baby sister, Narcissa. Boys who despise sisters,
"girls" in any shape, big or little, don't know what a great deal they
lose. Ted was still a good way off the "big boy" stage, and indeed I
don't think anything could have made it possible for him to look at
things as too many big boys do. By the time he reached schoolboy-hood,
Narcissa was a dainty maiden of five or six, and quite able to stand
up for herself in a little queenly way, even had her brother been less
tender and devoted. And of the years between, though I would like to
tell you something, I cannot tell you half nor a quarter. They were
happy sunny years, though not _quite_ without clouds of course. And
the first summer of little Cissy's life was a sort of bright opening
to them.

It was again a very beautiful summer. The children almost lived
out-of-doors. Poor nurse found it difficult to get the work in the house
that fell to her share finished in the morning before Ted was tugging at
her to "tum out into the garden, baby does _so_ want to tum;" and baby
soon learnt to clap her hands and chuckle with glee when her little hat
was tied on and she was carried downstairs to her perambulator waiting
at the door. And there was new interest for Ted in hunting for the
loveliest wild flowers he could find, as baby showed, or Ted _thought_
she did, a quite extraordinary love for the bouquets her little brother
arranged for her.

"Her knows _kite_ well which is the prettiest ones, doesn't her, nurse?"
he said one day when they were all three--all four rather, for of course
Chevie was one of the group--established in their favourite place under
the shade of a great tree, whose waving branches little Cissy loved so
much that she would cry when nurse wheeled her away from it. "I think
baby knows _lots_, though she can't speak;" and baby, pleased at his
evidently talking of _her_, burst into a funny crowing laugh, which
seemed exactly as if she knew and approved of what he was saying.

"Baby's a darling," said nurse.

"How soon will her learn to speak?" Ted inquired gravely.

Illustration:
"Baby showed, or Ted _thought_ she did, a quite extraordinary love
for the bouquets her little brother arranged for her."--P. 98.

"Not just yet. She hasn't got any teeth. Nobody can speak without
teeth," said nurse.

"I hope," said Ted, more gravely still, "I hope Dod hasn't forgotten
them."

Nurse turned away to hide a smile.

"No fear, Master Ted," she said in a mi