshine, and whatever happens, be sure that it is what I wish.  Go,
+now, and tell no one where you come from nor why you sell your wares."
+
+Then Babie put on her little red cloak, took the basket on her arm, and
+went away toward the city, while her playmates called after her,--
+
+"Good luck! good-by!  Come home soon and tell us all about it!"
+
+When she came to the great gate, she began to fear she could not get
+in, for, though she had often peeped between the bars and longed to
+play with the pretty children, the guard had always driven her away,
+saying it was no place for her.  Now, however, when she came up, the
+tall sentinel was so busy looking at her basket that he only stood
+smiling to himself, as if some pleasant recollection was coming back to
+him, and said slowly,--
+
+"Upon my word, I think I must be asleep and dreaming, for there's
+little Red Riding-Hood come again.  The wolf is round the corner, I
+dare say, Run in, my dear, run in before he comes; and I'll give the
+cowardly fellow the beating I've owed him ever since I was a boy."
+
+Babie laughed, and slipped through the gate so quickly that the guard
+rubbed his eyes, looked about him, and said,--
+
+"Yes, yes, I thought I was asleep.  Very odd that I should dream of the
+old fairy-tale I haven't read this twenty years."
+
+In a green nook near the great fountain, Babie placed herself, looking
+like a pretty picture with her smiling face, bright eyes, and curly
+hair blowing in the wind.  Presently little Princess Bess came running
+by to hide from her maid, of whom she was sadly tired.  When she saw
+Babie, she forgot every thing else, and cried out,--
+
+"O the pretty basket!  I must have it.  Will you sell it, little girl?"
+
+"No, my lady, for it isn't mine; but if you like to pay a silver penny,
+you may put in your hand and take what you find."
+
+"Will it be the little pot of butter?" said the Princess, as she pulled
+out her purse.
+
+"A much more useful and wonderful thing than that, my lady.  Something
+that will never spoil nor wear out, but keep you always good and happy
+while you wear it," answered Babie.
+
+"That's splendid!  Take the penny, lift the lid, and let me see," cried
+Bess.
+
+"First kiss it, with a kind word, a friendly wish, please, my lady; for
+these are fairy wares, and can be had in no other way," said Babie.
+
+Princess Bess tossed her head at this, but she wanted the fairy gift,
+so she kissed the silver penny said the word, and wished the wish; then
+in went her hand and out came the white pinafore, with a golden Bess
+shining all along the hem, and little crowns embroidered on the sleeves.
+
+"O the pretty thing!  Put it on, put it on before Primmins comes, else
+she won't let me wear it," cried the princess, throwing her hat and
+cloak on the grass, and hurrying on the pinafore.
+
+She clapped her hands and danced about as if bewitched, for on each
+corner of the apron hung a tiny silver bell, which rang such a merry
+peal it made one dance and sing to hear it.  Suddenly she stood quite
+still, while a soft look came into her face, as all the pride and
+wilfulness faded away.  She touched the smooth, white pinafore, looked
+down at the golden name, listened to the fairy bells, and in that
+little pause seemed to become another child; for presently she put her
+arms round Babie's neck and kissed her, quite forgetting that one was a
+king's daughter and the other a beggar child.
+
+"Dear little girl, thank you very much for my lovely pinny.  Wait here
+till I call my playmates, that they too may buy your fairy wares."
+
+Away she ran, and was soon back again with a troop of children so gayly
+dressed they looked like a flock of butterflies.  The maids came with
+them, and all crowded about the wonderful basket, pushing and
+screaming, for these fine children had not fine manners.  Babie was
+rather frightened, but Bess stood by her and rang her little bells, so
+that all stopped to listen.  One by one each paid the penny, with the
+friendly word and wish, and then drew out the magic pinafore, which
+always showed the right name.  The maids were so much interested when
+they learned that these aprons made their wearers good, that they
+gladly put them on; for, having gold and silver woven in them, the fine
+linen was not thought too plain for such noble little people to wear.
+
+How they all changed as the pinnies went on!  No more screaming,
+pushing, or fretting; only smiling faces, gentle voices, and the blithe
+ringing of the fairy bells.  The poor maids almost cried for joy, they
+were so tired of running after naughty children; and every thing looked
+so gay that people stopped to peep at the pretty group in the Royal
+Park.
+
+When the last apron was sold, Babie told them that something strange
+was going to happen, and they might see it if they liked.  So they made
+a wide ring round a sunny spot where she had laid the hundred silver
+pennies.  Presently from each coin sprang a little pair of wings; on
+one the kind word, on the other the friendly wish that had been uttered
+over them, and, lifted by their magic, the pennies rose into the air
+like a flock of birds, and flew away over the tree-tops, shining as
+they went.
+
+All the children were so eager to see where they would alight that they
+ran after.  No one stumbled, no one fell, though they followed through
+crowded streets and down among strange places where they had never been
+before.  All the maids ran after the children, and the stately papas
+and mammas followed the maids, quite distracted by the strange behavior
+of their children and servants.  A curious sight it was, and the city
+was amazed, but the pennies flew on till they came to a bleak and
+barren spot, where many poor children tried to play in the few pale
+rays of sunshine that crept between the tall roofs that stood so
+thickly crowded on every side.  Here the pennies folded their wings and
+fell like a silver shower, to be welcomed by cries of joy and wonder by
+the ragged children.
+
+The poor mothers and fathers left their work to go and see the sight,
+and were as much amazed to find a crowd of fine people as the fine
+people were to see them; for, though they had heard of each other, they
+had never met, and did not know how sad was the contrast between them.
+
+No one knew what to do at first, it was all so strange and new.  But
+the magic that had got into the pinafores began to work, and soon
+Princess Bess was seen emptying her little purse among the poor
+children.  The other boys and girls began at once to do the same, then
+the fine ladies felt their hearts grow pitiful, and they looked kindly
+at the poor, sad-faced women as they spoke friendly words and promised
+help.  At sight of this, the lords and gentlemen were ashamed to be
+outdone by their wives children, and the heavy purses came out when the
+little ones failed, till all about the dreary place there was played a
+beautiful new game called "give away."
+
+No one ever knew who did it, but, as the city clock struck noon, all
+the bells in all the steeples began to ring, and the tune they played
+was the same blithe one the little bells had chimed.  Other wonders
+happened, for as the clear peal went sounding through the air the sun
+came glancing through all manner of chinks never seen before, and shone
+warm and bright upon the rich and poor standing together like one
+family.  The third wonder was that when the fine folk came to put their
+purses back into their pockets, they were fuller than before, because
+for every bit of money given away there were two in its place, shining
+brighter than any gold, and marked with a little cross.
+
+This was the beginning, but it would take a long time to tell all the
+good done by the fairy pinafores.  Nobody guessed they were at the
+bottom of the changes which came about, but people thought some
+blessing had befallen the children, so blooming, good, and gay did they
+become.  Busied with their own affairs, the older people would have
+forgotten the poor folk and the promises made them, if the children had
+not reminded them.  Some little girl who wore a fairy pinny would climb
+into her mother's lap and say,--
+
+"Mamma, I'm tired of my dolls; I want to make some clothes for the
+ragged children we saw the day I bought my pretty pinafore.  Will you
+show me how?"
+
+Then the mother would kiss the little face she loved so well, and give
+the child her wish, finding much happiness in seeing the comfortable
+suits go on, and receiving the thanks of less fortunate women; for
+motherly hearts are the same under rags and silk.  The boys, though
+small fellows, were never tired of playing the new game with silver
+pennies, and made their fathers play with them, till many men who began
+it to please the little lads went on for the love of charity.
+
+Princess Bess ordered the Park gates to stand open for the poor as well
+as the rich, and soon one could hardly tell the difference; for the
+poor children were comfortably clothed, and the foolish mammas, finding
+their little sons and daughters grew rosy strong, and happy in the
+plain pinafores, grew wiser, and left off fretting them with useless
+finery, finding that their own innocent gayety and beauty were their
+sweetest ornaments, and learning that the good old fashion of
+simplicity was the best for all.
+
+Things were prospering in this way when news of the fairy pinafores
+reached the old king.  He seldom troubled himself about matters, but
+when he read accounts of the kind things his people were doing, he was
+so much interested that he forgot his nap, and the queen counted her
+stitches all amiss while listening.  Cinderella and the Prince heard of
+it also, and felt quite reproached that they had forgotten every one
+but themselves.  It was talked of at court, and everybody wished
+pinafores for their children; but the unknown child with the famous
+basket had vanished no one knew whither.
+
+At last, after searching through the city, a sentinel was found who
+remembered seeing Babie come in from the country.  When the king heard
+this, he ordered his carriage, the old queen put by her work to go with
+him, and the Prince with Cinderella got into the famous pumpkin coach,
+for they too wished to see the wonderful child.
+
+Away they drove, followed by their lords and ladies, through the wood,
+and there beyond they saw the Children's Home.  Full of curiosity, yet
+fearing to alarm the dwellers in that quiet place, every one alighted
+and went softly toward the house.
+
+Every thing was so still and pleasant, all were charmed, and felt as if
+a spell were falling on them.  When the court gentlemen heard the song
+of the birds overhead, they felt ashamed of the foolish speeches they
+were making; when the fine ladies saw the flowers blooming in the
+little gardens, their gay dresses seemed less beautiful; the old king
+and queen felt quite young and lively all at once, and Cinderella and
+her Prince longed for another race, such as they had when the glass
+slipper was lost.
+
+Presently they found a little lad reading in the sun, and of him the
+king asked many questions.  The child, forgetting that the god-mother
+wished to remain unknown, told all she had done, and bade them look in
+at the window, and see if what he said was not true.  Every one peeped,
+and there they saw the children sitting at the looms and wheels
+motionless; for the dear old lady had fallen fast asleep, and no one
+stirred lest they should wake her Like a room full of breathing,
+smiling images they sat, and, as the heads came at the windows, all
+looked up and whispered, "Hush!" like a soft wind sighing through the
+place.
+
+Cinderella, who dearly loved her god-mother, felt reproached that she
+had done so little while the good old lady had done so much, and,
+stepping in, she began to stitch away on one of the new set of
+pinafores which they were making.  At that, the lively young Prince
+skipped in after her, and, whisking a small boy out of his seat before
+a loom, began to weave with all his might; for, as the old lady said,--
+
+  "A good will
+  Giveth skill."
+
+
+"I'll not be outdone by those children!" cried the king, and began
+briskly winding the thread which hung on blind Nanny's outstretched
+hands.
+
+"Neither will I, my dear!" returned the queen, and whipping on her
+spectacles she cut out a pinafore on the spot.
+
+After that, of course, every one else came rushing in, and soon all the
+wheels buzzed, looms jangled, needles flew, and scissors snipped, while
+the children stood by smiling at the sight of the fine folks working as
+if for their lives.
+
+The noise woke the god-mother, who understood the matter at once, and
+was glad to see things in such good train.  As she wished to say a
+word, she gave a smart tap with her staff, and every one stopped but
+the king, who was so busy winding his thread that he kept on till the
+skein was done, when he patted Nanny on the head, saying, in such a
+brisk tone his people hardly knew him for the lazy old king,--
+
+"There, I feel better for that.  We'll do another presently, my fine
+little girl."  Then he nodded to the god-mother with twinkling eyes,
+for being a fairy he respected her very much.  She nodded back at him,
+and said gravely,--
+
+"Your majesty is very welcome, and I am glad you have waked up at last.
+Don't fall asleep again, but go and make homes for all your poor, so
+that when you do fall asleep for the last time you will leave your son
+as happy a kingdom as you have found here.  And you, my dear
+Cinderella, remember this: let your children be children while they
+may, and be sure they all wear pinafores."
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+MAMMA'S PLOT.
+
+"It's the meanest thing I ever heard of, and I won't bear it!" cried
+Kitty, sitting down on her half-packed trunk, with a most rebellious
+expression.
+
+"You must, my dear: it is the rule of the school, and you must submit.
+I'm very sorry, for I expected great comfort and pleasure from your
+little letters; but if madam has to read and correct them all, of
+course they will be compositions, and not particularly interesting,"
+said mamma, with a sigh, as she folded up the small garments as
+tenderly as if her little girl had been inside of them.
+
+"I didn't mind much about it when I read the rules, but now that I'm
+really going it seems like a prison; and I shall be just wild to tell
+you every thing.  How can I, if that old lady has got to see what I
+write?  I know I shan't like the food, and I can't ask you to send me
+any goodies without her knowing it.  If I'm homesick, I shall want to
+tell you, and of course there will be lots of funny things you'd enjoy,
+but for this disgusting rule.  I do declare I won't go!" and Kitty cast
+her new boots sternly on the floor.
+
+"Yes, you will, Puss, because papa and I want you to.  This is an
+excellent school; old-fashioned in some things, and I like it for that,
+though this rule is not a wise one, I fancy.  You must do the best you
+can, and perhaps madam won't be very particular about what you write to
+me, if you are a good child."
+
+"I know she will.  I saw fussiness in her face.  She's sure to be
+strict and prim, and I shall be so miserable."  Here Kitty began to cry
+over her woes.
+
+It was a habit of hers to have a great many troubles, and to be very
+much afflicted about trifles, for she had not a real trial in the world
+except her own fidgety little self.  As she sat on her trunk, with all
+her possessions scattered about her, and one great tear on the end of
+her nose (she couldn't squeeze out another to save her life), she was a
+very pathetic object; and mamma felt so tender about losing her that
+she could not make light of this grief, as she often did when Kitty
+wept over some trifle.
