She hated the darning and the sweeping and the baking and the dusting.

For she who in the kitchen sat Darning by the fire, Guileless of what he would be at, Sang sweet as wind or wire: "Lullay, thou little tiny child, By-by, lullay, lullie; Jesu in glory, meek and mild, This night remember thee!

" (Mother Carey stops her darning now and Kathleen makes no pretence of sewing; the story is fast approaching its climax,everybody feels that, including Peter, who hopes that he will be in it, in some guise or other, before it ends.)

" You can well imagine that by this time Mother Carey has taken out her darning, and Kathleen her oversewing, to which she pays little attention because she so adores Nancy's tales.