She was opening her mouth to do so, when her cousin stopped for a moment. "Now, Hoodie," she said, "_listen_. It was kind of you to want to get me a quite fresh egg for my breakfast, but it isn't kind of you at all to make that disagreeable noise, and to kick and fight so because I want to take you to my room." "I don't care," said Hoodie, "I don't like zou, and I will cry if I like. I don't like any people." "I am very sorry to find you are so silly," said Cousin Magdalen. "If you were older and understood better you would not talk like that." "I would if I liked," persisted Hoodie. "Big peoples can do whatever zey likes, and if I was big I could too." "Big people _can't_ do whatever they like," said Miss King, "and nice big people never like to do things that other people don't like too." "Don't zey?" said Hoodie, meditatively. By this time they were safely shut into Miss King's room and Hoodie was plumped down into the middle of her cousin's bed--"Don't zey? Zen I don't want to be a nice big people. I want to be the kind that does whatever zey likes zerselves." Miss King gave a slight sigh--half of amusement, half of despair. She was beginning to understand that Hoodie's reformation was indeed no easy matter. "Very well, then. You had better go on screaming if you like it so much," she said, sitting down on the side of the bed and wondering to herself what would become of the world, if all the children in it were as tiresome to manage as Hoodie. In at the window the daylight was creeping timidly; all kinds of pretty colours were to be seen in the sky, and the birds were beginning their cheerful chatter. Still it was very early, and poor cousin Magdalen was sleepy. Was there _anything_ that could make Hoodie go to sleep for an hour or two? "The little birds in the nests are kind to each other. They don't wake each other up in the night and scream so that there is no peace. I wonder why children can't be good too," she said. "I'm _not_ sc'eaming," said Hoodie indignantly. "I've stoppened." "I'm glad to hear it. But if I get into bed and lie down and try to go to sleep, perhaps you'll begin again, as you don't care for what other people like." Hoodie was silent for a minute. "Does you want to go to sleep?" "Yes," said Magdalen. "I'm very tired." "Zen I won't sc'eam." Her cousin felt inclined to clap her hands, but wisely forbore. "Thank you," she said quietly, as she lay down. Hoodie wriggled. "No, zou isn't to say zank zou," she said. "I don't like zou. I don't like any people, 'cos they stopped my getting zat nice fresh egg. I won't get zou eggs no more. I don't like zou." "Very well," said her cousin. Some minutes' quiet followed. Then Hoodie's voice again. "When will zou tell us that story?" she inquired coolly. "What story?" "Zat story about oldwashion fairies, or some'sing like zat." "Oh, I said I'd try to think of a story for you," said Miss King, sleepily. "Well, I won't forget."