`` Ca n't I help you , uncle ? '' asked Rose , quite burning to be useful . `` No , thank you , I 'm going to borrow Phebe for a while , if Aunt Plenty can spare her . '' `` Anybody anything , Alec . You will want me , I know , so I 'll give orders about dinner and be all ready to lend a hand '' ; and the old lady bustled away full of interest and good-will . `` Uncle will find that I can do some things that Phebe ca n't , so now ! '' thought Rose , with a toss of the head as she flew to Aunt Peace and the long-desired box . Every little girl can easily imagine what an extra good time she had diving into a sea of treasures and fishing up one pretty thing after another , till the air was full of the mingled odours of musk and sandalwood , the room gay with bright colours , and Rose in a rapture of delight . She began to forgive Dr. Alec for the oatmeal diet when she saw a lovely ivory workbox ; became resigned to the state of her belt when she found a pile of rainbow-coloured sashes ; and when she came to some distractingly pretty bottles of attar of rose , she felt that they almost atoned for the great sin of thinking Phebe the finer girl of the two . Dr. Alec meanwhile had apparently taken Aunt Plenty at her word , and was turning the house upside down . A general revolution was evidently going on in the green-room , for the dark damask curtains were seen bundling away in Phebe 's arms ; the air-tight stove retiring to the cellar on Ben 's shoulder ; and the great bedstead going up garret in a fragmentary state , escorted by three bearers . Aunt Plenty was constantly on the trot among her store-rooms , camphor-chests , and linen-closets , looking as if the new order of things both amazed and amused her . Half the peculiar performances of Dr. Alec can not be revealed ; but as Rose glanced up from her box now and then she caught glimpses of him striding by , bearing a bamboo chair , a pair of ancient andirons , a queer Japanese screen , a rug or two , and finally a large bathing-pan upon his head . `` What a curious room it will be , '' she said , as she sat resting and refreshing herself with `` Lumps of Delight , '' all the way from Cairo . `` I fancy you will like it , deary , '' answered Aunt Peace , looking up with a smile from some pretty trifle she was making with blue silk and white muslin . Rose did not see the smile , for just at that moment her uncle paused at the door , and she sprang up to dance before him , saying , with a face full of childish happiness , `` Look at me ! look at me ! I 'm splendid I do n't know myself . I have n't put these things on right , I dare say , but I do like them so much ! '' `` You look as gay as a parrot in your fez and cabaja , and it does my heart good to see the little black shadow turned into a rainbow , '' said Uncle Alec , surveying the bright figure before him with great approbation .
He did not say it , but he thought she made a much prettier picture than XXXXX at the wash-tub , for she had stuck a purple fez on her blonde head , tied several brilliant scarfs about her waist , and put on a truly gorgeous scarlet jacket with a golden sun embroidered on the back , a silver moon on the front , and stars of all sizes on the sleeves .
Alec Japanese Peace Phebe Rose approbation attar bamboo cabaja workbox