you laughed, the fun was all
over, for Sallie would turn as red as a whole box of wafers; all the
dimples in her face would take French leave, and you could almost have
declared there was a bonfire lighted up in each of her eyes; but this
only lasted a moment, for she was a sweet-tempered, affectionate little
creature, and got over being laughed at as quick as possible, which is a
great deal quicker than you or I would have done.

"Dear mamma," said Sallie, her face perfectly beaming with tenderness
and sympathy; "dear mamma, what a terrible pain you are in; it is really
_overpalling_! It's very _instraordinary_ that you should have such a
head. I can feel the beating! I wish you could sell it to the drummer
of a _regimen_, and buy a new one; I wish I could give you mine, mamma;
mine is perfectly empty; not a speck of pain, or anything else, in it,
and it would last just so, as long as you live, and ever so much longer.
It is so _destressing_ to have a head so brimful of _sufferling_;" and
little Sallie looked as grieved as cock-robin's wife when he was killed
by the sparrow, with his bow and arrow.

"My dear dove and darling," said her mother, "I know you would give
your head and shoulders, and all your new shoes, to make me well, but
you can do nothing but keep perfectly quiet, as still as a mouse with
the lock-jaw. As the Frenchman says, you must 'take hold of your tongue,
and put your toe on your mouth;'--he meant finger, I suppose. You need
not leave the room, my little Sallie, only do not make any noise."

[Illustration: "Play softly, Kitty; your Mamma is very undisposed."]

So Sallie sat down very quietly on the carpet with her kitten, only
whispering once in a while, "Play softly, kitty, for your mamma is very
_undisposed_."

Just at this moment another little girl came darting like a sunbeam into
the room. It was Fanny. Fanny was Sallie's cousin; she was a dear little
weeny woman of seven years, with a lily-white skin, hazel eyes, and a
sweet, musical voice, and she ran up to Sallie with such a gentle,
song-like salutation, you would have supposed it was a bob-o-link,
saying, "How do you do?" Let me tell you, if you have never heard a
bob-o-link, its few low notes are deliciously sweet, and are only
surpassed by the sweet voice of a good little girl.

Fanny had come to spend the day with Sallie. She was about a year older
than her cousin; she had the same amiable, affectionate ways, and used
almost as ma