“Here, Meg, you go get me a broom, and I’ll set to work in a twinkling,” said Marcus, jumping down from the balusters, with a deafening stamp of his heavy shoes.
The sound seemed to touch every nerve in Mrs. Lee’s head, and she drew her eyebrows together with an expression of pain; but she only said, quietly—“I must have a pair of slippers for you to wear in the house, Marcus, and then you can take off your shoes, when you come in, as your father does.”
“O that will be first-rate,” said Marcus, with delight. “I should like dog’s-heads for the pattern; won’t you begin them to-day, Mother?”
“I will make them as soon as I can,” said the mother, with a languid smile.
Meg now came running along the hall, carrying the broom by the brush end, while the handle went “knock, knock,” along the floor, keeping time to the skipping motion with which she generally moved.
Marcus seized the broom, and began to flourish it this way and that way, across the wide pavement, as if he meant to be rapid, if not particularly thorough, in his work.
“Now, Harry,” said Mrs. Lee, quietly, “mother wants you to make a nice fence with your blocks all round your playthings. Meg will get them for you.”
From a closet under the stairs Meg soon dragged out a box in which were Harry’s stores of blocks,—playthings of which he never tired, and which never wore out.
The little fellow set to work very patiently; and then Mrs. Lee said, “Come, Meg, I will take you with me.” Meg gave her hand to her mother, and skipped up the stairs, ready to take in good part anything that should happen.
Mrs. Lee led her to a small room at the end of the hall, and said, “Now listen to me, my little darling. You are to sleep in here with Hatty, and she is to help you dress, and to be very kind to you. I want you to be very careful not to hurt any of Hatty’s things, and to mind her, when I am not with you. If you do as I say, you will be sure to get on well.”