“Yes,” said mamma, “though a tight fit for you will be all right for baby. And I’ve other things to buy as well! You’ve got a list ready for me, nurse, haven’t you? I’m quite sure the boys need new boots, and wasn’t there something about a sash for Mary?”
“She wouldn’t be the worse for another blue one, ma’am,” said nurse. “Her papa always likes her in blue.”
“Ah! well, I won’t forget about it. I like her in blue best too. And baby—doesn’t she want anything?” asked mamma.
Of course she did, ever so many things. I never knew a baby that did not want a lot of things—or a baby’s nurse perhaps we should say—when there was a chance. Ribbons to tie up its sleeves, and little shoes and tiny socks, and some very fine kind of soap that would not make its soft skin smart, and more things than I can remember. Babies have plenty of wants, though they are such small people. And mamma wrote them all down, saying each aloud as she did so, and Mary stood listening with a very grave face. For she thought to herself, “Just supposing mamma lost the paper or couldn’t read all the pencil words, or forgot to write down everything, it would be a very good thing for her to know them all and ’amind mamma.”
Soon it was time to go in to dinner, and Mary was so full of the thought of going to the town with mamma, that at first she sat with her spoon and fork in her hands, looking at her plate without eating at all.
“Why don’t you eat your dinner, Mary?” said Leigh.
“My nungryness has gone away with thinking of going out with mamma and buyin’ such lotses of things,” said Mary.
“How silly you are!” said Leigh. “Why, when I’ve something nice to think of, it makes me all the hungrier! If you don’t eat your dinner, I don’t believe mamma will take you.”
“Yes, Miss Mary, you must eat it,” said nurse. “You’ll be later than usual of getting your tea, too, so you should make an extra good dinner.”
Mary did not feel as if she could be hungry, but she did not want to be left behind, so she began to try to eat, and after one or two mouthfuls it got rather easier. Nurse went on talking, for she knew the less Mary thought about not being hungry the better it would be.