wards a very desirable thing, for it was most
refreshing in the glaring sunshine and hot baking air to come into the
dark cool house, the walls of which being so thick, and filled up with
clay, preventing the heat penetrating into it.

So we carried on the discussion about the name; Madame, Sybil, Serena,
and Winifred all for calling it Maescelyn. Oscar, Felix, Lilly, and
Jenny all against it. The little Mother, not having recovered herself
gave no name, Gatty was waiting for her opinion before she gave any,
for, though in constant warfare, their similarity of tastes made them in
reality sworn friends. Hargrave also would give no name, principally
because she said, "It was a 'orrifying place, and very outrageous," by
which we suppose she meant outlandish. Though urged by the little ones,
whom she suspected were laughing at her, to explain, she would not, but
went off into a discussion upon dress, and, bidding the young ladies to
look at her Mistress dressed in Christmas robes, with her hair so
beautifully plaited in a basket plait, and her curls so smooth and
bright, and her black satin gown sitting and hanging so becomingly and
well. "And then to think she could like such a 'ole of an hisland, where
no one could see how she 'ad hattired her Mistress, and to give such a
'eathen place a name too, was more than she could bear." So the girls
who loved to tease her, declared her Mistress did not look one bit
better than the rest of the party, and that Madame's neat plain white
cap was the prettiest thing at the dinner table, or Jenny's smart blue
one, with bows and ends all over it. As she was too-matter-of-fact to
see any joke in this, and as her Mistress's hair was her weak point, she
waxed wrath, and began a splendid description, misplacing all the h's,
and making such a sad havoc amongst her parts of speech, that it was
difficult to make out what she wished us must to admire, whether her
Mistress, or diamonds, or black velvet, herself or hair. I had the
casting vote in giving a name to the house, but, previously, I thought
it as well that we should give a name to our island. "Certainly,
certainly," was said on all sides, and also most voices decided it
should be a Welsh name; therefore, in a glass of lime punch, after a
long discussion, we christened our island "YR YNYS UNYG," the last word,
Unyg, being pronounced as inig. This in English signified "The Lonely
Island." Much as I wished all my dear companions to feel happ