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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/20699-h.zip b/20699-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f9afefb --- /dev/null +++ b/20699-h.zip diff --git a/20699-h/20699-h.htm b/20699-h/20699-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..347e486 --- /dev/null +++ b/20699-h/20699-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4009 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Dotty Dimple at Her Grandmother's, by Sophie May. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + text-indent: 1.25em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + img {border: 0;} + .tnote {border: dashed 1px; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} + ins {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify;} + + .bbox {border: solid 2px; margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .unindent {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Dotty Dimple at Her Grandmother's, by Sophie May + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Dotty Dimple at Her Grandmother's + +Author: Sophie May + +Release Date: February 27, 2007 [EBook #20699] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOTTY DIMPLE AT HER GRANDMOTHER'S *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Front matter"> +<tr><td align='center'><img src="images/cover.jpg" width="279" height="400" alt="Cover" title="Cover" /> +</td><td align='center'><img src="images/title.jpg" width="256" height="400" alt="Title Page" title="Title Page" /> +</td></tr> +</table></div> + + + +<h2>SOPHIE MAY'S</h2> + +<h2>LITTLE FOLKS' BOOKS.</h2> + +<div class='center'><i>Any volume sold separately.</i></div> + + +<div class='center'><br /><b>DOTTY DIMPLE SERIES.</b>—Six volumes. Illustrated. Per volume, 75 cents.<br /><br /></div> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="DOTTY DIMPLE SERIES"> +<tr><td align='left'>Dotty Dimple at her Grandmother's.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dotty Dimple at Home.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dotty Dimple out West.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 3em;">Dotty Dimple at Play.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 4em;">Dotty Dimple at School.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 5em;">Dotty Dimple's Flyaway.</span></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<div class='center'><br /><b>FLAXIE FRIZZLE STORIES.</b>—Six volumes. Illustrated. Per volume, 75 cents.<br /><br /></div> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="FLAXIE FRIZZLE STORIES"> +<tr><td align='left'>Flaxie Frizzle. </td><td align='left'>Little Pitchers.</td><td align='left'>Flaxie's Kittyleen.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Doctor Papa.</td><td align='left'>The Twin Cousins. </td><td align='left'>Flaxie Growing Up.</td></tr> +</table></div> + + + +<div class='center'><br /><b>LITTLE PRUDY STORIES.</b>—Six volumes. Handsomely Illustrated. Per volume, +75 cents.<br /><br /></div> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="LITTLE PRUDY STORIES"> +<tr><td align='left'>Little Prudy.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Little Prudy's Sister Susy.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Little Prudy's Captain Horace.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 3em;">Little Prudy's Story Book.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 4em;">Little Prudy's Cousin Grace.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 5em;">Little Prudy's Dotty Dimple.</span></td></tr> +</table></div> + + + +<div class='center'><br /><b>LITTLE PRUDY'S FLYAWAY SERIES.</b>—Six volumes. Illustrated. Per volume, 75 +cents.<br /><br /></div> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="LITTLE PRUDY'S FLYAWAY SERIES"> +<tr><td align='left'>Little Folks Astray. </td><td align='left'>Little Grandmother.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Prudy Keeping House.</span> </td><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Little Grandfather.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 4em;">Aunt Madge's Story.</span> </td><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 4em;">Miss Thistledown.</span></td></tr> +</table></div> +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<h4>LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS.<br /> + +BOSTON.</h4> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/gs01.jpg" width="400" height="285" alt=""Miss Patty, isn't this the longest Night you ever saw?"" title=""Miss Patty, isn't this the longest Night you ever saw?"" /> +<span class="caption">"<span class="smcap">Miss Patty, isn't this the longest Night you ever saw?"