Bliss, and Other Stories

ning, Mrs

. I'm so glad to see you. Hav

aw you last, but she came so suddenly that I haven't had time to ma

Queen Victoria-she's my godmother, you know-sent him a case of pi

ly had her two days. Oh, Gwen,

h. Dinner won't be ready

uce me to the servant. I think I o

rvant and you do introduce lady-helps, I k

cloth on a pink garden seat. In front of each person she put two geranium leaf plates, a pine needle fork and a twig knife. There were three daisy heads on a laurel leaf for poached eggs, some slic

s. Smith graciously. "If you'll just take this b

spered to Mrs. Jones: "Shall I go and a

charming table, leaving the rissoles and the poached eggs to the ants and to an old snail who p

ront, children. Pip

e combing and brushing Snooker and dosing him with various awful mixtures concocted by Pip, and kept secretly by him in a broken jug covered with an old kettle lid. Even faithful little Rags was not allowed to know the full secret of these mixtures. . . . Take some carbolic tooth powder and a pinch of sulphur powdered up fine, and perhaps a bit of starch to stiffen up Snooker's coat. . . . But that was not all; Rags privately thought that the rest was gun-powder. . . . An

and fighting dog," Pip would

. Besides, both of them liked playing with girls-Pip, because he could fox them so, and because Lottie was so easily frightened, and Rags for a shameful reason. He a

keep them stiff like that. You'll

back Snooker who wanted to go into the house but wa

o spend the afternoon with you. We brought over a batch of our gi

oiling water and grabbed them out and gave them a kind of pinch and the nuts

stay in the kitchen, Rags and me, and I get the bowl and he gets the sp

n, planted his hands on the grass, bent f

lat place for standing on your head. I can walk round t

said Rag

the verandah. That's

oft. Because if you give a jerk and fall over, something

play something

tals. I will be the nurse and Pip can be the doctor

se last time Pip had squeezed somethin

was only the juice out of

el. "Pip can be the father and you c

"You always make us go to church hand

sir," he called. But Snooker, as usual, tried to sneak away, his tail bet

e tied the handkerchief round Snooker's he

that for?"

ead-see?" said Pip. "All fighting dogs have ears th

hey are always turning i

to get the handkerchief off, but finding he could no