A STRANGE situation existed in the nursery. Alice sitting like Patience on the Monument, the savage and suspicious Sara putting doll after doll to bed, and Laurie making protest by opening and shutting bureau drawers and putting away clothes with nerve-racking and unnecessary emphasis.
"I am of no use in this nursery," Alice thought. This emphatic putting-to-bed might be hastened by her going, but she was not long out of the room before sounds of conflict filled the air. Protests and screams from Sara mingled with Laurie's shrill expostulations. Alice hastened to the scene of strife.
"When it comes to putting furniture to bed!" Laurie cried to Alice, "when it comes to undoing my own pocket handkerchiefs to make sheets for dolls' furniture, and the putting-to-bed of automobiles that wind up, and putting-to-bed even toy tea sets and cups and saucers, and maybe it'll be blocks next thing, something has got to stop, Mis' Marcey!"
"I'm not going to put blocks to bed! Just automobiles and furniture!" An added fury shown in Sara's eye. She was possessed! Reasonable and sane, or not, she must have bedding for dolls' furniture and for automobiles.
"You're not going to give in to her, are you, Mis' Marcey?" Laurie demanded, witheringly.
There are a few young mothers who do not quail before the cool common sense of their maids.