</span>—<a href='#Page_161'>Page 161</a>.</span> +</div> + + + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><i>DOTTY DIMPLE STORIES.</i></h3> +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<h1>DOTTY DIMPLE</h1> + +<h1>AT HER GRANDMOTHER'S.</h1> + +<h2><span class="smcap">By</span> SOPHIE MAY,</h2> + +<div class='center'><small>AUTHOR OF "LITTLE PRUDY STORIES."</small><br /> +<br /><br /><br /><br /> +Illustrated.<br /> +<br /><br /><br /><br /> + +BOSTON +LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS +<br />10 <span class="smcap">Milk Street</span></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class='center'> +<small>Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870,</small><br /> +<br /> +<small><span class="smcap">By</span> LEE AND SHEPARD,</small><br /> +<br /> +<small>In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.</small><br /></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><ins title="Transcriber's Note: This word presumed as original text was smudged">TO</ins><br /> +<br /> +<i>SARAH G. PEIRCE</i></h3> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Spine and Contents"> +<tr><td align='left'><img src="images/spine.jpg" width="63" height="400" alt="Spine" title="Spine" /> +</td><td align='left'><div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td align='left' colspan='2'><span class="smcap">chapter</span></td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Dotty's Pin-Money</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_7'>7</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Playing King and Queen</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_23'>23</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The White Truth</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_42'>42</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Dotty's Camel</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_57'>57</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Sad Fright</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_68'>68</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Making Poetry</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_94'>94</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Day on the Sofa</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_109'>109</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Washing the Pig</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_122'>122</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Dark Day</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_139'>139</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>X.</td><td align='left'>"<span class="smcap">The End of the World</span>,"</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_156'>156</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XI.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Crazy Ducklings</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_170'>170</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XII.</td><td align='left'>"<span class="smcap">The Charlie Boy</span>,"</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_182'>182</a></td></tr> +</table></div> +</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>DOTTY DIMPLE AT HER<br />GRANDMOTHER'S.</h2> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3>DOTTY'S PIN-MONEY</h3> + + +<p>Everything was very fresh and beautiful one morning in May, as if God +had just made the world. The new grass had begun to grow, and the fields +were dotted over with short, golden-topped dandelions.</p> + +<p>The three Parlin children had come to their grandmother's much earlier +in the season than usual; and now on this bright Sabbath morning they +were going to church.</p> + +<p>Dotty Dimple, otherwise Alice, thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> the fields looked like her Aunt +Maria's green velvet toilet-cushion stuck full of pins. The spiders had +spread their gauzy webs over the grass, and the dew upon them sparkled +in the sunshine like jewels. "Such nice tablecloths as they would have +made for the fairies," thought Dotty, "if there only were any fairies."</p> + +<p>"The world is ever so much handsomer than it was a week ago," said +Prudy, pointing towards the far-off hills. "I'd like to be on that +mountain, and just put my hand out and touch the sky."</p> + +<p>"That largest pick," said Dotty, "is Mount Blue. It's covered with +blueberries, and that's why it's so blue."</p> + +<p>"Who told you that?" asked Susy, smiling. "It isn't time yet for +blueberries; and if it was, we couldn't see them forty miles off without +a telescope."