mes it
is another baby who is dull. Dull babies are anomalies. Dimples feels
responsible till the dull baby revives. Or it is just her own happy
little self who is being entertained. If ever a baby enjoyed a game for
its own sweet sake, it is Dimples.

But one thing she does not enjoy, and that is being put to bed at night.
Our babies are anointed with oil, according to the custom of the East,
before being put to sleep; but the moment Dimples sees the oil-bottle in
her nurse's hand, she knows her fate is sealed and protests with all her
might. Once she contrived to seize the bottle, pull out the cork, and
spill the oil before she was discovered. She seemed to argue that as she
was invariably oiled before being put to bed, the best way to avoid ever
being put to bed would be to get rid of the oil. Another evening she
succeeded in diverting her nurse into a long search for the cork,
thereby delaying the fatal last moment; it was finally found in her
mouth. When, in spite of all efforts to wriggle out of reach, she is
captured, anointed, and put in her hammock, Dimples knows she must not
get out; but her wails are so lamentable that it is difficult to
restrain ourselves from throwing discipline to the winds, and if by any
chance we do, her smiles are simply ravishing. But we hear about it
afterwards.

If Dimples is asleep when we take charge of the nursery, we find things
fairly quiet and almost flat. But she usually wakens early, and always
in a good temper. It is instructive to see the way she scrambles out of
her hammock before she is quite awake, and her sleepy stagger across
the room is often interrupted by a tumble. Dimples does not mind
tumbles. If her curly head has been rather badly knocked, she looks
reproachfully at the floor, rubs her head, and gets up again. By the
time she reaches us she is wide awake and most engaging.

In C. F. Holder's _Life of Agassiz_ we are told that the great scientist
"could not bear with superficial study: a man should give his whole life
to the object he had undertaken to investigate. He felt that desultory,
isolated, spasmodic working avails nothing, but curses with narrowness
and mediocrity." This is exactly the view of one of our babies, already
introduced, the little wise Lulla, who always knows her own mind and
sticks to her intentions, unbeguiled by any blandishments.

This baby is a tiny thing, with a round, small head, covered with soft,
small curls; and this head is ver