By this time the other children were arriving downstairs, and so we started the acting as soon as we were ready. Well, you wouldn’t have thought it after all this fuss, but the plays went beautifully; every one said so. Certainly once Teddy opened his eyes as dead Dundee, and when he saw that Mother was really sitting there he began to laugh, but he’s got such a nice laugh one couldn’t mind much. Mother shook her head, though she couldn’t help smiling, so Ted shut up his eyes tight and screwed up his face all the rest of the time as though he were going to sneeze. Humphrey, too, in the wedding feast stuffed his mouth so full that he couldn’t speak, but Mother began to clap, so the people didn’t notice that. At the end everybody clapped lots and we all came forward and bowed--at least Teddy curtseyed by mistake--and then Mother called out, “Author. Author and Stage-manager!” and the others pushed me on alone. I did feel proud. All the same, I don’t think I’ll ever do any more plays--at any rate not unless Mother is at home all the time, and of that I’m quite certain. VII MOTHER It really did seem silly of Humphrey not to have measles with the rest of us and then to go and catch them all to himself directly Mother came home from Algiers. It’s just the sort of inconvenient thing that Humph would do--not that he can help it, of course. I’m sure it wasn’t any fun for him having it alone. I must say our measly month last year was most lovely; Violet and Ted liked it just as much as me. Besides having Mother all the time, there was beef-tea nearly whenever you wanted it and the most exciting counting every morning to see who had got the most spots. The spottiest one was king or queen for the day, of course, and the others had to say “your Majesty” and bow whenever they spoke. It did seem grand. This must have been the most aggravating thing for Humphrey to think of afterwards, because when he did go and catch it, he was so very bad that if he’d only had it at the same time as us he’d have easily been king every day. He was so ill that Mother sent the little ones away into lodgings with Jane, for they make too much noise; and as Mrs. Charlton happened to ask me to stay with her just then, Mother thought I might as well go away too. I expect I ought to say honestly that Mother had spoken to _me_ about making a noise as well as to the little ones. It seemed as if I couldn’t remember about not stumping upstairs. Once I did think of it, and I took off my stockings as well as my shoes, so as to be very quiet, and went most ’straordinarily slowly, but then the horrid shoes went and spoilt it all; they dropped down right from the very top.