"I do love you, Fibo, when you unnerstand so. I wish the fairies would come and hop up and down me when I lie like this. If we were to sleep out here one night, you know, they might. We should feel them tickling us. I think you might make up a story about us!"
Fibo was just going to begin, when there was a scurry of feet behind them, a swish of a silk dress, and a lady in dark blue, with a wonderful hat and veil, and a very happy face, swooped down upon them. She took Fibo's head between her two gloved hands, and bending down gave him a quick little kiss on his forehead; then she put her arms right round Dreamikins and smothered her with kisses.
"My Dreamikins, I've come to nurse you. My poor cripples! Isn't one enough in the family without having another?"
It was Dreamikins' mother. She, like her little daughter, arrived in haste without any warning.
Dreamikins put up her hand, and stroked her mother's cheek caressingly.
"I thought you'd have arroved sooner," she said. "I've been ill years!"
"I dare say it seems years to you; but Daddy got leave, and we were in London together; and Daddy always comes first with me, Dreamikins. You know that."
"I come first with Fibo," said Dreamikins, a little triumphantly.
"Now I want to be told all about it—letters don't count—from the beginning. And whose fault was it?"
"The nasty roller's," said Dreamikins promptly. Then she began to tell the story herself, and her mother sat and laughed.