Yes, _isn't_ it a pretty sight.... Oh, they're _much_ too busy to talk
at present.... Well, if you _would_ take this cup of tea to my little
girl, dear Mr. Muffett, it would be so----Yes, in the white frock....
_Pray_ don't apologise--some tea upsets _so_ easily, doesn't it?... Oh!
I don't suppose it will show, really, and if it _does_.... Please, will
everybody keep quite quiet for a minute or two; I haven't said my
grace.... Don't you think it's unfair of nurse? She's handed me
bread-and-butter twice running!... I mustn't eat sponge-cake, thank you.
Bath buns are better for me than anything.... I was _so_ ill after
Christmas. They took my temperament with the barometer, and it was two
hundred and six!... Oh! that's nothing. When _I_ was ill, the doctor
said mine was perfectly Norman!... Well, you _might_ lower that
candleshade a _very_ little, perhaps, Mr. Muffett.... Ah! don't blow
it out.... Throw it into the fire, quick!... It doesn't matter in the
_least_. No; I wouldn't trouble about the _other_ shades, thanks....
Mother, will you read me the text out of my cracker?... But if you're
going to be a soldier, you oughtn't to shut your eyes when you pull a
cracker.... Oh! when I'm a soldier, I needn't _go_ to parties.
* * * * *
[Illustration: WELL BROUGHT UP.--"Now then, my little men, didn't you
see that board on that tree?"
"Yes."
"Well, then, can't you read?"
"Yes, but we never look at anything marked 'private.'"]
* * * * *