The Wonderful Bed

hey could get, waiting for Betsy to bring the lamp. Peter had built himself a comfortable den beneath the table and was having a quiet game of Bears with Mittens, the ca

e's alone without mother. I don't believe I like this room, it's so big and creepy. I don't want to go to bed. Especi

ceiling. It was hung with faded chintz, and instead of a mattress it had a billowy feather bed over which were tucked grandmother's hand-spun sheets and blankets covered by the gayest of quilts in an elaborate pattern of sprigged and spotted calico patches. The two front posts of the bed

oo, instead of in the cot. I wanted to take a running jump at it when we first came this morning, but Aunt Jane wouldn't let me with my boots on. She said she made that quilt he

n't think I like it, Rudolf. I

bear, he was not at all afraid, but made himself very happy for a while with pouncing and growling, searching for honey, and eating imaginary travelers. Then the cub escaped, and Peter tired

ve been at the cupboard, and Aunt Jane said ex

ree heads bent over the box. After all it contained nothing very wonderful, the cover itself being the prettiest part, Ann thought, for on it was painted a bright-colored picture of a little girl in a funny, high-waisted, old-fashioned dress, making a curtsy to a little boy dressed like an

think she said it was sandal-wood. That set must have been a darling when it was new, but there's only just a sp

. "I don't see why Aunt Jane didn't throw 'em away, they

both forgotten that they had no more right than Peter to any of the things in the box, and both threw themselves on their little brother. Peter fought and kicked, but was at last forced to surrender the

"it's nothing in the wo

icking it up. "It's a doll, th

ked at the old doll, and turning to her new children, Marie-Louise and Angelina-Elfrida, which her mother had given her for Christmas, she placed the two beauties on the hearth-rug, one on each side of the corn-cob, just to see the difference

nn," said he, "to see

"Aunt Jane mightn't like it. I shoul

Oh, Rudolf!" in a rather unpleasant way, and then, after she had carefully restored the corn-cob doll to her wrappings, she knelt down and began to gather up the old toys which the children had scattered over the hearth-rug. Ann and Rudolf helped her, and Peter who, though a very mischievous little boy, was always honest, confessed that he had been the one to open the old cupboard and take out the box. He seemed to feel rather uncomfort

nursery, Aunt J

many and many an hour curled up on that window-seat, playing with my doll. Yes, I did have others,

lay with?" Rudolf asked. "Other boys

s, though that was a mile away. Those were his tin soldiers you saw in the box. He gave them to me t

from school, did he use

come every summer

ttle boy do when he

e slowly, looking very hard into

"And when he came back

the different ways there were of being lost at sea. Rudolf in particular would have liked to know whether it was a hurricane or sharks or pirates or a nice desert island that had been the end of that little boy, and he was about to begin his questioning in a roundabo

t Jane, for Betsy and the children did not get on. She was one of those uncomfortable persons who refuse to understand how a little conversation makes undressing so much less unpleasant. She was not inclined to give Rudolf any information on the subject of sea serpents, nor w

ing of some sort, he looked about for Mittens and discovered him at last, taking a much needed nap behind the sofa. Squeezing the weary cat carefully under

rned her attention to Rudolf and Ann, evidently thinking Peter was settled for the night-which shows just how much Betsy knew about him. Peter waited patiently till she was in the depths of an argument with Rudolf who was trying vainly to make her understand that the dirt

gruff good night, departed, carrying the lamp with her. Now that the room was in darkness except for the flickering ligh

ight," she said. "But it would

he added hastily, "I rather like it, only don't let's li

keep their eyes shut l

Peter would beat anyway, for he's

gan to accuse Rudolf of having taken his cat. This Rudolf-and also Ann-denied. They had seen Peter sm

r insisted. "I had him after

d we might as well have him to play with. Ru

ord, a weapon he was in the habit of taking to bed with him in case of burglars, and with this he poked bravely under the bed and in

rd, he climbed back into the big bed between his brother and sister. Peter was still cross and grumbly. He kept insistin

the posts at the head of the great bed a splendid tent was quickly made, bigger than any the children had ever played in before, so big that Rudolf, who was to lead the procession into its white depths, began to feel just the least little bit afraid,-of what he hardly knew. How high th

" asked Rudolf.