these she of
the grey beaver with some difficulty climbed. The eyes of the other
were fast filling with tears, when from her lofty perch the sister
caught sight of the man-servant, who stood in the doorway, and she
beckoned him with a wave of her tiny finger.

"Lift her up, if you please," she said, on his approach. And the other
child was placed on the other chair.

The shopman appeared to know them, and though he smiled, he said very
respectfully,

"What article can I show you this morning, ladies?"

The fairy-like creature in the white beaver, who had been fumbling in
her miniature glove, now timidly laid a farthing on the counter, and
then turning her back for very shyness on the shopman, raised one
small shoulder, and inclining her head towards it, gave an appealing
glance at her sister out of the pale-blue eyes. That little lady, thus
appealed to, firmly placed another farthing on the board, and said in
the tiniest but most decided of voices,

"TWO FLAT IRONS, IF YOU PLEASE."

Hereupon the shopman produced a drawer from below the counter, and set
it before them. What it contained I was not tall enough to see, but
out of it he took several tiny flat irons of triangular shape, and
apparently made of pewter, or some alloy of tin. These the grey beaver
examined and tried upon a corner of her cape with inimitable gravity
and importance. At last she selected two, and keeping one for herself,
gave the other to her sister.

"Is it a nice one?" the little white-beavered lady inquired.

"Very nice."

"_Kite_ as nice as yours?" she persisted.

"Just the same," said the other, firmly. And having glanced at the
corner to see that the farthings were both duly deposited, she rolled
abruptly over on her seat, and scrambled off backwards, a manoeuvre
which the other child accomplished with more difficulty. The coats and
capes were then put tidy as before, and the two went out of the shop
together hand in hand.

Then the old man-servant lifted them into the Spanish saddle, and
buckled the strap, and away they went up the steep street, and over
the brow of the hill, where trees and palings began to show, the
beaver bonnets nodding together in consultation over the flat irons.

CHAPTER XII

THE LITTLE LADIES AGAIN--THE MEADS--THE DROWNED DOLL

"Mr. Buckle, sir, can you oblige me with eight farthings for
twopence?"

I had closely copied this form of speech from the apprentice, whose
ways, as I have sa