Mrs. Bunker was not a bit like the smart house-keepers at other houses. To be sure, on Sundays she came out in a black silk gown with a little flounce at the bottom, a scarlet crape shawl with a blue dragon on it--his wings over her back, and a claw over each shoulder, so that whoever sat behind her in church was terribly distracted by trying to see the rest of him--and a very big yellow Tuscan bonnet, trimmed with sailor's blue ribbon. But during the week and about the house she wore a green gown, with a brown holland apron and bib over it, quite straight all the way down, for she had no particular waist, and her hair, which was of a funny kind of flaxen grey, she bundled up and tied round, without any cap or anything else on her head. One of the little boys had once called her Mother Bunch, because of her stories; and the name fitted her so well that the whole family, and even Uncle Joseph, took it up. Lucy was very fond of her; but when about an hour after the doctor's visit she was waked by a rustling and a lumbering on the stairs, and presently the door opened, and the second best big bonnet--the go-to-market bonnet with the turned ribbons--came into the room with Mother Bunch's face under it, and the good-natured voice told her she was to be carried to Uncle Joseph's and have oranges and tamarinds, she did begin to feel like the spotted cowry-shell to think about being set on the chimney-piece, to cry, and say she wanted Mamma. The Nurse and Mother Bunch began to comfort her, and explain that the doctor thought she had the scarlatina; not at all badly; but that if any of the others caught it, nobody could guess how bad they would be; especially Mamma, who had just been ill; and so she was to be rolled up in her blankets, and put into a carriage, and taken to her uncle's; and there she would stay till she was not only well, but could safely come home without carrying infection about with her. Lucy was a good little girl, and knew that she must bear it; so, though she could not help crying a little when she found she must not kiss any one, nay not even see them, and that nobody might go with her but Lonicera, her own china doll, she made up her mind bravely; and she was a good deal cheered when Clare, the biggest and best of all the dolls, was sent into her, with all her clothes, by Maude, her eldest sister, to be her companion,--it was such an honor and so very kind of Maude that it quite warmed the sad little heart.