get down to the fire again

But all the little children had come up to the

landing outside to look at the phenomenon of Peepy lying on my bed,

and our attention was distracted by the constant apparition of noses and

fingers in situations of danger between the hinges of the doors. It was

impossible to shut the door of either room, for my lock, with no knob to

it, looked as if it wanted to be wound up; and though the handle of Ada’s

went round and round with the greatest smoothness, it was attended

with no effect whatever on the door. Therefore I proposed to the

children that they should come in and be very good at my table, and I

would tell them the story of Little Red Riding Hood while I dressed;

which they did, and were as quiet as mice, including Peepy, who awoke

opportunely before the appearance of the wolf.

When we went downstairs we found a mug with A Present from ‟

Tunbridge Wells” on it lighted up in the staircase window with a floating

wick, and a young woman, with a swelled face bound up in a flannel

bandage blowing the fire of the drawing-room (now connected by an

open door with Mrs. Jellyby’s room) and choking dreadfully. It smoked

to that degree, in short, that we all sat coughing and crying with the

windows open for half an hour, during which Mrs. Jellyby, with the same

sweetness of temper, directed letters about Africa. Her being so

employed was, I must say, a great relief to me, for Richard told us that he

had washed his hands in a pie-dish and that they had found the kettle

on his dressing-table, and he made Ada laugh so that they made me

laugh in the most ridiculous manner.

Soon after seven o’clock we went down to dinner, carefully, by Mrs.

Jellyby’s advice, for the stair-carpets, besides being very deficient in

stair-wires, were so torn as to be absolute traps. We had a fine cod-fish, a

piece of roast beef, a dish of cutlets, and a pudding; an excellent dinner,

if it had had any cooking to speak of, but it was almost raw. The young

woman with the flannel bandage waited, and dropped everything on the

table wherever it happened to go, and never moved it again until she putBut all the little children had come up to the

landing outside to look at the phenomenon of Peepy lying on my bed,

and our attention was distracted by the constant apparition of noses and

fingers in situations of danger between the hinges of the doors. It was

impossible to shut the door of either room, for my lock, with no knob to

it, looked as if it wanted to be wound up; and though the handle of Ada’s

went round and round with the greatest smoothness, it was attended

with no effect whatever on the door. Therefore I proposed to the

children that they should come in and be very good at my table, and I

would tell them the story of Little Red Riding Hood while I dressed;

which they did, and were as quiet as mice, including Peepy, who awoke

opportunely before the appearance of the wolf.

When we went downstairs we found a mug with A Present from ‟

Tunbridge Wells” on it lighted up in the staircase window with a floating

wick, and a young woman, with a swelled face bound up in a flannel

bandage blowing the fire of the drawing-room (now connected by an

open door with Mrs. Jellyby’s room) and choking dreadfully. It smoked

to that degree, in short, that we all sat coughing and crying with the

windows open for half an hour, during which Mrs. Jellyby, with the same

sweetness of temper, directed letters about Africa. Her being so

employed was, I must say, a great relief to me, for Richard told us that he

had washed his hands in a pie-dish and that they had found the kettle

on his dressing-table, and he made Ada laugh so that they made me

laugh in the most ridiculous manner.

Soon after seven o’clock we went down to dinner, carefully, by Mrs.

Jellyby’s advice, for the stair-carpets, besides being very deficient in

stair-wires, were so torn as to be absolute traps. We had a fine cod-fish, a

piece of roast beef, a dish of cutlets, and a pudding; an excellent dinner,

if it had had any cooking to speak of, but it was almost raw. The young

woman with the flannel bandage waited, and dropped everything on the

table wherever it happened to go, and never moved it again until she put