Page:The railway children (IA railwaychildren00nesb 1).pdf/40

 "Hooray!" said Mother; "here are some candles—the very first thing! You girls go and light them. You'll find some saucers and things. Just drop a little candle-grease in the saucer and stick the candle upright in it."

"How many shall we light?"

"As many as ever you like," said Mother, gaily. "The great thing is to be cheerful. Nobody can be cheerful in the dark except owls and dormice."

So the girls lighted candles. The head of the first match flew off and stuck to Phyllis's finger; but, as Roberta said, it was only a little burn, and she might have had to be a Roman martyr and be burned whole if she had happened to live in the days when those things were fashiouablefashionable [sic].

Then when the dining room was lighted by fourteen candles, Roberta fetched coal and wood, and lighted a fire.

"It's very cold for May," she said, feeling what a grown-up thing it was to say.

The fire-light and the candle-light made the dining room look very different, for now you could see that the dark walls were of wood carved here and there into little wreaths and loops.

The girls hastily "tidied" the room, which