Lily's idea was received with great applause and admiration, and she felt rather proud of it herself when she heard it so much praised.
But a difficulty arose. The little tub did duty for the ark of bulrushes most beautifully, it was "so real and so cunning;" and never was a meeker baby than the one which lay so quietly within it. But he must be hidden, and nothing could be found to answer for flags. The grass about the mock River Nile was quite too short for that purpose, trampled on as it was through each day's playtime by at least twenty pairs of little feet; and the willow twigs which Lola Swan planted would not stand up straight enough to make a shade for the ark.
"There isn't time to plant them deep enough," said Lola; "the school-bell will ring in a few moments, and then we'll have to leave it."
"And the sun will go and come round here before recess," said Lily, in a tone of distress, "and Moses will be all sunburned. Besides, it isn't a bit real: they never leave babies lying out in the sun."
"Put him out on the grass and turn the ark upside-down over him till we come out again," said Susy.
But Lily scouted the idea of having her Moses treated in this way; and all began at once to deepen the holes for the willow twigs before the bell should ring.
But suddenly a bright thought struck Lily.
"Let's play Moses' mother and Miriam put a pyramid over him," she said. "We could do that pretty quick, and it will be nice and shady for him, and very real too, 'cause they did have pyramids in Egypt."
All agreed readily, for this was thought an excellent arrangement, and they fell to work as fast as possible; while Bessie Norton whispered to Violet Swan, "What a smart child Lily is, isn't she?"
"Yes," said Violet, in the same tone, "very; and I expect when she is grown up she will do something very remarkable."