"Never mind your ifs now, I'm as hungry as a catamount, give me something to eat, and then I'll talk; some of that cold ham, and warm over some tea; goodness, how faint I am, that young one has tired me all out argufying--she's just like her mother--exactly." "Shall I set a plate for her too?" asked Daffy. "Of course not, till I get through; children always cram all before them, there wouldn't be a mortal thing left for me--let her wait till I have done. Rose--here! take off your bonnet, sit down and unpack those boxes, don't break the strings now, untie the knots carefully, the strings may do to use again, and don't litter up the shop floor, and don't----Lord-a-mercy, Daffy, if she ain't undone the wrong boxes, I knew she would." "T-h-o-s-e," she thundered in Rose's ear, pulling her along to the right pile, and bending her over till her nose touched the boxes; "now see if you can see them, and don't make another mistake _short_ of ten minutes," and Dolly threw off her bonnet and sat down to her tea. Rose stooped down as she was bid, and commenced her task, but the excitement she had undergone, so different from the monotonous life she had led, the heat of the day, and her insufficient breakfast before starting, brought on a sudden vertigo, and as she stooped to execute her task, she fell forward upon the floor. "Sick now, the very first day," exclaimed Dolly, turning to Daffy, "now ain't that enough to provoke any body? Her mother used to be just so, always fainting away at every thing; she's got to get cured of that trick; get up Rose!" and Dolly shook her roughly by the arm. "I really think she can't," said Daffy, looking at her white lips and relaxed limbs. Dolly seized a pitcher of water near, and dashed it with rather more force than was necessary in the child's face. "That's warm water," said Daffy. "How did I know that?" muttered Dolly, "bring some cold then;" and Dolly repeated the application, at a different temperature. Rose shivered slightly, but did not open her eyes. "She intends taking her own time to come to," said Dolly, "and I have something else to do, beside stand by to wait for it." "But it won't do for her to lie here," said Daffy. "Suppose Mrs. John Meigs should come in after that new bonnet of hern? It don't look well." Dolly appreciated that argument, and Daffy had permission to carry her out of sight, into a back sitting-room, on the same floor. "She _does it_ remarkable, if she _is_ making believe," soliloquized Daffy, as she laid Rose on the bed; "and she _is_ pretty, too, I can say it now Dolly isn't round, pretty as a waxen doll, and not much heavier; she is not fit for hard work anyhow, with those bit-fingers. I shouldn't wonder if Dolly is too hard on the child, but I daren't say so. What can that little scar be on her left temple?" and Daffy lifted the curls to look at that indelible proof of Mrs. Markham's affection on Rose's initiation day.