ped up
and flung her arms about Alice, who was nearer her, and then about
Peggy.
"Peggy has got her feet wet," said Alice anxiously. "She'll have to put
on some of your stockings while hers are drying."
"I can't get into Diana's stockings," Peggy said, as she looked down at
her feet. "I'll just sit in my bare feet until my shoes and stockings
are dry."
"Uncle Joe and the boys may come in. I'll get you some of mother's,"
said Diana.
So Peggy was dressed in a pair of black silk stockings that were much
too large for her, and a pair of bedroom slippers that were so big that
she was afraid to walk for fear they would fall off. She liked the
slippers very much, however, for they were such a pretty shade of blue,
and they had black fur all around the edge.
It was early in the afternoon, so the children settled down for a long
play. They were beginning to wish they could think of something else to
do when Uncle Joe came in.
"How cozy you look," said he. "Can you give a poor working-man a seat by
the fire?"
Peggy who was nearest the fire, sprang up, forgetting all about her
slippers.
"I think I see a bird in borrowed plumage," said Uncle Joe. "Did you get
your feet wet?"
"I walked into a mud-puddle on purpose, for the fun of it," said Peggy.
"I wanted to see if it would go over my rubbers. I didn't think it
would, but it did."
"Oh, Uncle Joe, can't we play the geography game?" said Diana. "Peggy
has never played it."
"I don't like geography so very much," said Alice.
"It's just a game," said Diana. "We have to see who can say the
forty-eight States quickest. We say them like the alphabet, those
beginning with A first, and the one who gets the A's done first looks
them up on the map, to see where they are. It's lots of fun."
"Diana likes it because she always beats Tom and Christopher," said her
uncle.
"Let's begin," said Diana, "one, two, three."
But neither Peggy nor Alice could think of a single State beginning with
A.
"There are three," said Diana. "You can look them up on the map and find
them." She brought out an atlas and turned to a map of the United
States.
Alice and Peggy pored over the map eagerly.
"I've found one," said Peggy, "it's Arizona."
"Here is Alabama," said Alice.
"Here, is another one, Arkansas," said Peggy. "Now for the B's."
"There aren't any B's," said Diana.
Tom and Christopher came in just then, and Peggy and Alice listened as
the others played the
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