would not have lost that dear
little song for all the Italian operas from here to China.

There were a great many other pretty children, and splendid dolls that I
have no time to describe; and the bride and groom sat on the sofa and
stared at them all, as if they never meant to look at any thing else.

And now that all had congratulated the happy couple, you would have
thought that the queen of fun and frolic had joined the party, and all
the cross children had gone up to the moon, and never meant to come down
again; for the children--putting the dolls on the chairs, to play grown
people--all tumbled down on the carpet, and had a grand game of "hunt
the slipper," and did not leave off till supper was announced.

Supper was set out in--hem!--in the garret; but, let me tell you, it is
quite as fine to go up so high to supper, as to dive down in the
basement; at all events the children thought so, for they scuffled and
scrambled up the stairs, all laughing and talking, and nobody listening,
so that they might as well have given their ears to their dolls, for any
use they were, and arrived at the festive banquet quite breathless.

And now, what a splendid sight presented itself! The table was
beautifully ornamented, and brilliantly lighted by four candles about as
long as your finger, one at each corner; in the centre was a large
wedding cake, at least as big round as a breakfast plate, with roses and
lilies and daffadowndillies all over it, perfectly beautiful to look at,
and perfectly delicious to eat; and there was every thing else on the
table that you can think of.

All the dolls were set up stiff and straight on one side, and the
children on the other, and the children eat for both sides, and had the
most delightful time, till the minister, who was a wax doll with short
hair and movable eyes, was discovered to be fast asleep, or else his
eyes had been accidentally put out--and, as the candles were also going
out, it was high time for supper to be over.

The children now came down stairs, and, before they left, were invited
by Lily to inspect the presents.

"Oh, dear!" cried Alice, "what a splendid silver cake-basket! and here
is a knife, fork, and spoon, and, goody! just see these other spoons,
with her name on them, how very _arittoscratic_."

Between you and me, little reader, the basket, and knife, fork and
spoon, were silver--made of pewter; but there were, besides, six
"darling little spoons," that were r