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Jennie Vance told me," said Dotty; "and she ought to know, for her +father is the judge."</p> + +<p>By this time the children had reached the church, and were waiting on +the steps for the rest of the family. It was pleasant to watch the +people coming from up and down the street, looking so neat and peaceful. +But when Jennie Vance drew near with her new summer silk and the elegant +feather in her hat, Dotty's heart gave a quick double beat, half +admiration, half envy. Jennie's black eyes were shining with vanity, and +her nicely gaitered feet tripped daintily up the steps.</p> + +<p>"How d'ye do?" said she, carelessly, to Dotty, and swept by her like a +little ship under full sail.</p> + +<p>"Jennie Vance needn't talk so about her new mother," whispered Prudy, +"for she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> gives her fifty-two new dresses, one for every Sunday."</p> + +<p>Dotty's brow darkened. Just now it seemed to her one of the greatest +trials in the whole world that the dress she wore had been made over +from one of Prudy's. It was a fine white organdie with a little pink +sprig, but there was a darn in the skirt. Then there was no feather in +her hat, and no breastpin at her throat.</p> + +<p>Poor Dotty! She did not hear much of the sermon, but sat very quiet, +counting the nails in the pews and the pipes in the organ, and watching +old Mr. Gordon, who had a red silk kerchief spread over his head to +guard it against the draught from the window. She listened a little to +the prayers, it is true, because she knew it was wrong to let her +thoughts wander when Mr. Preston was speaking to God.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p> + +<p>When the services were over, and she was going to her Sabbath school +class, she passed Jennie Vance in the aisle.</p> + +<p>"Where are you going, Jennie?" said she.</p> + +<p>"Going home. My mamma says I needn't stay to say my lessons and miss a +warm dinner."</p> + +<p>Jennie said this with such a toss of the head that Dotty longed to reply +in a cutting manner.</p> + +<p>"It isn't polite to have warm dinners on Sunday, Jennie Vance! But you +said your father had a <i>step-wife</i>, and perhaps she doesn't know!"</p> + +<p>"I didn't say my papa had a step-wife, Dotty Dimple."</p> + +<p>But this was all Jennie had time to retort, for Dotty now entered the +pew where her class were to sit. Miss Preston was the teacher, and it +was her custom to have each<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> of her little pupils repeat a half dozen +verses or so, which she explained to them in a very clear manner. The +children did not always understand her, however; and you shall see +hereafter how Dotty's queer little brain grew befogged. The last clause +of one of her verses to-day was this:—</p> + +<p>"The Lord loveth a cheerful giver."</p> + +<p>"Suppose," said Miss Preston, "there were two little girls living in a +beautiful house, with everything nice to eat and wear, and there should +come a poor man in rags, and beg for charity. One of the little girls is +so sorry for him that she runs to her mamma and asks, as a favor, to be +allowed to give him some of her Christmas money. The other little girl +shakes her head, and says, 'O, sister what makes you do so? But if you +do it <i>I</i> must.' Then she pours out half her money for the beggar, but +scowls all the while.—Which is the 'cheerful giver?'"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The first little girl. O, of course, Miss Preston." Then Dotty fell to +thinking:—</p> + +<p>"I don't have much to give away but just pieces of oranges; but I don't +scowl when I do it. I'm a great deal more 'cheerful' than Jennie Vance; +for I never saw her give away anything but a thimble after the pig had +chewed it. 'There, take it, Lu Piper,' said she, 'for it pinches, and I +don't want it.' I shouldn't think <i>that</i> was very cheerful, I am sure."</p> + +<p>Thus Dotty treasured up the lesson for the sake of her friend. It was +really surprising how anxious she was that Jennie should always do +right.</p> + +<p>Now it happened that before the week was out a man came to Mr. Parlin's +back door begging. Dotty wondered if it might not be the same man Miss +Preston had mentioned, only he was in another suit of clothes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> She and +Jennie were swinging, with Katie between them, and Susy and Prudy were +playing croquet. They all ran to see what the man wanted. He was not +ragged, and if it had not been for the green shade over his eyes and the +crooked walking-stick in his hand, the children would not have thought +of his being a beggar. He was a very fleshy man, and the walk seemed to +have taken away his breath.