“You scuttle off like a rabbit into its burrow,” said Beatrice indignantly on one occasion;

“and if you’re caught, you behave in such a silly, awkward way that I’m ashamed of you.

People will think you haven’t been properly brought up, and blame me. It’s not my fault that you’ve got no manners.”

“I feel as if I don’t know where to look when people speak to me, and as if my hands and feet were too big,” protested Georgina.

“I can’t help shuffling and wrinkling up my forehead–I can’t indeed!

You’re awfully hard on me, Bee!”

“Perhaps she’ll grow a little more accustomed to her hands and feet when she’s older,” suggested Winnie, the peacemaker.

“They’re useful for catching chickens at present, and that ought to be enough for you, Win,” laughed Georgina.

“You’d have lost those white Leghorns if I hadn’t rescued them.”