To Bubbles was given the care of the little baby, Alma, and Eleanor was seldom allowed to have any of her old-time plays with the little nursemaid. "You have Jessie and Olive now to play with," her Cousin Ellen told her, "and I can find other things for Barbara to do." Cousin Ellen was very precise in some matters and she considered the name which Eleanor in her baby days had bestowed upon the small negro girl as a ridiculous one, she therefore called her Barbara. At first Bubbles declined to respond to this, but she soon found that she must. Sylvy took her leave shortly after Mrs. Murdoch's arrival, declaring that she would not come back till Mrs. Dallas returned. "I don't like nobody al'ays fussin' roun' my kitchen," she said, "an' I wants to res' up, anyway."
Therefore another woman was installed in Sylvy's place and Eleanor was never allowed to go into the kitchen to make patty-cakes or to help Bubbles in order that she might the sooner get through her work and come out to play with her beloved Miss Dimple.
Nevertheless, Bubbles was permitted to take little Alma down to the playhouse, on occasions, and many a good time Eleanor promised herself there, for this was specially her own, and if she wanted a quiet place of retreat she could always go there.
But one Saturday morning when she was skipping down to her little house, she was surprised to see Donald busily engaged in carrying her toys out on the small porch, and depositing them there. She stood still in amazement, and then cried out sharply, "What are you doing, Donald? Let my things alone."
"I'm not hurting your old things," Donald returned. "I'm putting them down carefully enough, silly dolls and trash as they are."
"They are not trash, and I'll thank you to put them back again."
"I'm not going to do anything of the kind; I'm going to have this for my house while I'm here."
"Where did you get the key?"
"From where it belongs, on the nail behind the dining-room door."
Eleanor was aghast, then, with a lump in her throat, which threatened every moment to be followed by a flood of tears from her eyes, she ran back to the house, and hunted up Mrs. Murdoch. "Oh, Cousin Ellen," she cried in a tumult, "Donald is taking all my toys out of my playhouse. Please, won't you make him stop?"