+
+All of a sudden a bright idea came into her head, for mothers' wits are
+usually sharper than other people's where their children are concerned.
+Up she got, and hurrying to her desk pulled out a box of many-colored
+note-paper, with envelopes to match, saying, as she showed them, with a
+smile,--
+
+"I've thought of a nice plan, a sort of joke between us.  Come here,
+and I'll tell you about it."
+
+So Kitty wiped away her one tear, and ran to hear the new plan, full of
+curiosity and interest; for pretty papers are always attractive, and
+mamma looked as if the joke was going to be a funny one.
+
+"I will fill your little portfolio with these, and for each color we
+will have a different meaning, which I shall understand.  Let me see.
+When you are well and happy, use this pink paper; when you are
+home-sick, take the blue; if you want goodies, use the green; and if
+you don't feel well, take the violet.  How do you like the idea, Puss?"
+
+"It's regularly splendid!  I do love to have secrets, and this will be
+such a nice one, all private between our two selves.  Mamma, you are a
+perfect dear, and I'll send you a letter every week.  It will be such
+fun to write it all prim and proper, and let madam see it, and then
+have it tell you all about me by the color."
+
+And Kitty danced about the room till the little blue bow on the top of
+her head stood straight up as if with excitement.
+
+So the portfolio was fitted out in great style, and Kitty felt as proud
+as you please; for other girls didn't have colored note-papers, much
+less private jokes with their mammas.  The new arrangement made her
+quite willing to go; and all that day she kept looking at her mother
+with twinkling eyes, and the last thing she said, as the carriage drove
+away, was,--
+
+"Don't forget what pink, blue, green, and violet means, mamma."
+
+The first week was a hard one, for every thing was new, and the rules
+were rather strict.  Kitty did her best for the honor of her family,
+but sometimes her woes did seem heavier than she could bear, especially
+French verbs, and getting up very early.
+
+So when Saturday came, and the home letters were to be written, she
+longed to pour out her full heart to dear mamma, but did not dare to do
+it, for madam went about among the girls, suggesting, correcting, and
+overseeing their productions as if they were nothing but compositions.
+
+"Remember, my dears, these three rules when you are writing letters.
+Always put in something about your heavenly Father, the progress of
+your studies, and your duty to parents and teachers.  None of these
+important points have been touched upon in your epistle, Miss
+Catherine; therefore, as it is much blotted, and badly spelled, I
+desire you to rewrite it, making these additions.  Here is an excellent
+sample of the proper style;" and madam laid a model letter before poor
+Kitty, who muttered to herself, as she read it,--
+
+"I might as well write a sermon, and done with it.  Papa will laugh,
+and mamma won't get one bit of news from it.  I'll let her know how
+unhappy I am any way."
+
+So Kitty took out her bluest paper (the homesick color, you know), and
+produced the following letter, which madam approved and sent:--
+
+
+MY DEAR MAMMA,--With every sentiment which affection can suggest, I
+hasten to inform you that I am well, and trust you also and my honored
+father are enjoying that best of blessings, robust health.
+
+I am endeavoring to prove by diligence and good conduct my gratitude
+for the advantages now offered me, and trust that my progress may be a
+source of satisfaction to my parents and teachers, as well as
+profitable to myself in years to come.
+
+Madam is most kind to me, and my schoolmates are agreeable and friendly
+young ladies.  That I may merit their affection and respect is the
+sincere wish of my heart, for friendship adds a charm to life, and
+strengthens the most amiable sentiments of the youthful mind.
+
+As Monday is your birthday, please accept this little picture as a
+token of my love, with best wishes for many happy returns of the day.
+May our heavenly Father, in his infinite goodness, long preserve you to
+us, and, when this earthly pilgrimage is over, may your landing be on
+that happy shore where naught but bliss can meet you, and where your
+virtues will receive the recompense which they deserve.
+
+I desire much to see you, but do not repine, since you deem it best to
+send me from you for a time.  Our meeting will be the more delightful
+for this separation, and time soon flies when profitably employed.
+
+Please give my love to all, especially my papa, and believe me, dear
+mamma,
+
+Your ever dutiful and affectionate daughter,
+
+CATHERINE AUGUSTA MURRY.
+
+
+"It's perfectly awful," said Kitty to herself, as she read it over; and
+so it was, but madam was an old fashioned lady, and had been brought up
+to honor her parents in the old-fashioned way.  Letters like that were
+written in her youth, and she saw no occasion to change the style for
+what she called the modern slipshod mixture of gossip and slang.
+
+The good lady never thought there might be a middle course, and that it
+was a better way to teach composition to let the children write their
+own natural little letters, with hints as to spelling, grammar, and
+other necessary matters, than to make them copy the Grandisonian style
+of her own youth.
+
+Poor Kitty rebelled sadly, but submitted, and found her only comfort in
+the thought that mamma would find something in the letter besides what
+this disrespectful little person called "madam's old rubbish."
+
+Mamma did find it, and sent back such a tender reply that Kitty's heart
+reproached her for causing so much anxiety, when things were not very
+bad after one got used to them.
+
+So the next letter was a cheerful pink one, and though the contents
+were not a bit more interesting than the first one it gave great
+satisfaction.
+
+A green one went next, for as Kitty's spirits improved she felt the
+need of a few home goodies to sweeten her studies and enliven her play
+hours.  As only sensible dainties came, and madam was propitiated by a
+particularly delicate cake, presented with all due respect, she made no
+objection to an occasional box from home.
+
+Kitty therefore found herself a great favorite, and all the girls were
+very fond of her, especially when the "sweeties" arrived.
+
+"I think your mother is perfectly splendid to send such nice things
+without your saying a word.  I have to tease mine when I go home on a
+visit, and she always forgets, and I can't remind her because the
+griffin sees my letters, and cuts out all requests for food, 'as if you
+were not properly supplied with the best in the market.'"
+
+Fanny said that,--the wag and romp of the school,--and as she imitated
+the "griffin," as she had naughtily named madam, there was a general
+giggle, in which Kitty was glad to join, for she did get goodies
+without "saying a word," and the idea tickled her immensely.
+
+But she told her secret to no one, and, finding that the pink notes
+made mamma very happy, she tried not to think of her "woes" when she
+sat down to write.  This little bit of self-denial was its own reward;
+for, as the woes only existed in her own imagination, when she
+resolutely stopped thinking of them they vanished.
+
+Plenty of work and play, young society, and the affectionate desire to
+please her mother did for Kitty just what mamma had hoped.  At home she
+was too much petted and pitied, as the youngest is apt to be; and so
+she had the "fidgets," which are to little people what "nerves" are to
+the elders.  Now she had no time to dawdle and bemoan herself: if she
+did, other girls went to the head of the class, led the games, and got
+the best marks.
+
+So Kitty bestirred herself, and in three months was quite another
+child.  Madam praised her, the girls loved her, mamma was both pleased
+and proud, and papa quite decided that Puss should have a little gold
+watch on her next birthday.
+
+The pink paper was soon used up, since there was no call for any of the
+other colors, except an occasional green sheet; and a new stock was
+gladly sent by mamma, who was quite satisfied with the success of her
+little plot.
+
+But mamma had been rather troubled about one thing, and that was the
+breaking of the rule.  It had seemed a foolish one to her, and she had
+taught Kitty how to escape it.  That was a bad example, and so she
+wrote to madam and "'fessed," like an honest mamma as she was.
+
+She did it so prettily and penitently that old madam was not angry;
+indeed, when the matter was sensibly and respectfully put before her,
+she saw the justice of it, forgave the little plot, and amazed her
+pupils by gradually omitting to watch over them as they wrote.
+
+When saucy Fanny spoke of it, she answered that she trusted them to
+write only what was true and modest, and, finding that the times had
+changed a little since her young days, she meant to relax some of her
+rules.
+
+That pleased the girls, and they proved their gratitude by honorably
+forbearing to put into their letters any thing disrespectful toward the
+dear old griffin.  Some of the most affectionate freely took their
+letters to her for correction; and when she had read a few, and laughed
+over them till her spectacles were dim, she quite depended on seeing
+them, and found what used to be a dull task now changed to a very
+pleasant amusement.
+
+As a contrast to the model letter already inserted (and which I beg
+leave to state was really written from school by a little girl of
+twelve), I will only add one which Kitty wrote after the old rule was
+set aside:--
+
+
+MY DEAR LITTLE MAMMA,--Now that I can tell you every thing, I will
+answer the questions you asked in your last, and please, please don't
+think I am a vain thing because I seem to praise myself.  It is truly
+what people say and do, and I never should have told if you had not
+asked me.
+
+You want to know if I am liked.  Why, mamma, I'm a leading girl.
+Others fight to walk with me, and bribe me with their nice things to
+sit by them.  I'm at the head most of the time, and try not to be grand
+about it; so I help the others, and am as kind and generous as I know
+how to be.
+
+Madam is just as dear and clever as she can be, and I'm actually fond
+of her.  Don't tell, but I fancy I'm her favorite, for she lets me do
+ever so many things that she once forbid, and isn't half so strict as
+she was.
+
+I'm truly glad I came, for I do get on, and haven't had a woe this ever
+so long.  Isn't that nice?  I'm homesick sometimes, and look at my blue
+paper, but I won't use it; so I go and have a good run, or chatter
+French with madam, and get cheered up before I write.
+
+I miss you most at night, mamma dear, for then I have no one to tell my
+goods and bads to, and so get right.  But not having you, I remember
+what you told me, that I always have God, and to him I open my heart as
+I never did before Prayers mean something to me now, and I say them so
+earnestly that sometimes I cry, and that makes me feel so fresh and
+strong and ready to go on again.
+
+I do try to be good, and don't ask for any reward but to see you look
+proud and pleased when I come home.  I'd give any thing if I could hug
+you now and then, because you don't mind if I tumble your collar: madam
+does, and that spoils the fun of it.  Kissing is a kind of inspiration,
+you know; and one doesn't stop to think of clothes when one is so full
+of love, it must spill over in kisses.
+
+That sounds sentimental, but I'm not going to take it out, because
+you'll understand what I mean, and won't laugh.  That's the comfort of
+private letters, isn't it?
+
+Now, good-by, my dearest mother.  Lots of love to papa, and do both
+write soon to your own little PUSS.
+
+
+Just as Kitty was folding it up, madam came by, and quite mechanically
+held out her hand for it, as she used to do.
+
+Kitty caught it back, and then blushed and looked distressed; for madam
+said gravely, as she remembered the new rule,--
+
+"I beg your pardon, I forgot.  Seal it up, my dear; I won't ask to read
+your secrets any more."
+
+Kitty saw that she was hurt, and with an impulsive gesture thrust the
+letter into madam's hand, saying bravely, though she quaked a little at
+some of the things she had written,--
+
+"Please read it.  There are no secrets in it, only foolish things that
+mamma likes to know because they are about me.  You'll think I'm a vain
+goose, but I'd rather you did that than think I told tales, or did any
+thing sly."
+
+Thus urged, madam read the letter; and Kitty stood by, with cheeks much
+pinker than the paper, expecting a lecture when the last word came.
+But, to her great amazement, the old lady kissed her as she gave it
+back, and said, in a voice as gentle as if speaking to one of her own
+little daughters, lost long ago,--
+
+"It is a good letter, my dear, and a true one.  Give my regards to your
+mamma, and tell her that your suspicion about my favorite is quite
+correct."
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+KATE'S CHOICE.
+
+"Well, what do you think of her?"
+
+"I think she's a perfect dear, and not a bit stuck up with all her
+money."
+
+"A real little lady, and ever so pretty."
+
+"She kissed me lots, and don't tell me to run away, so I love her."
+
+The group of brothers and sisters standing round the fire laughed as
+little May finished the chorus of praise with these crowning virtues.
+
+Tall Alf asked the question, and seemed satisfied with the general
+approval of the new cousin just come from England to live with them.
+They had often heard of Kate, and rather prided themselves on the fact
+that she lived in a fine house, was very rich, and sent them charming
+presents.  Now pity was added to the pride, for Kate was an orphan, and
+all her money could not buy back the parents she had lost.  They had
+watched impatiently for her arrival, had welcomed her cordially, and
+after a day spent in trying to make her feel at home they were
+comparing notes in the twilight, while Kate was having a quiet talk
+with mamma.
+
+"I hope she will choose to live with us.  You know she can go to any of
+the uncles she likes best," said Alf.
+
+"We are nearer her age than any of the other cousins, and papa is the
+oldest uncle, so I guess she will," added Milly, the fourteen-year-old
+daughter of the house.
+
+"She said she liked America," said quiet Frank.
+
+"Wonder if she will give us a lot of her money?" put in practical Fred,
+who was always in debt.
+
+"Stop that!" commanded Alf.  "Mind now, if you ever ask her for a penny
+I'll shake you out of your jacket."
+
+"Hush! she's coming," cried Milly, and a dead silence followed the
+lively chatter.
+
+A fresh-faced bright-eyed girl of fifteen came quietly in, glanced at
+the group on the rug, and paused as if doubtful whether she was wanted.
+
+"Come on!" said Fred, encouragingly.
+
+"Shall I be in the way?"
+
+"Oh! dear, no, we were only talking," answered Milly, drawing her
+cousin nearer with an arm about her waist.
