In response to her advice, he clambered over and seated himself upon the mantel.

“Oh! oh!” she expostulated in alarm, lest the shelf should fall beneath his weight.

As that catastrophe did not occur, he coolly shifted his position, made a teasing grimace at her, and when she turned away slipped down and resumed his gymnastic exercises.

There was nothing else on the top story to excite Annie’s surprise, but she was glad when Lucy secured the box and led the way downstairs.

II.

“When the little friends were again in their accustomed play corner, Lucy, with much satisfaction, displayed her present.

“Your Aunt Mollie must be awful nice!” exclaimed Annie.  “How lucky you are!  Three more dresses for your doll!  Clementina has not had any new clothes for a long time.  I think that red silk dress is the prettiest, don’t you?”

“I haven’t quite decided,” answered Lucy.  “Christabel looks lovely in it; but I think the blue one is perhaps even more becoming.”

They tried the various costumes upon Lucy’s doll, and admired the effect of each in turn.

“Still, I like the red silk dress best,” said Annie.

“It would just suit Clementina, wouldn’t it?” suggested Lucy.

“Yes,” sighed Annie, taking up the little frock, and imagining she saw her own doll attired in its gorgeousness.  After regarding it enviously for a few moments, she said:  “Say, Lucy, give it to me, won’t you?”

“Why, the idea!” cried Lucy, aghast at the audacity of the proposal.

“I think you might,” pouted Annie.  “You hardly ever give me anything, although you are my dearest friend.  I made you a present of Clementina’s second best hat for Christabel, and only yesterday I gave you that sweet bead ring you asked me for.”

These unanswerable arguments were lost upon Lucy, however.  She snatched away the tiny frock, and both little girls sulked a while.

“Lucy’s real mean!” said Annie to herself.  “She ought to give it to me,—­she knows she ought!  Oh, dear, I want it awfully!  She owes me something for what I’ve given her.—­I am going home,” she announced aloud.

“Oh, no!” protested Lucy, aroused to the sense of her duties as hostess.  “Let us put away the dolls and read.  There is a splendid new story this week in the Young Folks’ Magazine.”

Taking Annie’s silence for assent, she packed Christabel and her belongings away again, and went to get the book.  Annie waited sullenly.  Then, as her friend did not come back immediately, she began to fidget.

“Lucy need not have been in such a hurry to whisk her things into the box,” she complained.  “To look at the red dress won’t spoil it, I suppose.  I will have another look at it, anyhow!”