"There! what do you think of that story?" said the little mother, as she rolled up the manuscript.
"Oh, it is the best of all! They are all the best stories!" cried the children. "How we wish we knew Lillie and her beautiful doll!"
They gathered round their mother, and admired her picture, which Aunt Fanny had sent with the MS.; and counted the flounces, and thought her feet were "such darlings!" and then exclaimed again, "Oh, I wish we knew her!"
"Wouldn't you rather know Harry, the little old gentleman in the wig?" asked a voice at the door.
The children turned quickly round, and saw Aunt Fanny standing at the door laughing at them.
They fell upon her with screams of delight, and, without meaning to, immediately upset her upon the carpet; for she is a little woman, with not a grain of bodily strength; all her strength is in her heart. So there she sat, so weak from laughing, that she could not help herself; while the children cried, "Oh, Aunt Fanny, we beg your pardon! did we hurt you? we only meant to love you."
Then they all got hold of her, and began to pull her up different ways; in consequence of which, down she came again, and half a dozen of the children with her.
"Oh!" she cried, "if you don't stop, you will push me through the carpet and floor, and make me fall plump on top of the cook's head in the kitchen. Come, let's all sit here, while I tell you something, and recover my breath."
This invitation suited them exactly. Down they all dropped, with Aunt Fanny in the middle. The little ones tumbled over themselves, and lighted on their heads at first; but after a good deal of laughing and nestling up close together, they were tolerably quiet.
"Well," said Aunt Fanny, "I always knew you were perfect monkeys for cutting capers; but I did not know till now, that you were also a family of crabs."