CHAPTER VI 



" YET would we keep thee in our heart 



Would fix our favorite on the scene, 

 Nor let thee utterly depart 



And be as if thou ne'er hadst been." 



MATTHEW ARNOLD. 



FLOSSIE and Baby had been my 

 little fluffy, snow-white predecessors 

 in the household; and Flossie had 

 been a little household god. Mamma al- 

 ways told of his wonderful beauty, his soft, 

 wavy hair, just like white floss, which led to 

 his name, his long, delicate limbs, like mine, 

 she said, and his full dark eyes, framed 

 round with the drooping curls, that she 

 parted in the middle and combed each way 

 over his forehead. 



"Dear, beautiful Flossie!" she would say 

 to papa, "he was one of our wedding gifts, 

 you know. And how strange it was he 

 should have come way over the sea from 

 England to me when his poor, lonely young 

 master, who found him in France, had to 

 close his eyes alone among strangers, but 



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