have certainly shut the door in her face,
had not the lady of the house at that moment come into the hall. Flossy
saw her, and quick as thought she darted past the servant and up to the
lady.

'Please, lady,' she said, 'I've often thought of you, and I'm so very
sorry for you. Please, I've brought you another little baby instead of
the one you put into the ground in the pretty place where the flowers and
trees are. She's a dear little baby, and when you have her you won't cry
no more.'

Flossy's voice was very earnest, and her eyes looking up full into the
lady's face were full of the most intense sympathy. Those pretty eyes of
hers were too much for the poor bereaved mother: she put her handkerchief
to her own eyes, and there and then burst into fits of fresh weeping.

'Come away, little girl, at once,' said the indignant footman; but the
lady put out one of her hands and took Flossy's.

'Leave the child with me,' she said to the man. 'I'll be better in a
moment, little girl,' she continued, 'and then you shall tell me what you
mean; but you have upset me talking about babies: it is not long since I
buried my child, my only child.'

'I saw you,' said Flossy, nodding her bright head. 'I was in the
cemetery and I saw you. Oh, didn't you cry bitter! but you needn't cry
no more now, for God has sent you another little baby.'

'No, my little girl,' said the lady, 'He has not. I have asked Him, but
it is not His will.'

'I guessed you'd want another baby,' said Flossy. 'I knew quite well you
would, and she's waiting for you round the corner with Peter and Snip-
snap. You put on your bonnet and come and look at her; she's a real
beauty; she's got a dimple, and her name is Dickory.'

'I'll come,' said the lady in an excited voice. 'It's the very strangest
thing I ever heard. A child coming to me like that. We'll slip out,
little girl. James need not open the door for us.'

Flossy wondered who James was.

'Give me your hand, little girl,' continued the lady. 'And take me to
the baby; I'll look at her anyhow.'

Peter was standing in a very sulky attitude at the corner where the
railings were. In his heart of hearts he was extremely anxious that
Flossy's mission should fail. It seemed to him that every bit of the
niceness, all the interest would go out of his life if he hadn't Dickory.
In some ways he considered that Dickory was more to him than she was to
Flossy. He wondered how Flossy could even t