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THE HOLE IN THE CARPET.
Hooray! hooray! hooray! Mother comes home to-day; Mother comes home to-day, Hooray! hooray! hooray!' Jane sang this simple song directly after breakfast, and the Phoenix shed crystal tears of affectionate sympathy.
'How beautiful,' it said, 'is filial devotion!' 'She won't be home till past bedtime, though,' said Robert.

'We might have one more carpet-day.' He was glad that mother was coming home--quite glad, very glad; but at the same time that gladness was rudely contradicted by a quite strong feeling of sorrow, because now they could not go out all day on the carpet.
'I do wish we could go and get something nice for mother, only she'd want to know where we got it,' said Anthea.

'And she'd never, never believe it, the truth.

People never do, somehow, if it's at all interesting.' 'I'll tell you what,' said Robert.