ing!"

[Illustration: Portrait of Miss Florence.]

But there's one thing I must tell, though I am very nearly certain you
have guessed it already. Miss Florence was the very doll Lillie's mother
had bought in the summer time, and Helen, the kind sister, had made
every one of the beautiful things in the little trunk. To show you
how handsome they all were, I have had Miss Florence's portrait taken in
an everyday dress, and begged the printer to put it in this book. Don't
it make a flourish? And was not Helen a perfect darling of a sister?
Don't you wish she was yours? I do.

* * * * *

"There! what do you think of that story?" said the little mother, as she
rolled up the manuscript.

"Oh, it is the best of all! They are all the best stories!" cried the
children. "How we wish we knew Lillie and her beautiful doll!"

They gathered round their mother, and admired her picture, which Aunt
Fanny had sent with the MS.; and counted the flounces, and thought her
feet were "such darlings!" and then exclaimed again, "Oh, I wish we knew
her!"

"Wouldn't you rather know Harry, the little old gentleman in the wig?"
asked a voice at the door.

The children turned quickly round, and saw Aunt Fanny standing at the
door laughing at them.

They fell upon her with screams of delight, and, without meaning to,
immediately upset her upon the carpet; for she is a little woman, with
not a grain of bodily strength; all her strength is in her heart. So
there she sat, so weak from laughing, that she could not help herself;
while the children cried, "Oh, Aunt Fanny, we beg your pardon! did we
hurt you? we only meant to love you."

Then they all got hold of her, and began to pull her up different ways;
in consequence of which, down she came again, and half a dozen of the
children with her.

"Oh!" she cried, "if you don't stop, you will push me through the carpet
and floor, and make me fall plump on top of the cook's head in the
kitchen. Come, let's all sit here, while I tell you something, and
recover my breath."

This invitation suited them exactly. Down they all dropped, with Aunt
Fanny in the middle. The little ones tumbled over themselves, and
lighted on their heads at first; but after a good deal of laughing and
nestling up close together, they were tolerably quiet.

"Well," said Aunt Fanny, "I always knew you were perfect monkeys for
cutting capers; but I did not know till now, that you were also