There
was also climbing Vesuvius. In this game the baby walks up you,
and when he is standing on your shoulders, you shout as loud as you
can, which is the rumbling of the burning mountain, and then tumble
him gently on to the floor, and roll him there, which is the
destruction of Pompeii.
'All the same, I wish we could decide what we'd better say next
time mother says anything about the carpet,' said Cyril,
breathlessly ceasing to be a burning mountain.
'Well, you talk and decide,' said Anthea; 'here, you lovely ducky
Lamb. Come to Panther and play Noah's Ark.'
The Lamb came with his pretty hair all tumbled and his face all
dusty from the destruction of Pompeii, and instantly became a baby
snake, hissing and wriggling and creeping in Anthea's arms, as she
said--
'I love my little baby snake,
He hisses when he is awake,
He creeps with such a wriggly creep,
He wriggles even in his sleep.'
'Crocky,' said the Lamb, and showed all his little teeth. So
Anthea went on--
'I love my little crocodile,
I love his truthful toothful smile;
It is so wonderful and wide,
I like to see it--FROM OUTSIDE.'
'Well, you see,' Cyril was saying; 'it's just the old bother.
Mother can't believe the real true truth about the carpet, and--'
'You speak sooth, O Cyril,' remarked the Phoenix, coming out from
the cupboard where the blackbeetles lived, and the torn books, and
the broken slates, and odd pieces of toys that had lost the rest of
themselves.
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