"Have what Mickey?" she inquired, instantly alert.
"Well never you mind what," said Mickey. "You be a good girl and lie still, so your back will be better, and watch the bundle I'll bring home to-morrow night."
Peaches shivered in delight. Mickey proceeded slowly, followed by the entire family.
"Mickey, it's so big!" she marvelled. "Everything is so far away, an' so big!"
"Now isn't it!" agreed Mickey. "You see it's like I told you. Now let me show you the garden."
He selected that as a safe proposition. Peaches grasped the idea readily enough. Mrs. Harding gathered vegetables for her to see. When they reached the strawberry bed Mickey knelt and with her own fingers Peaches pulled a berry and ate it, then laughed, exclaimed, and cried in delight. She picked a flower, and from the safe vantage of the garden viewed the cows and horses afar; and the fields and sheep were explained to her. Mickey carried her across the road, Mary brought a comfort, and for a whole hour the child lay under a big tree with pink and white clover in a foot-deep border around her. When they lifted her she said: "Mickey, to-night we put in the biggest blesses of all."
"What?" inquired Mickey.
"Bless the nice people for such grand things, an' the berries; but never mind about the cow."
Then Mickey took her back to the house. She awoke from a restful nap to find a basket of chickens waiting for her, barely down dry from their shells. She caught up a little yellow ball, and with both hands clutched it, exclaiming and crying in joy until Mickey saw the chicken was drooping. He pried open her excited little fingers; but the chicken remained limp. Soon it became evident that she had squeezed the life from it.
"Oh Peaches, you held it too tight!" wailed Mickey. "I'm afraid you've made it sick!"