_the children_; mamma said
so."

"Very well, Miss Kitty," said Mary; "I'll sit in the window here, and if
you want me, you can call."

So Mary fixed little Walter in his chair, and Luly got hers, and Kitty
sat down in her mamma's rocking chair, to be grander.

Walter's chair had a little tray fastened before it, on which his toys
were put. His dearest plaything was a ridiculous old doll, with no eyes,
half a wig, such a dilapidated pair of kid arms that the stuffing came
bursting through in every direction, making her look as if she had a
cotton plantation inside her, and the bolls were sprouting out; and such
an extremely short pair of legs in proportion to her body, that it
seemed as if they must shut into her like a pair of telescopes. Besides
this, there was a stale sugar peacock without a tail, a monkey that ran
up and down a stick, and a woolly dog that could open his mouth and bark
when you pressed him underneath; but the doll was the prime favorite,
after all. Walter called her Gawow, and as nobody in the house could
imagine what he meant by it, it was supposed to be a pure piece of
invention, and a very fine sort of thing.

The children played on peaceably together for some time, when all at
once there came a ring at the bell.

"Dear me!" cried Kitty, springing up and smoothing down her little
black silk apron in a great flurry. "There comes company, and I'm to go
and see them."

"Ou!" said Luly; "me want to see tompany too!"

"And so you shall, you little darling!" said Kitty, kissing her; and,
sure enough, up came Ellen, the waiter, to say that the good minister,
Mr. Lacy, was down stairs; for Mrs. May had smilingly told her, before
she went, that "Miss Kitty would see any one who called."

In high glee, yet somewhat awed by her grown-up dignity, Kitty let Mary
brush her soft brown braided wig and Luly's golden curly one; then she
rushed into her mother's room in a hurry, called Luly out into the
entry, and the little sisters took hold of hands and went down stairs to
see the company.

Mr. Lacy was sitting by the window, looking out on the beautiful garden,
and did not know the children had entered until he felt a mite of a hand
put softly on his, and heard two little pipy voices saying, "How do you
do, Mr. Lacy?" The minister turned round and burst right out laughing!
for Kitty, when she ran into her mother's room, had put on--what do you
think?--why, one of mamma's caps, which was lying on the d