The Pillars of the House; Or, Under Wode, Under Rode, Vol 1 - Tapa blanda

'O I've got a plum-cake, and a feast let us make, Come, school-fellows, come at my call; I assure you 'tis nice, and we'll all have a slice, Here's more than enough for us all.' JANE TAYLOR. 'It is come! Felix, it is come!' So cried, shouted, shrieked a chorus, as a street door was torn open to admit four boys, with their leathern straps of books over their shoulders. They set up a responsive yell of 'Jolly! Jolly!' which being caught up and re-echoed by at least five voices within, caused a considerable volume of sound in the narrow entry and narrower staircase, up which might be seen a sort of pyramid of children. 'Where is it?' asked the tallest of the four arrivals, as he soberly hung up his hat. 'Mamma has got it in the drawing-room, and Papa has been in ever since dinner,' was the universal cry from two fine-complexioned, handsome girls, from a much smaller girl and boy, and from a creature rolling on the stairs, whose sex and speech seemed as yet uncertain. 'And where's Cherry?' was the further question; 'is she there too?' 'Yes, but—' as he laid his hand on the door— 'don't open the letter there. Get Cherry, and we'll settle what to do with it.' 'O Felix, I've a stunning notion!' 'Felix, promise to do what I want!' 'Felix, do pray buy me some Turkish delight!' 'Felix, I do want the big spotty horse.'