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Minou-minou did not leave his young mammas, and was very useful to them. I must state, also, that my son Ernest, without abandoning the study of natural history, applied himself to astronomy, and mounted the large telescope belonging to the ship; he acquired considerable knowledge of this sublime science, which his mother, however, considered somewhat useless.
She came as often as possible to Dell-Delight, to inquire after the health and progress of the little girl. It is not to be supposed, in any neighborhood where there existed managing mammas and unmarried daughters, that a young gentleman, handsome, accomplished, wealthy, and of good repute, should remain unmolested in his bachelorhood.
Her propensity, and her conscientious indulgence of the same, were proverbial among her acquaintances, but no one not even prudish and fearsome maidens of altogether uncertain age, and prudent mammas, equally alive to expediency and decorum had ever labelled her "Dangerous," while with young people she was a universal favorite.
"You seem to have a lot of fun with me, Una, don't you?" "I don't mean to. But the picture of you trying to escape the engulfing flood of mammas is too much. I've got to laugh, Jerry. I can't help it." "Laugh, then. I don't think it's so funny, though." "But it is. Because I'm sure you'd be too polite to refuse them any of them." "Polite! I won't be polite.
Then, after they had told her all about their mammas and papas, and homes, and cats and dogs, they wanted to go and say "how do you do" to everything on the place. "Take care of yourselves," called grandmother, "for I don't want to send any broken bones home to your mothers." "I can take care of myself," said John. "So can we," said the rest; and off they ran.
"No! no!" protested Rose; but Clover forced it into her pocket. "The Carrs' Box" was always quoted in the Nunnery afterward, as an example of what papas and mammas could accomplish, when they were of the right sort, and really wanted to make school-girls happy. Distributing their treasures kept Katy and Clover so busy that it was not until after dinner that they found time to open the smaller box.
"No nonsense about him, don't you know? able to make himself agreeable, but not losing sight of the main chance either!" men would say; and "A thorough family-doctor, knowing how to humour patients out of their fancies!" would certain mammas add, who, instead of being straight-forward with their children, were always scheming, and dodging, and holding private confabulations about them with doctor and clergyman.
After which our mammas wiped our foreheads, rearranged our dishevelled hair, and tore us away from the battle, of which we dreamed all night. Now, as I pass through the garden with its army of children and nurses, leaning on my stick with halting step, how I regret my General's cocked hat, my paper plume, my wooden sword and my pistol.
She had nothing but scorn for "a joyless curate prating of Easter joy with limpest lips," or for "the Athanasian Creed sung in the highest of spirits in a prosperous church" filled with "sealskin-jacketed mammas and blowsy old gentlemen." But the conclusion of the whole matter was more comfortable "All the clergymen in the world cannot make one disbelieve in God."
This made the children laugh again, and they would ask their mammas for more pennies. "Ah, he is a fine monkey!" the hand-organ man would say. "He brings me much money." The hand-organ man never let him loose; always was there that chain and string fast to the collar on Mappo's neck.
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