"What are these dear soft fluffy things?" said Lucie.

"Oh those are woolly coats belonging to the little lambs at Skelghyl."

"Will their jackets take off?" asked Lucie.

"Oh yes, if you please'm; look at the sheep-mark on the shoulder. And
here's one marked for Gatesgarth, and three that come from Little-town.
They're _always_ marked at washing!" said Mrs. Tiggy-winkle.

[Illustration]

And she hung up all sorts and sizes of clothes--small brown coats of mice;
and one velvety black moleskin waist-coat; and a red tailcoat with no tail
belonging to Squirrel Nutkin; and a very much shrunk blue jacket belonging
to Peter Rabbit; and a petticoat, not marked, that had gone lost in the
washing--and at last the basket was empty!

[Illustration]

"Then Mrs. Tiggy-winkle made tea--a cup for herself and a cup for Lucie.
They sat before the fire on a bench and looked sideways at one another.
Mrs. Tiggy-winkle's hand, holding the tea-cup, was very very brown, and
very very wrinkly with the soap-suds; and all through her gown and her
cap, there were _hair-pins_ sticking wrong end out; so that Lucie didn't
like to sit too near her.

[Illustration]