I had been left as Little Mother to the others, and I had been lucky
enough to think of a game that pleased them. If I turned selfish now,
it would spoil everything.
So I said that Arthur's idea was excellent; that I had no wish to be
Queen, that I thought I might, perhaps, devise another character for
myself by and by; and that if the others would leave me alone, I would
think about it whilst I was making Adela's bonnet.
The others were quite satisfied. Father says people always are
satisfied with things in general, when they've got what they want for
themselves, and I think that is true.
I got the tissue-paper and the gum; resisted Adela's extreme desire to
be with me and talk about the bonnet, and shut myself up in the
library.
I got out the Book of Paradise too, and propped it up in an arm-chair,
and sat on a footstool in front of it, so that I could read in between
whiles of making the bonnet. There is an index, so that you can look
out the flowers you want to read about. It was no use our looking out
flowers, except common ones, such as Harry would be allowed to get
bits of out of the big garden to plant in our little gardens, when he
became our Honest Root-gatherer.
I looked at the Cowslips again. I am very fond of them, and so, they
say, are nightingales; which is, perhaps, why that nightingale we know
lives in Mary's Meadow, for it is full of cowslips.
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