43^ 
THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 
her, which proceeded to unroll itself, and 
play out yards and yards, as though she were 
a lively freshly-hooked salmon. 
On another occasion she was playing croquet 
in a garden, and a small errand-boy stopped 
to see what w r as going on. Marjorie was 
much annoyed at his presuming to look at 
her, and kept glaring at the bush which 
partially concealed him. At last a peculiar 
sound issued from the branches, and Marjorie 
in a loud, clear voice remarked, “That unfor- 
tunate lad hiding behind the bush is betrayed 
by hiccups/’ Immediately there was a clatter 
of hobnail boots, and the daring one fled. 
Birthdays were always great events in her 
life. 1 don’t mean her own only, but her 
mother’s and mine. When she was five she 
came to me one day, and said, “ Daddy, 
will you make up my pennies t^ a shilling, as 
1 want to give mummy a birthday present ? ” 
“ Certainly, dear ; how many do you want ? ” 
I said, feeling in my pocket. “ I want eleven, 
please,” was her unexpected answer. 
She had various money-boxes, one in the 
shape of a letter-box, another a pig, and so on. 
On the following maternal birthday she 
appeared to have amassed enough wealth to 
buy a hatpin — it was always a shilling hat- 
pin she gave at that period — out of her 
savings. After it had been presented, and 
her mother had duly thanked her with much 
redundancy of expression, suited to the giver, 
she said, “ You know r , mummy, you cost me 
very expensive— pig, letter-box, all empty; 
not no money nowhere.” 
I cannot quite remember her origin, but 
somehow' a mythical personage named Poly- 
phemus Stiggins developed in our midst. 
She was a most useful addition to the family 
circle, and used to do terrible deeds, curiously 
resembling those committed by Marjorie. It 
was, for instance, often a coincidence that, if 
she had refused to eat up her pudding, or 
had been disobedient, Polyphemus Stiggins 
had done the same, and 1 generally was the first 
person to hear of it., and immediately hurried 
off to tell Marjorie of the new r s in this way; 
“ What do you think that Polyphemus 
Stiggins lias done now ? She absolutely 
refused to cat up her pudding, although, of 
course, it is so good for her,” etc. The new\s 
w r as always received w r ith pained surprise 
by Marjorie, and she w r as always interested 
in Polyphemus’s latest atrocity. 
One day an aunt asked her, “ But, Baby, 
w r ho is this Polyphemus I hear so much about ? 
I never see her.” To which Marjorie, hang- 
ing her head, replied, “ I’m afraid it’s me.” 
Whilst on a visit to her grandmother she 
one day was found by her sitting at the table 
in the nursery after her dinner, instead of 
as usual rolling about on the floor, which, 
w r ith children, puppies, and kittens, appears 
to be the popular conclusion of a meal. 
(Coffee comes later to the human species.) 
The reply was that Marjorie had refused to 
