mers, giving
her pencils to Will to be sharpened, "and I leave a space before every
noun. When I have written it, you each give me adjectives in turn to
fill in the spaces, and I write them just as you supply them. Of course
they never fit, and a very funny hodge-podge is the result. Now, while
I'm writing you must all be thinking up a good supply of adjectives, for
I shall want a quantity."

So Auntie Jean took Cricket's blank-book and began to scribble; she
wrote busily for ten or fifteen minutes, and then announced she was
ready for the adjectives.

"I call it the 'Tale of the Shipwrecked Mariners,'" she said, when all
the adjectives were duly written in. "And now for the tale."

"Once upon a time, in the pathetic town of Marbury, there lived a green
and scrumptious lady with a wriggling troop of fantastic grandchildren,
who made her life miserable. First of all was the eldest, the awful and
weird William, who was quite intolerable. Next to him was the cute and
sublime Archie, who was always jolly and superstitious. They had a
sullen and sarcastic sister, the entrancing Edna, whom they delighted to
tease. One summer their delightful and sarcastic cousins, the mournful
and flowery Eunice, and the melodious Cricket ["Auntie! you put that
there on purpose," came reproachfully from the last-mentioned young
woman.

"No, I didn't, my dear. It really happened so."]

"The melodious Cricket, arrived to spend a long time with the dingy
Somers family, much to their enjoyment. After various adventures, their
ecstatic friend, the lively Hilda Mason, came to spend a few days. To
entertain her, one day, they took her out in a wizened boat to sail over
the garrulous bay. They dragged their silent auntie" [a howl] "with
them, promising her a talkative day. All went well at first, but
suddenly a gruesome storm arose, and beat upon their inky boat, which
began to leak. The musical crew were all much frightened, and tried to
bail out the ugly water, but it rose too fast, and soon the monkeyish
boat began to sink. After it had sunk through the water about a mile, it
struck plump on a rock, and then it glided into a dwarfish cave at the
bottom of the sea. The grumpy and genial Cricket immediately fell out of
the boat, in her surprise. Cunning Will jumped after her. The sugary
party had come to a mountainous spot down below the sea, and they found
a minute garden there, full of curly fruits. The aggravating Hilda, the
indefinite Euni