L. T. Meade

“ Martha meant to be kind, but she was tired, and she often slept soundly, and did not hear the baby when she awoke and demanded attention.
Flossy became quite a light sleeper herself, and would sometimes steal into the nursery and try to quiet the baby; so that, on the whole, for some time, even at night, the lodgers heard no sound of the new little inmate. But all happy and worthy things come to an end, and so, alas! did the baby’s good behaviour. ”

“ It is one thing to feel very angry about a baby, and another to wish that helpless little atom of humanity positive ill. Mr Martin was an old bachelor, and even mothers could scarcely blame him for objecting to having his first sweet sleep disturbed by the wailings of a child who was cutting its teeth. ”

“ 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. p. 46You 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. ”

“ Children seldom take long in carrying out their resolutions, and Mrs Franklin, puzzled and anxious, and with no real intention of sending the poor baby to the workhouse, had not long turned the corner of the street before the hall door of the rambling old house was eagerly and nervously opened, and a funny little p. 29quartette issued forth. Dickory did not often get the air, and she enjoyed herself very much, sitting well up in Peter’s arms, and wrapped up, head and all, in an old tartan shawl. ”

“ Peter, I hope you always say “bless her!” when Dickory sneezes. Martha says it isn’t lucky if you don’t. O Peter, I do p. 40think if we must part with the baby it would be better to give her to the lady who cried than to send her to the workhouse.’
‘But we don’t know where the lady lives,’ said Peter. ‘We might do it if we knew where the lady lived; but we can’t, however much we wish to, if we don’t.’
‘But I do know,’ answered Flossy, ‘I know quite well, ‘cause last week I saw the lady. I was out with mother, and mother went to the greengrocer’s, and while she was there the lady comed in. ”

“ Mr Martin meant what he said when he proposed to change lodgings.
‘Some one else can have my present room,’ he remarked. ‘It would be preposterous to send that infant to the workhouse. A less sensitive person than I am can occupy my present parlour and bedroom; comfortable rooms, too.’ He sighed as he went out.
p. 51He was a man who disliked change, and he felt that he had been treated badly. Mrs Franklin had no right to bring a wailing niece of a few weeks old into the house where he lived, and it was unfair and inconsiderate. ”

“ The attic was far away from the rest of the house; it was the top story of a wing, which had been added on to the tall, ramshackle old house. In some of the rooms underneath, the Franklin family themselves slept; in others they lived, and in others they cooked. The rest of the house, therefore, was free for the accommodation of lodgers. ”

“ A baby make no difference! And who’s to tend on the lodgers, and bring in the grist to the mill, if all my time, day and night, is taken up minding the baby!’
‘Well, well,’ said Mr Franklin. He was as peaceable as his wife was the reverse. He did not want the baby, but neither did he wish to send poor John’s child to the workhouse.
‘You must make the best of it, wife,’ he said. ‘Martha’ll help you, and I daresay Peter and Flossy will take a turn in looking after the young ’un.’
Mrs Franklin said no more; she went up-stairs, and got a certain disused attic p. 8into some sort of order. ”

“ A bottle to hold the milk was to be found in Flossy’s bag, and accordingly in a short time Dickory had a meal; not quite what she was accustomed to, but sufficient to soothe her off into a slumber in which she forgot the discomfort p. 32of her damp clothes and all her other baby tribulations.
‘Flossy,’ said Peter, ‘we have gone a long way from home now, and baby is asleep and resting nicely on my knee; my arm won’t ache a bit when she wakes, and I’ll be able to carry her a splendid long way. ”

“ Then the two children crept back to their beds, and Flossy cried herself to sleep.
p. 21CHAPTER 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. ”

“ The screams of a baby have to me an appalling sound. Do what you think well with the child, ma’am, and let me know in the morning; only I may as well state that I think the workhouse an extreme measure.’
Then Mr Martin left the house. Mrs Franklin followed him out of the room, and Flossy crept slowly back to the nursery.
p. 24Mrs Franklin did not notice her little daughter, and Flossy did not venture to address her mother. She came into the room where Peter and Snip-snap were doing their utmost for the baby. ”

“ Peter and Flossy soon found they were to have their wish. Martha could only spare a very short time to attending to the baby’s wants, and the poor little mite would have had a very unhappy and neglected life but for the children. ”

“ In their day these squares had seen fashion and life, but the gay world had long, long ago passed them by and forgotten them, and in consequence, although the houses were large and commodious, the rents were low. ”

“ The baby stole their little hearts into her own safe keeping. Notwithstanding his sufferings she also stole Snip-snap’s heart. After that the baby was of course mistress of the situation.
The children took care of her by day, and the lodgers knew nothing about her existence; but at night Martha, the old nurse, went into her nursery and slept with her, and attended to her wants. Peter and Flossy having learned the mystery of amusing the small mite, were p. ”