On rainy days, Lucy sometimes found it pretty difficult to know what to do for amusement,—especially when Royal was in his little room at his studies. When Royal had finished his studies, he used to let her go out with him into the shed, or into the barn, and see what he was doing. She could generally tell whether he had gone out or not, by looking into the back entry upon his nail, to see if his cap was there. If his cap was there, she supposed that he had not gone out.

One afternoon, when it was raining pretty fast, she went twice to look at Royal’s nail, and both times found the cap still upon it. Lucy thought it must be after the time, and she wondered why he did not come down. She concluded to take his cap, and put it on, and make believe that she was a traveller.

She put the cap upon her head, and then got a pair of her father’s gloves, and put on. She also found an umbrella in the corner, and took that in her hand. When she found herself rigged, she thought she would go and call at Miss Anne’s door. She accordingly walked along, using her umbrella for a cane, holding it with both hands.

When she got to Miss Anne’s door, she knocked, as well as she could, with the crook upon the handle of the umbrella. Miss Anne had heard the thumping noise of the umbrella, as Lucy came along, and knew who it was; so she said, “Come in.”

Lucy opened the door and went in; the cap settled down over her eyes, so that she had to hold her head back very far to see, and the long fingers of her father’s gloves were sticking out in all directions.

“How do you, sir?” said she to Miss Anne, nodding a little, as well as she could,—“how do you, sir?”

“Pretty well, I thank you, sir; walk in, sir; I am happy to see you,” said Miss Anne.

“It is a pretty late evening, sir, I thank you, sir,” said Lucy.

“Yes, sir, I think it is,” said Miss Anne. “Is there any news to-night, sir?”

“No, sir,—not but a few, sir,” said Lucy.

Lucy looked pretty sober while this dialogue lasted; but Miss Anne could not refrain from laughing aloud at Lucy’s appearance and expressions, and Lucy turned round, and appeared to be going away.

“Can’t you stop longer, sir?” said Miss Anne.

“No, sir,” said Lucy. “I only wanted to ask you which is the way to London.”

Just at this moment, Lucy heard Royal’s voice in the back entry, asking Joanna if she knew what had become of his cap; and immediately she started to run back and give it to him. Finding, however, that she could not get along fast enough with the umbrella, she dropped it upon the floor, and ran along without it, calling out,

“Royal! Royal! here; come here, and look at me.”

“Now I should like to know, Miss Lucy,” said Royal, as soon as she came in sight, “who authorized you to take off my cap?”

“I’m a traveller,” said Lucy.

“A traveller!” repeated Royal; “you look like a traveller.”

He pulled his cap off from Lucy’s head, and put it upon his own; and then held up a paper which he had in his hands, to her view.

There was a frightful-looking figure of a man upon it, pretty large, with eyes, nose, and mouth, painted brown, and a bundle of sticks upon his back. “What is that?” said Lucy.

“It is an Indian,” said Royal. “I painted him myself.”

“O, what an Indian!” said Lucy. “I wish you would give him to me.”

“O no,” said Royal; “it is for my target.”

“Target?” said Lucy. “What is a target?”

“A target? Why, a target is a mark to shoot at, with my bow and arrow. They almost always have Indians for targets.”

Lucy told him that she did not believe his target would stand up long enough to be shot at; but Royal said, in reply, that he was going to paste him upon a shingle, and then he could prop the shingle up so that he could shoot at it. And he asked Lucy if she would go and borrow Miss Anne’s gum arabic bottle, while he went and got the shingle.

The shingle which Royal meant was a thin, flat piece of wood, such as is used to put upon the roofs of houses.

The gum arabic bottle was a small, square bottle, containing some dissolved gum arabic, and a brush,—which was always ready for pasting.

