tar was, a real one! Yes ... she would see ... if
Pa and Ma insisted ... perhaps ...

But her real triumph was next day, at practice. Her Pa, excited by her
presence, ran and ran, notwithstanding his palpitations of the heart. It
was no use his trying to restrain himself: his enthusiasm mastered him as
soon as he saw them all in the saddle, his little Woolly-legs!

And no more Tom: he was all by himself now; and, when he sat down to take
breath, he still ordered his little Woolly-legs about, shouted his cutting
remarks at them.

Lily raised her head proudly. She seemed to take the apprentices to
witness. She had gone through that, much worse than that, for years! She
was a gentle little lady, all the same. Besides, she was all for
gentleness:

"Leave her to me, Pa; you're making poor Cousin Daisy quite nervous. She
doesn't know; I'll show her!"

And, under her great waving feather, Lily, without even taking off her
gloves:

"There, put your foot there ... like that ... and like that ... firmly.
No, not like that!"

And, suddenly, stimulated with professional zeal:

"Wait, I'll show you how it's done!"

And, in an instant, to show them all how you're got up when you're a star
and when you come back from the continent, Lily took off her bodice,
pinned up her skirt amid the rustling of the silk and, bare-armed, in a
lace-trimmed chemisette:

"Now then, I'll show you!"

And Lily, with all her little muscles alive, took a bike, jumped on it as
she would on a stool and then--yoop!--the bike on its back-wheel, spinning
round like a top.

"Twirls are as easy as anything: you only have to know how to do them.
Come on! Have a try!"

And the other, encouraged by a friendly slap, tried in her turn
and--yoop!--succeeded ... very nearly.

Pa was enraptured at the mere sight of Lily's little curled nostrils and
her earnest look:

"What a professor she would make!" he thought. "If ever she takes the
belt, she'll be simply grand. I can just fold my arms!"

But he made her dress very quickly. That exhibition of dainty underwear,
which flattered his pride as a father, would have driven girls used to
sewing their own calico shifts quite crazy: there would have been no
holding them; and, besides, artistes might come in at any moment. It would
not do for Lily to be seen half-dressed like that; and she realized this
herself, like a sensible little lady, who hates scandal.

"Stay with us, Lily," said her Pa, at home, aft