and were always quarreling and snatching toys
from each other. Mary hated their untidy bungalow
and was so disagreeable to them that after
the first day or two nobody would play with her.
By the second day they had given her a nickname
which made her furious.

It was Basil who thought of it first. Basil
was a little boy with impudent blue eyes and a
turned-up nose and Mary hated him. She was
playing by herself under a tree, just as she had been
playing the day the cholera broke out. She was
making heaps of earth and paths for a garden and
Basil came and stood near to watch her. Presently
he got rather interested and suddenly made
a suggestion.

"Why don't you put a heap of stones there and
pretend it is a rockery?" he said. "There in
the middle," and he leaned over her to point.

"Go away!" cried Mary. "I don't want boys.
Go away!"

For a moment Basil looked angry, and then he
began to tease. He was always teasing his sisters.
He danced round and round her and made
faces and sang and laughed.

/tab\"Mistress Mary, quite contrary,
/tab\/tab\How does your garden grow?
/tab\With silver bells, and cockle shells,
/tab\/tab\And marigolds all in a row."

[[11]]

p010 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p011w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p012

v?