Jane's old enough to have
learned to wait upon you:
And if her mother thought less of her and she thought more of her
mother, it would be better for her too."
But Nurse is a nasty cross old thing--I hate her; and I hate the
doctor, for he wanted me to be left behind
When Mamma went to the sea for her health; but I begged and begged
till she promised I should go, for Mamma is always kind.
And she bought me a new wooden spade and a basket, and a red and green
ship with three masts, and a one-and-sixpenny telescope to
look at the sea;
But when I got on to the sands, I thought I'd rather be on the
esplanade, for there was a little girl there who was
looking at me,
Dressed in a navy-blue suit and a sailor hat, with fair hair tied
with ribbons; so I told Mamma,
And she got me a suit, ready-made (but she said it was dreadfully
dear), and a hat to match, in the Pebble Brooch Repository
and Universal Bazaar.
It faded in the sun, and came all to pieces in the wash; but I was
tired of it before.
For the esplanade is very dull, and the little girl with fair hair had
got sand-boots and a shrimping-net and was playing on
the shore.
And when my sand-boots came home, and I'd got a better net than hers,
she went donkey-riding, and I knew it was to tease me,
But Nurse was so cross, and said if they sent a man in a herring-boat
to the moon for what I wanted that nothing would please me.
So I said the seaside was a very disagreeable place, and I wished I
hadn't come,
And I told Mamma so, and begged her to try and get well soon, to take
us all home.
But now we've got home, it's very hot, and I'm afraid of the wasps;
and I'm sure it was cooler at the sea,
And the Smiths won't be back for a fortnight, so I can't even have
Matilda to tea.
I don't care much for my new doll--I think I'm too old for dolls now;
I like books better, though I didn't like the last,
And I've read all I have: I always skip the dull parts, and when you
skip a good deal you get through them so fast.
I like toys if they're the best kind, with works; though when I've had
one good game with them, I don't