them gives her the fidgets; but neither you nor I, dear
reader, form our opinions by those of Miss Folly.

It was on a fine morning in summer that Dick, Lubin, Matty, and Nelly
paid their first visit to Grammar's Bazaar. They entered it by a low
porch, half choked up with parcels of words tied up in sentences ready
to be sent to various customers.

"A dull, dark place this is!" exclaimed Lubin; "I would not give
Amusement's Bazaar for fifty like this."

"Any chance of having one's pocket picked here?" said Dick, with a
malicious wink at his brother.

"Let's visit all the stalls one after another," cried Matty, "before we
make any purchase; I like to see all that's to be seen. What a comical
little body is standing behind the first counter; she is not as big as
Alphabet, I should say."

"She looks like his sister," observed Nelly; "but I suppose that she is
one of the Parts of Speech." And she read the name "Article" fastened up
at the back of the stall.

"What may you sell here, my little lady?" asked Dick, in his easy,
self-confident way; "I see only three hooks on your counter."

Miss Article Part of Speech had to stand upon a stool that her head
might peep over the top of her stall. "I'm but a little creature," said
she, with a good-humoured smile; "_a_, _an_, and _the_ are all the words
that I'm trusted to sell. If you want to see a larger assortment, pass
on to my sister Noun; she has many thousands of words to show you,
models of everything that can be seen, heard, or felt in the world."

Surely enough a most prodigious collection appeared on the counter of
Noun, a large portly maiden who presided over the stall next to that of
Article. There were _cups_ and _saucers_, _pins_ and _needles_, _caps_
and _bonnets_, models of _houses_, _churches_, _beasts_, _birds_, and
_fishes_, by far too numerous to describe.

"These are all _common_," observed Noun, seeing the eyes of Dick fixed
admiringly upon the collection; "I have behind me some more curious
things that have all names of their own," and she pointed to a row of
small figures. "These are not _common_ but, _proper_," she continued;
"you will notice here _Wellington_, _Napoleon_, _Nelson_, and our
gracious sovereign _Victoria_."

[Illustration: Dick, Lubin, Matty, and Nelly paying their first visit to
Grammar's Bazaar. _Page 103._]

"And oh, look here, at Miss Adjective's counter!" cried Matty; "she
keeps such a lot of dolls' things to dress up the f