Violet didn’t go calling any more, but the very next Christmas a most lovely mother-of-pearl card case came for her, with her initials on, which just shows that if you really try to be good it is nice in the end. When Mother saw it, she said she thought the funny lady must have sent it, the one who talked bad words, but Violet always believes it was a present from Mr. John. She has made Rhoderigo William Wallace a pair of red velvet knickerbockers out of a bit from Fräulein’s old bonnet, and they are most beautiful, except that he can’t sit down. Perhaps that is why Mr. John never did either. IV THE WHIPPING OF TEDDY We were all sitting so happily one evening when Mother told us. She had been reading aloud to us, as she always does on Sundays after tea, and it was the _Water-Babies_. It is a most lovely story, and makes you want to drown dreadfully, but we had just got to the end. “That’s all,” Mother said, and shut the book. Then she stopped a minute. “Chicks, Mother has got to go a long journey too, to the Other-end-of-Nowhere, like little Tom.” Well, we all thought Mother was joking, and we laughed. Teddy was sitting on her lap, because he is the littlest, and we all snuggle down on the rug around. The Dustman had come to him rather, because it was past his bedtime, only he stays up later on Sundays. “Teddy going to the Other-end-of-Nowhere,” he said, in a very sleepy way. We all laughed again at that. “Yes, and Mother is Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby,” Humphrey said. Mother didn’t answer. “Are we really going away, Mother?” I asked. I looked up then, and I was most astonished. Mother’s eyes were full of tears. “Little Tom had to go alone,” she said, “and poor Mother must go alone too, without her Water-babies.” All at once I got frightened. I clutched Mother’s hand hard and sat still. I didn’t seem able to speak at all. “But how long for, Mother?” Humph asked. “Fwee days?” Because Mother does sometimes go away from Friday to Monday with Father, although we all grumble very much. We couldn’t see Mother’s face at all, for she was kissing Teddy’s head. He was quite asleep by now. “No, for a much longer time than that,” she said; “for more than three months--for the whole winter.” “Oh no, no, no!” Humph and Violet called out; but I still couldn’t speak. I seemed to have expected it somehow. “But why, Mother, why?” Humphrey said. “We haven’t been very naughty.” Then Mother told us. She said that when she was so ill last month (the time that Violet went calling all alone) our doctor had said that he thought she mustn’t be in England for the cold weather. And yesterday, when she went up to London with Father, she had been to see a very great doctor, and he had said just the same, and that she must start off almost directly. “But take us, take us too, Mother,” Humph begged. Still I couldn’t say anything. “I can’t, my little son, I can’t. We aren’t rich enough. It is difficult for Father even to find the money for Mother to go alone.”