on, I must say,' she remarked. Then she turned again to Babs.
'Well, child, I see you are going to be like your father in any case; and
as for me--well, we'll see if we can't prevent such a terrible result as
that. And now, I want you to pretend that I am a fairy godmother. Do
you think you can?'

Barbara nodded, and her small black eyes glistened. It was not difficult
to do that. Already the bonnet with the pink feathers had turned into
a steeple-hat, and the black silk mantle into a scarlet cloak, and the
blue-knobbed cane into a broomstick. The little impish face was aglow
with delight as the old lady went on:

'Now, I've just come down the chimney with a bang, and I am going to
give my goddaughter the wish that she wishes most in all the world. But
mind--if I have a suspicion that what she asks for is not what she really
wants--bang! up the chimney I go again!'

Barbara took a flying leap into the middle of the room, and spun round
with her favourite movement on the tips of her toes. Her heart was
thumping wildly with excitement at finding herself in the middle of a real
fairy story; and when she at last stood still again, she was almost too
breathless to speak.

[Illustration: 'May I--may I have all that?']

'Please,' she said, clasping her hands tightly together, 'I want to go to
school, a real girls' school, where there are crowds of girls, and crowds
of lessons, and crowds of story-books with nice endings, and crowds of
awfully jolly games that don't pull your hair about and don't give you
bruises. May I--may I have all that?'

Auntie Anna once more struck her cane upon the ground. 'That shows how
much you know about your own daughter, Everard!' she said, which was a
remark that Barbara never understood. 'You may have all that, little
goddaughter, every bit of it!' she announced to the expectant child;
'and what is more, you shall have it in a week's time. Hey-day! Where are
you off to in such a hurry, if you please, and why am I allowed a kiss
all at once, eh? It isn't a birthday, is it?'

For Barbara had rushed impetuously to the door, and then scampered back
to kiss the face with the hooked nose that peered out from beneath the
steeple-hat. 'Of course I kissed you,' she cried, 'because--because you're
such a brick, you see!' She paused half-way in her second journey to the
door, and looked back doubtfully at the old lady on the sofa. 'May I ask
you something else?' she said.

'Anything you please,' a