s, whilst I stamped with impatience.

"Now, do be quick, doctor, my mother will be dead."

"Jack," said the doctor, grinning, as he pulled on his second boot,
"people don't die so quick before the doctor comes--it's always
afterwards:--however, I'm glad to see you are so fond of your mother.
Tom, is my hat brushed?"

"Ye'es, sir," replied Tom, bringing the doctor's hat.

"Now then, Jack, I'm all ready. Tom, mind the shop, and don't eat the
stick-liquorice--d'ye hear?"

"Ye'es, sir," said Tom, with a grin from ear to ear.

The doctor followed me very quick, for he thought from my impatience
that something serious must be the matter. He walked up to my mother's
room, and I hastened to open the door; when, to my surprise, I found my
mother standing before the glass arranging her hair.

"Well!" exclaimed my mother, "this is very pretty behaviour--forcing
your way into a lady's room."

The doctor stared, and so did I. At last I exclaimed, "Well! father
thought he'd killed her."

"Yes," cried my mother, "and he's gone away with it on his conscience,
that's some comfort. He won't come back in a hurry; he thinks he has
committed murder, the unfeeling brute! Well, I've had my revenge."

And as she twisted up her hair, my mother burst out screaming--

"Little Bopeep, she lost her sheep,
And couldn't tell where to find him;
She found him, indeed, but it made her heart bleed
For he left his tail behind him."

"Why, then, doctor, it was all sham," exclaimed I.

"Yes; and the doctor's come on a fool's errand--

"`Goosey, Goosey Gander,
Whither dost thou wander?
Upstairs and downstairs,
And in a lady's chamber.'"

The doctor shrugged up his shoulders so that his head disappeared
between them; at last he said, "Your mother don't want me, Jack, that's
very clear. Good morning, Mrs Saunders."

"A very good morning to you, Doctor Tadpole," replied my mother with a
profound courtesy; "you'll oblige me by quitting this room, and shutting
the door after you, if you please."

As the doctor and I went down, my mother continued the song--

"`And then I met a little man,
Couldn't say his prayers,
I took him by the left leg
And sent him downstairs.'"

As soon as we were in the parlour, I acquainted the doctor with what had
happened. "I'm sure I thought she was dead," said I, when I had
finished the story.

"Jack, when I asked you where your mother was bad, external or internal,
you repl