d looked as wise as
Solomon.

He was just listening very attentively to a story about the beautiful
new house her papa had had built for the ducks to live in, when there
came a sound like the crunching of wheels on the gravelled road; and in
a twinkling he cocked up his ears, and, without waiting for the end of
the story, ran off barking, to see who had arrived. I think he was very
impolite; don't you?

Then Annie got up and ran too, saying to herself, "Why! I wonder if dear
mamma has come back."

[Illustration: Ilken Annie talking to Grip.]

No; it was not her mother's carriage. It was another one; and it soon
whirled round the sweep, and stopped at the door.

"Oh, my," said Annie, "that is the company. I must go and help her out.
Why, grandmamma!" she exclaimed, "dear grandmamma, is that you?"

"Yes, little darling," said a pleasant voice; and a tall, beautiful lady
stepped from the carriage, and lifting Annie in her arms, gave her a
good kissing.

"Oh, grandmamma, I'm so glad. I am the house-_keeping_; and I must be
very polite and kind to you. Come in, grandmamma, and let me take off
your hat."

The lady sat down in the parlor, smiling at the sweet little child, and
let her untie her bonnet with her small fat fingers. It took quite a
long time, for Annie could not get the right ribbon to pull; but her
grandmamma never said "hurry," but let the little one do just as she
pleased.

"Mamma has gone to New York, grandma," said Annie, "to buy a cook and
hire a chest of tea."

"Buy a cook?" asked her grandma, laughing.

"Oh, yes, grandma," said Annie, quite serious; "she told me so."

"_Hire_ a cook and _buy_ the tea. Isn't that it, darling?"

"O--h, _yes_, grandma! I made a mistake, didn't I?"

They both laughed merrily, and then Annie, sitting in her own tiny
chair, put one little fat hand over the other, and began to think.

She looked up at her kind, beautiful grandma, with such a serious pair
of blue eyes, that the good lady came near laughing; but she sat quite
still, to see what Annie would do or say next. She loved the little girl
dearly.

You see, Annie was such a loving, obedient little child, that she was
anxious to do just what her mother told her; and she was thinking of
the best way to be kind to the company.

Suddenly her blue eyes brightened, as if she had got hold of a
delightful thought; and looking up, with the expression of an angel, in
her grandmother's face, she said, in her swe