I would be a _naughty_ wind-fairy first, and go and blow everything out
of its place--all untidy and crooked; and then I could change, and be a
_good_ wind-fairy, and go and blow all the things straight again.
So I went into all the rooms.
It _was_ funny!
I blew the antimacassars on to the floor, and the visiting-cards out of
the china-plate.
That was in the drawing-room.
The best fun was in the nursery, where all the clean handkerchiefs and
collars and cuffs were on the table. They went puff, puff, all over the
floor, just like big snowflakes, and I could hardly help stepping on
them.
The bedrooms were not so much fun. So I finished by going to the
dining-room, as soon as Ann had gone away, after setting the tea.
Nobody will believe me when I say that I really _was_ going to put
everything tidy again! But I never got so far as being the good
wind-fairy. Everything always goes just the wrong way!
First of all, the servants finished their tea sooner than they generally
do, and nurse went straight back to the nursery. She might have
waited--mightn't she?
And wasn't it unkind of Mrs. Rose to come and call, and to have to be
shown into the drawing-room? She is our doctor's sister, and she is so
stiff and white that we call her Mrs. _Prim_rose. That's _her_ nickname.
But it never pricks _her_, because she never hears it.
I wonder if nurse is right when she says, "It is going against the
Catechism to make nicknames for grown-up people"?
Well! I didn't know that if you blew a flame with the bellows it would
make it run about everywhere. Did you?