arge polished leaden tea-things.
"'Then she shall have them!' decided Mamma at once, 'and a very good
choice too, Lee, don't you think so? They will be quite safe, and
neither break nor spoil so easily as the rest. How much are they? I will
take these please!'
"And so Rose packed us carefully up in paper and gave us to the nurse,
who, taking up the little girl, carefully tied on her warm fur cape and
carried her after the lady. They walked for a short distance, and then
stopped at the door of a house in a handsome square. The lady's
beautiful dress and elegant air had somewhat prepared me for our new
home, which was one of luxury. The lady, after tenderly kissing the
little one, stopped at the door of her dressing room, while the nurse
and my new owner mounted another flight, and reached the spacious and
airy day nursery. The little rosy girl was rolled out of all her velvet
wraps, and a very pretty snowy embroidered pinafore was put on her,
after her glossy bright flaxen curls had been carefully arranged by the
nurse. The little thing had borne all this very impatiently, and had
fretted and fidgeted to get away to her new toys; but her nurse would
not let her go till she was "made tidy," as she called it.
"'You shall have your little table, Miss Lily,' said she, 'and make tea
till bedtime afterwards, if you like, but you must stand still first,
like a lady, and be made to look neat. Don't you know mamma never goes
down to breakfast or dinner till Lance has dressed her and done her
hair?'
"But when these operations were all over, Nurse set out the little
table, and covered it with a clean towel for a table cloth, and placed
Lily's pretty wicker chair beside it. And when the real nursery teatime
came, she gave Lily a lump of sugar, broken into little bits with the
scissors, and two nice, dry biscuits to play with. So fat little Lily
was mightily contented, and spread out her toys, and played at making
tea for her dolls, while she herself ate up the biscuits and sugar with
great delight. And by-and-bye Mamma came up to see how all was going on,
before she went down to dinner, and she found her pet, trotting round
the little table and humming like a big humble bee.
"And so the time went merrily by, and if we had a few misfortunes, still
we got on pretty well. To be sure, I gained this great dint in my side
owing to my little mistress setting the leg of her chair suddenly on me.
And some of the saucers and plates
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