It may be recalled as an interesting, although not an agreeable item, that in the days of the French Revolution there was a notorious brood of Mother Carey's chickens in Paris. They were the female rag-tag-and-bobtail of the city, whose appearance in the streets was understood to forebode a fresh political tumult. What an insult to our feathered friends to bestow their honoured name on such human fiends!
The real Mother Carey is she who appeared to Tom and Ella in Peacepool, after they had learned a few things about themselves and the world. They heard her voice calling to them, and they looked, crying:
'"Oh, who are you, after all? You are our dear Mrs. Do-as-you-would-be-done-by."
'"No, you are good Mrs. Be-done-by-as-you-did; but you are grown quite beautiful now!"
'"To you," said the Fairy; "but look again."
'"You are Mother Carey," said Tom, in a very low, solemn voice, for he had found out something which made him very happy, and yet frightened him more than all that he had ever seen.
'"But you are grown quite young again."
'"To you," said the Fairy; "but look again."
'"You are the Irishwoman who met me the day I went to Harthover!"
'And when they looked again she was neither of them, and yet all of them at once.