Little Lucys Wonderful Globe | Page 3

she was rolled round and round in all her bed- clothes, and Mrs.
Bunker took her up like a very big baby, not letting any one else touch
her. How Mrs. Bunker got safe down all the stairs no one can tell, but
she did, and into the carriage, and there poor Lucy looked back and saw
at the windows Mamma's face, and Papa's, and Maude's and all the rest,
all nodding and smiling to her, but Maude was crying all the time, and
perhaps Mamma was too.
The journey seemed very long; and Lucy was really tired when she was
put down at last in a big bed, nicely warmed for her, and with a bright
fire in the room. As soon as she had had some beef-tea, she went off
soundly to sleep and only woke to drink tea, give the dolls their supper,
and put them to sleep.
The next evening she was sitting up by the fire, and the fourth day she
was running about the house as if nothing had ever been the matter
with her, but she was not to go home for a fortnight; and being wet,
cold, dull weather, it was not always easy to amuse herself. She had her
dolls, to be sure, and the little dog Don, to play with, and sometimes Mr.
Bunker would let her make funny things with the dough, or stone the
raisins, or even help make a pudding; but still there was a good deal of
time on her hands. She had only two books with her, and the rash had
made her eyes weak, so that she did not much like reading them. The
notes that every one wrote from home were quite enough for her. What
she liked best--that is, when Mrs. Bunker could not attend to her--was
to wander about the museum, explaining the things to the dolls: "That
is a crocodile, Lonicera; it eats people up, and has a little bird to pick
its teeth. Look, Clare, that bony thing is a skeleton --the skeleton of a

lizard. Paws off, my dear; mustn't touch. That's amber, just like barley
sugar, only not so nice; people make necklaces of it. There's a poor
little dead fly inside. Those are the dear delightful humming-birds; look
at their crests, just like Mamma's jewels. See the shells; aren't they
beauties? People get pearls out of those great flat ones, and dive all
down to the bottom of the sea after them; mustn't touch, my dear, only
look; paws off."
One would think that Lonicera's curved fingers, all in one piece, and
Clare's blue leather hands had been very moveable and mischievous,
judging by the number of times this warning came; but of course it was
Lucy herself who wanted it most, for her own little plump, pinky hands
did almost tingle to handle and turn round those pretty shells. She
wanted to know whether the amber tasted like barley-sugar, as it looked;
and there was a little musk deer, no bigger than Don, whom she longed
to stroke, or still better to let Lonicera ride; but she was a good little
girl, and had real sense of honor, which never betrays a trust; so she
never laid a finger on anything but what Uncle Joe had once given them
leave to move.
This was a very big pair of globes--bigger than globes commonly are
now, and with more frames round them--one great flat one, with odd
names painted on it, and another brass one, nearly upright, going
half-way round from top to bottom, and with the globe hung upon it by
two pins, which Lucy's elder sisters called the poles, or the ends of the
axis. The huge round balls went very easily with a slight touch, and
there was something very charming in making them go whisk, whisk,
whisk; now faster, now slower, now spinning so quickly that nothing
on them could be seen, now turning slowly and gradually over and
showing all that was on them.
The mere twirling was quite enough for Lucy at first, but soon she liked
to look at what was on them. One she thought more entertaining than
the other. It was covered with wonderful creatures: one bear was
fastened by his long tail to the pole; another bigger one was trotting
round; a snake was coiling about anywhere; a lady stood disconsolate
against a rock; another sat in a chair; a giant sprawled with a club in
one hand and a lion's skin in the other; a big dog and a little dog stood
on their hind legs; a lion seemed* just about to spring on a young
maiden's head; and all were thickly spotted over, just as if they had

Lucy's rash, with stars big and little: and