+
+"It sounded like something pleasant," said Kate, not exactly knowing
+what to say.
+
+"We were talking about you," began little May, when a poke from Frank
+made her stop to ask, "What's that for?  We were talking about Kate,
+and we all said we liked her, so it's no matter if I do tell."
+
+"You are very kind," and Kate looked so pleased that the children
+forgave May's awkward frankness.
+
+"Yes, and we hoped you'd like us and stay with us," said Alf, in the
+lofty and polite manner which he thought became the young lord of the
+house.
+
+"I am going to try all the uncles in turn, and then decide; papa wished
+it," answered Kate, with a sudden tremble of the lips, for her father
+was the only parent she could remember, and had been unusually dear for
+that reason.
+
+"Can you play billiards?" asked Fred, who had a horror of seeing girls
+cry.
+
+"Yes, and I'll teach you."
+
+"You had a pony-carriage at your house, didn't you?" added Frank, eager
+to help on the good work.
+
+"At grandma's,--I had no other home, you know," answered Kate.
+
+"What shall you buy first with your money?" asked May, who _would_ ask
+improper questions.
+
+"I'd buy a grandma if I could," and Kate both smiled and sighed.
+
+"How funny!  We've got one somewhere, but we don't care much about
+her," continued May, with the inconvenient candor of a child.
+
+"Have you?  Where is she?" and Kate turned quickly, looking full of
+interest.
+
+"Papa's mother is very old, and lives ever so far away in the country,
+so of course we don't see much of her," explained Alf.
+
+"But papa writes sometimes, and mamma sends her things every Christmas.
+We don't remember her much, because we never saw her but once, ever so
+long ago; but we do care for her, and May mustn't say such rude
+things," said Milly.
+
+"I shall go and see her.  I can't get on without a grandmother," and
+Kate smiled so brightly that the lads thought her prettier than ever.
+"Tell me more about her.  Is she a dear old lady?"
+
+"Don't know.  She is lame, and lives in the old house, and has a maid
+named Dolly, and--that's all I can tell you about her," and Milly
+looked a little vexed that she could say no more on the subject that
+seemed to interest her cousin so much.
+
+Kate looked surprised, but said nothing, and stood looking at the fire
+as if turning the matter over in her mind, and trying to answer the
+question she was too polite to ask,--how could they live without a
+grandmother?  Here the tea-bell rang, and the flock ran laughing
+downstairs; but, though she said no more, Kate remembered that
+conversation, and laid a plan in her resolute little mind which she
+carried out when the time came.
+
+According to her father's wish she lived for a while in the family of
+each of the four uncles before she decided with which she would make
+her home.  All were anxious to have her, one because of her money,
+another because her great-grandfather had been a lord, a third hoped to
+secure her for his son, while the fourth and best family loved her for
+herself alone.  They were worthy people, as the world goes,--busy,
+ambitious, and prosperous; and every one, old and young, was fond of
+bright, pretty, generous Kate.  Each family was anxious to keep her, a
+little jealous of the rest, and very eager to know which she would
+choose.
+
+But Kate surprised them all by saying decidedly when the time came,--
+
+"I must see grandma before I choose.  Perhaps I ought to have visited
+her first, as she is the oldest.  I think papa would wish me to do it.
+At any rate, I want to pay my duty to her before I settle anywhere, so
+please let me go."
+
+Some of the young cousins laughed at the idea, and her old-fashioned,
+respectful way of putting it, which contrasted strongly with their
+free-and-easy American speech.  The uncles were surprised, but agreed
+to humor her whim, and Uncle George, the eldest, said softly,--
+
+"I ought to have remembered that poor Anna was mother's only daughter,
+and the old lady would naturally love to see the girl.  But, my dear,
+it will be desperately dull.  Only two old women and a quiet country
+town.  No fun, no company, you won't stay long."
+
+"I shall not mind the dulness if grandma likes to have me there.  I
+lived very quietly in England, and was never tired of it.  Nursey can
+take care of me, and I think the sight of me will do the dear old lady
+good, because they tell me I am like mamma."
+
+Something in the earnest young face reminded Uncle George of the sister
+he had almost forgotten, and recalled his own youth so pleasantly that
+he said, with a caress of the curly head beside him,--
+
+"So it would, I'm sure of it, and I've a great mind to go with you and
+'pay my duty' to mother, as you prettily express it."
+
+"Oh, no, please don't, sir; I want to surprise her, and have her all to
+myself for a little while.  Would you mind if I went quite alone with
+Nursey?  You can come later."
+
+"Not a bit; you shall do as you like, and make sunshine for the old
+lady as you have for us.  I haven't seen her for a year, but I know she
+is well and comfortable, and Dolly guards her like a dragon.  Give her
+my love, Kitty, and tell her I send her something she will value a
+hundred times more than the very best tea, the finest cap, or the
+handsomest tabby that ever purred."
+
+So, in spite of the lamentations of her cousins, Kate went gayly away
+to find the grandma whom no one else seemed to value as she did.
+
+You see, grandpa had been a farmer, and lived contentedly on the old
+place until he died; but his four sons wanted to be something better,
+so they went away one after the other to make their way in the world.
+All worked hard, got rich, lived splendidly, and forgot as far as
+possible the old life and the dull old place they came from.  They were
+good sons in their way, and had each offered his mother a home with him
+if she cared to come.  But grandma clung to the old home, the simple
+ways, and quiet life, and, thanking them gratefully, she had remained
+in the big farm-house, empty, lonely, and plain though it was, compared
+to the fine homes of her sons.
+
+Little by little the busy men forgot the quiet, uncomplaining old
+mother, who spent her years thinking of them, longing to see and know
+their children, hoping they would one day remember how she loved them
+all, and how solitary her life must be.
+
+Now and then they wrote or paid her a hasty visit, and all sent gifts
+of far less value to her than one loving look, one hour of dutiful,
+affectionate companionship.
+
+"If you ever want me, send and I'll come.  Or, if you ever need a home,
+remember the old place is here always open, and you are always
+welcome," the good old lady said.  But they never seemed to need her,
+and so seldom came that the old place evidently had no charm for them.
+
+It was hard, but the sweet old woman bore it patiently, and lived her
+lonely life quietly and usefully, with her faithful maid Dolly to serve
+and love and support her.
+
+Kate's mother, her one daughter, had married young, gone to England,
+and, dying early, had left the child to its father and his family.
+Among them little Kate had grown up, knowing scarcely any thing of her
+American relations until she was left an orphan and went back to her
+mother's people.  She had been the pet of her English grandmother, and,
+finding all the aunts busy, fashionable women, had longed for the
+tender fostering she had known, and now felt as if only grandmothers
+could give.
+
+With a flutter of hope and expectation, she approached the old house
+after the long journey was over.  Leaving the luggage at the inn, and
+accompanied by faithful Nurse, Kate went up the village street, and,
+pausing at the gate, looked at the home where her mother had been born.
+
+A large, old-fashioned farm-house, with a hospitable porch and tall
+trees in front, an orchard behind, and a capital hill for blackberries
+in summer, and coasting in winter, close by.  All the upper windows
+were curtained, and made the house look as if it was half-asleep.  At
+one of the lower windows sat a portly puss, blinking in the sun, and at
+the other appeared a cap, a regular grandmotherly old cap, with a
+little black bow perked up behind.  Something in the lonely look of the
+house and the pensive droop of that cap made Katy hurry up the walk and
+tap eagerly at the antique knocker.  A brisk little old woman peered
+out, as if startled at the sound, and Kate asked, smiling, "Does Madam
+Coverley live here?"
+
+"She does, dear.  Walk right in," and throwing wide the door, the maid
+trotted down a long, wide hall, and announced in a low tone to her
+mistress,--
+
+"A nice, pretty little girl wants to see you, mum."
+
+"I shall love to see a young face.  Who is it, Dolly?" asked a pleasant
+voice.
+
+"Don't know, mum."
+
+"Grandma must guess," and Kate went straight up to the old lady with
+both hands out, for the first sight of that sweet old face won her
+heart.
+
+Lifting her spectacles, grandma looked silently a minute, then opened
+her arms without a word, and in the long embrace that followed Kate
+felt assured that she was welcome to the home she wanted.
+
+"So like my Anna!  And this is her little girl?  God bless you, my
+darling!  So good to come and see me!" said the old lady when she could
+speak.
+
+"Why, grandma, I couldn't get on without you, and as soon as I knew
+where to find you I was in a fidget to be off; but had to do my other
+visits first, because the uncles had planned it so.  This is Dolly, I
+am sure, and that is my good nurse.  Go and get my things, please,
+Nursey.  I shall stay here until grandma sends me away."
+
+"That will never be, deary.  Now tell me every thing.  It is like an
+angel coming to see me all of a sudden.  Sit close, and let me feel
+sure it isn't one of the dreams I make to cheer myself when I'm
+lonesome."
+
+Kate sat on a little stool at grandma's feet, and, leaning on her knee,
+told all her little story, while the old lady fed her hungry eyes with
+the sight of the fresh young face, listened to the music of a loving
+voice, and felt the happy certainty that some one had remembered her,
+as she longed to be remembered.
+
+Such a happy day as Kate spent talking and listening, looking at her
+new home, which she found delightful, and being petted by the two old
+women, who would hardly let Nursey do any thing for her.  Kate's quick
+eyes read the truth of grandma's lonely life very soon; her warm heart
+was full of tender pity, and she resolved to devote herself to making
+the happiness of the dear old lady's few remaining years, for at eighty
+one should have the prop of loving children, if ever.
+
+To Dolly and madam it really did seem as if an angel had come, a
+singing, smiling, chattering sprite, who danced all over the old house,
+making blithe echoes in the silent room, and brightening every corner
+she entered.
+
+Kate opened all the shutters and let in the sun, saying she must see
+which room she liked best before she settled.  She played on the old
+piano, that wheezed and jangled, all out of tune; but no one minded,
+for the girlish voice was as sweet as a lark's.  She invaded Dolly's
+sacred kitchen, and messed to her heart's content, delighting the old
+soul by praises of her skill, and petitions to be taught all she knew.
+She pranced to and fro in the long hall, and got acquainted with the
+lives of painted ancestors hanging there in big wigs or short-waisted
+gowns.  She took possession of grandma's little parlor, and made it so
+cosey the old lady felt as if she was bewitched, for cushioned
+arm-chairs, fur foot-stools, soft rugs, and delicate warm shawls
+appeared like magic.  Flowers bloomed in the deep, sunny window-seats,
+pictures of lovely places seemed to break out on the oaken walls, a
+dainty work-basket took its place near grandma's quaint one, and, best
+of all, the little chair beside her own was seldom empty now.
+
+The first thing in the morning a kiss waked her, and the beloved voice
+gave her a gay "Good-morning, grandma dear!"  All day Anna's child
+hovered about her with willing hands and feet to serve her, loving
+heart to return her love, and the tender reverence which is the
+beautiful tribute the young should pay the old.  In the twilight, the
+bright head always was at her knees; and, in either listening to the
+stories of the past or making lively plans for the future, Kate whiled
+away the time that used to be so sad.
+
+Kate never found it lonely, seldom wished for other society, and grew
+every day more certain that here she could find the cherishing she
+needed, and do the good she hoped.
+
+Dolly and Nurse got on capitally; each tried which could sing "Little
+Missy's" praises loudest, and spoil her quickest by unquestioning
+obedience to every whim or wish.  A happy family, and the dull November
+days went by so fast that Christmas was at hand before they knew it.
+
+All the uncles had written to ask Kate to pass the holidays with them,
+feeling sure she must be longing for a change.  But she had refused
+them all, saying she should stay with grandma, who could not go
+anywhere to join other people's merry-makings, and must have one of her
+own at home.  The uncles urged, the aunts advised, and the cousins
+teased; but Kate denied them all, yet offended no one, for she was
+inspired by a grand idea, and carried it out with help from Dolly and
+Nurse, unsuspected by grandma.
+
+"We are going to have a little Christmas fun up here among ourselves,
+and you mustn't know about it until we are ready.  So just sit all
+cosey in your corner, and let me riot about as I like.  I know you
+won't mind, and I think you'll say it is splendid when I've carried out
+my plan," said Kate, when the old lady wondered what she was thinking
+about so deeply, with her brows knit and her lips smiling.
+
+"Very well, dear, do any thing you like, and I shall enjoy it, only
+don't get tired, or try to do too much," and with that grandma became
+deaf and blind to the mysteries that went on about her.
+
+She was lame, and seldom left her own rooms; so Kate, with her devoted
+helpers, turned the house topsy-turvy, trimmed up hall and parlors and
+great dining-room with shining holly and evergreen, laid fires ready
+for kindling on the hearths that had been cold for years, and had beds
+made up all over the house.
+
+What went on in the kitchen, only Dolly could tell; but such delicious
+odors as stole out made grandma sniff the air, and think of merry
+Christmas revels long ago.  Up in her own room Kate wrote lots of
+letters, and sent orders to the city that made Nursey hold up her
+hands.  More letters came in reply, and Kate had a rapture over every
+one.  Big bundles were left by the express, who came so often that the
+gates were opened and the lawn soon full of sleigh-tracks.  The shops
+in the village were ravaged by Mistress Kate, who laid in stores of gay
+ribbon, toys, nuts, and all manner of queer things.
+
+"I really think she's lost her mind," said the post-master as she flew
+out of the office one day with a handful of letters.
