Hoodie

By Mrs. MOLESWORTH

ILLUSTRATED BY LEWIS BAUMER

W. & R. CHAMBERS. LIMITED.
LONDON AND EDINBURGH.
1897

Edinburgh:
Printed by W. & R. Chambers, Limited.

"Nobody loves poor Hoodie."

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. AT WAR WITH THE WORLD
CHAPTER II. HOODIE GOES IN SEARCH OF A GRANDMOTHER
CHAPTER III. LITTLE BABY AND ITS MOTHER
CHAPTER IV. MAUDIE'S GODMOTHER
CHAPTER V. STORIES TELLING
CHAPTER VI. "THE CHINTZ CURTAINS"
CHAPTER VII. TWO TRUES
CHAPTER VIII. HOODIE'S FOUNDLING
CHAPTER IX. THE GOLDEN CAGE
CHAPTER X. FLOWN
CHAPTER XI. HOODIE'S DISOBEDIENCE
CHAPTER XII. HOODIE AWAKES

Books by Mrs. Molesworth

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

"Nobody loves poor Hoodie"

"I had my basket on my arm, and the big doggie stood beside me"

"It's just like Martin's cottage"

"Who is zou, please?"

Poor Cross

"Up in the nursley," said Hoodie coolly

"Has zou had a nice sleep?"

"He took off the cap and bowed low"

Hec and Duke ... sticking daisies on to a thorn

"If peoples interrumpt, I wish they'd finish their interrumpting, and not stop in the middle"

"The darling," said Hoodie ecstatically

Hec refused to be comforted

"Please 'agive me and kiss me"

"Slowly and cautiously, whistling softly all the time"

"Oh dear," she exclaimed. "Are the flowers all gone?"

"Tell Martin they're for Miss Maudie with Miss Hoodie's love"

Finis

CHAPTER I.

AT WAR WITH THE WORLD.

A pretty, cheerful nursery—a nursery in which surely children could not but be happy—with pictures on the walls and toys in the glass-doored cupboard, and rocking-horse and doll-house, and everything a child's heart could wish for. Spring sunshine faint but clear, like the first pale primrose, peeping in at the window, a merry fire crackling away in the tidy hearth. And just in front of it, for it is early spring only, a group of children pleasant to see. A soft-haired, quiet-eyed little girl, a book open upon her knee, and at each side, nestling in beside her, a cherub-faced dot of a boy, listening to the story she was reading aloud.

Such a peaceful, pretty picture! Ah yes—what a pity to disturb it. But I must show you the whole of it. Into this pretty nursery flies another child—a tiny fairy of a girl, tiny even for her years which are but five—in she flies, down the long passage which leads to the children's quarters, in at the nursery door, which, in spite of her hurry, she carefully closes, and seeing that the other door is open closes it too, then, flying back to the centre of the room, deliberately sets to work to—children,