rresistibly comical character. The story was preserved in the
archives of the family of one evening when the three girls had been sent
upstairs to wash their abundant locks and dry them thoroughly before
retiring to bed. A fire was kindled in the old nursery, which was now
used as a sewing-room, and Mrs Asplin, who understood nothing if it was
not the art of making young folks happy, had promised a supper of roast
apples and cream when the drying process was finished.

Esther and Mellicent were squatted on the hearth, in their blue
dressing-gowns, when in tripped Peggy, fresh as a rose, in a long robe
of furry white, tied round the waist with a pink cord. One bath-towel
was round her shoulders, and a smaller one extended in her hands, with
the aid of which she proceeded to perform a fancy dance, calling out
instructions to herself the while, in imitation of the dancing-school
mistress. "To the right--two--three! To the left--two--three! Spring!
Pirouette! Atti-tude!" She stood poised on one foot, towel waving
above her head, damp hair dripping down her back, while Esther and
Mellicent shrieked with laughter, and drummed applause with heel and
toe. Then she flopped down on the centre of the hearth, and there was
an instantaneous exclamation of dismay.

"Phew! What a funny smell! Phew! Phew! Whatever can it be?"

"I smelt it too. Peggy, what have you been doing? It's simply awful!"

"Hair-wash, I suppose, or the soap--I noticed it myself. It will pass
off," said Peggy easily; but at that moment Mrs Asplin entered the
room, sniffed the air, and cried loudly--

"Bless me, what's this? A regular Apothecaries' Hall! Paregoric! It
smells as if someone had been drinking quarts of paregoric! Peggy,
child, your throat is not sore again?"

"Not at all, thank you. Quite well. I have taken no medicine to-day."

"But it is you, Peggy--it really is!" Mellicent declared. "There was
no smell at all before you came into the room. I noticed it as soon as
the door was opened, and when you came and sat down beside us--whew!
simply fearful!"

"I have taken _no_ medicine to-day," repeated Peggy firmly. Then she
started, as if with a sudden thought, lifted a lock of hair, sniffed at
it daintily, and dropped it again with an air of conviction. "Ah, I
comprehend! There seems to have been a slight misunderstanding. I have
mistaken the bottles. I imagined that I was using the mixture you gave
me, but--"

"Sh