d always an
uninterrupted view of the black rim where washing operations had
left off.

The next on the list--I am going from youngest to oldest, you
see--was the "show" Woolcot, as Pip, the eldest boy, used to say.
You have seen those exquisite child-angel faces on Raphael Tuck's
Christmas cards? I think the artist must just have dreamed of
Nell, and then reproduced the vision imperfectly. She was ten,
and had a little fairy-like figure, gold hair clustering in wonderful
waves and curls around her face, soft hazel eyes, and a little
rosebud of a mouth. She was not conceited either, her family took
care of that--Pip would have nipped such a weakness very sternly
in its earliest bud; but in some way if there was a pretty ribbon
to spare, or a breadth of bright material; just enough for one little
frock, it fell as a matter of course to her.

Judy was only three years older, but was the greatest contrast
imaginable. Nellie used to move rather slowly about, and would
have made a picture in any attitude. Judy I think, was never
seen to walk, and seldom looked picturesque. If she did not dash
madly to the place she wished to get to, she would progress by a
series of jumps, bounds, and odd little skips. She was very thin,
as people generally are who have quicksilver instead of blood in
their veins; she had a small, eager, freckled face, with very,
bright dark eyes, a small, determined mouth, and a mane of untidy,
curly dark hair that was: the trial of her life.

Without doubt she was the worst of the seven, probably because she
was the cleverest. Her brilliant inventive powers plunged them all
into ceaseless scrapes, and though she often bore the brunt of the
blame with equanimity, they used to turn round, not infrequently,
and upbraid her for suggesting the mischief. She had been
christened "Helen," which in no way account's for "Judy," but
then nicknames are rather unaccountable things sometimes, are they
not? Bunty said it was because she was always popping and
jerking herself about like the celebrated wife of Punch, and
there really is something in that. Her other name, "Fizz," is
easier to understand; Pip used to say he never yet had seen the
ginger ale that effervesced and bubbled and made the noise that
Judy did.

I haven't introduced you to Pip yet, have I? He was a little like
Judy, only handsomer and taller, and he was fourteen, and had as
good an opinion, of himself and as poor a one of girls as