as
good as my hymns and verses. I know I looked up at her with eyes full of
admiration, and when she put her arms round me, and gave me a loving
kiss, I thought I had never been so happy before.

And then she listened to all I had to tell her about Bobbie, and baby
Willie, and Rosalinda, and gave me her advice about dressing Rosalinda
like the Queen.

My letters, too, she read, and said they were very nice, which made me
love mamma for writing them all the more. And she showed me her own
letter that had just come across the sea, with its foreign stamps and
thin paper. Quite a nice talk it was altogether, and we were ever so
sorry when we were called in to dinner.

My boy-cousins were very polite to me at first, and hardly seemed to
know what to make of me. Harry was a little too patronizing, called me
"a mite of a thing," and played tricks upon me in a gentle way. But then
he was not often with us. He had not been a night in the house before he
had quite determined to be a sailor like Uncle Hugh, so it followed, as
a matter of course, that he must be always with him.

Force of habit, however, made him confide all his plans and thoughts to
Lottie, so that our private talks in the shrubbery were often
interrupted by his merry voice. Then he would throw himself down among
the grass and periwinkles, and tell us all about his future ship. This
usually ended in Lottie's being carried off to make sails or flags for
his new craft. Then, being left to myself, I soon ran off to my other
cousins, nothing loath to have a game of romps with them.

Alick seemed likely to be my special friend. What a funny little fellow
he must have been, though I did not think so then! Jane called him a
little dandy, much to his displeasure; yet I am afraid his friendship
was likely to increase my childish vanity. He was so fond of decking me
with flowers, making wreaths for me, and then looking at me, and
sometimes comparing my hair or eyes with Lottie's; and his look of
vexation if my face was dirty or my pinafore torn, often comes back to
me even now when I feel untidy in any way.

One afternoon, when Alick and I and one of the other boys were alone, it
suddenly came into our wise little heads that we would play at going to
a party. What vast preparations we made! What pains the boys took to tie
up my sleeves with some bright ribbon meant for Harry's flags! How
cleverly we succeeded in carrying off a hair-brush, and what a long time
it took