E-text prepared by Chris Curnow, Lindy Walsh, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 26125-h.htm or 26125-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/1/2/26125/26125-h/26125-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/1/2/26125/26125-h.zip) HOODIE by MRS. MOLESWORTH Illustrated by Lewis Baumer W. & R. Chambers. Limited. London and Edinburgh. 1897 Edinburgh: Printed by W. & R. Chambers, Limited. [Illustration: "Nobody loves poor Hoodie."] CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. AT WAR WITH THE WORLD CHAPTER II. HOODIE GOES IN SEARCH OF A GRANDMOTHER CHAPTER III. LITTLE BABY AND ITS MOTHER CHAPTER IV. MAUDIE'S GODMOTHER CHAPTER V. STORIES TELLING CHAPTER VI. "THE CHINTZ CURTAINS" CHAPTER VII. TWO TRUES CHAPTER VIII. HOODIE'S FOUNDLING CHAPTER IX. THE GOLDEN CAGE CHAPTER X. FLOWN CHAPTER XI. HOODIE'S DISOBEDIENCE CHAPTER XII. HOODIE AWAKES LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. "Nobody loves poor Hoodie" "I had my basket on my arm, and the big doggie stood beside me" "It's just like Martin's cottage" "Who is zou, please?" Poor Cross "Up in the nursley," said Hoodie coolly "Has zou had a nice sleep?" "He took off the cap and bowed low" Hec and Duke ... sticking daisies on to a thorn "If peoples interrumpt, I wish they'd finish their interrumpting, and not stop in the middle" "The darling," said Hoodie ecstatically Hec refused to be comforted "Please 'agive me and kiss me" "Slowly and cautiously, whistling softly all the time" "Oh dear," she exclaimed. "Are the flowers all gone?" "Tell Martin they're for Miss Maudie with Miss Hoodie's love" Finis [Illustration: HOODIE] CHAPTER I. AT WAR WITH THE WORLD. "Who would think so small a thing Could make so great a pother?" A pretty, cheerful nursery--a nursery in which surely children could not but be happy--with pictures on the walls and toys in the glass-doored cupboard, and rocking-horse and doll-house, and everything a child's heart could wish for. Spring sunshine faint but clear, like the first pale primrose, peeping in at the window, a merry fire crackling away in the tidy hearth. And just in front of it, for it is early spring only, a group of children pleasant to see. A soft-haired, quiet-eyed little girl, a book open upon her knee, and at each side, nestling in beside her, a cherub-faced dot of a boy, listening to the story she was reading aloud.