e in
here and get it."

From the crowded street they passed in at the doorway and walked
between marble counters to what seemed to Miss Becky a scene in
fairyland. Ascending two or three broad steps, on each side of which
an antlered stag kept guard, they stepped upon a great carpeted space,
lighted from above,--a space in the middle of which was a fountain,
springing high into the air, and splashing back into a round basin
lined with shining shells and pebbles, over and among which goldfish
swam and dove like animated jewels. Ferns and palms grew all about the
basin, and in among the greenery was a little table where Nannie and
her guest sat hidden safe away from the world.

"Well, this doos beat all!" the old lady exclaimed, gazing at the
fountain with an expression of rapt delight--just the expression that
Nannie had counted upon seeing among the wrinkles.

"Do you like it?" she asked, all her disappointment and chagrin
forgotten.

"Like it? Why, it's the most tasty place I was ever in! It's better
than any play; it's like bein' in a play yourself! Jest see them
pillows supportin' that gallery! 'N' them picters of tropical fruits!
'N' this ice-cream! Why, it's different from what we hev at the
Sunday-school picnics! 'Pears to me it's more creamy!"

Now, at last, Miss Becky had lost all thought of the passage of time.
She took her ice-cream, just a little at a time, off the tip-end of
her spoon, and with every mouthful the look of content grew deeper.
One of the little cakes that were served with the ice-cream was a
macaroon with a sugar swan upon it--"a reel little statoo of a swan,"
Miss Becky called it. She could not be persuaded to eat it, but she
studied it with such undisguised admiration that Nannie ventured to
suggest that she take it home with her. Again Miss Becky was
enchanted. She wrapped it in her pocket-handkerchief, and placed it
carefully in her reticule, whence it was to emerge only to enter upon
a long and admired career as a parlour ornament.

"And now, Miss Becky," Nannie queried, as they sat there embowered in
palms and ferns, listening to the plash of the fountain, "didn't you
enjoy the play at all?"

"Oh, yes," said Miss Becky, "I had a very pleasant time before they
got so reckless with their guns. But--I wonder whether they take sech
pains with the the-etter's they used to? Why, when I went with Uncle
'Bijah Lane that time, they all wore the most beautiful clothes. Even
the men was d