Baby Pitchers Trials | Page 5

made a wry face and said
"Pah!" That amused Flora, and she ran after Charley and insisted upon
his kissing Dinah, but before she knew it, Charley caught her in his
arms and left a kiss on the tip of her nose. He did not mean to leave it
there, he was trying to put it on her cheek, but the little nose was right
in the way, so it caught the kiss.
"Ho, ho!" laughed Charley. "Let me take it back and put it where it
belongs."
So Flora held quite still, and Charley made believe take it back; and he
put another one on the cheek. Then he and Amy trudged along to
school, leaving Flora and Dinah in a very happy mood.
CHAPTER III.
THE STORY OF POOR ROBIN.
Flora waited until they had turned the corner. When they looked back,
she waved her hand, and, before passing out of sight, Charley threw a
farewell kiss.
"It was not for you," she said to the black baby, "so you need not look
so pleasant about it. It was for me. And now we will go in and write on
the white slate; but you must not touch it, for somebody has clumsy
fingers and black fingers. It isn't me--my fingers are white; and it isn't
Amy. It is you. Dolls don't know so much as other folks, and dolls
break things. I don't. If you break that slate, Amy will cry. She said I
might take it; she didn't say nothing to you. Will you 'member?"
They went in, but they soon came out again. The sunny morning called
so loudly that Flora could not stay in doors. Not even the white slate
had power to keep her. She played with it a while, and then it was cast
aside, because Dinah wanted to take a walk. How she knew it, I am

sure I cannot tell. Perhaps the black baby whispered her wishes in the
ear of her mistress, and Flora was quite willing to oblige her. When
they went out, the steps of the porch were dry, and there was no longer
any mist; so Flora was at liberty to go where she pleased. That is to say,
she was at liberty to go wherever mamma pleased. Down to the barn,
over to auntie's, where Charley and Bertie lived, or in to see Grandma;
but she was not to wander away or play in the public street, and she
was on no account to go where she could not keep home in view. She
might roam about the grounds all day if she liked; and there was the big
tree down in the garden, with a broad seat around it, where she could
play house or picnic, or anything that could be played with only Dinah
to help her. But it often happened that she did not care to go to any of
these places. She would have liked to open the big gate (but that was
forbidden,) and follow the noisy ducks down to the pond, and now she
looked with longing eyes to a group of merry boys who ought to have
been in school, but were playing in the muddy street instead. She
thought how nice it would be to have one's own way always, and not be
obliged to ask mamma everything. She was strongly tempted to join the
party of rough, rude boys. There was not a girl among them.
"I think it is too bad," she complained to Dinah, "and it ought to be a
pity. Big girls know where they want to go better than mamma does.
Don't they? Course they do. Did you say no? That is what mamma says.
So you may turn your head round. If you don't look that way, you will
forget all about it. And I will."
Flora was right. She turned her head and forgot all about it. There was
something else to think of. Somebody was getting over the wall at the
foot of the garden. Who was it? She ran to the other end of the porch to
see.
"Is that you?" she called. No answer. "Is that you, I say?"
Bertie (for it was Bertie,) looked up and nodded. He came across the
beds that were covered with the dry stalks and stems of last year's
flowers, and up the path, quite slowly.
"Hurry," cried Flora, impatiently.

Bertie shook his head to signify that he could not hurry, and then she
saw that he carried something in both hands, and he carried it carefully.
"What is it," she demanded.
"Hush!" said Bertie. "It is a timid little thing, and you must not make a
noise. You can come up softly and look."
He cautiously parted his hands, and Flora looked