"Nancy, come and take baby. Betty, find me a safety pin quickly. I think I saw one on the floor near the piano."
And Mr. Bruce followed her in his slippers, and called—
"Nancy—Betty—one of you go down to the gate and bring up the paper."
Cyril ran to them breathless with his news—
"Betty's never got up yet. Mary's had to do all her work an' she's not got breakfast ready yet. And Nancy's had to dress herself an' all."
Mrs. Bruce opened her eyes—just like Dot did when she was very surprised, and said,—
"Then go and make Betty get up at once." But Cyril interrupted with—
"She's not in bed at all. She's out playing somewhere; I daresay she's gone to school so's to be before me and Nancy. She's always doing that now."
Mrs. Bruce had to hurry to make up for lost time—as she had perpetually to do—and she could not stay to lend an ear to Cyril's tale. So he was left grumbling on about Betty, and school, and a hundred and one things that were "not fair."
Nancy had a bowl of porridge and milk in the kitchen, superintended in the eating of it by Mary, who was giving baby her morning portion of bread and milk.