'As savage as a bear with a sore head.'

'Like Mrs. Crabtree?' asked Dolores.

'Exactly. Jasper called her so when he wanted to lash her up, till at
lash she got hold of his 'Holiday House' and threw it into the sea, and
it was in Malta and we couldn't get another,' said Mysie.

'And haven't you one?'

'Yes, Gill and I save for it; but mamma only let us have it on
condition we made a solemn promise never to tease nurse about it.'

'And does she go at you with that dreadful thing--what's it name--the
tawse?'

'Ah! you'll soon know,' said Wilfred.

'No, no; nonsense, Fred,' said Mysie, as Dolores' face worked with
consternation. 'She never hits us, not if we are ever so tiresome.
Papa and mamma would not let her.'

'But why do they let her be so dreadful? Maude's nurse used to be
horrid and slap her, and when her mother found it out the woman was
sent away directly.'

Nurse Halfpenny isn't that sort,' said Mysie. 'Her husband was papa's
colour-sergeant, and he got a sun-stroke and died, and then she came
when Gillian was just born, and so weak and tiny that she would never
have lived if nurse hadn't watched her day and night, and so Gillian's