before had he lost his temper with her; she was aware that his affection
had been all this time of value to her, of much more value, indeed, than
the stupid old mug. She bent down--still absent-mindedly sobbing--and
began to pick up the pieces. She was really astonished--being a dry and
rather hard little girl--at her affection for Bim.

The nurse seized on the unresisting villain of the piece and shook him.
"You _naughty_ little boy! To go and break your sister's beautiful mug.
It's your horrid temper that'll be the ruin of you, mark my words, as
I'm always telling you." (Bim had never been known to lose his temper
before.) "Yes, it will. You see, you naughty boy. And all the other
children as good as gold and quiet as lambs, and you've got to go and do
this. You shall stand in the corner all tea-time, and not a bite shall
you have." Here Bim began, in a breathless, frightened way, to sob.
"Yes, well you may. Never mind, Miss Lucy, I dare say your uncle will
bring you another." Here she became conscious of an attentive and deeply
interested audience. "Now, children, time to get ready for tea. Run
along, Miss Dorothy, now. What a nuisance you all are, to be sure."

They were removed from the scene. Bim was placed in the corner with his
face to the wall. He was aghast; no words can give, at all, any idea of
how dumbly aghast he was. What possessed him? What, in an instant of
time, had leapt down from the clouds, had sprung up from the Square and
seized him? Between his amazed thoughts came little surprised sobs. But
he had not abandoned himself to grief--he was too sternly set upon the
problem of reparation. Something must be done, and that quickly.

The great thought in his mind was that he must replace the mug. He had
not been very often in the streets beyond the Square, but upon certain
occasions he had seen their glories, and he knew that there had been