erest in the baby; now going
round and round upon the hearth, and lying down as if he had established
himself for the night; now getting up again, and taking that nothing of
a fag-end of a tail of his out into the weather, as if he had just
remembered an appointment, and was off at a round trot, to keep it.

"There! There's the teapot, ready on the hob!" said Dot; as briskly busy
as a child at play at keeping house. "And there's the cold knuckle of
ham; and there's the butter; and there's the crusty loaf, and all!
Here's a clothes basket for the small parcels, John, if you've got any
there. Where are you, John? Don't let the dear child fall under the
grate, Tilly, whatever you do!"

It may be noted of Miss Slowboy, in spite of her rejecting the caution
with some vivacity, that she had a rare and surprising talent for
getting this baby into difficulties: and had several times imperilled
its short life in a quiet way peculiarly her own. She was of a spare and
straight shape, this young lady, insomuch that her garments appeared to
be in constant danger of sliding off those sharp pegs, her shoulders, on
which they were loosely hung. Her costume was remarkable for the partial
development, on all possible occasions, of some flannel vestment of a
singular structure; also for affording glimpses, in the region of the
back, of a corset, or a pair of stays, in colour a dead green. Being
always in a state of gaping admiration at everything, and absorbed,
besides, in the perpetual contemplation of her mistress's perfections
and the baby's, Miss Slowboy, in her little errors of judgment, may be
said to have done equal honour to her head and to her heart; and though
these did less honour to the baby's head, which they were the occasional
means of bringing into contact with deal doors, dressers, stair-rails,
bed-posts, and other foreign substances, still they were the honest
results of Tilly Slowboy's constant astonishment at finding herself so
kindly treated, and installed in such a comfortable home. For the
maternal and paternal Slowboy were alike unknown to Fame, and Tilly had
been bred by public charity, a foundling; which word, though only
differing from fondling by one vowel's length, is very different in
meaning, and expresses quite another thing.

To have seen little Mrs. Peerybingle come back with her husband, tugging
at the clothes basket, and making the most strenuous exertions to do
nothing at all (for he carried it), wou