</p> + +<p>"Little maidens," said he, in gentle tones, "have you anything to give a +poor tired wayfarer?"</p> + +<p>There was no answer, for the children did not know what to say. But the +man seemed to know what to do; he seated himself on the door-step, and +wiped his face with a cotton handkerchief. Little Katie, the girl with +flying hair, who was sometimes called 'Flyaway,' looked at him with +surprise as he puffed at every breath.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span></p> + +<p>"When um breeves," said she to Dotty, "seems's um <i>whissils</i>."</p> + +<p>"Come here, little maiden," said the beggar, pointing to Dotty; "you are +the handsomest of all, and you may take this document of mine. It will +tell you that I am a man of great sorrows."</p> + +<p>Dotty, very much flattered, took the paper from his hands. It was greasy +and crumpled, looking as if it had been lying beside bread and butter in +a dirty pocket. She gave it to Susy, for she could not read it herself. +It was written by one of the "selectmen" of a far-away town, and asked +all kind people to take pity on the bearer, who was described as "a poor +woman with a family of children." Susy laughed, and pointed out the word +"woman" to Prudy.</p> + +<p>"Why do you smile, little ladies? Isn't it writ right? 'Twas writ by a +lawyer."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I will carry it in to my grandmother," said Susy; and she entered the +house, followed by all the children.</p> + +<p>"Who knows but he's a <i>griller?</i>" said Jennie.</p> + +<p>"Lem <i>me</i> see paper," cried Katie, snatching at it, and holding it up to +her left ear.</p> + +<p>"O, dear!" sighed she, in a grieved tone; "it won't talk to me, Susy. I +don't hear nuffin 'tall."</p> + +<p>"She's a cunning baby, so she is," said Dotty. "She s'poses writing +talks to people; she thinks that's the way they read it."</p> + +<p>Grandmamma Parlin thought the man was probably an impostor. She went +herself and talked with him; but, when she came back, instead of +searching the closets for old garments, as Dotty had expected, she +seated herself at her sewing, and did not offer to bestow a single +copper on the beggar.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Susy," said she, "he says he is hungry, and I cannot turn him away +without food. You may spread some bread and butter, with ham between the +slices, and carry out to him."</p> + +<p>"What makes her so cruel?" whispered Dotty.</p> + +<p>"O, Grandma knows best," replied Prudy. "She never is cruel."</p> + +<p>"What makes you put on so much butter?" said Jennie Vance; "I wouldn't +give him a single thing but cold beans."</p> + +<p>Dotty, whose Sunday school lesson was all the while ringing in her ears, +looked at the judge's daughter severely.</p> + +<p>"Would you pour cold beans into anybody's hands, <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Jenny'">Jennie</ins> Vance? Once my +mamma gave some preserves to a beggar,—quince preserves,—she did."</p> + +<p>Jennie only tossed her head.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'm going to give him some money," continued Dotty, defiantly; "just as +cheerfully as ever I can."</p> + +<p>"O, yes, because he called you the handsomest."</p> + +<p>"No, Jennie <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Vauce'">Vance</ins>; because <i>I</i> am not stingy."</p> + +<p>"Um isn't stinchy," echoed Katie.</p> + +<p>"I've got some Christmas money here. I earned it by picking pins off the +floor, six for a cent. It took a great while, Jennie, but <i>I</i> wouldn't +be selfish, like <i>some</i> little girls."</p> + +<p>"Now, little sister," said Prudy, taking Dotty one side, "don't give +your money to this man. You'll be sorry by and by."</p> + +<p>But there was a stubborn look in Dotty's eyes, and she marched off to +her money-box as fast as she could go. When she returned with the pieces +of scrip, which amounted in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> all to fifteen cents, the children were +grouped about the beggar, who sat upon the door-step, the plate of +sandwiches before him.</p> + +<p>"Here's some money, sir, for your sick children," cried Dotty, with an +air of importance.</p> + +<p>"Blessings on your pretty face," replied the man, eagerly.</p> + +<p>Dotty cast a triumphant glance at Jennie.