To the Memory of
E. L.
THE DEAR YOUNG FRIEND
WHO SUGGESTED ITS NAME TO THIS LITTLE STORY,
AND FROM WHOSE LATE HOME,
SO INTIMATELY ASSOCIATED WITH HER,
THIS DEDICATION IS MADE.

Bindon, August 1887.


CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
page
A Breakfast Party[1]

CHAPTER II
The White Spot on the Hill[18]

CHAPTER III
"The Children at the Back"[33]

CHAPTER IV
"Real" Fancies[48]

CHAPTER V
The Little Red Shoes[65]

CHAPTER VI
Fellow-Feelings and Slippers[81]

CHAPTER VII
A Bun to the Good[98]

CHAPTER VIII
Under the Big Umbrella[114]

CHAPTER IX
The Opposite House[131]

CHAPTER X
"Soap-Bubbling"[145]

CHAPTER XI
Up Fernley Road[162]

CHAPTER XII
The Shoes-Lady Again[178]


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"What is the matter, little girls?" said the lady.[Frontispiece]
page
He had to drum with a spoon, first in one fat hand and then in the other[2]
They were settled on the hearth-rug—Baby on Peggy's lap[17]
"See Hal," she said, "over there, far, far away, neely in the sky, does you see that bluey hill?"[27]
She was rather a terrible-looking old woman; she always wore a short bed-gown . . . and she was generally to be seen with a pipe in her mouth[35]
"Tell me what the little white house is reely like"[52]
Peggy stood still, her eyes fixed on the baby shoes[68]
"Here's the other shoe, I've just founded it"[92]
Suddenly a window above opened, and Mother Whelan's befrilled face was thrust out[109]
An umbrella rolling itself about on the pavement[127]
"To be sure," she said, in her most gracious tone. "'Tis the beautiful pipes I have"[138]
The boys, boy-like, thought little but of who could blow the biggest bubbles[149]
Hushed Light Smiley to sleep, her arm clasped round Peggy[177]