The Project Gutenberg eBook, Dickory Dock, by L. T. Meade

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Title: Dickory Dock

Author: L. T. Meade

Release Date: June 26, 2007 [eBook #21942]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DICKORY DOCK***

Transcribed from the [1890] W. & R. Chambers edition, by David Price,
email ccx074@pglaf.org

{Book cover: cover.jpg}

DICKORY DOCK

BY
L. T. MEADE

AUTHOR OF
'SCAMP AND I,' 'DADDY'S BOY,' 'A WORLD OF GIRLS,'
'POOR MISS CAROLINA,' &C.

W. & R. CHAMBERS, LIMITED
LONDON AND EDINBURGH

Edinburgh:
Printed by W. & R. Chambers, Limited.

CHAPTER I.

Of course there was a baby in the case--a baby and mongrel dog, and a
little boy and girl. They baby was small, and not particularly fair, but
it had round limbs and a dimple or two, and a soft, half-pathetic, half-
doggy look in its blue eyes, and the usual knack, which most helpless
little babies have, of twining itself round the hearts of those who took
care of it.

The caretakers of this baby were the two children and the dog. Of course
a woman, who went by the name of nurse, did duty somewhere in the
background; she washed the baby and dressed it in the morning, and she
undressed it at night, and she prepared food for it; but the caretakers
who called up smiles to the little white face, who caused the baby to
show that enticing little dimple which it had in one of its cheeks, who
made that strange, sweet, half-pathetic, half-humorous look come into its
eyes, were the children and the dog. The baby had a sad history; it had
entered the world with sorrow. Its mother had died at its birth, and the
little wee orphan creature had been brought away almost directly to an
uncle's house.

'We must do it, wife,' said Mr Franklin; 'there's poor John died two
months back, and now there's his widow following him, poor creature, and
no one to look after that wee mite of a babe. We must have it here, it's
our plain duty, and I don't suppose one extra mouth to feed can make much
difference.'

'That's all you men know,' replied Mrs Franklin, who was a very tall,
thin, fretful-looking woman. 'No difference i