Then Dreamikins jumped up, and put her little arms round Fibo's neck.
"You are the darlingest, goodest man in the world," she said, "but I don't care so much for you when you're so solemn. And we'll all cheer up, and you must tell us a story that will make us scream and scream with laughter. Now begin!"
So Fibo began one, and before long the little girls were laughing almost as much as Dreamikins wished. When they went to bed that night, Dreamikins was allowed to sit for ten minutes by the bedside, before Annette came for her. There was a fire in the room, and the three little girls were alone. Dreamikins, in her pale blue dressing-gown and golden curls, looked a perfect picture.
"I shall never leave Fibo till Mummy comes for me," said Dreamikins thoughtfully; "but when she does, I'll get her to take me to London, and we'll look in upon you. We shall come up in a cab, and you'll be having tea in the nursery—that's when I like you best; and Nurse will say, 'Here comes that dreadful child. I do wish you'd never known her.'"
"And we shall scream with delight when we see you; but it will be ages and ages before that happens. And perhaps you will have altered then. Your hair will have gone out of curl, and you'll be walking instead of dancing, and you'll shake hands very stiffly, and say, 'I'm very pleased to see you, my dears,' in a prim and proper way!"
Dreamikins shook her head vehemently.
"I never will be stiff, never; my bones couldn't be; I can't keep them still enough. It's been lovely knowing you, and I don't know which I like best."
"Like us both the same," said Freda; "Daffy and me are just alike, Dreamikins. We'll look-out for people who want clothes and food in London; there are sure to be some. And you'll go and see Mrs. Bone as well as your old man, won't you?"
"Yes, I will; I like seeing people. When I grow up I shall try to get to know everybody I ever see. It's so interressing. Here's Annette; hide me, quick!"
In an instant she had scrambled into their big bed, and wriggled down in the middle of it out of sight.