The shop-mistress curtsied and smiled, and felt certain the young lady would buy one. She raised a garishly dressed specimen as she spoke, which was half-doll, half-golliwog, and hideously ugly. But Lotty was not impressed. She was too old, she said, for dolls like that; but had the good woman bassinets for these?
'Oh yes,' she had, 'lovely little cradles, with rockers and all. Look!'
Lotty did look, and was delighted. These were just the thing for Norlans. How sweet he would show in one of these, with its tiny cushion, its muslin drapery, and its blanket of blue! And so one was bought and sent on board. That night Norlans was put to bed in it. Lotty sat down and rocked her baby; and as she rocked she sang a pretty cradle hymn:
'Baloo, baloo, my wee wee thing,
Oh, softly close thy blinkin' e'e;
Baloo, baloo, my dear wee thing,
Now thou art doubly dear to me.
Thy face is simple, sweet, and mild,
Like ony simmer evenin' fa';
Thy sparklin' e'e is bonny black,
Thy neck is like the mountain snaw.
Baloo, baloo, baloo.'
And baby Norlans was willing to give himself up entirely to the luxury of the situation, and was soon sound enough asleep.
Then daddy Ben was called in—he had to walk on tiptoe—to take just one peep at him.
'Isn't he just lovelier than anything on earth, papa?' said Lotty.
'Lovelier,' replied Ben, 'than biled cockles, and every bit as white and clean.'
A day or two after this Lotty ran on deck when Ben was hung up as usual on a belaying-pin, the ship having been put to sea again, and it being the lad's watch off.
'Oh papa,' she cried, pretending to be awfully excited, 'you are to run down below at once. Grandma says Norlans has cut a "toofams."'