+
+"Pretty creter!  I wouldn't say a word against her, not for a mint of
+money.  She's so good to old Mrs. Coverley," answered his fat wife,
+smiling as she watched Kate ride up the village street on an ox-sled.
+
+If grandma had thought the girl out of her wits, no one could have
+blamed her, for on Christmas day she really did behave in the most
+singular manner.
+
+"You are going to church with me this morning, grandma.  It's all
+arranged.  A close carriage is coming for us, the sleighing is lovely,
+the church all trimmed up, and I must have you see it.  I shall wrap
+you in fur, and we will go and say our prayers together, like good
+girls, won't we?" said Kate, who was in a queer flutter, while her eyes
+shone, her lips were all smiles, and her feet kept dancing in spite of
+her.
+
+"Anywhere you like, my darling.  I'd start for Australia to-morrow, if
+you wanted me to go with you," answered grandma, who obeyed Kate in all
+things, and seemed to think she could do no wrong.
+
+So they went to church, and grandma did enjoy it; for she had many
+blessings to thank God for, chief among them the treasure of a dutiful,
+loving child.  Kate tried to keep herself quiet, but the odd little
+flutter would not subside, and seemed to get worse and worse as time
+went on.  It increased rapidly as they drove home, and, when grandma
+was safe in her little parlor again, Kate's hands trembled go she could
+hardly tie the strings of the old lady's state and festival cap.
+
+"We must take a look at the big parlor.  It is all trimmed up, and I've
+got my presents in there.  Is it ready, Doll?" asked Kate, as the old
+servant appeared, looking so excited that grandma said, laughing,--
+
+"We have been quiet so long, poor Dolly don't know what to make of a
+little gayety."
+
+"Lord bless us, my dear mum!  It's all so beautiful and kinder
+surprisin', I feel as ef merrycles had come to pass agin," answered
+Dolly, actually wiping away tears with her best white apron.
+
+"Come, grandma," and Kate offered her arm.  "Don't she look sweet and
+dear?" she added, smoothing the soft, silken shawl about the old lady's
+shoulders, and kissing the placid old face that beamed at her from
+under the new cap.
+
+"I always said madam was the finest old lady a-goin', ef folks only
+knew it.  Now, Missy, ef you don't make haste, that parlor-door will
+bust open, and spoil the surprise; for they are just bilin' over in
+there," with which mysterious remark Dolly vanished, giggling.
+
+Across the hall they went, but at the door Kate paused, and said with a
+look grandma never forgot,--
+
+"I hope I have done right.  I hope you'll like my present, and not find
+it too much for you.  At any rate, remember I meant to please you and
+give you the thing you need and long for most, my dear old grandma."
+
+"My good child, don't be afraid.  I shall like any thing you do, and
+thank you for your thought of me.  What a curious noise!  I hope the
+fire hasn't fallen down."
+
+Without another word, Kate threw open the door and led grandma in.
+Only a step or two--for the old lady stopped short and stared about
+her, as if she didn't know her own best parlor.  No wonder she didn't,
+for it was full of people, and such people!  All her sons, their wives
+and children, rose as she came in, and turned to greet her with smiling
+faces.  Uncle George went up and kissed her, saying, with a choke in
+his voice, "A merry Christmas, mother!" and everybody echoed the words
+in a chorus of good-will that went straight to the heart.
+
+Poor grandma could not bear it, and sat down in her big chair,
+trembling, and sobbing like a little child.  Kate hung over her,
+fearing the surprise had been too much; but joy seldom kills, and
+presently the old lady was calm enough to look up and welcome them all
+by stretching out her feeble hands and saying, brokenly yet heartily,--
+
+"God bless you, my children!  This _is_ a merry Christmas, indeed!  Now
+tell me all about it, and who everybody is; for I don't know half the
+little ones."
+
+Then Uncle George explained that it was Kate's plan, and told how she
+had made every one agree to it, pleading so eloquently for grandma that
+all other plans were given up.  They had arrived while she was at
+church, and had been with difficulty kept from bursting out before the
+time.
+
+"Do you like your present?" whispered Kate, quite calm and happy now
+that the grand surprise was safely over.
+
+Grandma answered with a silent kiss that said more than the warmest
+words, and then Kate put every one at ease by leading up the children,
+one by one, and introducing each with some lively speech.  Everybody
+enjoyed this and got acquainted quickly; for grandma thought the
+children the most remarkable she had ever seen, and the little people
+soon made up their minds that an old lady who had such a very nice, big
+house, and such a dinner waiting for them (of course they had peeped
+everywhere), was a most desirable and charming grandma.
+
+By the time the first raptures were over Dolly and Nurse and Betsey
+Jane (a girl hired for the occasion) had got dinner on the table; and
+the procession, headed by Madam proudly escorted by her eldest son,
+filed into the dining-room where such a party had not met for years.
+
+It would be quite impossible to do justice to that dinner: pen and ink
+are not equal to it.  I can only say that every one partook copiously
+of every thing; that they laughed and talked, told stories, and sang
+songs; and when no one could do any more, Uncle George proposed
+grandma's health, which was drunk standing, and followed by three
+cheers.  Then up got the old lady, quite rosy and young, excited and
+gay, and said in a clear strong voice,--
+
+"I give you in return the best of grandchildren, little Kate."
+
+I give you my word the cheer they gave grandma was nothing to the shout
+that followed these words; for the old lady led off with amazing vigor,
+and the boys roared so tremendously that the sedate tabby in the
+kitchen flew off her cushion, nearly frightened into a fit.
+
+After that, the elders sat with grandma in the parlor, while the
+younger part of the flock trooped after Kate all over the house.  Fires
+burned every where, and the long unused toys of their fathers were
+brought out for their amusement.  The big nursery was full of games,
+and here Nursey collected the little ones when the larger boys and
+girls were invited by Kate to go out and coast.  Sleds had been
+provided, and until dusk they kept it up, the city girls getting as gay
+and rosy as Kate herself in this healthy sport, while the lads
+frolicked to their hearts' content, building snow forts, pelting one
+another, and carousing generally without any policeman to interfere or
+any stupid old ladies to get upset, as at home in the park.
+
+A cosey tea and a dance in the long hall followed, and they were just
+thinking what they would do next when Kate's second surprise came.
+
+There were two great fireplaces in the hall: up the chimney of one
+roared a jolly fire, but the other was closed by a tall fire-board.  As
+they sat about, lasting after a brisk contra dance, a queer rustling
+and tapping was heard behind this fire-board.
+
+"Rats!" suggested the girls, jumping up into the chairs.
+
+"Let's have 'em out!" added the boys, making straight for the spot,
+intent on fun.
+
+But before they got there, a muffled voice cried, "Stand from under!"
+and down went the board with a crash, out bounced Santa Claus,
+startling the lads as much as the rumor of rats had the girls.
+
+A jolly old saint he was, all in fur, with sleigh-bells jingling from
+his waist and the point of his high cap, big boots, a white beard, and
+a nose as red as if Jack Frost had had a good tweak at it.  Giving
+himself a shake that set all the bells ringing, he stepped out upon the
+hearth, saying in a half-gruff, half-merry tone,--
+
+"I call this a most inhospitable way to receive me!  What do you mean
+by stopping up my favorite chimney?  Never mind, I'll forgive you, for
+this is an unusual occasion.  Here, some of you fellows, lend a hand
+and help me out with my sack."
+
+A dozen pair of hands had the great bag out in a minute, and, lugging
+it to the middle of the hall, left it beside St. Nick, while the boys
+fell back into the eager, laughing crowd that surrounded the new-comer.
+
+"Where's my girl?  I want my Kate," said the saint, and when she went
+to him he took a base advantage of his years, and kissed her in spite
+of the beard.
+
+"That's not fair," whispered Kate, as rosy as the holly-berries in her
+hair.
+
+"Can't help it,--must have some reward for sticking in that horrid
+chimney so long," answered Santa Claus, looking as roguish as any boy.
+Then he added aloud, "I've got something for everybody, so make a big
+ring, and the good fairy will hand round the gifts."
+
+With that he dived into his bag and brought out treasure after
+treasure, some fine, some funny, many useful, and all appropriate, for
+the good fairy seemed to have guessed what each one wanted.  Shouts of
+laughter greeted the droll remarks of the jolly saint, for he had a
+joke about every thing, and people were quite exhausted by the time the
+bottom of the sack was reached.
+
+"Now, then, a rousing good game of blind man's buff, and then this
+little family must go to bed, for it's past eleven."
+
+As he spoke, the saint cast off his cap and beard, fur coat, and big
+boots, and proceeded to dance a double shuffle with great vigor and
+skill; while the little ones, who had been thoroughly mystified,
+shouted, "Why, it's Alf!" and fell upon him _en masse_ as the best way
+of expressing their delight at his successful performance of that
+immortal part.
+
+The game of blind man's buff that followed was a "rouser" in every
+sense of the word, for the gentlemen joined, and the children flew
+about like a flock of chickens when hawks are abroad.  Such peals of
+laughter, such shouts of fun, and such racing and scrambling that old
+hall had never seen before.  Kate was so hunted that she finally took
+refuge behind grandma's chair, and stood there looking at the lively
+scene, her face full of happiness at she remembered that it was her
+work.
+
+The going to bed that night was the best joke of all; for, though
+Kate's arrangements were peculiar, every one voted that they were
+capital.  There were many rooms, but not enough for all to have one
+apiece.  So the uncles and aunts had the four big chambers, all the
+boys were ordered into the great play-room, where beds were made on the
+floor, and a great fire blazing that the camping out might be as
+comfortable as possible.  The nursery was devoted to the girls, and the
+little ones were sprinkled round wherever a snug corner was found.
+
+How the riotous flock were ever got into their beds no one knows.  The
+lads caroused until long past midnight, and no knocking on the walls of
+paternal boots, or whispered entreaties of maternal voices through
+key-holes, had any effect, for it was impossible to resist the present
+advantages for a grand Christmas rampage.
+
+The girls giggled and gossiped, told secrets, and laid plans more
+quietly; while the small things tumbled into bed, and went to sleep at
+once, quite used up with the festivities of this remarkable day.
+
+Grandma, down in her own cosey room, sat listening to the blithe noises
+with a smile on her face, for the past seemed to have come back again,
+and her own boys and girls to be frolicking above there, as they used
+to do forty years ago.
+
+"It's all so beautiful I can't go to bed, Dolly, and lose any of it.
+They'll go away to-morrow, and I may never see them any more," she
+said, as Dolly tied on her night-cap and brought her slippers.
+
+"Yes, you will, mum.  That dear child has made it so pleasant they
+can't keep away.  You'll see plenty of 'em, if they carry out half the
+plans they have made.  Mrs. George wants to come up and pass the summer
+here; Mr. Tom says he shall send his boys to school here, and every
+girl among them has promised Kate to make her a long visit.  The thing
+is done, mum, and you'll never be lonely any more."
+
+"Thank God for that!" and grandma bent her head as if she had received
+a great blessing.  "Dolly, I want to go and look at those children.  It
+seems so like a dream to have them here, I must be sure of it," said
+grandma, folding her wrapper about her, and getting up with great
+decision.
+
+"Massy on us, mum, you haven't been up them stairs for months.  The
+dears are all right, warm as toasts, and sleepin' like dormice, I'll
+warrant," answered Dolly, taken aback at this new whim of old madam's.
+
+But grandma would go, so Dolly gave her an arm, and together the two
+old friends hobbled up the wide stairs, and peeped in at the precious
+children.  The lads looked like a camp of weary warriors reposing after
+a victory, and grandma went laughing away when she had taken a proud
+survey of this promising portion of the rising generation.  The nursery
+was like a little convent full of rosy nuns sleeping peacefully; while
+a pictured Saint Agnes, with her lamb, smiled on them from the wall,
+and the firelight flickered over the white figures and sweet faces, as
+if the sight were too fair to be lost in darkness.  The little ones lay
+about promiscuously, looking like dissipated Cupids with sugar hearts
+and faded roses still clutched in their chubby hands.
+
+"My darlings!" whispered grandma, lingering fondly over them to cover a
+pair of rosy feet, put back a pile of tumbled curls, or kiss a little
+mouth still smiling in its sleep.
+
+But when she came to the coldest corner of the room, where Kate lay on
+the hardest mattress, under the thinnest quilt, the old lady's eyes
+were full of tender tears; and, forgetting the stiff joints that bent
+so painfully, she knelt slowly down, and, putting her arms about the
+girl, blessed her in silence for the happiness she had given one old
+heart.
+
+Kate woke at once, and started up, exclaiming with a smile,--
+
+"Why, grandma, I was dreaming about an angel, and you look like one
+with your white gown and silvery hair!"
+
+"No, dear, you are the angel in this house.  How can I ever give you
+up?" answered madam, holding fast the treasure that came to her so late.
+
+"You never need to, grandma, for I have made my choice."
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+THE MOSS PEOPLE.
+
+  "Rain, rain, go away,
+  Come again another day,"
+
+Sang little Marnie, as she stood at the window watching the drops
+patter on the pane, the elm-boughs toss in the wind, and the
+clover-blossoms lift up their rosy faces to be washed.  But the rain
+did not go away, and, finding that mamma had fallen asleep over her
+book, Marnie said to herself,---
+
+"I will go and play quietly with my fairy-land till mamma wakes up and
+cuts me some paper fairies to put in it."
