baby was kissed crescendo, prestissimo, till he laughed more than
ever.

"'The sails were made of silver and the masts were made of gold.
The captain was a duck, and _he_ cried--'"

"Quack, quack!" said Arthur. It was Daddy's part in the great play, and it
made the baby nearly choke with laughter.

[Illustration: "'Quack, quack!' said Arthur, and it made the baby
nearly choke with laughter"]

Arthur was on the floor, in a posture of solemn adoration somewhat out of
keeping with his utterances.

"Oh, Baby!" cried Aggie, "what times we'll have when Daddy's ship comes
home!"

The intellectual life had lapsed; but only for a period. Not for a moment
could they contemplate its entire extinction. It was to be resumed with
imperishable energy later on; they had pledged themselves to that.
Meanwhile they had got beyond the stage when Aggie would call to her
husband a dozen times a day:

"Oh, Arthur, look! If you poke him in the cheek like that, he'll smile."

And Arthur would poke him in the cheek, very gently, and say: "Why, I
never! What a rum little beggar he is! He's got some tremendous joke
against us, you bet."

And a dialogue like this would follow: "Oh, Arthur, look, look, _look_, at
his little feet!"

"I say--do you think you ought to squeeze him like that?"

"Oh, he doesn't mind. He likes it. Doesn't he? My beauty--my bird!"

"He'll have blue eyes, Aggie."

"No, they'll change; they always do. And his _nose_ is just like yours."

"I only wish I had his head of hair."

It was a terrible day for Arthur when the baby's head of hair began to
come off, till Aggie told him it always did that, and it would grow again.

To-day they were celebrating the first birthday of the little son. At
supper that night a solemn thought came to Aggie.

"Oh, Arthur, only think. On Arty's birthday" (they had been practising
calling him "Arty" for the last fortnight) "he won't be a baby any more."

"Never mind; Arty's little sister will be having her first birthday very
soon after."

Aggie blushed for pure joy, and smiled. She hadn't thought of that. But
how sad it would be for poor baby not to be _the_ baby any more!

Arthur gave an anxious glance at Aggie in her evening blouse. His mind was
not set so high but what he liked to see his pretty wife wearing pretty
gowns. And some of the money that was to have gone to the buying of books
had passed over to the gay drapers of Camden Town and