elly, "sells stands for her
sister Verb's figures, to display them _nicely_, _prettily_, _safely_!"

"_Badly_, _crookedly_, _awkwardly_!" cried Dick, who was in one of his
funny moods. "I don't like the look of Adverb, I think that she's given
to _lies_!"

"The three sisters who have the last stall," whispered Matty to Dick,
"seem all but poor little creatures!"

"I should call them small, smaller, and smallest, like the three degrees
of comparison," laughed Dick, "but I see their names at the backs of
their counters,--Preposition, Conjunction, Interjection."

"Pray, Miss Preposition, what are these?" asked Nelly, as she took up
some small labels from that lady's stall, with _from_, _by_, _of_, and
such names upon them.

"They are to show in what _case_ Noun's words are to be packed," replied
Preposition politely. "You may remark yonder boxes with _Nominative_,
_Possessive_, and such names painted upon them; it is my business to
label my sister's goods, that they may be packed according to rule."

"It must be stupid work to deal in nothing but tickets!" exclaimed Dick;
"if I were a Part of Speech, I'd be Noun rather than Preposition! And
what has Conjunction to sell?"

"Only little balls of string to tie bundles of words together, such as
_and_, _either_, _or_; and scissors to divide the bundles, such as
_neither_, _nor_, _notwithstanding_."

"Oh, come here, come here!" cried Matty eagerly; "there's nothing
amusing to look at on the counters of Conjunction or Preposition, but
Interjection has something very funny! Look at these gutta-percha balls
shaped like faces, some showing pleasure--some horror--some surprise;
just give them a little squeeze, and hear how you make them squeak!"

Lubin pressed one of the heads between his fat fingers, and _oh! ah!_
squeaked the red lips.

"I'll try one!" cried Dick, catching up another; "it's so like Matty's
friend, Miss Folly, that I'm sure that she sat for her likeness!" He
thumped it down on the counter, and out came a shrill "_lack-a-day!_"

"I think," laughed Nelly, "that Interjection sells the funniest words of
all!"

"And the ones that we could best do without," said Dick scornfully,
throwing down the _lack-a-day_ ball.

The children did not leave the Grammar Bazaar empty-handed. I must just
remark that Matty loaded herself most with words from the stall of
Adjective, choosing most of them from the Superlative row; and that
Lubin, notwithstanding the neat labe