"
Barbara arose with shy delight to say her piece.
"Lickle bwown seed, lickle bwown bwother,
And what, pway, are you goin' to be?
I'll be a poppy as white as my mother,
Oh, DO be a poppy like me!
What, you'll be a sunflower? Oh, how I shall miss you
When you are golden and high!
But I'll send all the bees up to tiss you.
Lickle bwown bwother, good-bye!"
She sat down blushing, amid rapturous applause.
Next Jimmy was dragged from his corner. He stood up as one prepared
for the worst, shut his eyes, and--
"Licklaxokindness lickledeedsolove--
make--thisearfanedenliketheeav'nabovethasalliknow."
he gasped all in one breath, and sat down panting.
This was greeted with slightly milder applause.
"Now, William!"
"I don't know any," he said.
"Oh, you _do_," said his mother. "Say the one you learnt at school
last term. Stand up, dear, and speak clearly."
Slowly William rose to his feet.
"_It was the schooner Hesperus that sailed the wintry sea_,"
he began.
Here he stopped, coughed, cleared his throat, and began again.
"_It was the schooner Hesperus that sailed the wintry sea._"
"Oh, get _on_!" muttered his brother, irritably.
[Illustration: "IT WAS THE HESPER SCHOONERUS THAT SAILED THE WINTRY
SEA AN' I'M NOT GOIN' ON IF ETHEL'S GOIN' TO KEEP GIGGLIN'."]
"I can't get on if you keep talkin' to me," said William, sternly.
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