"Oh, let them come in!" cried Cousin Helen from her sofa.
So they came in, followed, before long, by Clover and Elsie. Such a
merry morning as they had! Cousin Helen proved to possess a perfect
genius for story-telling, and for suggesting games which could be played
about her sofa, and did not make more noise than she could bear. Aunt
Izzie, dropping in about eleven o'clock, found them having such a good
time, that almost before she knew it, _she_ was drawn into the game too.
Nobody had ever heard of such a thing before! There sat Aunt Izzie on
the floor, with three long lamp-lighters stuck in her hair, playing,
"I'm a genteel Lady, always genteel," in the jolliest manner possible.
The children were so enchanted at the spectacle, that they could hardly
attend to the game, and were always forgetting how many "horns" they
had. Clover privately thought that Cousin Helen must be a witch; and
Papa, when he came home at noon, said almost the same thing.
"What have you been doing to them, Helen?" he inquired, as he opened the
door, and saw the merry circle on the carpet. Aunt Izzie's hair was half
pulled down, and Philly was rolling over and over in convulsions of
laughter.
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