</p> + +<p>"Ahem! This is better than nothing," added the beggar, in a different +tone, after he had counted the money. "And now haven't any of the rest +of you little maidens something to give a poor old wayfarer that's been +in the wars and stove himself up for his country?"</p> + +<p>There was no reply from any one of the little girls, even tender Prudy. +And as Dotty saw her precious scrip swallowed up in that dreadfully +dingy wallet, it suddenly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> occurred to her that she had not done such a +very wise thing, after all.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you eat your luncheon, sir?" said Jennie Vance; for the man, +after taking up the slices of bread and looking at them had put them +down again with an air of disdain.</p> + +<p>"I thought, by the looks of the house, that Christians lived here," said +he, shaking his head slowly. "Haven't you a piece of apple pie, or a cup +custard, to give a poor man that's been in prison for you in the south +country? Not so much as a cup of coffee or a slice of beefsteak? No. I +see how it is," he added, wiping his face and rising with an effort; +"you are selfish, good-for-nothing creeters, the whole of you. Here I've +been wasting my time, and all I get for it is just dog's victuals, and +enough scrip to light my pipe."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> + +<p>With this he began to walk off, puffing. Dotty longed to run after him +and call out, "Please, sir, give me back my money." But it was too late; +and summoning all her pride, she managed to crush down the tears.</p> + +<p>"Tell the people in this house that I shake off the dust of my feet +against them," wheezed the stranger, indignantly. "The dust of my +feet—do you hear?"</p> + +<p>"What a wicked, disagreeable old thing!" murmured Jennie Vance.</p> + +<p>"Dish-gwee-bly old fing!" cried "Flyaway," nodding her head till her +hair danced like little tufts of corn-silk.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad I didn't give him any of <i>my</i> money," said Jennie, loftily.</p> + +<p>"So am I," returned Susy.</p> + +<p>Prudy said nothing.</p> + +<p>"I didn't see him shake his feet," said Dotty, changing the subject; +"and the dust wouldn't come off if he did shake 'em."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Have you any more Christmas money left, Dotty," said Jennie, twirling +her gold ring on her finger.</p> + +<p>"O, yes, ever so much at home. And I shall soon have more," added Dotty, +with a great effort to be cheerful; "for people are always dropping +pins."</p> + +<p>"I've got any quantity of scrip," pursued Jennie; "and I don't have to +work for it, either."</p> + +<p>"O, dear," thought Dotty, "what's the use to be good? I 'sposed if I +gave away my money <i>cheerfully</i>, they'd all feel ashamed of themselves; +but they don't! I wish I had it back in my box, I do!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3>PLAYING KING AND QUEEN.</h3> + + +<p>"What are you hunting for on your hands and knees, Alice?" said +grandmamma, next day.</p> + +<p>"O, nothing, only pins, grandma; but I can't find any. Isn't this a +<i>hidden-mist</i> carpet?"</p> + +<p>"No, dear; a <i>hit-and-miss</i> carpet is made of rags. But what do you want +of pins?"</p> + +<p>"She has given away what Aunt Ria paid her for Christmas," said Prudy, +speaking for her; "she gave it all to the beggar."</p> + +<p>"Yes, she did; one, two, free, four, nineteen, tenteen," said Katie; +"and the gemplum didn't love little goorls."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why, Alice! to that man who was here yesterday?"</p> + +<p>Dotty was frowning at Prudy behind a chair. "Yes, 'm," she answered, in +a stifled voice.</p> + +<p>"Were you sorry for him?"</p> + +<p>"No, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"Did you hear me say I did not believe he was in need of charity?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, 'm."</p> + +<p>Grandma looked puzzled, till she remembered that Alice had always been +fond of praise; and then she began to understand her motives.</p> + +<p>"Did you suppose Jennie Vance and your sisters would think you were +generous?" asked she, in a low voice.</p> + +<p>Dotty looked at the carpet, but made no reply.</p> + +<p>"Because, if that was your reason, Alice,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> it was doing 'your alms +before men, to be seen of them.' God is not pleased when you do so. I +told you about that the other day."</p> + +<p>Still the little girl did not understand. Her thoughts were like these:</p> + +<p>"Grandma thinks I'm ever so silly! Prudy thinks I'm silly! But isn't +Jennie silly too? And O, she takes cake, all secret, out of her new +mother's tin chest. I don't know what will become of Jennie Vance."