his skates, too. With
the first, like boys in general, he cut himself about once a day; but
he did not care a button for that, but just had his finger tied up by
one of his kind sisters, and marched off, without even making a wry
face, with his precious knife in his pocket. The skates came, too; but,
as there had been no ice as yet, Peter had only tried them on dry
ground, which Alice told him was far the best and safest style of
skating, and repeated, for his edification, Mother Goose's solemn poem
of--

"Three children sliding on the ice--
All, on a summer's day--
The ice was thin; they all fell in;
The rest, they ran away.
Now, had these children been at home,
Or sliding on dry ground,
Ten thousand pounds to one penny
They had not all been drowned."

All of which was heathen Greek to Peter, or, as he called it, "Stuff!"

One day, soon after her return, Peter's mother took him with her to
visit an excellent lady of her acquaintance, who lived near by. They
found her sitting in the parlor, with her eldest son and daughter,
looking over a new and beautiful book, called Melodies for Childhood.
Soon after they were seated the lady said, "Something very amusing
happened up-stairs just now. I have a friend here spending the day, who
brought her little baby of four months with her. My little girl is just
the same age. Of course my friend's baby must have her nap, and I gave
her my little one's cradle to sleep in. But my baby was so very much put
out at this that she could not sleep at all; and little Harry, who, as
you know, is not quite three years old, was so grieved at what he
supposed was the wickedness of the other baby, in taking away his
sister's property, that he marched up to the cradle--his little breast
heaving, his eyes flashing, and his hand raised, while, with high,
indignant voice, he asked, "_Mamma, sall I_ SAPP _her?_" and I had to
run to save the little innocent from the impending blow."

[Illustration: "Mamma, sall I SAPP her?"]

Peter listened to all this with very large eyes and all the ears he had,
which were only two, and quite small; and when Harry came into the room,
a moment after, he rushed up to him, in a prodigious hurry, and cried,
"Harry, did you slap her? I would! Let's both go up-stairs and do it
now. Give it to her like sixty, for sleeping in your sister's bed!" This
proposal so delighted Harry that, in turning round suddenly to go out,