+
+Marnie's fairy-land was as pretty a plaything as any child could wish
+for, and, as every child can make one in the summer-time, let us tell
+what it was.  The little girl firmly believed in elves and was always
+wishing she could go to fairy-land.  That rainy day, when she had
+longed for something to do, her mother said,--
+
+"As you can't go to fairy-land, why don't you make one for yourself?"
+
+Such a happy thought, and such a busy little girl as Marnie was,
+working away, forgetful of rain or loneliness!  Mamma was so kind and
+helpful in suggesting ways and supplying means, that the new fairy-land
+really did seem to rise as if by enchantment.
+
+A long, shallow box, filled with earth, which was covered with moss of
+all kinds, gathered by Marnie the day before; some green as grass, some
+soft as velvet, some full of red-brimmed cups, some feathery and tall,
+some pale and dry: marsh, rock, tree, and field had given their share,
+and out of this the little hands fashioned a dainty pleasure-ground for
+the elves.  Ferns and spires of evergreen were the trees fencing in the
+garden, standing in groups or making shady avenues.  Silver-white
+mushrooms with rosy lining stood here and there, like little tables,
+and mossy mounds or colored pebbles served for seats.  Marnie's china
+bowl was sunk deep in the moss, filled with water, on which floated
+pea-pod boats with rose-leaf sails.  Acorn-cups, with blue and white
+comfits for eggs, were fastened in the trees, and toy-birds brooded
+over their nests in the most natural manner.  Dead butterflies,
+lady-bugs, and golden-green beetles from Marnie's museum, hung here and
+there, as if alive.  On a small mound stood a pretty Swiss châlet, with
+some droll wooden men and women near it.  One girl was churning,
+another rocking a mite of a baby, a man and his donkey were just going
+up the hill, and a family of wooden bears from Berne sat round a table
+eating dinner.  A little marble hound with a golden chain about its
+neck guarded this child's paradise, and nothing was wanted to make it
+quite perfect but some of the winged paper dolls with prettily painted
+faces that mamma made so nicely.
+
+"I must wait till she wakes up," said Marnie, with a patient sigh, as
+she drew her little chair before the table where the box stood, and,
+leaning her chin on her chubby hand, sat looking admiringly at her work.
+
+The ruddy glow of the fire shone warmly over the green hills and dales
+of fairy-land, the soft patter of the rain sounded like tiny feet
+tripping to and fro, and all the motionless inhabitants of the garden
+seemed waiting for some spell to break their sleep.  Marnie never knew
+how it happened, but, as she sat looking at the Swiss cottage, she
+suddenly heard a rustling inside, and saw something pass before the
+open windows.  She thought the chrysalis she had put in there had come
+to life, and waited, hoping to see a pretty butterfly pop its head out.
+But what a start she gave when suddenly the little door opened and a
+wee man came marching out.  Yes, actually a living tiny man, dressed
+like a hunter, in green from top to toe, with a silver horn slung over
+his shoulder and a bow in his hand.
+
+Marnie held her breath lest she should blow him away, and peeped with
+all her eyes from behind the hemlock-boughs, wondering what would
+happen next.  Up the steps ran the little man to the balcony that
+always hangs outside a Swiss châlet, and lifting his horn to his lips
+blew a blast so soft and clear it sounded like the faint, far-off carol
+of a bird.  Three times the fairy bugle sounded, and at the third
+blast, swarming up from the moss below, dropping from the ferns above,
+floating on the ripples of the mimic lake, and turning somersaults over
+the mushrooms, came hundreds of lovely little creatures, all gay, all
+graceful, all in green.  How they danced to and fro, airy as motes in a
+sunbeam! how they sung and shouted as they peeped everywhere! and how
+their tiny faces shone as they rejoiced over the pleasant land they had
+found!  For the same peal that brought the moss people from their beds
+woke up every inanimate thing in fairy-land.
+
+The toy-birds began to sing, the butterflies and lady-bugs fluttered
+gayly about, the white hound broke his chain and frisked away, the
+wooden maid began to churn, the mother set the cradle rocking, while
+the mite of a baby kicked up its wooden legs, and the man whipped the
+donkey, which gave such a natural bray Marnie couldn't help laughing,
+it was so droll.  Smoke rose from the Swiss cottage, as if fairy feasts
+were being cooked within; and the merry moss people, charmed with the
+pretty house, crowded it so full that every window showed half-a-dozen
+bright faces, the balcony quite creaked with the weight of them, and
+green caps came bobbing out at the chimney-top.
+
+Dear me, what fun they did have!  Marnie never saw such capital games
+before; and the best of it was, every one joined in them,--moss men and
+women, wee moss children, even moss grandfathers and mothers, as gray
+as the lichens from which they came.  Delightful little folk they were,
+so lovely in face, so quaint in dress, so blithe and brisk in spirit,
+so wonderful and bewitching altogether that Marnie longed to call her
+mother, but did not, lest a word should frighten them away.
+
+Presently she caught the sound of delicate noises, and, listening
+intently, she discovered that they were talking of her.
+
+"Ha! ha! isn't this a fine pleasure-ground for us this rainy day!"
+cried one merry moss boy, as he paused to settle his pointed cap, after
+turning somersaults till he looked like a leaf blown about by the wind.
+
+"Hush, Prance," whispered a pretty little moss girl, with a wreath of
+coral in her hair, "you will wake the child if you shout so loud, and
+then she will no longer see and hear us, which would be a pity; for we
+amuse her, as one may guess by the smile on her face."
+
+Now that surprised Marnie very much, for she was sure she was wide
+awake, and would have said so, if she had not remembered that it was
+not polite to contradict.
+
+"What shall we do to thank this child for making as a pretty garden?"
+said Prance, skipping because he couldn't keep still.
+
+"Let us put her baby-house in order," answered little Trip, who was a
+tidy body.
+
+"So we will, and play in it afterward," cried all the moss children,
+whisking away to the corner of the nursery where Marnie's toys were
+tumbling about.  Such busy, helpful little people as they were! and
+such wonders as they worked with their fairy fingers!  Marnie forgot to
+be ashamed of the disorderly baby-house in her delight at the change
+they soon wrought.
+
+The boys mended broken chairs and tables, pots and pans, trundled the
+small furniture to its proper place, and attended to the wooden cows
+and horses in the topsy-turvy barn.  The little maids swept and dusted,
+put the doll's clothes in order, ran about the kitchen, washing cups
+and dishes, or rubbed up the mirrors in the drawing-room, which was a
+very fine apartment.  Yes, indeed! for the curtains were of red damask,
+the sofa had real pillows, a tiny piano tinkled its six notes, and the
+centre-table held a vase of elegant wax-flowers, not to mention that
+there was a grate, gilt clock, two fine candlesticks, and portraits of
+all the dolls painted by mamma.
+
+"There!" said Prance, when not a speck of dust remained: "now things
+look as they should, and I hope Miss Marnie will take the hint and keep
+her house tidy.  Now what shall we play?"
+
+"I've been thinking this would be a nice chance to try living like real
+people, as we have often wanted to.  Let some be servants, some fine
+ladies and gentlemen, and all do as much like these persons in the
+house as we can."
+
+As Trip spoke, all the moss children clapped their hands, and skipped
+about, crying,--
+
+"We will! we will!"
+
+The dear little sprites had no idea that servants were not as nice
+parts to play as master and mistress; so one was Byelow the nurse, and
+put on a cap and shawl, and took some very young moss folk into the
+doll's nursery to play be the fine people's children.  Another was
+cook, and clattered the pans about in the kitchen with a big apron on,
+and her little dress pinned up.  A third was Dimity the maid, very
+smart indeed, and full of airs.  A stoutish moss boy was coachman, and
+began to rub down the painted horses, and furbish up the little
+carriages in the stable; while another with plump legs put powder on
+his head and played footman.
+
+Prance and Trip took the hardest parts of all, for they said they would
+be master and mistress.  There was no trouble about clothes, for some
+fashion-books lay on the table, and these queer little things only had
+to choose what costume they would have, when, lo and behold! there it
+was all made and on.  Marnie didn't think them half so pretty in the
+fashionable finery as in their own simple green suits, and she laughed
+heartily at the funny mistakes they made in getting their furbelows and
+feathers properly arranged.  Poor Prance quite gasped in his little
+broadcloath suit as he put on a tiny beaver, smoothed his gloves, and
+shouldered a doll's umbrella, saying so like Marnie's papa that she
+quite started,--
+
+"Mrs. Prance, I wish to dine at three: don't be behind hand."
+
+"Yes, dear," meekly answered Trip, who had whisked into an elegant
+morning-dress and cap, and nodded from the window as Mr. Prance went by
+to his office.
+
+"What will you have for dinner, ma'am?" asked Skillet the cook, popping
+her head into the parlor where madam was playing read a novel on the
+sofa.
+
+"Mercy on us!  I'm sure I don't know;" and little Mrs. Prance ran down
+to see what there was in the pantry.
+
+Mr. Prance was evidently not a good provider; for all she could find
+was a pea which came out of one of the boats, some jelly, sugar, milk,
+and cake which Marnie had been playing with, and a whole dinner in
+wood, painted brilliantly and stuck on to the dishes.
+
+"It's a rainy day, and no one is likely to come to dinner, so we will
+have a pease pudding with jelly, and warm up these dishes, for every
+thing is very high,--we must economize," said Mrs. Prance, shaking her
+head, just as mamma often did when she visited the kitchen.
+
+"Very well, ma'am," returned Skillet, retiring into the closet to eat
+cake and jelly, and drink the milk as soon as her mistress left the
+room.
+
+"It's time to dress, I suppose, for some one may call.  Get out my blue
+silk and lace head-dress, Dimity," said Mrs. Prance, going up to her
+chamber, too busy about her toilet to mind the baby, who was crying in
+the nursery.
+
+"Lace me tightly.  I'm growing stout, I do believe, and my figure will
+be ruined if I allow it," said madam; and Dimity squeezed her into such
+a light dress that Trip got a pain in her side directly.  "I can bear
+it a little while, but I don't see how ladies can do it all the
+time,--it's dreadful!" she sighed, as Dimity piled her pretty hair in a
+fuzzy bunch on the top of her head, and hung jewels in her little ears,
+after putting costly bits of lace here and there, and poking her tiny
+feet into high-heeled boots that made her totter when she tried to
+walk.  These and her train nearly tripped her up, for, if Dimity had
+not caught her, Mrs. Prance would have tumbled downstairs.
+
+Hardly was she safe in the parlor when the bell rang, and Buttons
+showed in several very fashionable ladies, who sat down and began to
+talk about dress, servants, gentlemen, and the opera, so exactly like
+some of mamma's callers that Marnie wondered where the sly little moss
+people could have been hidden to know how to imitate them so well.  As
+soon as one lady left, all the rest said sharp things about her; and
+when they got out, after saying good-by most tenderly, they all abused
+Mrs. Prance, who said to herself when alone,--
+
+"Tiresome, ill-natured creatures, I can't bear any of them; but I must
+return their calls as soon as my new bonnet comes from Paris."
+
+By the time the last gossip was gone, it was past two, and Mrs. Prance
+was dying for her dinner, being quite exhausted.  Imagine her dismay
+when her husband arrived with two gentlemen to dine.  She clasped her
+hands and flew into the kitchen, where she found Skillet fuming over
+the little stove, and scolding because it wasn't a range like the one
+she used in her last place.  Every thing was in confusion, and the
+prospect of dinner a gloomy one.
+
+"We must have soup," cried distracted Mrs. Prance.
+
+"No meat to make it of, ma'am," said Skillet, crossly.
+
+"Boil two or three of these caraway-seeds in a pot of hot water, pepper
+it well, and add the leg of that fly to give it a relish, then call it
+by some French name, and it will be all right," returned Mrs. Prance,
+who was suddenly inspired by this bright thought.  "Dissolve some of
+the jelly for wine, and send up those nuts and raisins for dessert.  Do
+your best, Skillet, and don't keep us waiting."
+
+"I'd like to give you a week's warning, ma'am, the place don't suit
+me," said the red-faced cook, with her arms akimbo.
+
+"Don't be impertinent, Skillet!  You can go tomorrow, if you wish, but
+till then behave yourself," and Mrs. Prance retired with dignity.
+
+Dressing her tired countenance in smiles, she went to welcome her
+undesired guests, and thank them for "this unexpected pleasure."  Mr.
+William Wisp and Mr. Robin Goodfellow were two very elegant little
+gentlemen, with ruffled shirt-fronts, eye-glasses, and curled-up
+mustaches, quite splendid to behold.  They chatted with their host and
+hostess in the most affable manner, affecting not to see that Mr.
+Prance's face grew more and more stern every minute, and that poor Mrs.
+Prance cast despairing glances at the clock, which plainly said
+"half-past three."
+
+It really was becoming awkward, when Buttons announced, "Dinner,
+ma'am," and the cloud lifted suddenly from the faces of all.  Skillet
+had done her best, fearing she wouldn't get her wages if she didn't;
+and the first course did very well.
+
+Greasy warm water, flavored with pepper, was so like a French soup no
+one knew the difference, and everybody took a few sips and pretended to
+like it; but to airy creatures, fed on sun and dew, it wasn't nice, of
+course.  There was no fish, for the tin ones melted in the frying-pan;
+and there was no time to get any more.  The wooden leg of mutton got
+burnt in the oven, and the painted vegetables were not very
+satisfactory, though they looked quite fine.  Mr. Prance frowned as he
+chipped away at the meat, and Mrs. Prance wanted to sob behind her
+napkin as he gave her a black look, saying sternly,--
+
+"Mrs. P., your cook is unbearable.  I desire that you will dismiss her
+at once."
