Page:Morley--Travels in Philadelphia.djvu/234

 very grave.) "I was about to speak to her when Bertha Fitz ran across the street and said to her: 'You mustn't hold the baby like that. You'll hurt him.' And Bertha showed her the right way to hold him. Now can any of you show me the way Bertha did it?"

Thirty small arms waved frantically in the air. There was a furious eagerness to show how the luckless Elsie should have held her baby brother.

"Well, Mary," said the teacher, "you show us how the baby should be picked up."

Blushing with pride, Mary advanced to the table and with infinite care inserted one arm under the large doll. But in her excitement she made a false start. She used the right arm where the position of the artificial infant demanded the left. This meant that her other arm had to pass diagonally across the baby in an awkward way. Immediately several of the juvenile audience showed signs of professional disgust. Hands vibrated in air. Another member of the Little Mothers' League was called upon, and poor Mary took her seat in discomfiture.

They passed to another topic. One of the members demonstrated the correct way of making the baby's bed. With proud correctness she disposed the mattress, the rubber sheeting, the sheets and blankets, showing how each should be tucked in, how the upper sheet should be turned down over the top of the blanket, so that the wool would not