h was over, Annie's mother said, "My little darling,
I am going to New York to buy a chest of tea, and hire a cook, besides
taking a trunk which belongs to a friend. You must keep house for me,
dear; and if any company comes, behave very politely to them, and take
off their bonnets, and talk to them, and ask them to stay till I come
home."

"So ilken Annie will, mamma," she answered; "but I'll tell them they
mustn't pull off their shoes and stockings and paddle in the lake,
saying, 'quack,' and making believe they are a duck, like brother did.
I'll tell them that's naughty, won't I?"

"Yes," said the good mamma, laughing, "tell them what brother did. That
will amuse them very much, dear; and when I come home, I will give you a
dozen kisses and a pretty new book."

Oh, how Annie's blue eyes sparkled at this! for, would you believe it,
she could read! Yes, read! and only four years old! It did not seem to
have hurt her; for she was just as round, and plump, and rosy as
possible. She learned her letters, nobody knows how--from the tops of
newspapers; and the reading came so easy, that instead of having to
learn in that pretty little school book called, "Reading without tears,"
Annie seemed always to have on a ticklesome apron, which turned all her
lessons into "reading with laughing;" and it was such a funny business,
and Annie grew so fat and bright under it, that her mother did not feel
worried; but I advise all the rest of you, little darlings, if you don't
like learning to read quite as well as bread and butter and raspberry
jam, to put it off till your dear little heads and bodies have had at
least two years more of play, and frolic, and tumbling about like
kittens. You like that advice, don't you?

So Annie helped her mother to dress. She ran to the closet, brought out
a green bandbox, and raising the cover, lifted up her mother's bonnet;
then she opened one of the bureau drawers, and got her a pair of new kid
gloves, and shut the drawer again. "Oh!" cried she, with a little
laugh, "I forgot to take out a clean hankfun--too bad!" By this funny
word she meant "pocket handkerchief."

So she ran back to the bureau, opened the drawer, and took a "hankfun"
from a pile in the corner; and then her mother was quite ready.

Annie felt a little bit like crying when her mamma kissed her for
good-by. She was such a little thing, you see--only four years old. You
don't want your mamma to go away either, do you? you precious