`` As king of this crowd , I call it to order , '' said Gus , retiring to the throne , where Juliet sat laughing in her red table-cloth . `` We 'll have ` The Fair One with Golden Locks ' next time ; I promise you that , '' whispered Ed to Mabel , whose shining hair streamed over her blue dress like a mantle of gold-colored silk . `` Girls are pretty nice things , are n't they ? Kind of 'em to take Jill in . Do n't Molly look fine , though ? '' and Grif 's black eyes twinkled as he planned to pin her skirts to Merry 's at the first opportunity . `` Susy looks as gay as a feather-duster . I like her . She never snubs a fellow , '' said Joe , much impressed with the splendor of the court ladies . The boys ' costumes were not yet ready , but they posed well , and all had a merry time , ending with a game of blind-man 's - buff , in which every one caught the right person in the most singular way , and all agreed as they went home in the moonlight that it had been an unusually jolly meeting . So the fairy play woke the sleeping beauty that lies in all of us , and makes us lovely when we rouse it with a kiss of unselfish good-will , for , though the girls did not know it then , they had adorned themselves with pearls more precious than the waxen ones they decked their Princess in . Chapter XI . `` Down Brakes '' The greatest people have their weak points , and the best-behaved boys now and then yield to temptation and get into trouble , as everybody knows . Frank was considered a remarkably well-bred and proper lad , and rather prided himself on his good reputation , for he never got into scrapes like the other fellows . Well , hardly ever , for we must confess that at rare intervals his besetting sin overcame his prudence , and he proved himself an erring , human boy . Steam-engines had been his idols for years , and they alone could lure him from the path of virtue . Once , in trying to investigate the mechanism of a toy specimen , which had its little boiler and ran about whistling and puffing in the most delightful way , he nearly set the house afire by the sparks that dropped on the straw carpet . Another time , in trying experiments with the kitchen tea-kettle , he blew himself up , and the scars of that explosion he still carried on his hands . He was long past such childish amusements now , but his favorite haunt was the engine-house of the new railroad , where he observed the habits of his pets with never-failing interest , and cultivated the good-will of stokers and brakemen till they allowed him many liberties , and were rather flattered by the admiration expressed for their iron horses by a young gentleman who liked them better even than his Greek and Latin . There was not much business doing on this road as yet , and the two cars of the passenger-trains were often nearly empty , though full freight-trains rolled from the factory to the main road , of which this was only a branch .
So things XXXXX on in a leisurely manner , which gave Frank many opportunities of pursuing his favorite pastime .
blew cultivated expressed knows observed rolled rouse said twinkled went