Hildegarde's Home

by Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards

"A vinegar cruet!" replied Hugh promptly. "And Aunt Loftus is a fat—"

"Oh, hush! hush! my dear little boy!" cried Hildegarde hastily. "You must not say such things as that."

"You asked me," replied Hugh simply. "That is what I do call them when I think about them."

"But it is not nice to think rude and unkind things," said the Purple Maid, reprovingly.

"Then I won't think about them at all," said the boy. "For they really are, you know. I'd rather think of you, anyhow, and mamma, and Merlin."

"Hildegarde had been making Friends with Merlin."

While this dialogue was going on, Hildegarde had been making friends with Merlin, who responded with cheerful cordiality to her advances. He was a beautiful creature, of true collie brown, with a black nose, and the finest white waistcoat in the world. His eyes were wonderful, clear, deep, and intelligent, in colour "like mountain water when it's flowing o'er a rock."