"Only to know if the currants are ripe enough to eat."

"How particular he always is about asking now!" said Elsie; "he's afraid
of another dose of salts."

"I should think he would be," replied Clover, laughing. "Johnnie says
she never was so scared in her life as when Papa called them, and they
looked up, and saw him standing there with the bottle in one hand and a
spoon in the other!"

"Yes," went on Elsie, "and you know Dorry held his in his mouth for ever
so long, and then went round the corner of the house and spat it out!
Papa said he had a good mind to make him take another spoonful, but he
remembered that after all Dorry had the bad taste a great deal longer
than the others, so he didn't. I think it was an _awful_ punishment,
don't you?"

"Yes, but it was a good one, for none of them have ever touched the
green gooseberries since. Have you got through practising? It doesn't
seem like an hour yet."

"Oh, it isn't--it's only twenty-five minutes. But Katy told me not to
sit more than half an hour at a time without getting up and running
round to rest. I'm going to walk twice down to the gate, and twice back.
I promised her I would." And Elsie set off, clapping her hands briskly
before and behind her as she walked.

"Why--what is Bridget doing in Papa's room?" she asked, as she came back
the second time. "She's flapping things out of the window. Are the girls