obody
liked to be with him.

Well, one day his mother thought she would give him a day of pleasure,
and make him very happy indeed, so she told him he should have a
feast, and dine under the great cedar tree that stood upon the lawn,
and that his cousins should be invited to dine with him, and that he
should have whatever he chose for his dinner. So she rang the bell,
and she told the servants to take out tables and chairs and to lay the
cloth upon the table under the tree, and she ordered her two footmen
to be ready to wait upon him.

She desired the butler to tell the cook to prepare the dinner, and to
get all sorts of nice dishes for the feast; but she said to Alfred:

"What shall you like best of all, my dear boy?"

So Alfred tried to think of something that he had never had before,
and he recollected that one day he had heard a lady, who was dining
with his father and mother, say that the oyster patties were the best
she had ever eaten. Now Alfred had never tasted oyster patties, so he
said he would have oyster patties for dinner.

"Oyster patties, my dear boy? You cannot have oyster patties at this
time of the year; there are no oysters to be had," his mother said to
him. "Try, love, to think of something else."

But naughty Alfred said:

"No, I can think of nothing else."

So the cook was sent for, and desired to think of something that he
might like as well. The cook proposed first a currant pie, then a
barberry pie, or a codlin pie with custard.

"No, no, no!" said Alfred, shaking his head.

"Or a strawberry tart, my sweet boy? or apricot jam?" said his mother,
in a soothing tone of voice.

But Alfred said:

"No, mother, no. I don't like strawberries. I don't like apricot jam.
I want oysters."

"But you cannot have oysters, my little master," said the cook.

"But I will have oysters," said the little boy, "and you shan't say
that I can't have them--shall she, mother?"

And he began to scream and to cry.

"Do not cry, my sweet soul," said his mother, "and we will see what we
can do. Dry up your tears, my little man, and come with me, and, the
cook, I dare say, will be able to get some oysters before dinner. It
is a long time to dinner, you know, and I have some pretty toys for
you upstairs, if you will come with me till dinner is ready."

So she took the little crying boy by the hand and led him up to her
room, and she whispered to the cook, as she passed, not to say
anything more about it