and she went on skipping and counted as she
skipped until she had reached a hundred.

"I could skip longer than that," she said when
she stopped. "I've skipped as much as five hundred
when I was twelve, but I wasn't as fat
then as I am now, an' I was in practice."

Mary got up from her chair beginning to feel
excited herself.

"It looks nice," she said. "Your mother is a
kind woman. Do you think I could ever skip
like that?"

"You just try it," urged Martha, handing her
the skipping-rope. "You can't skip a hundred at
first, but if you practise you'll mount up. That's
what mother said. She says, 'Nothin' will do her
more good than skippin' rope. It's th' sensiblest
toy a child can have. Let her play out in th' fresh
air skippin' an' it'll stretch her legs an' arms an'
give her some strength in 'em.'"

It was plain that there was not a great deal of
strength in Mistress Mary's arms and legs when
she first began to skip. She was not very clever at
it, but she liked it so much that she did not want to
stop.

"Put on tha' things and run an' skip out o'
doors," said Martha. "Mother said I must tell
you to keep out o' doors as much as you could, even

[[91]]

p090 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p091w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p092

v?