“Oh, mama, why has it all stopped? I should like driving in a sledge to go on for ever and ever.”
I kissed the little maid, and we went into tea. Bess hardly spoke, and I thought her wearied by the excitement of the drive, but that night, when I went up to see her in bed, she called out—
“Mamsie, mamsie, come quite close. A secret.” So I sat down on the little bed, and the little arms went round my neck. “Mama, I have looked out a heap—a heap of toys—to send off to poor children. My new doll Sabrina, my blue pig, my little box of tea things, the new Noah’s Ark, but Nana will not pack them up. She says they’re too good for poor children. Isn’t she wicked, for I want to give them all, and to be happy—happy as you mean me to be.”
CHAPTER II
FEBRUARY
“The Hag is astride
This night for to ride,
The devil and she together,
Through thick and through thin,
Now out, and now in,