We Ten | Page 2

suppose by that she meant to see if there was any way that
Felix could go to college too; but, as usual, in a very little while
everybody began to take "sides," and then, the first thing we knew, we
were all talking at the same time, and just as loud as ever we could.
That's a way we have,--all talking and nobody listening. What a din
there was, until Felix scrambled up on a chair and pounded on the floor
with his cane, and shouted out louder than anybody else: "Who am I
talking to? I will be heard!" That made everybody laugh, and brought
us back to business; but in a few minutes we were just as bad again.
We're the greatest family for taking sides that you ever heard of, and
we do get so excited over things! Anybody that didn't know would
surely think we were quarrelling, when really we'd just be having a
discussion. I can't see where we got it from, for dear mamma was
always just as sweet and gentle, and goodness knows papa doesn't say
ten words in a day, and those in the very quietest voice. I can't explain

it, but it's a fact all the same that we are a noisy family,--even Nora.
Miss Marston--she's our governess--says it's very vulgar to be noisy,
and that we ought to be ashamed to be so boisterous; but nurse
declares--and I think she's right--that the reason is 'cause "the whole kit
an' crew" (she means us) "come just like steps, one after the other, an'
one ain't got any more right to rule than the other." You see Phil is
seventeen and Alan is five, and between them we eight come in; so we
are "just like steps," as she says.
[Illustration: "PLAYING HOUSE WITH THE TWINS AND ALAN
UNDER THE SCHOOLROOM TABLE."]
Perhaps I'd better tell you a little about each of us, so you'll understand
as I go on: Well, to begin, Phil is a big strong fellow, and just as full of
fun and mischief as he can stick; he just loves to play practical jokes,
but he isn't so fond of study, I can tell you, and that vexes papa, 'cause
he's got it all laid out that Phil's to be a lawyer. Being the eldest, he
seems to think he can order us children round as he pleases, and of
course we won't stand it, and that makes trouble sometimes. But Phil's
generous; he'd give us anything he's got, particularly to Felix, he thinks
so much of him,--though of course he wouldn't say so,--so we get along
pretty well with him.
Next come Felix and Nannie; they're twins too. I've told you 'most
everything about Fee already. He's awfully cross sometimes, when he
isn't well, and, as Nora says, he really orders us about more than Phil
does; but somehow we don't mind it, 'cause, with all his queerness, he's
the life of the house, and he's got some ways that just make us love him
dearly: mamma used to call him her "lovable crank." Nannie is devoted
to Felix; they're always together. They're trying to teach themselves the
violin, and she reads the same books and studies the same lessons as he
does, to keep up with him; she's clever, too, now I tell you,--- I'd never
get my Greek and Latin perfect if she didn't help me,--though she
doesn't make any fuss over it. Nannie is an awfully nice girl,--I don't
know what we'd do without her; since mamma died, she's all the time
looking after us children, and making things go smoothly. She doesn't
"boss" us a bit, and yet, somehow, she gets us to do lots of things. She

is real pretty, too,--her eyes are so brown and shiny. It's queer, but we
don't any of us mind telling Nannie when we get into scrapes; she talks
to us at the time, and makes us feel sorry and ashamed, but she never
makes us feel small while she's doing it, and we never hear of it again.
But you wouldn't catch us doing that to Nora! She comes next, you
know, and she's really very pretty, though we never tell her so, 'cause
she's so stuck up already. Felix puts her into lots of his pictures, and I
heard Max Derwent say once that she was beautiful. Max is papa's
friend; he is a grown-up man, though he isn't as old as papa. He used to
come here a lot, and we children like him first-rate; but now he's in
Europe. Well, to come back to Nora: she likes to be called Eleanor, but
we don't do it; she is so fussy and so very proper that Felix has
nick-named her Miss Prim, and we do