"Oh, yes. Queen Mab. That's a nice name."
"Then the two young birds ought to be a prince and a princess."
"But they's two more teapots to name first, Dick, before we begin with the birds and squirrels and ev'ything same as that."
"But what do you think teapots are——oh, I say, Beth, why don't you call them right? Teapots are things you make tea in." The moment he had spoken, Dick was sorry. He had never teased the little girls about their mistakes; but it was too much for him when he found himself making the same ones. In dismay, he saw Beth's lips begin to quiver.
"But——but——I thinked——that was what ev'ybody——called them, Dick."
Berta's dark eyes flashed, and putting her arms around her sister, she began, "And that's jes' 'zactly what I thinked, too, and I said it first that afternoon-time when we came to see Bird-a-Lea, and ev'ybody makes 'stakes sometimes, Daddy says, and I thinked they's two kinds of teapots 'zactly the same as you said they's a bat that flies around and a bat that you hit a ball with, and——and——and I doesn't think it's very p'lite for you to laugh at our 'stakes, so I doesn't."
"Berta! why, Berta! Is that the way my little girl speaks to a guest?"
"I——I guess I wasn't a very p'lite guest, Aunt 'Lisbeth. I——I laughed at something Beth said and 'most made her cry; and Mother says a gentleman never makes a lady cry. But she didn't cry," Dick hastened to add. "They're not cry babies like some of my girl cousins are."
This praise, with his manly way of taking all the blame, quite softened Berta's heart.
"Please 'scuse me for saying such drefful things, Dick, and you can laugh at our 'stakes all you want to. Mother, what does you think Beth and I called those amanals over there? Teapots! teapots! Oh, my dear! Wasn't that jes' too funny! Wasn't that jes' too funny for nennything!" Berta sank on the steps, and even Beth had to join in her merry laugh, while her mother agreed with her: "So funny, dear, that I would be very much surprised if Dick and Jack, too, did not laugh at you. And it is better to speak of those animals as birds. Say the name after me."