"It will be an awful job, and he is so happy I won't plague him yet.
Guess I'll go and put my room to rights first, and pick up some clean
clothes to put on him, if he is alive after I get through with him,"
thought Molly, foreseeing a stormy passage for the boy, who hated a bath
as much as some people hate a trip across the Atlantic.

Up she went, and finding the fire out felt discouraged, thought she
would rest a little more, so retired under the blankets to read one of
the Christmas books. The dinner-bell rang while she was still wandering
happily in "Nelly's Silver Mine," and she ran down to find that Boo had
laid out a railroad all across her neat room, using bits of coal for
sleepers and books for rails, over which he was dragging the yellow sled
laden with a dismayed kitten, the tailless dog, and the remains of the
sausage, evidently on its way to the tomb, for Boo took bites at it now
and then, no other lunch being offered him.

"Oh dear! why can't boys play without making such a mess," sighed Molly,
picking up the feathers from the duster with which Boo had been trying
to make a "cocky-doo" of the hapless dog. "I'll wash him right after
dinner, and that will keep him out of mischief for a while," she
thought, as the young engineer unsuspiciously proceeded to ornament his
already crocky countenance with squash, cranberry sauce, and gravy, till
he looked more like a Fiji chief in full war-paint than a Christian boy.

"I want two pails of hot water, please, Miss Bat, and the big tub," said
Molly, as the ancient handmaid emptied her fourth cup of tea, for she
dined with the family, and enjoyed her own good cooking in its prime.

"What are you going to wash now?"

"Boo--I'm sure he needs it enough;" and Molly could not help laughing as
the victim added to his brilliant appearance by smearing the colors
all together with a rub of two grimy hands, making a fine "Turner" of
himself.

"Now, Maria Louisa Bemis, you ain't going to cut up no capers with that
child! The idea of a hot bath in the middle of the day, and him full
of dinner, and croupy into the bargain! Wet a corner of a towel at the
kettle-spout and polish him off if you like, but you won't risk his life
in no bath-tubs this cold day."

Miss Bat's word was law in some things, so Molly had to submit, and took
Boo away, saying, loftily, as she left the room,--

"I shall ask father, and do it to-night, for I will _not_ have my
brother look like a pig.