how belonged only in those past years and
had no business in the present at all.

"Isn't he perfectly beautiful?" said Diana proudly.

The little fat fellow was absurdly like Fred--just as round, just as
red. Anne really could not say conscientiously that she thought him
beautiful, but she vowed sincerely that he was sweet and kissable and
altogether delightful.

"Before he came I wanted a girl, so that I could call her ANNE," said
Diana. "But now that little Fred is here I wouldn't exchange him for a
million girls. He just COULDN'T have been anything but his own precious
self."

"'Every little baby is the sweetest and the best,'" quoted Mrs. Allan
gaily. "If little Anne HAD come you'd have felt just the same about
her."

Mrs. Allan was visiting in Avonlea, for the first time since leaving it.
She was as gay and sweet and sympathetic as ever. Her old girl friends
had welcomed her back rapturously. The reigning minister's wife was an
estimable lady, but she was not exactly a kindred spirit.

"I can hardly wait till he gets old enough to talk," sighed Diana. "I
just long to hear him say 'mother.' And oh, I'm determined that his
first memory of me shall be a nice one. The first memory I have of
my mother is of her slapping me for something I had done. I am sure I
deserved it, and mother was always a good mother and I love her dearly.
But I do wish my first memory of her was nicer."

"I have just one memory of my mother and it is the sweetest of all
my memories," said Mrs. Allan. "I was five years old, and I had been
allowed to go to school one day with my two older sisters. When school
came out my sisters went home in different groups, each supposing I was
with the other. Instead I had run off with a little girl I had played
with at recess. We went to her home, which was near the school, and
began making mud pies. We were having a glorious time when my older
sister arrived, breathless and angry.

"'You naughty girl" she cried, snatching my reluctant hand and dragging
me along with her. 'Come home this minute. Oh, you're going to catch it!
Mother is awful cross. She is going to give you a good whipping.'

"I had never been whipped. Dread and terror filled my poor little heart.
I have never been so miserable in my life as I was on that walk home. I
had not meant to be naughty. Phemy Cameron had asked me to go home with
her and I had not known it was wrong to go. And now I was to be whipped
for it. When we got home