done with it. It's hard
lines, for I should so love to be slim and willowy. That's what the
heroines are in books, and it makes me quite ill every time I read it.
Nothing exciting ever happens to fat people! The thin ones get all the
fun and excitement, and marry the nice man, while the poor fatty stays
at home, and waits upon her hand and foot. Then she grows into an aunt,
and takes charge of the nephews and nieces when they have fever or
measles, or when the parents go abroad for a holiday. Everyone imposes
upon her, just because she is fat!"

"No, indeed, then, it is because she's good-natured. Look at yourself
now; you are always laughing!" declared Pixie soothingly. "Hold yer
breath a single moment while I get the better of this hook. Ye'll not
need to curtsey too low, I'm thinking, or you'll go off like a cracker!
And the elegant dress that it is, too! I remember the night Bridgie
went to her first ball, the Hunt Ball it was, over at Roskillie. It was
me mother's wedding-dress that she wore, and she looked like a picture
in it, the darlin'! Me mother was for having it altered to be in the
fashion, but me father says, `Leave it alone; you'll spoil it if ye
alter a stitch! It's better than fashionable,' he says, `it's artistic,
and fits the child like her own skin.' So away it was put in Bridgie's
cupboard, and Esmeralda comes peeping at it, and, thinks she, `What
yellow lace! It would be a disgrace to us all to have the girl dancing
about with that dirty stuff round her neck,' so not a word did she
speak, but off with the lace and washed it herself, with a good hard
rub, and plenty of blue bag. Then she ironed it, with a morsel of
starch to make it stand out and show itself off, and stitched it on
again as proud as could be. It was to be a surprise for Bridgie, and,
me dears, it _was_ a surprise! Mother and Bridgie screeching at the top
of their voices, and looking as if the plague was upon us. Would ye
believe it, it was just what they liked, to have the lace that colour,
and it was the bad turn Esmeralda had done them, starching it up like
new! Off it all came, and mother found an old lace scarf, yellower than
the first, and pinned it round Bridgie's shoulders, and she had pearls
round her neck, and a star in her hair, and Lord Atrim danced the first
dance with her, and told me mother she was the prettiest thing he had
seen for a twelvemonth. But Esmeralda sulked all the evening, and it
was v