parcel, and though she heard Frank laughing, while Harry
told all about them, she did not care, but brought her whole collection
triumphantly into the nursery.

"Oh fancy! how perfect!" cried Harry, opening the bundle; "this is very
good fun!"

"Here are provisions for a siege!" added Frank. "You have at least got
enough for your money, Laura!"

"Take one yourself, Frank!" said she, reaching him the largest, and
then, with the rest all tied in her apron, Laura proceeded up and down
stairs, making presents to every person she met, till her whole store
was finished; and she felt quite satisfied and happy because everybody
seemed pleased and returned many thanks, except Mrs. Crabtree, who said
she had no teeth to eat such hard things, which were only fit for
sailors going to America or the West Indies.

"You should have bought me a pound of sugar, Miss Laura, and that might
have been a present worth giving."

"You are too sweet already, Mrs. Crabtree!" said Frank, laughing. "I
shall send you a sugar-cane from the West Indies, to beat Harry and
Laura with, and a whole barrel of sugar for yourself, from my own
estate."

"None of your nonsense, Master Frank! Get out of the nursery this
moment! You with an estate indeed! You will not have a place to put your
foot upon soon except the topmast in a man-of-war, where all the bad
boys in a ship are sent."

"Perhaps, as you are not to be the captain, I may escape, and be dining
with the officers sometimes! I mean to send you home a fine new India
shawl, Mrs. Crabtree, the very moment I arrive at Madras, and some china
tea-cups from Canton."

"Fiddlesticks and nonsense!" said Mrs. Crabtree, who sometimes enjoyed a
little jesting with Frank. "Keep all them rattle-traps till you are a
rich nabob, and come home to look for Mrs. Frank,--a fine wife she will
be! Ladies that get fortunes from India are covered all over with gold
chains, and gold muslins, and scarlet shawls. She will eat nothing but
curry and rice, and never put her foot to the ground except to step into
her carriage."

"I hope you are not a gipsey, to tell fortunes!" cried Harry, laughing;
"Frank would die rather than take such a wife."

"Or, at least, I would rather have a tooth drawn than do it," added
Frank, smiling. "Perhaps I may prefer to marry one of those old wives on
the chimney-tops; but it is too serious to say I would rather die,
because nobody knows how awful it is to die, till the appointed day