call good, you just want the name of it. So do I sometimes; and then I
get it. That's cheap work."

"Want the name of what?"

"Why, of being good."

"Then goodness _is_ something. You wouldn't want the name of nothing."

Judy laughed. "I haven't come here to be good to-day," she said; "nor
to talk nonsense. I want to tell you about something. We are going to
have a party."

"A party! when?"

"Christmas eve. Now it is _our_ party, you understand; mine and
Norton's and David's; mamma has nothing to do with it, nor grandmamma,
except to prepare everything. _That_ she'll do; but we have got to
prepare the entertainment; and we are going to play games and act
proverbs; and I have come to see how much you know, and whether you can
help."

"What do you want me to know?" said Matilda. "I'll help all I can."

"How much do you know about games? Can you play 'What's my thought
like?' or 'Consequences?' or anything?"

"I never played games much," said Matilda, with a sudden feeling of
inferiority. "I never had much chance."

"I dare say!" said Judy. "I knew that before I came. Well of course you
can't act proverbs. You don't know anything."

"What is it?" said Matilda. "Tell me. Perhaps I can learn."

"You can't learn in a minute," said Judy with a slight toss of her
head, which indeed was much given to wagging in various directions.

"But tell me, please."

"Well, there's no harm in that. We choose a proverb, of course, first;
for instance the boys are going to play 'It's ill talking between a
full man and a fasting.' This is how they are going to do it. Nobody
knows, you understand, what the proverb is, but they must guess it.
Norton will be a rich man who wants to buy a piece of land; and David
is the man who owns the land and has come to see him; but he has come a
good way, and he is without his dinner, and he feels as cross as can
be, and no terms will suit him. So they talk and talk, and disagree and
quarrel and are ridiculous; till at last Norton finds out that Davy
hasn't dined; and then he orders up everything in the house he can
think of, that is good, and makes him eat; and when he has eaten
everything and drunk wine and they are cracking nuts, then Norton
begins again about the piece of land; and the poor man is so
comfortable now he is willing to sell anything he has got; and Norton
gets it for his own price. Won't it be good?"

"I should think it would be very interesting," said Matilda; whom
inde