+
+"I have, my dear," meekly answered his wife; and then good-natured Mr.
+Wisp struck in with a droll anecdote, while every one pecked at the
+painted feast, and was glad when the pudding came.
+
+Here was another blow; for instead of leaving the pea in its skin, and
+sending it up a nice, round little pudding, Skillet had taken the skin
+off as if it was the cloth it was boiled in, and nothing remained but a
+mealy ruin.  Mrs. Prance groaned, and then coughed to hide the sound of
+woe, and served out her dish with the calmness of despair.  The jelly
+didn't go round, the cook had eaten so much on the sly; and when the
+wine came, Mr. Prance looked disgusted, it was so weak.  However, the
+nuts and raisins were all right; and after one sip of currant-water, in
+answer to the gentlemen when they drank her health, unhappy Mrs. Prance
+left the table, wishing that she never had been born.
+
+Trip was a clever little sprite, and entered into the spirit of her
+part so heartily that she really dropped a tear or two as she sat alone
+in her fine drawing-room.  Presently the gentlemen came to say good-by,
+for they were going to try Prance's horses.  Tired Mrs. Prance wished
+her husband would ask her to join them,--a drive would be so
+refreshing; but he only nodded grimly, and went away without a word.
+Mrs. Prance immediately took to her bed, for she was to have a party in
+the evening, and feared she never would live through it if she didn't
+rest.
+
+But very little repose did the poor lady get that afternoon, for the
+children acted as if possessed.  Flibberty-Gibbet fell off his
+rocking-horse and broke the bridge of his nose.  Midget set her little
+dress a-fire, and frightened every one out of their wits.  Poppet ran
+out of the back gate, and was lost for a whole hour; while Weewee, the
+baby, had a fit, owing to Mrs. Byelow's giving him a pickle when he
+cried for it.  If poor, dear Mrs. Prance was hustled off her bed once
+that afternoon, she was a dozen times, and at last gave it up entirely,
+whipped the children all round, scolded every servant in the house, had
+a good cry and a strong cup of tea, and felt better.
+
+The gentlemen, meantime, had each lighted a tiny cigarette, made from
+one stolen from papa's box, and had driven off in great style.  Mr.
+Prance had the tin gig, with Silver-gray for a horse; Mr. Wisp took the
+straw chaise and yellow Bill harnessed with red; Mr. Goodfellow chose
+the smart dog-cart with the creaking wheels, and black Jerry, who had
+lost his tail, but was a fine beast nevertheless.  With their hats on
+one side, and puffing their cigars, the little gentlemen drove gayly
+round the squares in the carpet, till Prance proposed a race from one
+end of a long seam to the other.
+
+Away they went, with much cracking of whips, and crying out "Hi, yar!"
+looking like three distracted bugs skimming along at a great rate.
+Prance would have certainly won, if, just as he passed Mr. Wisp, the
+wheel of the gig had not ran against a big knot in the seam, which
+upset Mr. Prance right in the way of Mr. Wisp, whose straw chaise
+turned over them all like an extinguisher.  leaving nothing to be seen
+but yellow Bill's legs sticking straight up in the air.
+
+Mr. Goodfellow passed the wreck, but soon returned in alarm to pull the
+wounded from the ruins.  Prance was only shaken, but poor Mr. Wisp was
+so much bruised he could not rise, and when they looked about for a
+carriage in which to get him home, not one of the three could be had,
+for two were smashed, and Jerry had galloped off with the dog-cart,
+never pausing till he had reached the barn.  With much difficulty they
+lifted the groaning Wisp on to a visiting-card, which fortunately lay
+on the floor, and bore him away to the residence of Mr. Prance.
+
+The house had just subsided after the baby's fit, when this arrival set
+it all in confusion again.  Wisp was put into the best bed, where,
+after a drop of arnica had been applied to his bruises, and a doll's
+smelling-bottle of hot water to his feet, he groaned himself to sleep.
+
+Leaving his friend Robin to take care of him, Mr. and Mrs. Prance
+snatched a hasty cup of tea, and hurried to dress for their party.
+
+Mr. Prance, I regret to say, was in a bad humor, for his dinner
+distressed him, his broken carriages annoyed him, and he didn't feel at
+all like seeing company.  He pulled the bell down ringing for hot
+water, told the footman he was a "blockhead" because his boots were not
+blacked to his mind, and asked his wife "why the dickens the buttons
+were always off his shirts?"
+
+Mrs. Prance was likewise out of sorts, and nothing went well.  The new
+pink lace dress was not becoming.  Dimity didn't dress her hair well,
+and she looked so pale and nervous that she was quite discouraged.
+
+When master and mistress met at last in the lighted drawing-room, two
+crosser little faces seldom seen.  Trip threw herself into an arm-chair
+with a sigh, and put on her gloves in silence.  Prance, who was a
+waggish moss boy, marched solemnly up and down the room with his hands
+in his pockets, and an air of offended dignity, that made Marnie shake
+with laughter.
+
+"Mrs. Prance, you gave us a very bad dinner to-day, and I was much
+mortified.  If you can't manage better, madam, I shall give up
+housekeeping."
+
+"I sincerely wish you would, my dear, for what with servants, and
+children, and company, I am nearly worn out," and Mrs. Prance sobbed
+behind her lace handkerchief.
+
+"I thought when I married you that you were able to look after things
+properly," said Mr. Prance, still marching up and down with a frown on
+his face.
+
+"I never was taught to do any thing but look pretty," sighed Mrs.
+Prance.
+
+"Don't be a goose, my dear."
+
+"You used to call me an angel."
+
+Here the bell rang.  Mr. Prance took his hands out of his pockets, Mrs.
+Prance dried her tears, and both looked quite gay and beaming when the
+guests appeared.
+
+Such dashing little beaux and belles as did arrive, dressed in the most
+astonishing style,--the ladies with bits of bouquets and fans, satin
+slippers, and trailing skirts.  The gentlemen had stiff collars, gay
+ties, wee boots and gloves, and twirled their eyeglasses as if they had
+been going to parties all their lives.  Every one simpered and chatted,
+laughed and flirted, looked at each other's clothes, and whispered
+gossip round the room.  Then a band of moss people, led by the green
+huntsman's horn, struck up the blithest dancing tune ever heard, and
+the little company began to spin round in couples like a party of
+teetotums.  It was not the airy, graceful gambols Marnie had admired in
+her fairy-land, but it was the fashionable step, and therefore must be
+elegant.  There seemed to be a good deal of romping, and the gentlemen
+twisted the ladies about till they looked quite flushed.
+
+They kept up the dancing as hard as they could till supper-time, when
+every one ate as if exhausted.  Where the supper came from, Marnie
+didn't know, but there it was,--ice, salad, cake, coffee, oysters, and
+wine, all complete, and the company made themselves uncomfortable
+eating all sorts of stuff at that late hour.  After supper, several of
+the young ladies sang, opening their mouths very wide, and screaming
+small screams without any music in them, while the little piano
+tottered under the banging it received.  Then Misses Moth, Cobweb, and
+Pease-blossom gave an air from the famous opera of _Oberon_, and every
+one said, "How sweet!" as they patted their gloves together and tried
+to look as if they knew all about it.
+
+After a good deal of noise, there was dancing again, and Marnie
+observed that the company got more and more excited.  Some of the
+gentlemen were very silly, but the ladies did not seem to mind it.
+Poor Mr. and Mrs. Prance were so tired they could hardly keep their
+eyes open, and when at last their guests began to go they could
+scarcely hide their joy.
+
+"Such a charming party!"  "Had a most delightful time!" said the
+people, bidding them good-night; and then added as soon as the door was
+shut: "Wasn't it a miserable affair?"  "Those Prances are very ordinary
+people, and I shall not go again,"--quite in the regular way.
+
+I'm sorry to say that Mr. Prance was one of those who had taken too
+much wine; and when Mrs. Prance fell into a chair exhausted, he sat
+down upon the fender and began to sing,--
+
+  "Where the bee sucks, there suck I,"
+
+in a sleepy voice, nodding like an owl.
+
+This was very trying to Mrs. Prance's feelings: she lost her temper,
+and scolded him as well as she knew how.  Marnie was quite frightened
+to hear the lecture she gave her naughty husband, who sat smiling and
+blinking till his little coat-tails took fire.  The instant a bright
+blaze shot up behind him as he skipped off the fender, Mrs. Prance
+stopped scolding, and ran to put the fire out like a devoted little
+wife.  But, oh! sad to tell, her dress caught, and in a minute two
+blazes flew about the room like a pair of lively Will-o'-the-wisps.
+Every one screamed and ran, men and maids, Mr. Goodfellow and his
+patient, the children tumbled out of bed, and came scampering
+downstairs, and Weewee roared in his cradle as loud as if he tried to
+call "Fire!  Fire!"
+
+Marnie was so frightened at the idea of those cunning, tricksy imps
+being burnt up, that she screamed also with all her might, and in a
+minute every sign of the moss people vanished.  She rubbed her eyes,
+but all was quiet,--nothing stirred in fairy-land; the doll's house was
+topsy-turvy as before, and all she saw were hundreds of motes dancing
+in the sunshine that now shone brightly on her face.  Marnie was so
+sorry to lose her new playmates, that she would have cried about it if
+mamma had not waked up just then and asked what was the matter.  When
+Marnie had told her all about it, she laughed at the funny dream, and
+then looked sober, as she said, with a kiss,--
+
+"If these sly rogues are going to come and imitate us to amuse our
+little children, we must be careful what we do that we may set them a
+good example."
+
+"You and papa are not so bad as Mr. and Mrs. Prance, though you do some
+of the things they did.  But the droll little moss boys and girls set
+_me_ a good example in one way, and I'm going to show them that I don't
+forget it," said Marnie, beginning to put her playthings in order.
+
+"So am I," added mamma, laughing again as she put away her novel and
+took up her sewing, thinking to herself that she really would attend
+more to the comfort of home, and not care so much for fashionable
+society.
+
+So you see some good was done after all by the merry little phantoms of
+a dream, for Marnie mamma did not forget the moss people.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+WHAT FANNY HEARD.
+
+She was lying on the rug, in the twilight, all alone, seeing pictures
+in the fire, and talking to herself.
+
+It hadn't been a happy day, and Fanny felt a little sad, though she
+wouldn't own that the reason was because she had been idle,
+disobedient, and wilful.
+
+"Nobody cares for me or takes any pains to make me happy," grumbled
+Fanny.  "Since mamma died, and papa went to England, I've been just as
+miserable as I could be.  Cousin Mary is so sober and strict and fussy,
+I don't have a bit of fun, but study, sew, walk, go to bed and get up,
+like the hateful little story-book girls, who never do wrong or get
+tired of going on as regularly as a clock.  Oh, dear! if I had some
+friends and playmates, this big, quiet house wouldn't seem so dismal."
+
+Fanny laid her face on her arm and tried to cry but not having any
+thing to cry for, she couldn't squeeze out a single tear.  Suddenly she
+heard a chime of delicate bells ringing sweetly in the room, and
+filling the air with perfume.
+
+"Bless me, what's that?" and Fanny popped up her head to see.  But
+every thing was still and in its place, and when she spoke the bells
+ceased.
+
+So she lay down again, and presently heard a sweet little voice say
+sorrowfully,--
+
+"What an ungrateful child Fanny is to say she has no friends, when the
+house is full of them, if she would only learn to see them!  Her good
+cousin took her home, and tries to be a mother to her, though she is
+feeble and fond of quiet.  It was very kind of her to have a noisy,
+spoilt child always about; for, though it worries her, she never
+complains, but tries to make Fanny a gentle, helpful, happy child."
+
+The blue hyacinth standing in the window said this, and the lovely pink
+one answered warmly,--
+
+"Yes, indeed! and I often wonder that Fanny doesn't see this, and try
+to return some of the patient care by affectionate little acts, and
+grateful words, and cheerful looks.  Why, she might make this house
+perfectly charming, if she chose: it was too lonely and still before,
+but now a bright-faced, gentle little girl, with her merry ways, would
+delight us all.
+
+"I bloom my best to please her, and send out my perfume to attract her,
+for I love her much, and want her to feel that I am her friend.  But
+she takes no notice of me, she doesn't care for my love, she is blind
+to my beauty, and gives no answer to my sweet invitation, though she
+longs for playmates all the time."
+
+With a soft sigh the flowers shook their delicate heads, and said no
+more.  But before Fanny could speak, Goldy, the canary, gave a little
+skip on his perch, and cried out, in a shrill chirp,--
+
+"I quite agree with you, ladies: that child doesn't know how to enjoy
+her blessings, or recognize her friends when she sees them.  Here I sit
+day after day, telling her in all sorts of ways how glad I am she is
+come; how fond I am of her, and how much I want to talk with her.  I
+get quite excited sometimes, and sing till my throat aches, trying to
+make her understand all this; but she won't, and all I get for my pains
+is a pettish, 'Do stop screaming, you noisy bird,' and a cloth over the
+cage to keep me quiet.  It's very hard;" and Goldy shook a little tear
+out of his round black eye.  "I love the sun, and air, and blithe
+company so dearly, and she won't let me have any of them.
