BURDEN _Frontispiece._

"A YELLOW SIXPENNY, OH, HOW NICE!" 36

FLOSS TAPPED AT THE DOOR. "CARROTS," SHE SAID,
"ARE YOU THERE?" 78

"NOW, BE QUIET ALL OF YOU, I'M GOING TO BEGIN" 114

"WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT, MY POOR OLD
MAN?" SAID AUNTIE, FONDLY 148

"IT IS FLOSSIE AND ME, SYBIL--DON'T YOU REMEMBER
US?" 184

"SUDDENLY A BRIGHT THOUGHT STRUCK ME, I SEIZED
GIP, MY LITTLE DOG, WHO WAS ASLEEP ON THE
HEARTHRUG, AND HELD HIM UP AT THE WINDOW" 212

"CARROTS:" JUST A LITTLE BOY

CHAPTER I.

FLOSS'S BABY.

"Where did you come from, Baby dear?
Out of the everywhere into here?

* * *

"But how did you come to us, you dear?
God thought about you, and so I am here!"

_G. Macdonald._

His real name was Fabian. But he was never called anything but Carrots.
There were six of them. Jack, Cecil, Louise, Maurice, commonly called
Mott, Floss, dear, dear Floss, whom he loved best of all, a long way the
best of all, and lastly Carrots.

Why Carrots should have come to have his history written I really cannot
say. I must leave you, who understand such things a good deal better
than I, you, children, for whom the history is written, to find out. I
can give you a few reasons why Carrots' history should _not_ have been
written, but that is about all I can do. There was nothing very
remarkable about him; there was nothing very remarkable about the place
where he lived, or the things that he did, and on the whole he was very
much like other little boys. There are my _no_ reasons for you. But
still he was Carrots, and after all, perhaps, that was _the_ reason! I
shouldn't wonder.

He was the baby of the family; he had every right to be considered the
baby, for he was not only the youngest, but very much the youngest; for
Floss, who came next to him, was nearly four years older than Carrots.
Yet he was never treated as the baby. I doubt if even at the very outset
of his little life, when he was just a wee pink ball of a creature,
rolled up in flannel, and with his funny curls of red hair standing
crisp up all over his head, I doubt, if even then, he was ever called
"baby." I feel almost sure it was always "Carrots." He wa