‘How is poor little Betsy?’ asked Beatrice.
‘Where is she hurt, grandmamma?’ asked Alice.
Grandmamma told them all about Betsy, and what she had done for her, and said that the little girl was much easier when she left her.
‘May we take her something nice for her dinner or for her tea?’ asked Alice: to which Beatrice added, ‘Please let us, grandmamma.’
‘You may take Betsy a little basketful of strawberries, and you may gather them yourselves.’
‘Thank you, dear grandmamma,’ said the little girls; ‘may we go now for them?’
‘No, not now, dear children,’ said grandmamma; ‘you must come in and do your lessons.’
‘Do let us go first and pull some strawberries,’ said they.
‘No; I cannot let you go till after your dinner.’ Upon which, Alice and Beatrice seemed very much inclined to cry, but they knew that their grandmamma did not like them to ask again after she had refused; so they walked on slowly, and did not speak at first.
At last Alice said, ‘Why did you wrap Betsy’s leg up in cotton-wool, grandmamma?’