and
replied:

"Daddadda," "Bababa," or "Glueglue."

But if Alice stopped her remarks for an instant the thing screwed its
face up as if it was going to cry, but she never gave it time to begin.

It was a rummy little animal.

Then Dora came back with the bread and milk, and they fed the noble
infant. It was greedy and slobbery, but all three girls seemed unable to
keep their eyes and hands off it. They looked at it exactly as if it was
pretty.

We boys stayed watching them. There was no amusement left for us now,
for Oswald saw that Dora's Secret knocked the bottom out of the
perambulator.

When the infant aristocrat had eaten a hearty meal it sat on Alice's lap
and played with the amber heart she wears that Albert's uncle brought
her from Hastings after the business of the bad sixpence and the
nobleness of Oswald.

"Now," said Dora, "this is a council, so I want to be business-like. The
Duckums Darling has been stolen away; its wicked stealers have deserted
the Precious. We've got it. Perhaps its ancestral halls are miles and
miles away. I vote we keep the little Lovey Duck till it's advertised
for."

"If Albert's uncle lets you," said Dicky, darkly.

"Oh, don't say 'you' like that," Dora said; "I want it to be all of our
baby. It will have five fathers and three mothers, and a grandfather and
a great Albert's uncle, and a great grand-uncle. I'm sure Albert's uncle
will let us keep it--at any rate till it's advertised for."

"And suppose it never is," Noel said.

"Then so much the better," said Dora, "the little Duckywux."

She began kissing the baby again. Oswald, ever thoughtful, said:

"Well, what about your dinner?"

"Bother dinner!" Dora said--so like a girl. "Will you all agree to be
his fathers and mothers?"

"Anything for a quiet life," said Dicky, and Oswald said:

"Oh yes, if you like. But you'll see we sha'n't be allowed to keep it."

"You talk as if he was rabbits or white rats," said Dora, "and he's
not--he's a little man, he is."

"All right, he's no rabbit, but a man. Come on and get some grub, Dora,"
rejoined the kind-hearted Oswald, and Dora did, with Oswald and the
other boys. Only Noel stayed with Alice. He really seemed to like the
baby. When I looked back he was standing on his head to amuse it, but
the baby did not seem to like him any better whichever end of him was
up.

Dora went back to the shepherd's house on wheels directly she had had
her dinner. Mrs. Pettigrew was