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Parlin was about to say more, when Miss Flyaway, who had been all +over the house in two minutes, danced in, saying, "the Charlie boy" had +come!</p> + +<p>It was little lisping Charlie Gray, saying, "If you pleathe, 'm, may we +have the Deacon to go to mill? And then, if we may, can you thpare uth a +quart 'o milk every thingle night? Cauthe, if you can't, then you +muthn't."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p> + +<p>Deacon was the old horse; and as Mr. Parlin was quite willing he should +go to mill, Harry Gray came an hour afterwards and led him away. With +regard to the other request, Mrs. Parlin had to think a few minutes.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Charlie," said she, at last; "you may have the milk, because I +would like to oblige your mother; and you may tell her I will send it +every night by the children."</p> + +<p>Now, Mrs. Gray was the doctor's wife. She was a kind woman, and kept one +closet shelf full of canned fruit and jellies for sick people; but for +all that, the children did not like her very well. Prudy thought it +might be because her nose turned up "like the nose of a tea-kettle;" but +Susy said it was because she asked so many questions. If the little +Parlins met her on the street when they went of an errand, she always<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +stopped them to inquire what they had been buying at the store, or took +their parcels out of their hands and felt them with her fingers. She was +interested in very little things, and knew how all the parlors in town +were papered and carpeted, and what sort of cooking-stoves everybody +used.</p> + +<p>Dotty hung her head when her grandmother said she wished her to go every +night to Mrs. Gray's with a quart of milk.</p> + +<p>"Must I?" said she. "Why, grandma, she'll ask me if my mother keeps a +girl, and how many teaspoons we've got in the house; she will, honestly. +Mayn't somebody go with me?"</p> + +<p>"Ask me will I go?" said Katie, "for I love to shake my head!"</p> + +<p>"And, grandma," added Dotty, "Mrs. Gray's eyes are so sharp, why, +they're so sharp they almost prick! And it's no use for Katie to go with +me, she's so little."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p> + +<p>"O, I'm isn't <i>much</i> little," cried Katie. "I's growing big."</p> + +<p>"I should think Prudy might go," said Dotty Dimple, with her finger in +her mouth; "you don't make Prudy do a single thing!"</p> + +<p>"Prudy goes for the ice every morning," replied Mrs. Parlin. "I wish you +to do as I ask you, Alice, and make no more remarks about Mrs. Gray."</p> + +<p>"Yes, 'm," said Dotty in a dreary tone; "mayn't Katie come too? she's +better than nobody."</p> + +<p>Katie ran for her hat, delighted to be thought better than nobody. The +milk was put into a little covered tin pail. Dotty watched Ruth as she +strained it, and saw that she poured in not only a quart, but a great +deal more. "Why do you do so?" said Dotty. "That's too much."</p> + +<p>"Your grandmother told me to," replied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> Ruth, washing the milk-pail. +"She said 'Good measure, pressed down and running over.' That's her way +of doing things."</p> + +<p>"But I don't believe grandma 'spected you to press it down and run it +<i>all</i> over. Why, there's enough in this pail to make a pound of butter. +Come, Katie."</p> + +<p>"Let me do some help," said the little one, catching hold of the handle, +and making the pail much heavier. Dotty endured the weight as long as +she could; then, gently pushing off the "little hindering" hand, she +said,—</p> + +<p>"And now, as we go along, we might as well be playing, Flyaway."</p> + +<p>"Fwhat?"</p> + +<p>"Playing a play, dear. We'll make believe you're the queen with a gold +crown on your head."</p> + +<p>Katie put her hand to her forehead.</p> + +<p>"O, no, dear; you haven't anything on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> your head now but the +broadest-brimmedest kind of a hat; we'll <i>call</i> it a crown. And I'm the +king that's married to you."</p> + +<p>"O, yes, mallied."</p> + +<p>"And we're going—going—"</p> + +<p>"Rouspin," suggested Flyaway.</p> + +<p>"No; great people like us don't go raspberrying. Sit down here, Queenie, +under this acorn tree, and I'll tell you; we're going to the castle."</p> + +<p>"O, yes, the cassil?"</p> + +<p>"Where we keep our throne, dear, and our gold dresses."</p> + +<p>"Does we have any gold dollies to the cassil?"</p> + +<p>"O, yes, Queenie; all sizes."