Bobsey taxed his mother’s patience and agility, for he seemed all over the store at the same moment, and wanted everything in it, being sure that fifteen dollars would buy all and leave a handsome margin; but at last he was content with a book illustrated from beginning to end with pigs.

What pleased me most was to see how my wife enjoyed our little outing.  Wrapped up in the children, she reflected their joy in her face, and looked almost girlish in her happiness.  I whispered in her ear, “Your present shall be the home itself, for I shall have the deed made out in your name, and then you can turn me out-of-doors as often as you please.”

“Which will be every pleasant day after breakfast,” she said, laughing.  “You know you are very safe in giving things to me.”

“Yes, Winifred,” I replied, pressing her hand on the sly; “I have been finding that out ever since I gave myself to you.”

I bought Henderson’s “Gardening for Profit” and some other practical books.  I also subscribed for a journal devoted to rural interests and giving simple directions for the work of each month.  At last we returned.  Never did a jollier little procession march up Broadway.  People were going to the opera and evening companies, and carriages rolled by, filled with elegantly dressed ladies and gentlemen; but my wife remarked, “None of those people are so happy as we are, trudging in this roundabout way to our country home.”

Her words suggested our course of action during the months which must intervene before it would be safe or wise for us to leave the city.  Our thoughts, words, and actions were all a roundabout means to our cherished end, and yet the most direct way that we could take under the circumstances.  Field and garden were covered with snow, the ground was granite-like from frost, and winter’s cold breath chilled our impatience to be gone; but so far as possible we lived in a country atmosphere, and amused ourselves by trying to conform to country ways in a city flat.  Even Winnie declared she heard the cocks crowing at dawn, while Bobsey had a different kind of grunt or squeal for every pig in his book.

CHAPTER V

A COUNTRY CHRISTMAS IN A CITY FLAT

On Christmas morning we all brought out our purchases and arranged them on a table.  Merton was almost wild when he found a bright single-barrelled gun with accoutrements standing in the corner.  Even Mousie exclaimed with delight at the bright-colored papers of flower-seeds on her plate.  To Winnie were given half a dozen china eggs with which to lure the prospective biddies to lay in nests easily reached, and she tried to cackle over them in absurd imitation.  Little Bobsey had to have some toys and candy, but they all presented to his eyes the natural inmates of the barn-yard.  In the number of domestic animals he swallowed that day he equalled the little boy in Hawthorne’s story of “The House of the Seven Gables,” who devoured a ginger-bread caravan of camels and elephants purchased at Miss Hepzibah Pyncheon’s shop.