"Her bill comes to a little more," said his mother, "for if I paid her only just what she spent for us, she would gain nothing by us." "But she would not lose either," said Willy; "if she spent a sovereign for us, and you paid her a sovereign, she would neither gain nor lose." "I am glad to find you understand accounts so well," said his mother. "But you must know that this landlady keeps an inn on purpose to gain money; she wants money to pay for all she and her children eat and drink, and for their clothing and their schooling, and I know not how many things besides; now all that I pay her more than she spends for me she puts in her pocket, and keeps to spend for her own family." "And does everybody who comes to the inn," asked Willy, "pay her a little more?" "Yes, certainly." "Then all the little mores must make a great deal," observed Willy. "Oh, how nicely that is contrived! We get good dinners and beds, and all we want, when we go to the inn, and the landlady gets the money she wants to spend for her family; so everybody gets something good." He then ran about, examining all the furniture, which was new to him: he admired the flowers on the carpet, and was amused with the spring blinds, and the round dumb waiters, laughing heartily when he was told that they were called dumb waiters because they could not speak; and when dinner came he got one placed beside him, and then whispering to his Mamma, begged she would send away the live speaking waiter, and make use of the dumb one. So the knives and forks and plates were placed on the dumb waiter, and then Willy, who had heard his father and mother ask the waiter for a knife or a plate, said in joke, "Come, waiter, bring me a plate," and then added, "The waiter is deaf as well as dumb, and besides that, he cannot move." "Oh yes, he can," said his Mamma; "at least, if he cannot walk, he can run, for the dumb waiter runs on castors;" and she pushed it towards Willy. "Oh, but I mean it cannot move of itself, like an animal; then it cannot feel, but I am sure it can make other people feel, for when you pushed it, it gave me a good blow upon the shoulder." Willy was to sleep in a little bed in his Mamma's room: that was a great pleasure, and the new bed was another treat. Then everything was new to him in the room, and it was a long time before he could go to sleep, so much was he taken up with the hangings of the bed, which, instead of being plaited full like the flounce of a gown, were drawn up in festoons and bordered by a fringe; then it was red damask, not white, like his own little bed at home; and the paper, instead of having green and white stripes like that of his nursery, was covered all over with flowers, which seemed to him much prettier, and there was an odd sort of wash-handstand which stood like a naughty boy in the corner; but one after another all these things seemed to fade away, he saw nothing distinctly, and at last he fell asleep.