atest interest and
solemnity at Gip and me. At Gip, of course, far more than at me. Gip was
a dog, _I_, was only a girl!--quite a middle-aged person, no doubt, the
trots thought me, if they thought about me at all; perhaps they did a
little, as I was Gip's owner; for I was sixteen, and they could not have
been much more than three.

'But all this time they were so solemn. I wanted to make them laugh.
There was a little table in the window--a bow window, _of course_, as it
was at the sea-side, and certain to catch winds from every quarter of
the heavens--upon which I mounted Gip, and set to work putting him
through his tricks. I made him perform "ready, present, _fire_," with a
leap to catch the bit of biscuit off his nose. I made him "beg," "lie
dead," like Mother Hubbard's immortal pet, and do everything a
well-educated dog could be expected to do. And, oh, how funny it was to
watch the trots! Evidently they had never seen anything of the kind
before; they stared at first as if they could hardly believe their eyes,
and then they smiled, and, _at last_, they laughed. How prettily they
laughed--they looked more like two fat cherubs than ever.

'But their laughing attracted their maid's attention. She too turned
round, and I was pleased to see that she had a pleasant pretty young
face. "I shouldn't have liked those dear trots to have a cross old
nurse," I said to myself, and the maid still further raised herself in
my good opinion by laughing and smiling too. In a minute or two when she
thought "that was enough for to-day," she stooped and whispered to the
trots. They immediately lifted their little hands, the right of one, the
left of the other--for _nothing_, you see, could have persuaded them to
let go of their precious lambs--to their rosy mouths and blew a kiss to
me, and I could _see_ them say, "Zank zou, lady; zank zou, doggie."

'You may be sure I kissed my hand to them in return, and off they
toddled, each with a hand of "Bessie," as I afterwards heard them call
their maid, and hauling back manfully as before, which gave Bessie the
look of a very large steam-tug convoying two very little vessels.

'I watched them till they were quite out of sight. Then I turned to my
mother.

'"I have made two friends here any way, mamma," I said. "The trots are
sure to stop every time they pass. It will be something to watch for."

'Mamma smiled. She was pleased to see _me_ pleased and interested, for
she had been beginnin