ters sitting solemnly in a row on the locker
with their dolls safely packed away beneath. I persuaded them that
dolls were not too good for "human nature's daily food," and since
then they have been supremely happy with their babies.

Carmen is so devoted to little Rachel that she cannot bear the thought
of her being in trouble. Rachel is very human, and in the brief time
she has been with us has had many falls from the paths of rectitude.

One day shortly after their arrival Rachel had been naughty, and I had
taken her upstairs to explain to her the enormity of her offence,
Carmen standing meanwhile at the bottom of the stairs wringing her
hands. When Rachel reappeared and announced that she had not even been
punished, Carmen was seen to give her a good slap on her own account,
although evidently well pleased that no one else had dared to touch
her child. Carmen is extremely religious, and her prayers at night are
lengthy and devout. She starts off with the Lord's Prayer, the
Apostles' Creed; several collects follow, and she concludes with a
"Hail Mary!"

You have already made the acquaintance of Billy the Ox, the now dear
departed, who constitutes our winter's frozen meat supply. Our
allotted portion of him is hung in the balcony outside my window.
Being on the second floor it was thought to be sanctuary from
marauders. Last night I was awakened by an uneasy feeling of a
presence entering my room. Starting up, I made out in the moonlight
the great tawny form of one of our biggest dogs. He was in the balcony
making so far futile leaps to secure a section of Billy. My shout
discouraged him, and he jumped off the roof to the snow beneath. He
had managed to scale the side of the house--but how? For some time I
was at a loss to discover, till I remembered a ladder which had been
placed perpendicularly against the wall on the other side. One of the
double windows had broken loose in a recent storm of wind, and the
barn man had had to go up and mend it. True to type he had left the
ladder _in statu quo_. Up master dog had climbed straight into the
air, along the slippery rungs of the ladder. When he reached the level
of the tempting odour, he had alighted on the balcony roof. Then,
pursuing the odour to its lair, he had discovered Billy, and me!

At breakfast I told my adventurette, and the story was instantly
capped with others. Only one shall you have. The doctor was away on a
travel last winter, and late one blusterso