“And we’d take it to walk when we got home from school—”
“And we’d teach it its letters—”
“And put it to bed—”
“Would we have to spank her if she was naughty?”
“Oh, do let’s beg them to let us have it for our very own, and bring it up ourselves. Would you like to live with us, baby?”
The possibility of a distracted mother, searching around for the child, somehow never occurred to the girls, in their planning about the little waif, and they chattered on, in their eagerness, till they reached the shop of the little baker, with whom they meant to leave the child.
The good-natured little woman, who knew the children well by sight, was quite interested in their story, and was entirely willing to take charge of the lost baby till one o’clock. She was an ignorant little German woman, and she never thought of telling the girls to send it to the police station to be kept till its friends could look it up.
The thought of the baby kept the girls excited all the morning. After school they started off immediately, without waiting, as usual, for their friends. The baby recognised Eunice as soon as she appeared, and pulled her dress delightedly.
“Could you lend us something to put on her head?” asked Eunice, eyeing the flaxen pig-tails doubtfully. “My handkerchief makes her look so queer, and I’m afraid she’ll take cold without anything over her head.”
The little bake-shop woman good-naturedly produced a very remarkable-looking cap of her own baby’s, and tied it on the little waif’s head.