Page:Dickens - A Child s History of England, 1900.djvu/596

166 colonel. For himself he would have spurned the worthless boon! but his bride wished it and he consented.

Only one thing further happened before the good ship "Family "was dismissed with rich presents to all on board. It is painful to record (but such is human nature in some cousins) that Captain Boldheart's unmannerly Cousin Tom was actually tied up to receive three dozen with a rope's end "for cheekiness and making game," when Captain Boldheart's lady begged for him and he was spared. " The Beauty " then refitted and the captain and his bride departed for the Indian Ocean to enjoy themselves forevermore.

is a country, which I will show you when I get into maps, where the children have everything their own way. It is a most delightful country to live in. The grown-up people are obliged to obey the children, and are never allowed to sit up to supper except on their birthdays. The children order them to make jam, and jelly, and marmalade, and tarts, and pies, and puddings, and all manner of pastry. If they say they won't they are put in the corner till they do. They are sometimes allowed to have some; but when they have some, they generally have powders given them afterward.

One of the inhabitants of this country, a truly sweet young creature of the name of Mrs. Orange, had the misfortune to be sadly plagued by her numerous family. Her parents required a great deal of looking after, and they had connections and companions who were scarcely ever out of mischief. So Mrs. Orange said to herself, "I really cannot be troubled with those torments any longer; I must put them all to school."

Mrs. Orange took off her pinafore, and dressed herself very nicely, and took up her baby, and went out to call upon another lady of the name of Mrs. Lemon, who kept a preparatory establishment. Mrs. Orange stood