FullReads

“Are they?” said Jem, very much interested. “What things? Burned things? I was just wondering–“

“Not only burned things,” said Flora, nodding. “Just come with me and I’ll show you something.”

She led the way out of the room and down a little passage with several doors in each side of it, and she opened one door and showed Jem what was on the other side of it. That was a room, too, and this time it was funny as well as pretty. Both floor and walls were padded with rose color, and the floor was strewn with toys. There were big soft balls, rattles, horses, woolly dogs, and a doll or so; there was one low cushioned chair and a low table.

“You can come in,” said a shrill little voice behind the door, “only mind you don’t tread on things.”

“What a funny little voice!” said Jem, but she had no sooner said it than she jumped back.

The owner of the voice, who had just come forward, was no other than Baby.

“Why,” exclaimed Jem, beginning to feel frightened, “I left you fast asleep in your crib.”

“Did you?” said Baby, somewhat scornfully. “That’s just the way with you grown-up people. You think you know everything, and yet you haven’t discretion enough to know when a pin is sticking into one. You’d know soon enough if you had one sticking into your own back.”

“But I’m not grown up,” stammered Jem; “and when you are at home you can neither walk nor talk. You’re not six months old.”

“Well, miss,” retorted Baby, whose wrongs seemed to have soured her disposition somewhat, “you have no need to throw that in my teeth; you were not six months old, either, when you were my age.”

Jem could not help laughing.

“You haven’t got any teeth,” she said.

“Haven’t I?” said Baby, and she displayed two beautiful rows with some haughtiness of manner. “When I am up here,” she said, “I am supplied with the modern conveniences, and that’s why I never complain. Do I ever cry when I am asleep? It’s not falling asleep I object to, it’s falling awake.”

“Wait a minute,” said Jem. “Are you asleep now?”

“I’m what you call asleep. I can only come here when I’m what you call asleep. Asleep, indeed! It’s no wonder we always cry when we have to fall awake.”

“But we don’t mean to be unkind to you,” protested Jem, meekly.

She could not help thinking Baby was very severe.

“Don’t mean!” said Baby. “Well, why don’t you think more, then? How would you like to have all the nice things snatched away from you, and all the old rubbish packed off on you, as if you hadn’t any sense? How would you like to have to sit and stare at things you wanted, and not to be able to reach them, or, if you did reach them, have them fall out of your hand, and roll away in the most unfeeling manner? And then be scolded and called ‘cross!’ It’s no wonder we are bald. You’d be bald yourself. It’s trouble and worry that keep us bald until we can begin to take care of ourselves; I had more hair than this at first, but it fell off, as well it might. No philosopher ever thought of that, I suppose!”

“Well,” said Jem, in despair, “I hope you enjoy yourself when you are here?”

“Yes, I do,” answered Baby. “That’s one comfort. There is nothing to knock my head against, and things have patent stoppers on them, so that they can’t roll away, and everything is soft and easy to pick up.”

There was a slight pause after this, and Baby seemed to cool down.

“I suppose you would like me to show you round?” she said.

“Not if you have any objection,” replied Jem, who was rather subdued.

“I would as soon do it as not,” said Baby. “You are not as bad as some people, though you do get my clothes twisted when you hold me.”