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[Illustration: Cover]




LITTLE MISS PEGGY:

ONLY A NURSERY STORY


          "Would I could paint the serious brow,
             The eyes that look the world in face,
           Half-questioning, doubting, wondering how
             This happens thus, or that finds place."
                                    _My Opposite Neighbour._

[Illustration: "'What is the matter, little girls?' said the lady." P.
181]





LITTLE MISS PEGGY:

ONLY A NURSERY SToRY

BY

MRS. MoLESWoRTH

WITH PICTURES

BY

WALTER CRANE


          LoNDoN:
          MACMILLAN & Co.
          AND NEW YORK
          1887


          To the Memory of

          E. L.

          THE DEAR YOUNG FRIEND

          WHO SUGGESTED ITS NAME TO THIS LITTLE STORY,

          AND FROM WHOSE LATE HOME,

          SO INTIMATELY ASSOCIATED WITH HER,

          THIS DEDICATION IS MADE.

          BINDON, _August_ 1887.




CONTENTS


          CHAPTER I                                  PAGE
          A BREAKFAST PARTY                            1

          CHAPTER II
          THE WHITE SPOT ON THE HILL                  18

          CHAPTER III
          "THE CHILDREN AT THE BACK"                  33

          CHAPTER IV
          "REAL" FANCIES                              48

          CHAPTER V
          THE LITTLE RED SHOES                        65

          CHAPTER VI
          FELLOW-FEELINGS AND SLIPPERS                81

          CHAPTER VII
          A BUN TO THE GOOD                           98

          CHAPTER VIII
          UNDER THE BIG UMBRELLA                     114

          CHAPTER IX
          THE OPPOSITE HOUSE                         131

          CHAPTER X
          "SOAP-BUBBLING"                            145

          CHAPTER XI
          UP FERNLEY ROAD                            162

          CHAPTER XII
          THE SHOES-LADY AGAIN                       178




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


  "WHAT IS THE MATTER, LITTLE GIRLS?" SAID THE LADY.   _Frontispiece_


                                                            PAGE

  HE HAD TO DRUM WITH A SPOON, FIRST IN ONE FAT HAND AND
      THEN IN THE OTHER                                        2

  THEY WERE SETTLED ON THE HEARTH-RUG--BABY ON PEGGY'S LAP    17

  "SEE HAL," SHE SAID, "OVER THERE, FAR, FAR AWAY, NEELY IN
      THE SKY, DOES YOU SEE THAT BLUEY HILL?"                 27

  SHE WAS RATHER A TERRIBLE-LOOKING OLD WOMAN; SHE ALWAYS
      WORE A SHORT BED-GOWN... AND SHE WAS GENERALLY TO
      BE SEEN WITH A PIPE IN HER MOUTH                        35

  "TELL ME WHAT THE LITTLE WHITE HOUSE IS REELY LIKE"         52

  PEGGY STOOD STILL, HER EYES FIXED ON THE BABY SHOES         68

  "HERE'S THE OTHER SHOE, I'VE JUST FOUNDED IT"               92

  SUDDENLY A WINDOW ABOVE OPENED, AND MOTHER WHELAN'S
      BEFRILLED FACE WAS THRUST OUT                          109

  AN UMBRELLA ROLLING ITSELF ABOUT ON THE PAVEMENT           127

  "TO BE SURE," SHE SAID, IN HER MOST GRACIOUS TONE.
      "'TIS THE BEAUTIFUL PIPES I HAVE"                      138

  THE BOYS, BOY-LIKE, THOUGHT LITTLE BUT OF WHO COULD
      BLOW THE BIGGEST BUBBLES                               149

  HUSHED LIGHT SMILEY TO SLEEP, HER ARM CLASPED ROUND
      PEGGY                                                  177




CHAPTER I

A BREAKFAST PARTY

          "Henry was every morning fed
           With a full mess of milk and bread."
                                          MARY LAMB.


"NO," said Peggy to herself, with a little sigh, "the naughty clouds has
covered it up to-day. I can't see it."

"Miss Peggy," came nurse's voice from the other side of the room, "your
breakfast's waiting. Come to the table, my dear, and stand quiet while
Master Thor says the grace."

[Illustration: "--Baby, who required a great deal of room to himself at
table, baby though he was. He had so many things to do during a meal,
you see, which grown-up children think quite unnecessary. He had to drum
with a spoon, first in one fat hand and then in the other; he had to dip
his crust first in nurse's cup of tea and next in Hal's jug of milk to
see which tasted best, and there would have been no fun in doing either
if he hadn't had to stretch a long way across; and besides all this he
felt really obliged now and then to put his feet upon the table for a
change, one at a time, of course."]

Nurse spoke kindly, but she meant what she said. Peggy turned slowly
from the window and took her place among her brothers. She, and Thorold
and Terence, the two oldest boys, sat opposite nurse, and beside nurse
was Baby, who required a great deal of room to himself at table, baby
though he was. He had so many things to do during a meal, you see,
which grown-up children think quite unnecessary. He had to drum with a
spoon, first in one fat hand and then in the other; he had to dip his
crust first in nurse's cup of tea and next in Hal's jug of milk to see
which tasted best, and there would have been no fun in doing either if
he hadn't had to stretch a long way across; and besides all this he felt
really obliged now and then to put his feet upon the table for a change,
one at a time, of course. For even he, clever as he was, could not have
got both together out of the bars of his chair without toppling over.
Nurse had for some time past been speaking about beginning "to break
Master Baby in," but so far it had not got beyond speaking, and she
contented herself with seating him beside her and giving him a good
quarter of the table to himself, the only objection to which was that it
gave things in general a rather lopsided appearance.

At the two ends sat Baldwin and Hal. Hal's real name, of course, was
Henry, though he was never called by it. Baldwin, on the contrary, had
no short name, partly perhaps because mamma thought "Baldie" sounded so
ugly, and partly because there was something about Baldwin himself
which made one not inclined to shorten his name. It suited him so well,
for he was broad and comfortable and slow. He was never in a hurry, and
he gave you the feeling that you needn't be in a hurry either. There was
plenty of time for everything, for saying the whole of his name as well
as for everything else.

That made a lot of brothers, didn't it? Five, counting baby, and to
match them, or rather not to match them--for five and one are not a
match at all--only one little girl! She wondered about it a good deal,
when she had nothing else more interesting to wonder about. It seemed so
very badly managed that