her skill seldom
succeeded long, because play-things must have been made of cast-iron to
last a week with Harry. One cold winter morning when Laura entered the
nursery, she found a large fire blazing, and all her wax dolls sitting
in a row within the fender staring at the flames. Harry intended no
mischief on this occasion, but great was his vexation when Laura burst
into tears, and showed him that their faces were running in a hot stream
down upon their beautiful silk frocks, which were completely ruined, and
not a doll had its nose remaining. Another time, Harry pricked a hole in
his own beautiful large gas ball, wishing to see how the gas could
possibly escape, after which, in a moment, it shrivelled up into a
useless empty bladder,--and when his kite was flying up to the clouds,
Harry often wished that he could be tied to the tail himself, so as to
fly also through the air like a bird, and see every thing.

Mrs. Crabtree always wore a prodigious bunch of jingling keys in her
pocket, that rung whenever she moved, as if she carried a dinner bell in
her pocket, and Frank said it was like a rattlesnake giving warning of
her approach, which was of great use, as everybody had time to put on a
look of good behaviour before she arrived. Even Betty, the under
nursery-maid, felt in terror of Mrs. Crabtree's entrance, and was
obliged to work harder than any six house-maids united. Frank told her
one day that he thought brooms might soon be invented, which would go by
steam and brush carpets of themselves, but, in the meantime, not a grain
of dust could lurk in any corner of the nursery without being dislodged.
Betty would have required ten hands, and twenty pair of feet, to do all
the work that was expected; but the grate looked like jet, the windows
would not have soiled a cambric handkerchief, and the carpet was
switched with so many tea-leaves, that Frank thought Mrs. Crabtree often
took several additional cups of tea in order to leave a plentiful supply
of leaves for sweeping the floor next morning.

If Laura and Harry left any breakfast, Mrs. Crabtree kept it carefully
till dinner time, when they were obliged to finish the whole before
tasting meat; and if they refused it at dinner, the remains were kept
for supper. Mrs. Crabtree always informed them that she did it "for
their good," though Harry never could see any good that it did to
either of them; and when she mentioned how many poor children would be
glad to eat wh