would
bring out a glass of ale for one, now a cup of milk for the other or for
me, or sandwiches, or cakes, or fruit. He had the wisdom never to let
me take either ale or grog. "Very good for big people," he used to say,
"but very bad for little chaps, Ben."

At length we were put down at the inn at Whithyford. Mrs Schank lived
down a lane a little way off the road, and thither, my mother carrying
the Little Lady on one arm and holding me by the other, and my father
laden with bundles and bandboxes, we proceeded. The cottage was
whitewashed, and covered with fresh, thick thatch. In front was the
neatest of neat little gardens, surrounded by a well-clipped privet
hedge, and the greenest of green gates. Indeed, neatness and order
reigned everywhere outside as it did, as I was soon to find, in the
interior. The Misses Schank had been expecting us. Three of them
appeared at the door. They all seemed much older than Lieutenant
Schank. Two of them were very like him, tall and thin, and the other
bore a strong resemblance, I thought, to our worthy Captain. Their
names I soon learned. There was Miss Martha, and Miss Jemima, and the
youngest--a fat one--was Anna Maria. They all shrieked out in different
tones as they saw us. Miss Anna Maria seized me in her arms and gave me
a kiss, and then, looking at me, exclaimed, "Why, I thought it was to be
a little girl! This surely is a boy!" at which her sisters laughed, and
bending forward, examined the Little Lady, who was still in my mother's
arms, and whom Miss Anna Maria had not observed. Miss Martha at length
ventured to take her in the gentlest possible manner and kissed her
brow, and said, "Well, she is a sweet little thing; why, Mrs Burton, I
wonder you like to part with her," at which observation my mother burst
into tears.

"I don't, ma'am, indeed I don't," she answered; when gentle Miss Martha
observed, "I did not wish to hurt your feelings, Mrs Burton"; and Miss
Anna Maria, who was fond of laughing, said something which made her
laugh, and then she laughed herself, so that with between crying and
laughing we all entered the cottage and were conducted into the parlour,
on one side of which sat old Mrs Schank in a high-back chair, and in a
very high cap, and looking very tall and thin and solemn, I thought at
first.

My father followed with the bundles and bandboxes, but stood in the
passage, not thinking it correct for him to advance into the parlour.

"