ow.
The moss floor had a blue cotton rug laid over it. A small table and
chair for Lota and one apiece for the dolls made up the furniture,
beside a shelf on which the baby-house tea-set was displayed. The roof
kept out the weather pretty well, except when it rained hard; then
things got wet. Here Lota sat all the morning, after she had finished
her lessons with Nursey,--short lessons always, and easy ones, by Papa's
particular request, for the doctors had said that Lota must not study
much till she was really big and strong. Pocahontas Maria and the other
children had to work much harder than their Mamma, I assure you. Lota
was very strict with them. When they were idle she put them into the
corner, and made them sit with their faces to the wall by way of
punishment. Once Lota had the measles, and for two whole weeks was kept
away entirely from the garden-house. When she came back, she found that
during all this time poor little Ning-Po Ganges had been sitting in this
ignominious position with her face hidden. Lota cried with remorse at
this, and promised Ning-Po that never, so long as she lived, should she
be put into the corner again; so after that, for convenience' sake,
Ning-Po was always called the best child in the family. Now and then,
when Lota felt hospitable, she would give a tea-party, and ask Lady
Green and her children from under the snow-ball bush next door. Nobody
but Lota and the dolls could see the Greens, even when they sat about
the table talking and being talked to, but that was no matter; and when
Nursey said, "Law, Miss Lady Bird, how can you; there's never any such
people, you know," Lota would point triumphantly to a card tacked on to
the snow-ball bush, which had "Lady Green" printed on it, and would say,
"Naughty Nursey! can't you read? There's her door-plate!"

As this story is all about Lota, I think I would better tell you just
how she spent one week of her life, she and the dolls.

The week began with Sunday, which was always a dull day, because Lota
was forbidden to go into the garden.

In the morning she went to church with Grandmamma, drawn thither by two
fat old black horses, who seemed to think it almost too much trouble to
switch the flies off with their tails. Church was warm and the sermon
was drowsy, so poor Lady Bird fell asleep, and tumbled over suddenly on
to Grandmamma's lap. This distressed the old lady a good deal, for she
was very particular about behavior in church. By w