everted to the modern nurse, after informing me that men
and horses were sacred beasts!

"Well, about nurses, 'Mrs.' before a nurse's name doesn't soothe a
fretful child, nor make her more patient or loving. It might make her
less patient, if she took to wishing the 'Mrs.' was real instead of
sham; some women are like that, all for marrying. I dare say," said
Nannie, when going over her experiences, "my face did look blank when I
missed all my treasures, but f said nothing, although it was a blow when
I thought of all the lovely times you had had with that rocking-horse.
You remember the hole in it? Well, that was cut out solid because of all
the things that were inside that rocking-horse; almost all the things
that had been lost for years we found in that horse. My gold chain, for
one thing, to say nothing of other things. The tail came out, and that
is how the things got lost. The boys, always up to mischief, just popped
anything they came across down that hole and put in the tail again, so
no one knew anything about it. Well, then, your father lost something
very special, I forget what, and there was a to-do! And Jane said she
believed there was a power of things down that rocking-horse, so we got
Jane's sister's young man, who was a carpenter, or by way of being,
to come and cut out a square block out of the underneath--well, the
stomach--of that horse--and then we found things! Things we had lost
for years. Then we put the block back, and no one would have noticed
particularly, not unless they had looked. Well, that's what I missed,
the rocking-horse, but still I said nothing. Then we had tea out of new
cups, and still I said nothing, because tea-cups will get broken, and
you can't expect young girls to take care of cups like we did. The
kettle-holder was gone! Then Mrs. David came in. Oh! she is lovely and
like your mother in some ways,--the ways of going round and speaking
to every one,--and she laid her hand on Betty's head, just as I've seen
your mother do a hundred times on yours, and that was hard to bear.
Anyhow, it's a good thing it wasn't some one else who got Hames. There
's that to be thankful for. It begins with 'Z,' you know."

"Nannie!" I said.

"Z for Zebra," said Nannie.

When the new nursery was all ready, Nannie was sent for. A dozen times
that day I ran up that narrow staircase, and in the morning I laid the
tea to see how it would look, and it looked so pretty that I left it.
At four o'clock