+
+"She promised to take care of me, but she doesn't, and I go hungry,
+thirsty, and untidy, while she mopes and wishes she had something
+pleasant to do.
+
+"To-day, now, I've had neither seed nor water; no sniff of fresh air,
+no fly about the room, not a bit of apple, not a kind word or look, but
+have sat in the dark, with the cover over my cage, because I tried to
+tell how glad I was to see the sun, in spite of my hunger and thirst,
+loneliness and homesickness.  Ah, well! some day she may be kinder to
+me, and then I'll show her what a loving friend I can be."
+
+And with a last peck at the husks that lay in the cage, a last sad look
+about his gloomy house, Goldy put his head under his wing and tried to
+forget his troubles in sleep.
+
+Fanny was going to start up and feed and pet him, with remorseful
+tenderness, when a new voice sounded behind her, and she waited to
+listen.
+
+It was the piano, and every thing it said went to a sort of tune,
+because it couldn't help being musical at all times.
+
+"When first she came to stay, little Fanny used to play and sing like
+any lark, between the daylight and the dark, and our mistress loved it
+well.  But now, I grieve to tell, she scarcely sings a note; no more
+the sweet songs float like spirits through the gloom, making gay the
+quiet room.
+
+"I cannot tell how much her little fingers' touch ever thrills me with
+delight; how my keys, black and white, love to dance as she plays; how
+my pedal quick obeys, and bass and treble blend, to please our little
+friend.
+
+"But now she sits apart, with discord in her heart, forgetting I am
+here with power to soothe and cheer; that she'd better sing than sigh,
+better laugh than cry, for hearts get out of tune, and should be mended
+soon.
+
+"Little Fanny, sing again, like a bird in spite of rain.  Fill the
+house with music gay, make a concert of each day; and when others play
+on you, answer sweetly, as I do."
+
+"Why, it's talking poetry, I do believe!" cried Fanny, as the last
+words went echoing through the room and died away.
+
+"How any one can be lonely with us for friends is hard to understand,"
+said another voice from the bookcase.  "Here we are, lots of us, rows
+of us, regiments of us; every sort of story book; here's fairy tales
+new and old; here's Robinson Crusoe and dear old Mother Goose, Mrs.
+Barbauld and Miss Edgeworth; here's German picture books and French
+fables, English games and American notions, of every kind.  Come and
+read us, come and read us, and never say again you have no friends, and
+nothing to do."
+
+There was such a noise that no one heard Fanny laugh out, for each book
+was shouting its own title and making such a stir it sounded like a
+wind blowing dry leaves about.
+
+"I don't wish to intrude myself, for I'm not literary, nor musical, nor
+botanical; but I am domestic, and have an eye for all useful things,"
+said a needle, in a sharp tone, as it sat bolt upright in Fanny's
+topsy-turvy basket, on the table.
+
+"I am woman's friend, and with my help she does a deal of good, whiles
+away many long hours, and finds a good deal of quiet happiness in my
+society.  Little girls don't care much for me until they have doll
+children to sew for; even then some of them neglect and abuse me, and
+don't learn to use me nicely.  I know a young lady who hasn't a rag to
+her back; and yet her mamma takes no pains to clothe her, though a
+charming blue dress, and white apron, and nice little underclothes lie
+all ready cut out and basted.
+
+"I pity that poor doll so much that I'd gladly sew for her alone, if I
+could.  I'm afraid I should be thought rude, if I suggested to the
+mamma to sew instead of fretting, so I wouldn't say a word on any
+account; but I see more than people would believe, and judge
+accordingly."
+
+After which pointed remarks, the needle actually winked at the thimble,
+and then sat stiffer than ever in the unfinished blue gown.
+
+Fanny was so ashamed that she turned her face toward the fire, just in
+time to see a brilliant spark-spirit standing in a cave of glowing
+coals.  Waving its tiny hand, the spirit said,--
+
+"Years ago a little girl lived here, who made this the happiest home
+ever seen, by her gentle ways, her loving heart, her cheerful voice,
+and willing hands.
+
+"Every one loved her, and she was always happy, for duty was pleasant.
+The world was bright, and she was never out of tune.
+
+"She tended flowers in the window yonder, and grew as beautiful as
+they; she touched the old piano, and filled the house with music; she
+fed her little bird, and was as cheerful as he; she read and studied
+those books, growing wise and good and gay on the food they gave her;
+she sewed busily, clothing naked children as well as dolls, and many
+blessed her.  She often lay where you lie now, not discontented and
+sad, but with a happy heart, a busy fancy, and the love of many friends
+to keep her always blithe.
+
+"We loved her well, and we love you for her dear sake.  If you would
+see her image, look up and try to imitate her."
+
+Rather startled at the serious manner of the sprite, Fanny lifted her
+eyes, and there hung the picture of her mother, when a little girl.
+She had often seen it before, but it never had seemed so beautiful and
+dear as now, when, looking at it with full eyes, little Fanny said
+softly to herself,--
+
+"O dear mamma, I will be like you, if I can: I'll find friends where
+you found them; I'll make home happy as you did.  I'll try to be loved
+for your sake, and grow a useful, cheerful, good woman, like you."
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+A MARINE MERRY-MAKING.
+
+"Are you going to Mrs. Turtle's this evening?" asked a gay young
+Periwinkle of his friend Cockle, as they met on the sands.
+
+"Well, I don't know: what is to be done, and who will be there?"
+replied Cockle, rather languidly, for it had been a very gay season,
+and he was decidedly "used up."
+
+"There will be no dancing, for the alderman doesn't approve of it; but
+there is to be singing, tableaux, and a supper of course.  It's the
+last night of the season; and, as they are having a farewell hop up at
+the hotel, we thought we would get up some sort of fun among ourselves.
+Lovely Lily Crab will be there; the Lobsters, Barnacles, Horse-shoes,
+and Sea-snails, besides the Mosquitoes, Fire-flies, and Water-beetles.
+I hear there are also to be strangers of distinction, a Flying-fish, a
+Water-shrew, and Mother Carey's Chickens."
+
+"Hum, ha, well; maybe I'll look in for an hour.  I rather fancy Lily
+Crab; and the alderman gives capital suppers.  I'm going to enjoy a
+weed; so ta-ta, till this evening."
+
+Young Cockle didn't mean a cigar, but a nap under the sea-weed.
+Periwinkle took a weed also; and both were so much refreshed that they
+were among the first at the party.
+
+The Turtles were a very aristocratic family, for they were both ancient
+and honorable.  Their coat-of-arms was a globe resting on a turtle's
+back; and so many of their ancestors had been aldermen, it was vain to
+try to count them.  Even their diseases were aristocratic, for they
+always died of apoplexy or gout.  Some people said it was because they
+were such high livers; but the turtles insisted that it was hereditary,
+and couldn't be helped.  They were very slow, and rather heavy, but
+intensely dignified and well-bred.  They lived elegantly, gave fine
+parties, and had one son, who was considered a very eligible young
+Turtle.  It was thought that he would marry the beautiful Lily Crab,
+the belle of the bay; but she flirted sadly with Oceanicus Lobster, and
+no one could tell which she would take.
+
+The Turtles had chosen a fine, smooth place on the beach, with a pretty
+pool near by, for such of the guests as could not remain long out of
+water.  A flat rock at one end was set apart as a stage for the
+tableaux; and at the other end the supper was spread.  The alderman
+waddled importantly about before the company arrived, looking very
+portly and imposing; while his wife, in black velvet and gold
+ornaments, sat tranquilly by, and took a little rest before the labors
+of the evening began.  Columbus, the son, was elegantly got up in a new
+suit of black, with a white tie, and a flower in his button-hole.  The
+moon served for a chandelier; and a party of fireflies had promised to
+act as footlights when they were needed.  The tide was coming in; and,
+instead of carriages, wave after wave rolled up and left its load at
+the Turtles' door.
+
+The Barnacles and Mussels came first, for they seldom left home, and
+always got back again at an early hour.  Miss Mosquito arrived, full of
+scandal and gossip, and kept up a perpetual hum in some one's ear,
+though everybody disliked, and tried to get rid of her.  She was a
+vixenish spinster, thin, satirical, sharp-tongued, and so bad-tempered
+that people said her name, which was Xantippe, suited her excellently.
+A modest little Water-shrew, in Quaker drab, came with the Beetles, who
+took their places near the pool, being unused to crowds.  The Lobsters,
+always a peculiar family, came straggling in, one by one, in their
+usual awkward way, and were soon followed by the Periwinkles and
+Cockles.  A party of Petrels came marching in with the Flying-fish, who
+looked, and doubtless felt, entirely out of his element.  The bustle
+caused by the arrival of the distinguished strangers had just subsided,
+when Columbus Turtle and Oceanicus Lobster were seen to rush toward the
+door; young Cockle put his glass in his eye, and Periwinkle sighed.
+There was a stir among the ladies, and Miss Mosquito spitefully
+remarked to her Cousin Firefly, "Dear me! what a fuss they do make
+about those vulgar people!"
+
+"Commodore Crab, Mrs. Crab, and Miss Crab!" announced the servant, and
+in they came.  The commodore had taken part in many sea-fights, and was
+famous for never letting go when once he had grappled with a foe.  But
+he was rather shy in company, and so was madame; and often, when any
+one approached to speak to them, they both precipitately retreated
+backward, so retiring were the dispositions of this excellent couple.
+The commodore wore his orange uniform, and limped, having lost a leg in
+battle.  Mrs. C. was elegantly attired in green, with red ornaments.
+But Miss Crab,--how shall I paint that lovely creature?  She was in
+snowy white from head to foot, a perfect blonde, and carried in her
+hand an exquisite bouquet of rosy seaweed, the sight of which caused
+young Turtle to glare at young Lobster, for both had sent bouquets, and
+Lily had chosen his rival's.  Now her parents wished the young lady to
+accept Columbus, for he was rich; but she loved him not, for she had
+given her heart to Oceanicus, who was poor.  Still, having been
+fashionably brought up, she felt it was her duty to secure a fine
+establishment; and so she tried to like dull Columbus, while she
+flirted with sprightly Oceanicus.  Matters had reached a crisis, and it
+was evident that something would be decided that very night, for both
+gentlemen haunted the fair Lily's steps, and scowled at one another
+tragically.
+
+"I always thought there would be mischief there, for that girl's
+behavior is scandalous.  There was a case very much like this at the
+hotel last year, and it ended in an elopement and a suicide," buzzed
+Miss Mosquito in the ear of Madam Turtle, who drew herself up, as she
+replied, in her most dignified tone, glancing at her son,--
+
+"I have no fears in that quarter: such affairs are conducted with
+propriety in our first families.  Excuse me: I have a word for Mrs.
+Crab."
+
+"If that is a sample of the manners of 'our first families,' I'm glad I
+don't belong to 'em," scolded Miss Mosquito to herself.  "Ah, if I had
+my way, I'd soon spoil your beauty, miss," she muttered, looking at
+Lily Crab.  And so she would; for this spiteful creature used to
+delight in stinging the pretty girls up at the hotel, especially their
+poor dear noses, till they weren't fit to be seen.
+
+The Snails came late, as they always did; and one of them, on being
+introduced to the Shrew-mouse, began to complain of her servants, as
+fashionable ladies are apt to do when they get together.
+
+"There never was such a perfect slave to a house as I am to mine," she
+said.  "We see a great deal of company, and things must be in order;
+but they never are, though we keep ten servants.  How do you manage,
+ma'am?  You look quite plump and serene; and here am I worn to the
+bone, with my worries and cares."
+
+"I come from the brook over the hill, and we country people live much
+more simply than you city folks.  I keep no servants at all, but do
+every thing myself, and bring up my eight children without help,"
+answered the Shrew-mouse, settling the folds of her white shawl with a
+tranquil air.
+
+"Dear me! how remarkable!  But, you see, an active life doesn't suit
+me.  You have always been used to that sort of thing, I dare say, and
+so get on very well.  _I_ was brought up differently."  And, with a
+cool stare, the handsome violet Snail moved slowly away, while the
+Shrew-mouse and the Beetles laughed among themselves.
+
+"Pray, how came a person who does her own work to get into our set?"
+asked Madam Snail of a testy old Horse-shoe whom she much respected.
+
+"Because she is a very charming person, and I advised Turtle to invite
+her," replied the Horse-shoe, in a tone as sharp as his tail.
+
+"Dear me! what are we coming to?" sighed the Snail, who, being very
+conservative, disliked progress of all kinds.
+
+"My dear sir, I assure you, it's a splendid investment,--perfectly
+safe, and very desirable," said old Lobster to the alderman, whom he
+held by the button-hole in a corner.
+
+"Are you the president of the bank?" asked old Turtle, with a sly
+twinkle of the eye.
+
+"No, sir, not even a director; but I take an interest in it, and, if I
+had your means, I'd invest there, for the safest bank I know is that of
+my friends Oyster, Mussel, and Company," replied Lobster, who was as
+deep an old party as ever swam.
+
+"I'll think of it, and make inquiries, and, if it's all satisfactory,
+I'll take your advice, for I value your opinion, and have confidence in
+your judgment," said Turtle, who considered Lobster an unprincipled
+speculator.
+
+"Praise from you, sir, may well make me proud.  You will certainly be
+re-elected, and remain an alderman to the day of your death, if the
+influence and vote of A. Lobster can keep you in place," answered the
+other, who looked upon Turtle as a thick-headed, easy-going old
+gentleman, whom it would not be difficult to defraud of his money in
+some strictly business-like way.
