"Which do you think the prettiest?" asked the lady.
"The red ones," Peggy replied.
"Well, I almost think I agree with you," said the lady. "Good-bye, my dear, don't let Baby run himself out into the street." And with a kind smile she went on into the shop.
She passed back again in a few minutes.
"Still there?" she said, nodding to Peggy, and then she made her way down the street and was soon out of sight. Peggy's attention, since the lady had warned her, had been entirely given to Baby, otherwise she might perhaps have noticed a very wonderful thing that had happened in the shop-window. The pair of red dolls' shoes was no longer there! They had been quietly withdrawn from the case in which they, with their companions, had spent a peaceful, but it must be allowed a rather dull life for some years.
In another minute nurse and Hal made their appearance, and Hal had a parcel, which he was clutching tightly in both hands.
"My new boots is so shiny," he said, "I do so hope they'll squeak. Does you think they will, nursie? But isn't poor Peggy to have new boots, too? Poor Peggy!"
Peggy looked down at her feet.
"Mine isn't wored out yet," she said; "it would take all poor mamma's money to buy new boots for us all."
"Never fear," said nurse, who heard rather a martyr tone in Peggy's voice, "you'll not be forgotten, Miss Peggy. But Master Hal, hadn't you better put your boots in the perambulator? You'll be tired of carrying them, for we're not going straight home."