“Perhaps you might put it in once or twice, but after that you would leave it about anywhere. One day I should find it upon a chair, and the next day upon a table, and the next on the floor;—that is the way you leave your things about the house.”
“I used to, when I was a little girl,” said Lucy, “but I don’t now.”
“How long is it since you were a little girl?” asked Miss Anne.
“O, it was before you came here. I am older now than I was when you came here; I have had a birthday since then.”
“Don’t you grow old any, except when you have a birthday?” asked Miss Anne.
Lucy did not answer this question at first, as she did not know exactly how it was; and while she was thinking of it, Miss Anne said,
“It can’t be very long, Lucy, since you learned to put things in their places, for it is not more than ten minutes since I heard you throw down an umbrella upon the entry floor, and leave it there.”
“The umbrella?—O, that was because I heard Royal calling for his cap; and so I could not wait, you know; I had to leave it there.”
“But you have passed by it once since, and I presume you did not think of such a thing as taking it up.”
Lucy had no reply to make to this statement, and she remained silent.