on."

"Is it a new dress for Vi, mammy?" asked Elsie, putting her arm about her
sister and giving her a loving kiss.

"Yah, yah; you ain't no whar nigh it yet, chillens," laughed mammy,
dropping into a chair, and warding off an attempt on the part of little
Herbert to seize her prize and examine it for himself.

"Oh, it's alive," cried Harold, half breathlessly, "I saw it move!" Then
as a slight sound followed the movement, "A baby! a baby!" they all
exclaim, "O, mammy, whose is it? where did you get it? oh, sit down and
show it to us!"

"Why, chillen, I reckon it 'longs to us," returned mammy, complying with
the request, while they gathered closely about her with eager and
delighted faces.

"Ours, mammy? Then I'm glad it isn't black or yellow like the babies down
at the quarter," said Harold, eying it with curiosity and interest.

"So am I too," remarked Violet, "but it's got such a red face and hardly
any hair on the top of its head."

"Well, don't you remember that's the way Herbie looked when he first
came?" said Eddie.

"And he grew very white in a few weeks," remarked Elsie. "But is it
mamma's baby, mammy?"

"Yes, honey, dat it am; sho's yer born, 'nother pet for ole mammy,--de
bressed little darlin'," she answered, pressing the little creature to
her breast.

The information was received with a chorus of exclamations of delight and
admiration.

"Tate a bite of cacker, boy," said Herbert, offering a cracker which he
was eating with evident enjoyment.

Mammy explained, amid the good-natured laughter of the older children,
that the newcomer had no teeth and couldn't eat anything but milk.

"Oh, poor 'ittle fing!" he said, softly touching its velvet cheek. "Won't
'oo tum and pay wis Herbie?"

"No, it can't play," said Violet, "it can't walk and it can't talk."

"Where's mamma, mammy?" asked Eddie, glancing at the clock; "it's past her
time; I wonder too she didn't come to show us the new baby herself."

"She's sick, chile," returned mammy, a grave and anxious look coming into
her old eyes.

"Mamma sick?" exclaimed little Elsie, "oh, may I go to her?"

Mammy shook her head. "Not jes now, honey darlin', byme by, when she's
bettah."

"Mamma sick?" echoed Violet. "Oh, I'm so, so sorry!"

"Don't fret, chillen, de good Lord make her well again soon," said mammy,
with cheerful hopefulness, for she could not bear to see how sad each
little face had grown, how the young lips quivered, and the bright