s
being hung from the roof swing freely, and the special excitement is to
hold on with both hands, and run round so that the hammock twists into a
knot and spins when released, with the baby inside it, in a giddy waltz
till the coil untwists itself. This looks dangerous, and when the game
was first invented we rather demurred. But we are wiser now, and we let
them spin. Lulla especially enjoys this madness. It is startling to see
the tiny thing whirl like a reckless young teetotum. But if you weakly
interfere, Lulla thinks you want to learn the art, and goes at it with
even madder zest, till her very curls are dizzy.

Dimples and Lulla in disgrace are a piteous spectacle. Dimples opens her
mouth till it is almost square, and the most plaintive wail proceeds
from it for about a minute and a half. Then she stops, looks sadly on
the world, surprised and hurt at its unkindness to her, and then
suddenly she discovers something interesting to do; and hastily rubbing
her knuckles into her eyes to clear them as quickly as maybe of tears,
she scrambles on to her feet, and forgets her injuries. Once she had
been very naughty, and had to be smacked. It is never easy to smack
Dimples, and fortunately she seldom requires it; but hard things have to
be done, so that morning the fat little hands, to their surprise, knew
the feel of chastening pats. "She daren't laugh, and she wouldn't cry";
this description, her Piria Sittie's, is the best I can offer of that
baby's attitude. The thing could not possibly be a joke, but if meant
otherwise, it was an indignity far past tears.

Lulla is quite different. She drops on the floor, if admonished, as if
her limbs had suddenly become paralysed, and takes absolutely no notice
of the offending disciplinarian. She simply ignores her, and gazes
mutely beyond her. The offence is not one for explanation, and if
invited to repent, her aloofness of demeanour is perfectly withering.
But take her up in your arms, and she buries her curls in your neck, and
coos her apologies (or is it forgiveness?) in your ear, and loves you
all the better for the momentary breach.

Our babies are often parables. Lulla stands for the Single Eye. How
often we have watched her and learned the lesson from her! She sees
someone to whom she wants to go at what must seem to her an immense
distance. And the distance is filled with obstacles, some of them quite
enormous. But Lulla never stops to consider possibilities. Difficul