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Show PRINCESS MARYS GIFT BOOK Al,.'l‘()(3‘.E'I‘IIER DIFFERENT that she could not see so much as when walking in the old way. Thus it was that she had reached the end of the road. where a steep ascent occurred that was like the side of a mountain, ere she noticed something strange and peculiar about the houses. "How very foolish of them to build in that way 1 " she cried. " Theymust be out of their senses." It was the more eccentric in that her own house so far as she had observed had not changed; thinking it over, though, she could not be quite sure. Here at any rate was every house upside down with the front door right away at the top, Virginia creepers growing downwards; at one house the " Please, please," she cried, "please don't be silly. Why do you keep making noises like that instead of giving me a proper answer? " " Missy," he explained, " I‘m a comic policeman. I'm not here to tell folk the way or to lock them up, or anything of that kind; I'm here to make people laugh." " You are not amusing me l " "' Not when I make a noise like a dog ? " he asked, with surprise. " \Yhy. that nearly always sends people into a good temper. You wait till I give you my imitation of a railway engine. Hark l" He set his teeth together and began to say " Isha-isha-isha," but the little girl turned away. She felt so indignant that she determined to tell her father about it at the very first opportunity. and see whether something could not be done. More than once her father had helped to straighten out tangled matters by simply writing a letter to the newspapers, and signing himself " An Indignant Ratcpaycr." And at the very moment along came her father. He, too, walked on all fours as other people (lid, and the little girl thought it caused him to look particularly undignificd, but she did not trouble about this, for, stout as he was, she was really glad to see him. How do you do," he said respectfully. painters were seeing to the front and their ladders came from the roof penny to buy some sweeties?" (which was the basement) nearly to the basement (which was the roof). " Daddie, dear I " she cried with distress. funny, please." A neat lawn hung out over the top of each house; it made her feel giddy to think of the risks of playing croquet there ; she could not see how one would be able to make even the first hoop. Other things claimed her attention. 121 "Can you give me a. _ " Don't you begin to be " I'm not," he said. " But you are my parent, you know." " Yes," he sighed, " I'm aware of that. But under the new rules- There were carts with horses pushing them-she had often heard you must have heard all about them-under the new rules parents have her father reprove her eldest brother for doing this in argumentvthe horses stood upright and wore silk hats in a rakish sort of way, some- times lifting these on meeting another horse and taking cigars out of mouths. She spoke to a constable, who wore a helmet on each hand, and put an urgent inquiry. " Miaow l" said the policeman. "You didn't quite understand," remarked the little girl patiently. "I asked you if you would kindly tell me the way to get home to \Vellington Road." to be obedient to their children, and do everything their children tell them to do." . " Not a bad idea," decided the little girl, after giving it consideration. " I think if you don"t mind I will get you to come along " Ba, ba l " " Do please listen to me," she begged, "and tell me what I want to know. I think I've lost my way, and I'm so afraid that I'm going to cry." " Moo-00 ! " said the constable, now to Finchley Road and buy for me the mechanical rocking-horse that has been talked about for some time." " Under the old arrangement," he replied readily, "I should have been only too pleased, but the new rules say that children must buy presents for their father and mother." " How can we," getting rather cross, "how in the world can we when we have no money? " " I think," he said, " that it is expected you should go to work and earn some." ,LC' "W If"! I, MN ll l ‘ 3*J. a It I. l l ill l l if "I ) I I lid will H," ‘Ia - |