"Crabs!" cried the children laughing.
"Yes, pulling me up, and trying to make me walk two ways at once, like a crab: very good fun for a crab, but it brought me flat, as you see, and has nearly frightened out of my head a fine story I have heard, about the consequences of an odd speech your friend Harry, the little old gentleman in the story of Lillie, made to a poor little boy."
"Oh dear, do tell it!" they cried; "try to get it back in your head again; we want to hear it so much."
"Well, will you get up and sit in chairs, and work like beavers at your mittens, if I do?"
"Oh, yes! yes!" They sprang up, and in a surprisingly short time the crochet needles were glancing in the gas light; while the mittens grew wonderfully.
It was a new pleasure to hear a story directly from her lips, especially as she had brought two or three pictures to illustrate it, which added greatly to their enjoyment.
It was rather late to begin one, but the little mother for once consented to let the small ones of the family sit up; and Aunt Fanny began the wonderful story of
The Fairy Benevolence.