en' in his letter."

"I hope there will be a girl, and that she will like to play with
dolls," said Alice.

"But you've Clara, I don't see what more you want," said Peggy.

"But Clara is never here in the winter," said Alice.

That night, after the children had gone to bed, they began to talk about
the doctor's family. It was the last night they were to spend in the old
house, and they felt a little sad as they climbed into the mahogany
four-poster bedstead, for the room looked desolate. The curtains had
been packed, and all the furniture was gone except the bed.

"Anyway, we'll be sleeping on it to-morrow night," said Peggy. "We'll
have Roxanna Bedpost with us just the same."

She looked at the lower bedpost at her right that she had christened by
this name when she was a tiny child, because her mother had hung Peggy's
blue sunbonnet on it.

"Shut up your eyes, Peggy, and see things," said Alice. "Perhaps you can
see the children who are going to live here."

Peggy had a delightful way of seeing things that Alice could not see.
She shut her eyes up and thought hard and then she opened them and
looked at the opposite wall.

It seemed quite simple, but whenever Alice tried it she could see
nothing. "Do you really see things, Peggy?" she once asked.

"I see them in my mind's eye," said Peggy.

"What do you see to-night, Peggy?" said Alice.

"I see two children, a boy and a girl; and they are picking red apples
in our orchard."

"In March?"

"It's not March in my mind's eye. They are beautiful, big, red apples.
The girl is a little bigger than you and a little smaller than me, so
she's just right for both of us to play with, and her name is Matilda
Ann."

"I don't think that is at all a pretty name."

"I did not say it was a pretty name; I just said her name was Matilda
Ann."

"I hope it isn't."

"Well, what do you guess it is?"

"Oh, I don't know."

"You must guess something."

"Oh, well, Fanny."

"Fanny! That's a very stupid sort of name," said Peggy.

They were still talking about the possible names of the possible girl
and boy when their mother came in to see if they were tucked up for the
night.

"Are you still awake?" she asked. "I wonder what you do find to talk
about when you see each other all day long."

CHAPTER II

A CAT IN A STRANGE GARRET

There were others who felt as if they were in a strange garret, after
the moving, besides the cat. The children's mother was ve