and stuck it in the window to show everybody: for when Baby had done a thing, she liked everybody to know about it. Then she tore out to Phyllis and the Others who were coming up the drive, crying, "O don't I manage well!" for Baby really thought there was nobody in the whole world managed like she did. Only when she got outside she saw the Commander-in-Chief sitting on the lawn in the moon, reading up out of the great book. So she steadied herself and walked across to him. But the Commander-in-Chief stayed deep in his book, and waved away with his hand, saying in a squeaky voice, "'Scuse me, won't you!--Truth is I have to examine pore Captain Tiny and the others in E about to-morrow. Only hope they'll pass--that's all; because if they don't they'll have to leave the country." But Baby stood before him in the moon and said, very grave and sad, "You haven't been very loving, have you, Jacky?" Then the Commander-in-Chief read on all the harder. But Baby said, very low and quiet, "Have you, Jacky?" Then the Commander-in-Chief shut the book snap, and got up quick, and walked away with his shoulders rather high. [Illustration: Book VII headpiece] BOOK VII.--GOLIATH PAYS THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 35 So they moved into the white house. And it was in a garden with a grass-walk. And there was a lawn under an elm with rooks, and a drive. And at the bottom of the drive was a cottage among currant-bushes. And there a little old woman lived behind a lattice and crooned all day, "Little Old Lollypop Lived in a Stuffy Shop, Watching the Crickets Hop-pop, Hop-pop." So Baby loved it all better even than Cosy Cottage. And when, she and Phyllis had arranged the things round the wall, she sat down and wrote to the Commander-in-Chief, _DEAR JACKY,--Will you come and have tea with me? Your loving,--BABY,_ to show she forgave him quite and quite. But St Jack wrote back, very short and simple, _No. I wun't,_ to show he wouldn't be forgiven: for he was a very straight little fellow when it suited him. And St Jack wouldn't go, for he knew very well that if he did he would repent, because of Baby; and he preferred bad. And besides he was kept on duty all day at the Castle just now, handing tea-cakes to the visitors, which he was rather good at; for St Jack's manners, when he liked, were very remarkable. So That Country had peace and quiet for some time: for the visitors settled to stay at the Castle perhaps for ever, because of the tea-cakes. 36 Then St Valentine's Day came with the crocuses. And on that day all the birds are married in That Country. And after that the blackbirds join with the thrushes, and sing in the bare trees very rich and jolly: for the blackbirds mayn't sing till they're married, because that is one of the rules; but when they do begin they sing more songs and sing them better than the thrushes, which shout and whistle more.