`` Ha , ha ! '' laughed Dot . She had the blithest little laugh you ever heard . `` What a dear old darling of a dunce you are , John , to be sure ! '' Not at all disputing this position , John went out to see that the boy with the lantern , which had been dancing to and fro before the door and window , like a Will of the Wisp , took due care of the horse ; who was fatter than you would quite believe , if I gave you his measure , and so old that his birthday was lost in the mists of antiquity . Boxer , feeling that his attentions were due to the family in general , and must be impartially distributed , dashed in and out with bewildering inconstancy ; now describing a circle of short barks round the horse , where he was being rubbed down at the stable door ; now feigning to make savage rushes at his mistress , and facetiously bringing himself to sudden stops ; now eliciting a shriek from Tilly Slowboy , in the low nursing-chair near the fire , by the unexpected application of his moist nose to her countenance ; now exhibiting an obtrusive interest in the baby ; now going round and round upon the hearth , and lying down as if he had established himself for the night ; now getting up again , and taking that nothing of a fag-end of a tail of his out into the weather , as if he had just remembered an appointment , and was off at a round trot , to keep it . `` There ! There 's the teapot , ready on the hob ! '' said Dot ; as briskly busy as a child at play at keeping house . `` And there 's the cold knuckle of ham ; and there 's the butter ; and there 's the crusty loaf , and all ! Here 's a clothes basket for the small parcels , John , if you 've got any there . Where are you , John ? Do n't let the dear child fall under the grate , Tilly , whatever you do ! '' It may be noted of Miss Slowboy , in spite of her rejecting the caution with some vivacity , that she had a rare and surprising talent for getting this baby into difficulties : and had several times imperilled its short life in a quiet way peculiarly her own . She was of a spare and straight shape , this young lady , insomuch that her garments appeared to be in constant danger of sliding off those sharp pegs , her shoulders , on which they were loosely hung . Her costume was remarkable for the partial development , on all possible occasions , of some flannel vestment of a singular structure ; also for affording glimpses , in the region of the back , of a corset , or a pair of stays , in colour a dead green . Being always in a state of gaping admiration at everything , and absorbed , besides , in the perpetual contemplation of her mistress 's perfections and the baby 's , Miss Slowboy , in her little errors of judgment , may be said to have done equal honour to her head and to her heart ; and though these did less honour to the baby 's head , which they were the occasional means of bringing into contact with deal doors , dressers , stair-rails , bed-posts , and other foreign substances , still they were the honest results of Tilly Slowboy 's constant astonishment at finding herself so kindly treated , and installed in such a comfortable home . For the maternal and paternal Slowboy were alike unknown to Fame , and Tilly had been bred by public charity , a foundling ; which word , though only differing from fondling by one vowel 's length , is very different in meaning , and expresses quite another thing . To have seen little Mrs. Peerybingle come back with her husband , tugging at the clothes basket , and making the most strenuous exertions to do nothing at all -LRB- for he carried it -RRB- , would have amused you almost as much as it amused him . It may have entertained the Cricket , too , for anything I know ; but , certainly , it now began to chirp again vehemently .
-LSB- Illustration : Tilly XXXXX .
John Peerybingle Slowboy barks bed-posts dunce fag-end fro stair-rails teapot