“La! she’s awful dirty,” said Eliza, looking in on them presently. “I wouldn’t touch her with a ten-foot pole.”
“Let’s wash her, and dress her up in Kenneth’s things,” cried Cricket, straightway catching hold of Mosina, who speedily stood arrayed only in her own rosy skin; for the dirt which ’Liza had exclaimed at, was really chiefly on her hands and face.
Eunice drew the water in the bath-tub, and all four, with great laughing and excitement, superintended a very thorough scrubbing process, to the infinite amazement of the small child, who had probably never been so scrubbed before since she was born.
There was a small bruise on one side of the round, dimpled thigh, that presently caught Zaidie’s attention.
“Here’s another dirt-spot, Eunice,” she said, with an air of much importance at the discovery. It was so delightful to be the scrubber instead of the scrubbee. She seized the nail-brush, and squeezing in under Eunice’s arm, began vigorously applying it to the baby’s soft flesh. That small person instantly howled again.
“Stop, Zaidie! that isn’t dirt, it’s a bruise,” said Eunice, taking the nail-brush away. “Can’t you tell the difference?”
“Not unlets I poke ’em,” said Zaidie, looking surprised. “When I have one I always poke it, and if it hurts I know it’s a bruise. If it doesn’t I guess it’s dirt. I couldn’t tell it on the baby, could I?”
“You had better experiment on yourself,” said Cricket, laughing. “There, Miss Mosina, you’re pretty clean now, I think. Let’s take her out, Eunice. Put down the big bath-towel, Zaidie.”
Baby had endured the process in awed silence thus far, but when she stood dripping like a little cupid on the bath-towel, she patted her round, fat legs with every appearance of delight, and even attempted to climb back into the tub. It was probably her first experience of a plunge.
“You cunning thing!” cried Eunice, as rapturously as if she had never seen a small child tubbed before. “Cricket, won’t you run and ask ’Liza for some of Kenneth’s clothes? I don’t want to put her dirty ones on her again.”