When he was not crying he smiled and looked like a very happy little boy; and this was the way he looked now.
Then there was Baby Alice, a dear little girl who had to be carried and who could not speak a word yet.
Mr. and Mrs. Mason, who were Bessie’s Uncle Ralph and Aunt Lou, lived on a large farm, where they had plenty of people to help do the work; and these people had houses of their own not very far from the large house in which Bessie’s cousins lived.
There were a great many fields around the house, and woods, and a pretty little brook that seemed to be singing a song the whole time. The place was called “Brook Farm;” and there were so many horses, and cows, and sheep, and pigs, and chickens that Bessie wondered if any one could count them.
“Eat your breakfast, dear,” said Aunt Lou when she saw that Bessie left her bread-and-milk to look at the pets her cousins were already bringing in to show her, for they had all had their breakfasts; “there will be plenty of time for all that afterward.”
But the little pilgrim could not stop long to eat. Charlie had just whispered, “Tree tittens—four, five, tree—tome and see!” and away she flew.
“I expect my little girl to run wild now,” said mamma, smiling.
“It will do her a great deal of good,” replied Aunt Lou; “she is looking too pale, and I want to see her cheeks like roses before she leaves here.”
In a few moments there was a great screaming and boo-hoo-ing from Charlie, who came running to the house crying as hard as he could.
“What is the matter now?” asked his mamma, who did not seem to think there was much the matter.