f
no importance). '"Bad governesses punished." Hooroo! "Hard lessons made
easy." Now this,' said Bertram, 'is the right kind of fellow, this
A-M-E-L-I-O-R-A-T-O-R, this Ameliorator!' and so saying, he pushed the
card into his pocket and looked out of the window to whistle
good-morning to his robin. But the bird was not there. His face fell
again. 'Pooh,' he said, 'they're all against me now, but I don't care,'
and as he walked downstairs to breakfast, he made up his mind to be
thoroughly fractious.

V

THE CROSS-GRAINED MORNING

In the City of Birds there were several large green gardens set aside
for children. These gardens were the finest places in the world in which
to play hide-and-seek, because of the summer-houses and grottoes and
winding paths; also there were ponds to sail boats on, and trees to
climb, and caves for robbers, and a little circle of wet grass in the
midst of rhododendron bushes for fairies to plot and plan in; and for
very hot afternoons a soft bank where you could lie in the shade of a
cedar which seemed to bless the earth with its broad hands.

Every morning after lessons the four children used to meet in one of
these gardens and play till dinner-time. Sometimes they would play
cricket until they were too tired to run another yard, and then lean
over the rim of the fountain and watch the goldfish gliding silently
through the water, or they would sail their boats on the pond, or join
in the marriage ceremonies of two of the blue ants that lived in the
bark of the cedar. There was always plenty of excitement at a blue ant's
wedding, on account of the bad behaviour of the company. The bridegroom
had a way of ignoring the solemnity of the occasion and trying to walk
to church with one of the bridesmaids, or even the bride's mother, while
sometimes the bride would forget all about her duties, and leave the
procession in order to pick up and stagger away with a ridiculous piece
of wood which she could not possibly really need. Very often the bride
had to be changed as often as six times before the church was reached,
where Bertram, who always insisted on being the clergy-man, was waiting
to perform the service. Ants, it must be confessed, are not good at
games: they are too busy, or, as Bertram put it, too selfish. Neither
are wood-lice. Just at important moments wood-lice turn sulky and roll
themselves into little balls. Worms are most trust-worthy, although
never eager for sensible play