“Oh, dear, yes, ma’am!” he answered. “It could bear a child twice this little lady’s weight. The springs are fust-rate.”
It was very comfortable, and when Mary jigged up and down a little gently, it felt quite “dancey,” she said.
“It’s the springs,” the man repeated; “they’re fust-rate.”
Mary wondered what “fust-rate” meant. She thought she would ask her mamma. Then she was lifted into the next perambulator—the man lifted her in. He meant to be quite kind, but Mary did not like it, and when at last she found herself on the floor again she stroked down her skirts and gave herself a little shake. Mamma saw that she did not like it, but afterwards she told Mary that sometimes it is best to hide that you do not like things, when they are done out of kindness.
“It didn’t matter to-day,” said mamma, “for the man was busy talking to me and he didn’t see you shaking yourself; but you must remember for another time.”
Mary felt very sorry. She did not forget what her mamma said. Even when she grew to be a big girl she remembered about the man meaning to be kind, and how glad she was he had not seen her shake herself.
The other perambulators were not quite as wide as the first one. Mary said they felt rather squeezy, so mamma fixed on the first one. But it could not be sent home at once because the lining had to be changed. It was brown, and the linings of mamma’s victoria and pony-carriage were dark red, and mamma liked Dolly’s carriage to match. So the man promised it should be ready in two or three days; but Mary looked at it a great deal, because she knew Leigh and Artie would want to know exactly what it was like.
After that they went to the grocer’s, but mamma did not stay long there, and then they went to the toy-shop to get a rattle for baby and reins for Leigh. But neither mamma nor Mary liked the reins much. There were some of red braid, but they were too common, and the leather ones did not seem strong, and they were not made of the right sort of leather; Mary was quite distressed.
“What shall we do?” she said. “Leigh will be so disappointed.” She said the word quite right, but it took her a good while.
Then mamma had a capital thought.