eally
there was not much danger; if I had been older I should have been more
frightened than there was really any reason to be. But I was big enough
to begin very quickly to get very angry and impatient. I had never in
all my life been forced to do anything I disliked; often and often my
nurse, and sometimes Helen, had begged me to try to sit still for a
minute or two, but I never would. And now the lesson of having to give
in to something much worse than sitting still in my nice little chair by
the nursery fire, or standing still for two minutes while a new frock
was tried on, had to be learnt! There was no getting rid of it; I kicked
and I pushed, it was no use; the strong heavy lid which had been to
India and back two or three times would not move the least bit. I tried
to poke out my fingers through the little space that was left, but I
could not find the lock, and it was a good thing I did not, for if I had
touched the hasp, most likely the lid would have fallen quite into its
place, crushing my poor little fingers, and shutting me in without any
air at all. At last I thought of another plan. I set to work screaming.

"'Nurse, nurse, Nelly, oh Nelly,' I cried, and at last I shouted, 'Papa,
_Papa_, PAPA,' at the top of my voice. But it was no use! Most children
would have begun screaming at the very first. But I was not a
_frightened_ child, and I was very proud. I did not want any one to find
me shut up in a box like that, besides, they would be sure to stop my
ever coming up to the attic again. So it was not till I had tired myself
out with trying to push up the lid that I set to work to screaming, and
that made it all the more provoking that my calls brought no one. At
last I got so out of patience that I set to work again kicking for no
use at all, but just because I was so angry. I kicked and screamed, and
at last I burst into tears and _roared_. Then I caught sight, through
the chink, of Lady Regina's blue dress, where the doll was lying on the
floor near the trunk.

"'Nasty Regina,' I shouted, 'nasty, ugly Regina. You are lying there as
if there was nothing the matter, and it was all for you I came up here.
I hate dolls--they never do nothing. If you were a little dog you'd go
and bark, and then somebody would come and let me out.'

"Then I went on crying and sobbing till I was perfectly tired, and then
what do you think I did? Though I was so uncomfortable, all crushed up
into a little ball, I went to slee