The Adventures of Herr Baby

say to the su

him there like

he had God'

orld, and neve

the horses weren't to go, Thomas and Jones had to be left behind too to take care of them, which troubled Baby a good deal. And no doubt Thomas and Jones would have been very unhappy if it hadn't been for the nice way Baby spoke to them about coming back soon, a

out it, nor Baby himself, could tell when the rabbits' birthdays were, and besides, as Baby said, "what would be the good of writing them letters if they couldn't read them?" The only thing to do was to get the little girl at the lodge to

, p'omise certain sure,

to E

do sometimes in his grandfather's study when they came to tell about things, and to promise they would speak the truth; but Betsy, though she was ready enough to promise, didn't like the other idea at all. She might be had up to the c

ther packing after a while, for he found his own took all his time and attention. Mother had found him a box after all. Not the box of course-that was left empty, by Baby's wish, till some day when he was a big man, he should go to the country of the fairy glass and buy mother some new jugs-but a very nice little box, and she gave him cotton wool and crushy paper too, and everything was as neat as possible, and the box quite packed and ready, the first evening. But it was very queer that every day after that Herr Baby foun

ng," said mother, "my dear little boy, you rea

ing herself little cross shakes every time poor Lisa, who was combing out her long fair hai

"I don't know how you will bear all the little discomforts o

e a big girl. You could get her to do anything by telling her it would be babyish not to do it, or that doing it would be like big people, which, of course, showed that

em. He jumped up from the floor-at least he got up, his legs were too short for

p to kiss her, "him won't wake he

ther crossly still, "it's no use you beginning good ways

oked ra

t Lisa get you ready for bed as quick as she can, and you and Denny

king and twisting, and at last he ran to moth

changed like Denny says. Him is so sorry to go away and to leave him's

body left behind. For you know Thomas has his old mother he wouldn't like to leave, and Jones has his wife and children. And if the rabbits could talk, I'm quite sure they would tell you that they'd f

ce cleare

elf. Then he added, "Him won't like t

laughing. "Him will have a nice little corner all to himself in a c

err Baby, and soon both little sister and brother were fast asleep in their cots, dreaming about the journey before them I daresay, or perhaps forgetting all about it in t

-that is to say their thick boots and gaiters, and woollen under-jackets (for it was very cold, though not yet far on in November), while their ulsters and comforters and

, worth while to light the lamp, and everything looking more like a sor

, throwing down his bread

t Fritz as if it wouldn't be very difficult to eat up his egg too. "I think it's very

r coming up with the eggs all in a pan with hot water

ery kind of Abigail

id Baby, "'twas the hens zat laid them. D

nly want to say it's very stupid of Fritz not to eat his egg, when somebody made them

sa, encouragingly, "try and

ing just like when mother took me to have that

away. I felt just that way the day I broke grandfather's hotness measure, and mother said I must tell him myse

seemed to think much of Denny's sufferings. No one had ever seen her ne

what did you sa

pipe thing with a blob that goes up an

hould learn the proper names of things,

ugh the "quite big enough" at the end was very much to her

"the cart with the luggage is 'way, and

said Denny, eyeing it dolefully,

et's see what have I got to look after. Only Tim and Peepy-Snoozle. I couldn't lose my satchel, you se

the truth, a little uncomfortable at first, as new things generally do, stalk

settled that, for the journey at least, the canaries were to be Celia's charge and the "Bully"

age, Denny," sai

sy to see, for both were covered up with dark blue stuff wrappers, to keep

there, don't you see two yello

o be right, so Cel

the van, the children and the dormice and the birds-far more important things, of course, than the big people!-all com

! How nice and springy these cushions are! And this carriage is as big as a

lemnity. "Dear, dear, what dedful lots of boxes there is! Him's

Helen? Grandfather's something like Baby, he thinks no one can do anything right but himself; and there's Peters come on purpose to bother about these things." (Peters was grandf

a low voice, for, of course, they were intended for the nu

I can't say those French names-wherever it is we're going to, suppose that Madamazelle Celia's trunk was lost, and Madamazelle Celia hadn't an

ng found it, she took out the book which s

eak to, Fritz," she sai

dunce for her age, and couldn't read "runningly" as French people say. But big people alway

not been able to eat any breakfast. Lisa thought that taking a nap was the best thing he could do, so she got down a bundle of the rugs to make him a pillow,

already; of the big people at the other end, grandfather's face was quite hidden in his newspaper, which he had kept over from last night on purpose to have somethin

w more open?" said grandfa

ink that little chink is enough. It

lower voice than auntie; but Baby heard her, for he had q

would last all the way to

"But they'll all be jumping abou

t learn too young, which is, that to listen to things you are not meant to hear is a sort of cheating, for it is like taking something not meant for you. Of course, while aunti

they shouldn't get in the way and be "runned over." This made Baby begin to think of the people living in the fields; they were just then passing a little cottage standing all by itself. It looked a nice cottage, and it had a sort of little garden round it, and some cocks and hens were picking about. Baby looked back at the little cottage as long as he could see it; he wondered who lived in it, if there were any little boys and girls, and what they did all day. He wondered if they went to school, or if perhaps they sometimes went messages for their mother, and if they weren't frightened if they had to pass through the wood, which by this time the train was running along the edge of. Could this be Red Riding Hood's wood, perhaps? Baby shuddered as this idea came into his mind. Or it might be the wood that Hop-o'-my-thumb and his six brothers had to

ay horses must have runned the wrong way. We

, just a sort of passage through a hill, and that there was nothing to be frightened at. And she persuaded him to look up and see what a nice little

ere?" he said.

t them to be so kind, which Lisa quite agreed in. But even though the little lamp was very nice, Baby was very pleased to get out of the tunnel, and out of the rumbly, rattly noise, into the open d

riend in the sky, "that's the bestest lamp of a

ithout knowing it, for he didn't seem to hear anything more or to think wher

Lisa? And Denny, why, have

ping, his fair curls in a pretty tumble about his eyes, Baby

very straight, "I've been reading such a long time th

e that she was smiling at Denny, though she

ey wanted, auntie taught them a sort of guessing game, which helped to pass the time, for already Denny a

. But Baby was so dreadfully afraid of any of them being left behind that he could hardly be persuaded to get out at all, and once when he and L

motion in the station, and when the train moved back again, and they all got in, he was obliged to kiss and hug each one sepa

the very same sun, that they had seen every morning peeping up behind the kitchen-garden wall, and whose red face they had said good-night to on the winter evenings, as he slipped away to bed down below the old elms in the avenue, where the rooks had their nests. Somehow as Baby sat in his corner, staring out now and then at the darkness through which they were whizzing, blinking up sometimes at the little lamp shining faintly in the roof, there cam

ld and lonely," he said to himself.