+
+"It's all right: he'll nibble, and we shall float in spite of fate,"
+whispered Lobster to his friend Hercules Mussel, in a tone of
+exultation, for the fact was the bank of Oyster, Mussel, and Company
+was in a very desperate state, though few suspected it.
+
+Meantime Miss Lily was driving her lovers to despair, by being
+extremely amiable to both.  She sat on a sea-green sofa, fanning
+herself with a tiny coral fan, while the two gentlemen stood before
+her, trying to annoy each other and amuse her.
+
+"Sad affair, that of Bessie Barnacle and young Cockle, wasn't it?" said
+Columbus, in his slow way, thinking it would please Lily to pity or
+condemn her former rival.
+
+"What was it?  I've been shut up for a week with a sad cold, and have
+heard nothing," replied the young lady, fixing her large eyes on
+Columbus in a way that confused him dreadfully in his story.
+
+"Why, you know, she was all but engaged to Phillip Periwinkle, cousin
+to Tom who is here to-night; but just as the thing was considered
+settled, Charley Cockle cut in, and they eloped.  Her family insist
+that she was torn away; but I doubt it."
+
+"So do I.  Any girl of sense would prefer a fine fellow like Charley,
+without a cent, to a noodle worth half a million, like Phil
+Periwinkle," said Oceanicus, in a tone that made the blood of Columbus
+boil.
+
+"It was a most improper and ungentlemanly thing to do, and no one but a
+low-born puppy would have done it," he answered grimly.
+
+"Well, I should say Phil was the puppy, to take a beating so quietly.
+I consider it a spirited thing on Charley's part, and I fancy Miss Lily
+agrees with me," returned Oceanicus, with an insinuating smile and bow.
+
+"You oughtn't to ask me such naughty questions," simpered Lily behind
+her fan.  "It was dreadfully improper, and all that sort of thing, I
+know; but then it was so romantic, and I adore romance,--don't you, Mr.
+Turtle?"
+
+"Decidedly not that style of it.  In good families such things are not
+allowed; but it is no more than I should expect of a Cockle," remarked
+Columbus, with scorn.
+
+"Now, really, my dear fellow, you ought not to be so severe, when your
+Cousin Theresa did the same thing, you know."
+
+As Oceanicus said this, he looked straight at young Turtle in the most
+impertinent manner.  But for once Columbus was his match, for he said
+coolly, "Old Barnacle vows he will have Cockle imprisoned, if he can
+find a fit place for such a young rascal, and I advised him to try a
+lobster-pot."
+
+Now that was a direct insult, for Oceanicus had been caught in one not
+long ago, on his way home from a frolic, and would have been boiled if
+his friends had not gone to the rescue.  It was considered a sad
+disgrace to die by boiling, or to be caught in any way; so the Lobster
+family hushed it up as carefully as the Turtles did Theresa's runaway
+match.  Oceanicus gave Columbus a look which he long remembered, but
+said nothing to him; and turning to Miss Crab, as if they were alone,
+he murmured regretfully, "My dear Lily, it must be dreadfully dull for
+you with no dancing.  Won't you let me bring you something to eat?  I
+see they have begun supper at last."
+
+"I was about to take Miss Crab down myself," said young Turtle,
+haughtily.
+
+"Now don't quarrel and be absurd about me.  I am going to stay here,
+and you may each bring me something.  I could fancy a shrimp, and a
+glass of briny," said Miss Lily, hoping to soothe the angry gentlemen.
+
+Both rushed away; but Oceanicus, who was always brisk, got back first,
+and whispered, as he handed the glass, "Remember after the tableaux."
+
+"Oh, dear, no!  I couldn't think of it!" cried Miss Lily, with a little
+scream.  "Now you may hold my things, while I eat.  Be careful not to
+break that, for I value it very much," she added, as she handed Turtle
+the fan he had given her.  "How sweet they are!  I do so love flowers,"
+she went on taking a long sniff at her bouquet before she gave it to
+Lobster to hold.  Then, taking off her gloves, she coquettishly sipped
+her wine; and, holding the shrimp in one delicate claw, she daintily
+picked off its legs, putting them bit by bit into her mouth, till
+nothing but the tail remained, which Turtle kept as a love-token.
+
+"My dear creature, how miserably you are looking: I'm afraid this gay
+season has been too much for you.  People at your time of life should
+be careful of themselves," said Miss Mosquito to Fanny Firefly, who was
+a universal favorite, being a bright, merry little lady.
+
+"I'm very well, thank you, dear, and none the worse for my gayeties.
+If you can stand a dissipated season, I guess I can, for you are older
+than me, you know," returned Miss Fanny, sweetly, as she walked away
+with Tom Periwinkle, who shunned "Miss Skeet," as he called her, as if
+she had been a walking pest,--a flying one she certainly was.
+
+"Poor girl!  I'm sorry she is losing her good looks so fast, and
+getting so sharp and sour.  She used to be rather pretty and amiable,
+but she is quite spoilt, and having neither money nor accomplishments
+she will soon be quite forgotten," said Xantippe, with a sigh that said
+plainly, "If she was like me, now, she'd be every thing that was good
+and charming."
+
+"How are the Horse-shoes getting on, Miss Mosquito?" asked Mrs. Turtle.
+
+"I don't see much of them, they are not in my set, you know.  People
+who rose from mud, and still have relations living there, are not the
+sort of persons with whom I care to associate," replied Xantippe, with
+a scornful perk of her long nose.
+
+Now both the Turtles and Lobsters had connections in Mudville, and so
+of course were offended by that speech.  Old Mrs. Lobster turned as red
+as if she had been boiled; but Mrs. Turtle never forgot herself, and
+changed the subject by saying politely, "We are going to have supper
+early on account of the tableaux: as you are going to act, won't you
+step down with me and have some refreshment before the rush begins?"
+
+"Thank you, I'm going to supper at the hotel by and by.  I'm rather
+delicate, you know, and I find the things I get there agree with me
+better than common suppers.  I see Mrs. Barnacle is expecting me to
+come and amuse her, so I must fly.  Pray take care and not excite
+yourself, my dear lady, for you know apoplexy is sadly fatal to your
+family.  You, Mrs. Lobster, are happy in being free from that
+aristocratic complaint."  And with these farewell stings, Miss Mosquito
+buzzed away, leaving the two old ladies to exclaim angrily, as they
+settled their cap-ribbons, "Xantippe gets quite unbearable.  She is
+regularly blood-thirsty, and stabs right and left with her cruel
+tongue.  Let us go and have a comfortable dish of tea, my dear; I'm
+sure we need it."
+
+It was very amusing to see the company at supper; the alderman trying
+to think of his guests before himself; the young ladies delicately
+picking at their food, and pretending to have no appetite after taking
+a hearty tea at home; the young men eating every thing they could lay
+their hands on, and drinking more than was good for them.  The old
+ladies were rather neglected, but made the best of it, and slipped a
+few trifles into their pockets for the dears at home; while their stout
+husbands stuffed till they were speechless.
+
+After supper, there was singing; and the Petrels came out splendidly,
+for they were a glee club, and sung all sorts of sea-songs in fine
+style, particularly "A Life on the Ocean Wave," and "Rocked in the
+Cradle of the Deep."  Miss Mosquito, in a shrill small voice, sang
+Tennyson's "Blow, Bugle, blow;" and Mrs. Shrew-mouse gave a lullaby
+very sweetly.  Old Lobster, who was a gay fellow still, warbled "I know
+a bank," which made Old Turtle laugh till they thought he would
+certainly go off in a fit; and, to Lily's delight, young Lobster's
+serenade entirely eclipsed young Turtle's _barcarolle_.  After this,
+the Flying-Fish performed some wonderful feats in the pool; and the
+Beetles were allowed as a special favor to show the young people the
+new Grasshopper-step which was all the rage.
+
+Then came the tableaux.  A row of fireflies made capital foot-lights; a
+thick cobweb was the curtain, and two spiders were engaged to work it.
+Monsieur Hyla, a tree-frog, piped sweetly between the pictures, and
+every thing went smoothly.  The first was a scene from "The Tempest."
+A venerable Horse-shoe was Prospero, and his stiff tail was very
+effective as the magic wand.  Lily Crab was Miranda, and looked lovely
+as she gazed admiringly at Oceanicus, who played Ferdinand.  A Hedgehog
+did Caliban; a Firefly was Ariel; and the picture was a great success
+everybody said but Columbus Turtle.
+
+The alderman himself consented to appear in the next as the Ancient
+Mariner telling his story to the wedding guest.  His face was wanting
+in expression, and he was rather stout for the haunted man; but as
+several members of his family had led seafaring lives, and died at
+fabulously great ages, he felt it was an appropriate part for him.
+Young Lobster was the detained guest, and was really fine in the
+longing look he gave at the bridal train just passing by.  Columbus was
+the bridegroom, and Lily the bride, and very sweet she looked under her
+veil; while Turtle was absolutely brilliant with momentary excitement.
+
+The "Three Fishers" followed, and was the gem of the whole, for one of
+the Petrels chanted the words as the scenes were shown.  First, the
+fishers were seen "sailing out into the west" on the pool in large
+shells.  A Jelly-fish, young Cockle, and Tom Periwinkle were the
+fishers, and the ladies applauded violently, as they rowed gallantly
+away.  Then the three wives appeared up in the light-house tower, which
+was made by collecting the fireflies on the top of the rock, while the
+Shrew-mouse, Miss Beetle, and Miss Snail, as the wives, looked
+anxiously out for the boats "that would never come back to the land."
+The gentlemen quite brought down the house at this, but the ladies
+thought it "just a trifle flat."  The last scene was really thrilling,
+for the "three corpses lay out on the shining sands," and "the women
+were weeping and wringing their hands" most tragically.  Young
+Jelly-fish was very ghostly, and the anguish of Mrs. Shrew-mouse so
+capitally acted it was evident she had known sorrow.  "The Lily Maid of
+Astolat" followed, for that and the "Fishers" are always favorites at
+the seaside.  Of course Lily Crab was the maid, laid on a bed of
+splendid sea-weeds in the great rosy-lipped shell which was the boat.
+In the prow sat a toad, as the faithful old dwarf who steered her down
+to Camelot, and his ugliness made her beauty more dazzling.  On the
+shore of the pool stood the handsomest Petrel, as King Arthur; another
+was Lancelot; and a pretty Miss Periwinkle was Guinevere.  A good many
+of the company had not read "Idyls of the King," and hadn't the least
+idea what it all meant; but they took care to look as if they did, and
+patted their hands with an approving, "Very sweet," "Quite exquisite;"
+"Really, it does the young people a vast deal of credit;" "Altogether
+_commy la faut_," as old Mrs. Lobster said, trying to be elegant,
+though she was a very ordinary woman, who could do nothing but make
+salads, for her father kept a restaurant years ago.
+
+The last one was the "Corsair's Bride."  Columbus was the stern papa,
+and Lily the lovely daughter, both in the Greek costume, and it is easy
+for one to imagine how becoming it must have been.
+
+This was an acted tableau; for, as Haidee lay listlessly on her divan,
+thinking of the gallant being who had sung under her window one
+moonlight night, the same gallant being magnificently got up as a
+corsair burst into the room, followed by his band.  Oceanicus looked as
+dark, fierce, and melodramatic as half-a-dozen Byrons, and quite
+electrified the audience by knocking down the stately papa, exclaiming,
+"Tyrant, I defy thee!  Ha! ha! she is mine!" and rushing from the stage
+with Lily on his arm.
+
+This thrilling display of tragic power produced round after round of
+tumultuous applause, and cries of "Lob!  Lob!" from all parts of the
+house.  The curtain rose, but no one appeared except Columbus, still on
+the ground, having been half-stunned and wholly bewildered by the
+attack, that not having been planned beforehand.  He lay staring
+blankly, and looking so forlorn that the wags who had pulled up the
+curtain dropped it, and raised him instead.  Everybody laughed at him,
+and praised Oceanicus.  The Lobsters quite glowed with pride; the young
+ladies declared it was "perfectly thrilling;" and the young gentlemen
+vowed that "Lob outdid himself, by Jove!"
+
+By the time the excitement subsided, people began to wonder why the
+"stars" didn't appear to receive their honors.  But nowhere could they
+be found, and Mrs. Crab began to look anxious.  Some one suggested that
+they might be strolling on the beach to cool and compose themselves.  A
+careful search was made, but no trace of them was discovered, till an
+old Jelly-fish who was lying on the sand informed them that a young
+couple had sailed away not long before, and that he heard them say
+there would be just time to stop at the Rev. Dr. Cod's before they
+caught the outward-bound steamer.
+
+When this dreadful intelligence was carried back to the party, Mrs.
+Crab fainted dead away, and the Commodore stamped about, using very
+strong language.  Miss Mosquito triumphantly exclaimed, "I told you
+so;" and every one was much excited.
+
+The party broke up at once, and as the last wave left the door Mrs.
+Turtle said with a long sigh, "For my part, I'm glad the season's over,
+that we are done with fashion and frivolity, and can go back to our
+simple, sensible ways, and live like respectable creatures."
+
+
+
+
+Cambridge: Press of John Wilson & Son.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag, Volume 3, by Louisa May Alcott
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57309 ***