to the Misses and Masters Douglas.

fairy, no doubt!'

Some good

It is for us!' they cried. Open it quick, Eddy, please! What can it be?'

'Mamma is coming up,' said Edmund.

'We must

wait for her. I will go and find a chisel and hammer.'

Oh, the joy, the impatience! can you imagine what it was like, during those few minutes while Edmund was away? They hardly knew how to wait.

They were all sitting on the floor round the box when he came back, with their mamma. She smiled to see their eagerness.

The lid was quickly raised, and there appeared a number of parcels of all sizes wrapped in paper, and directed to the different children, who all sat round watching with hungry eyes.

Mrs. Douglas took them out one by one, and gave them to the children. There was such a tearing off of papers, and such excitement!

'Here is a great parcel for Alice,' said Mrs. Douglas, lifting out a large box, and giving it to her.

'O mamma! what can it be?' she cried, delighted. A set of real tea-things! how lovely! the very thing I wished for! I shall be able to give tea-parties!'

All the others crowded round to admire the little cups and saucers, with their pretty blue and gold rims.

The next thing that came out was a paint-box for Jessie; then two long parcels for the twins, in which

they found, to their great joy, two dolls, dressed exactly alike.

Now Punny and Ferky began to get rather excited ; their turn was coming. Punny's parcel came out first. It was a very small one; and he looked the least bit disappointed to find in it only a little wooden frog, painted green.

'What is it for?' he asked, turning it over and over. 'Let me look,' said his mamma.

She took it, and bent back a spring underneath it, then set it on the floor by Punny.

'Watch it,' she said.

He stooped down over it, when all of a sudden it hopped up right in his face, and he screamed, 'It's alive!'

The children went into fits of laughter.

'Well done, Lion-heart!' cried Ferky, as soon as he could speak.

'Here's yours, Ferky,' said his mamma, handing him a square parcel. It turned out to be a box, which fastened with a little wire hook, rather tightly. Ferky opened it at last with a jerk; back flew the lid, and up sprung into his face a little black grinning monkey, covered with hair. The valiant Ferky shrieked, and threw it down; while all the children cried out, amid screams of laughter

'Well done, Lion-heart!'

'The little Violet, now! Last, but not least!' said

Edmund. All the rest looked eagerly; there was not one who did not wish Baby Bud's to be the best. It was a beautiful book of Fairy tales, with many pictures.

'The thing I like best of all!' she said joyfully. 'This will be a treat for a long time to come. To us all!' she added; for I can read them out to you!' 'I wish,' said Alice, 'we knew who our good fairy was, that we might thank her!'

Mamma smiled.

'It is mamma!' cried Violet.

Mamma! mamma! mamma is our good fairy!' cried all the children, rushing upon her, and overpowering her with kisses.

Then they sang all together, led on by Punny and Ferky

‘Hip, hip, hip, hurrah!

Hip, hip, hip, hurrah!

Hip, hip, hip, hurrah! O what a good mamma!

We are so very happy,

We are so very happy,

We are so very happy, we don't know what to do!'

W

CHAPTER IX.

GOING TO THE SEA.

E'RE going to the sea! we're all going to the sea!' cried Alice, flying into her mamma's room to tell Violet the joyful

news.

'Are we?' and Violet's pale face even got

a little colour in it. 'I am so glad! I've

never seen the sea.'

'You will like it so much! And the sands! and the shells and the clambering on the rocks! and the donkey-rides!' Violet looked sad.- Ah! I quite forgot you, dear! I am so sorry. You can't climb on the rocks, or ride, or pick up shells, poor Baby Bud! Never mind! I'll give you all I can get, and I'll sit by you on the sands when the others are riding. You'll be able to lie there and watch the waves, you know!'

'Are they very grand?' asked Violet.

'O yes! the sea goes sucking, sucking back, and

then it curls up in a great roll, and dashes down, and the wave comes after you ever so fast to catch your feet, and we run away from it as if we were running from a lion; but if we're not very quick it catches us, and we scream out!'

'What fun it must be!' said Violet sorrowfully. 'I wish I could do that!'

'You shan't make my Baby Bud sad! Get along!' cried Edmund, who had heard her last words as he came in. She shall have as much fun as all the rest of them put together, she shall!' and he took her up on his lap tenderly, and kissed her. She wound her arms round his neck, and hid her face on his shoulder, and he could hear that she was crying.

'What is it, my Bud?' asked Edmund. 'O nothing, nothing!'

'Yes, it is something, and I think I can tell what it is,' said Edmund. 'My little Bud is sad because she can't run about, and do as the others do. Isn't that it?'

'I didn't mean to cry, trying to restrain herself.

Eddy dear,' said Violet,

But it's very hard some

times; I get so tired of lying here.'

'I know you must, darling,' said Edmund, with a sigh. I only wish I could bear it for you.'

'I shouldn't like that,' said Violet. O no! It is only just now and then that I mind a little, and wish I could have some fun like the others. But I know