ll his costumes for
her benefit; but Martha had come to bed as tired and weary as the baby
herself, and in consequence she fell fast asleep, and never heard the
little creature's cries.

Peter and Flossy heard them at the other side of the wall, and knowing
that they were much louder and more piercing than usual, they both got up
and, hand-in-hand, went to the nursery door. Snip-snap also followed
them, but unwillingly, and with his tail between his legs. The door on
this unfortunate night was locked, and the children could not get in.
Martha slept on, and the baby screamed on, and presently poor Peter and
Flossy heard Mr Martin get up and ring his bell violently. Mrs Potts was
also heard to open her room door and come out on the landing, and sniff
in a very disagreeable way, and go back again. Flossy's heart quite beat
with terror, and Peter said:

'It's all up, Flossy; they'll all know about our baby in the morning.'

'What'll they do?' asked Flossy in an awe-struck voice.

'I don't know,' answered Peter. 'I daren't think. Something bad I
'spect.'

Then the two children crept back to their beds, and Flossy cried herself
to sleep.

{The Sleeping Baby: p20.jpg}

CHAPTER II.

'You must answer me this question very decidedly, ma'am: am I to go, or
the baby? Is my night's sleep to be again disturbed by the peevish wails
of a troublesome infant? I must know at once, madam, what you intend to
do? Miss Jenkins, over the way, has offered me her front parlour with
the bedroom behind, and her terms are lower than yours. You have but to
say the word, ma'am, and my bed will be well aired, and the room at Miss
Jenkins's all comfortable for me to-night. I don't want you to turn that
infant away, oh dear me! no, but I must decide my own plans; stay in the
house with a baby, and have my sleep broken, I will not!'

The speaker was Mr Martin. He had come into Mrs Franklin's little back
parlour and expressed his mind very freely. The poor woman was standing
up and regarding her best lodger with a puzzled and almost despairing
air. She did not know that Flossy had crept into the room and was hiding
herself behind her chair, and that Flossy's little face had grown even
more white and despairing than her own.

'Give me until to-night, sir,' she said. 'Mrs Potts has also been in and
complaining about the poor child. She's an orphan child, and my
husband's niece, but we are in no way bound to support her.