Before Lucy got the paste, Royal came back with his shingle, and he came into Miss Anne’s room, to see what had become of Lucy; and Miss Anne then said he might paste it there if he pleased. So she spread a great newspaper upon the table, and put the little bottle and the Indian upon it; and Royal and Lucy brought two chairs, and sat down to the work. They found that the table was rather too high for them; and so they took the things off again, and spread the paper upon the carpet, and sat down around it. Lucy could see now a great deal better than before.

“Miss Anne,” said Lucy, “I very much wish that you would give me your gum arabic bottle, and then I could make little books, and paste pictures in them, whenever I pleased.”

“Yes,” said Miss Anne, “and that would make me ever so much trouble.”

“No, Miss Anne, I don’t think it would make you much trouble.”

“Why, when I wanted a little gum arabic, to paste something, how would I get any?”

“O, then I would lend you mine,” said Lucy.

“Yes, if you could find it.”

“O, Miss Anne, I could find it very easily; I am going to keep it in my treasury.”

“Perhaps you might put it in once or twice, but after that you would leave it about anywhere. One day I should find it upon a chair, and the next day upon a table, and the next on the floor;—that is the way you leave your things about the house.”

“I used to, when I was a little girl,” said Lucy, “but I don’t now.”

“How long is it since you were a little girl?” asked Miss Anne.

“O, it was before you came here. I am older now than I was when you came here; I have had a birthday since then.”

“Don’t you grow old any, except when you have a birthday?” asked Miss Anne.

Lucy did not answer this question at first, as she did not know exactly how it was; and while she was thinking of it, Miss Anne said,

“It can’t be very long, Lucy, since you learned to put things in their places, for it is not more than ten minutes since I heard you throw down an umbrella upon the entry floor, and leave it there.”

“The umbrella?—O, that was because I heard Royal calling for his cap; and so I could not wait, you know; I had to leave it there.”

“But you have passed by it once since, and I presume you did not think of such a thing as taking it up.”

Lucy had no reply to make to this statement, and she remained silent. “I have got a great many little things,” continued Miss Anne, “which I don’t want myself, and which I should be very glad to give away to some little girl, for playthings, if I only knew of some one who would take care of them. I don’t want to have them scattered about the house, and lost, and destroyed.”

“O, I will take care of them, Miss Anne,” said Lucy, very eagerly, “if you will only give them to me. I certainly will. I will put them in my treasury, and keep them very safe.”

“If I were a little girl, no bigger than you,” said Miss Anne, “I should have a great cabinet of playthings and curiosities, twice as big as your treasury.”

“How should you get them?” asked Lucy.

“O, I know of a way;—but it is a secret.”

“Tell me, do, Miss Anne,” said Lucy.—“You would buy them, I suppose, with your money.”

“No,” said Miss Anne, “that is not the way I meant.”

“What way did you mean, then?” said Lucy. “I wish you would tell me.”

“Why, I should take such excellent care of everything I had, that my mother would give me a great many of her little curiosities, and other things, to keep.”

“Would she, do you think?”

“Yes,” said Miss Anne, “I do not doubt it. Every lady has a great many beautiful things, put away, which she does not want to use herself, but she only wants to have them kept safely. Now, I should take such good care of all such things, that my mother would be very glad to have me keep them.”

“Did you do so, when you were a little girl?” said Lucy.

“No,” said Miss Anne; “I was just as careless and foolish as you are. When I was playing with anything, and was suddenly called away, I would throw it right down, wherever I happened to be, and leave it there. Once I had a little glass dog, and I left it on the floor, where I had been playing with it, and somebody came along, and stepped upon it, and broke it to pieces.”

“And would not your mother give you things then?” asked Lucy.

“No, nothing which was of much value.—And once my uncle sent me a beautiful little doll; but my mother would not let me keep it. She kept it herself, locked up in a drawer, only sometimes she would let me have it to play with.” “Why would not she let you keep it?” said Lucy.

“O, if she had, I should soon have made it look like old Margaret.”

Here Royal said he had got his Indian pasted; and he put away the gum arabic bottle, and the sheet of paper, and then he and Lucy went away.