of the nursery at home, and baby there, and little brother, and papa and
mamma, and the long time ago, hours and hours ago! when I said good-bye,
and Bobbie kissed his hand out of window, and the carriage took me
off--a happy little woman, really going in the puff-puff! Oh, how could
I ever have felt so happy then and be so miserable now? Had I ever
thought that I was coming away from them all, with nobody at all but
Jane, the new nursemaid, to take care of me? Had I ever thought how
_quite_ alone I should be, never able to find my way in this great, big
house, sure to get lost in some of the passages? And how could I ever go
to sleep without Bobbie close by, and wouldn't Bobbie cry for me at
home? And oh, nurse wouldn't be there to tuck me up, and perhaps
grandmamma wouldn't like the candle left! And who would give me my
good-night kiss like,--like,--oh, oh, like----But it would come, that
great big sob, it wasn't any use to choke it back! And, when it had
come, of course, it was all over with me, and there was nothing for it
but to cry out just as if I was not in that grand drawing-room--

"I want to go home! I want, oh, I do want mamma!"

What a disturbance that cry of mine did make, to be sure! Grandmamma was
wide-awake in a moment, looking very much distressed, and laying her
hand on the bell. This troubled me very much; for hadn't Jane told me
when she brushed my hair and made me tidy, that I was to go down and be
a good girl, "and do things pretty" in the drawing-room, and would she
scold me if I was sent away for crying and making a noise? But Uncle
Hugh came to my rescue, threw away his paper, and cuddled me up in his
great strong arms almost like papa. And he showed me his watch, and made
it strike, and then began to show me all kinds of wonders about the
room: little tiny black men under a glass case, small china monkeys,
cats and frogs, and funny shells and fishes, and snakes' skins, and