age and bow often
with their hats almost touching the ground. There were to be twelve
servants--six of them men servants and six of them women servants--who
would instantly do as they were bidden and would receive ten shillings
each per week and their board; they would also have two nights free in
the week, and would be very well fed. There were many wonderful
dresses to be bought, dresses for walking in the streets and dresses
for driving in a carriage, and others again for riding on horseback
and for traveling in. There was a dress of crimson silk with a deep
lace collar, and a heavy, wine-colored satin dress with a gold chain
falling down in front of it, and there was a pretty white dress of the
finest linen, having one red rose pinned at the waist. There were
black silken stockings with quaint designs worked on them in red silk,
and scarves of silver gauze, and others embroidered with flowers and
little shapes of men and women.

When her mother was planning all these things she was very happy, but
afterwards she used to cry bitterly and rock her daughter to and fro
on her breast until she hurt her.

II

Every morning about six o'clock Mary Makebelieve left her bed and lit
the fire. It was an ugly fire to light, because the chimney had never
been swept, and there was no draught. Also they never had any sticks
in the house, and scraps of paper twisted tightly into balls with the
last night's cinders placed on them and a handful of small coals
strewn on the top were used instead. Sometimes the fire blazed up
quickly, and that made her happy, but at other times it went out three
and four, and often half a dozen times; then the little bottle of
paraffin oil had to be squandered--a few rags well steeped in the oil
with a newspaper stretched over the grate seldom failed to coax enough
fire to boil the saucepan of water; generally this method smoked the
water, and then the tea tasted so horrid that one only drank it for
the sake of economy.

Mrs. Makebelieve liked to lie in bed until the last possible moment.
As there was no table in the room, Mary used to bring the two cups of
tea, the tin of condensed milk, and the quarter of a loaf over to the
bed, and there she and her mother took their breakfast.

From the time she opened her eyes in the morning her mother never
ceased to talk. It was then she went over all the things that had
happened on the previous day and enumerated the places she would have
to go to