she owes it that she is now the object of universal
esteem and affection, instead of being hated, despised, and feared as
the owner of "a hasty tongue."'

Cecil stopped.

"Is that all?" said Carrots.

"Yes, that's all. Did you like it?"

"I did understand better about the fairy," Carrots replied. "I think she
was a werry good fairy; don't you, Floss?"

"_Very_," said Floss. "I think," she went on, "whenever I am cross, I
shall _fancy_ my tongue is bewitched, just to see if it would be best to
say the opposite of what I was going to say. Wouldn't it be fun?"

"Better than fun, perhaps, Miss Flossie," said nurse. "I think it would
be a very good thing if big people, too, were sometimes to follow the
fairy's rule."

"People as big as you, nursie?" asked Carrots.

"Oh yes, my dear," said nurse. "It's a lesson we're all slow to learn,
and many haven't learnt it by the end of their threescore years and
ten--'to be slow to anger,' and to keep our tongues from evil."

"_That's_ out of the Bible, nursie, all of it," said Floss, as if not
altogether sure that she approved of the quotation.

Cecil laughed.

"What are you laughing at, Cis?" said Floss. "It _is_ out of the Bible."

"Well, no one said it wasn't," said Cecil.

"Cis," said Carrots, "will you read us another story, another day?"

"If I can find one that you can understand," said Cecil.

"Never mind if I can't," replied Carrots. "I like to hear you reading,
even if I can't understand. I like your voice. I _think_," he added
after a pause, "I _think_, Cis, I'll marry you too, when I'm big. You
and Floss, and nurse."

So Cecil had good reason to feel that she was greatly appreciated in the
nursery.

CHAPTER IX.

SYBIL.

"The children crowned themselves with wishes,
And every wish came true."

_Crowns for Children._

But it is not always, or even often, that wishes "come true," is it,
children? Or if they do come true, it is in a different way; so
different that they hardly seem the same. Like the little old woman in
the ballad, who turned herself about and wondered and puzzled, but
couldn't make out if she was herself or not, we stare at our fulfilled
wishes and examine them on every side, but in their altered dress--_so_
different from, and, very seldom, if ever, as pretty as that which they
wore in our imagination--we cannot believe that they are themselves!

Do you remember the fancies that