</p> + +<p>"Does we have," continued Flyaway, winking slowly, "does we have—dip +toast?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Queenie, what should we want of that? Yes, we can have dip toast, +I s'pose;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> the girl can make it on the gold stove, with a silver +pie-knife. But we shall have nicer things than ever you saw."</p> + +<p>"Nicer than turnipers?"</p> + +<p>"Pshaw! turnovers are nothing, Queenie; we shall give them to the piggy. +We shall live on wedding cake and strawberries. Tea and coffee, and such +low things, we shall give to ducks. O, what ducks they will be! They +will sing tunes such as canaries don't know how. We'll give them our tea +and coffee, and we'll drink—what d'ye call it? O, here's some."</p> + +<p>Dotty took up the pail.</p> + +<p>"You see how white it is; sugar frosting in it. Drink a little, it's so +nice."</p> + +<p>"It tastes just like moolly cow's milk," said Flyaway, wiping her lips +with her finger.</p> + +<p>"No," said Dotty, helping herself; "it's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> nectar; that's what Susy says +they drink; now I remember."</p> + +<p>"Stop!" said a small voice in the ear of Dotty's spirit; "that is what I +should call taking other people's things."</p> + +<p>"Poh!" said Dotty, sipping again; "it's grandpa's cow. When Jennie Vance +takes cake, it's wicked, because—because it is. This is only play, you +know."</p> + +<p>Dotty took another draught.</p> + +<p>"Come, Queenie," said she, "let's be going to the castle."</p> + +<p>Katie sprang up so suddenly that she fell forward on her nose, and said +her foot was "dizzy." It had been taking a short nap as she sat on the +stump; but she was soon able to walk, and shortly the royal pair arrived +at the castle, which was, in plain language, a wooden house painted +white.</p> + +<p>"So you have come at last," said Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> Gray, from the door-way. "They +don't milk very early at your house—do they?"</p> + +<p>"No, ma'am, not so <i>very</i>."</p> + +<p>"Have you seen anything of my little Charlie?"</p> + +<p>"No, ma'am, not since a great while ago,—before supper."</p> + +<p>"How is your grandfather?"</p> + +<p>"Pretty well, thank you, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"No, gampa isn't," said Katie, decidedly; "he's deaf."</p> + +<p>"And what about your Aunt Maria? Didn't I see her go off in the stage +this morning?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, 'm," replied Dotty, determined to give no more information than +was necessary.</p> + +<p>"She's gone off," struck in Katie; "gone to Dusty, my mamma has."</p> + +<p>"Ah indeed! to Augusta?" repeated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> Mrs. Gray, thoughtfully. "Any of your +friends sick there?"</p> + +<p>"No, ma'am," replied Dotty, scowling at her shoes.</p> + +<p>"She's gone," continued Katie, gravely, "to buy me Free Little Kittens."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gray smiled. "I should think your mother could find kittens enough +in this town, without going to Augusta. I thought I saw Horace on the +top of the stage, but I wasn't sure."</p> + +<p>Dotty made no reply.</p> + +<p>"Hollis was," cried Katie, eagerly; "he goed to Dusty too. I fink they +put Hollis in jail!"</p> + +<p>"In jail!" exclaimed Mrs. Gray, throwing up her hands.</p> + +<p>"He stealed, Hollis did," added Katie, solemnly.</p> + +<p>"Hush, Katie, hush!" whispered Dotty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> Dimple, seizing the child by the +hand and hurrying her away. Mrs. Gray followed the children to the door.</p> + +<p>"What does she mean, Dotty! what can she have heard?"</p> + +<p>"She doesn't mean anything, ma'am," replied Dotty, beginning to run; +"and she hasn't heard anything, either."</p> + +<p>Dotty's behavior was so odd, that Mrs. Gray's curiosity was aroused. For +the moment she quite forgot her anxiety about her little Charlie, who +had been missing for some time.</p> + +<p>"What made you say Horace stole?" said Dotty, as soon as they were out +of hearing.</p> + +<p>"Hollis did," answered Katie, catching her breath; "he stealed skosh +seeds out of gampa's razor cupbard."</p> + +<p>"What did Horace want of squash seeds?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span></p> + +<p>"He eated 'em; I sawed him!"</p> + +<p>"There, you're the funniest baby, Katie Clifford! Now you've been and +made Mrs. Gray think your brother's carried to jail."</p> + +<p>This was not quite true. Mrs. Gray had no idea Horace had been taken to +jail; but she did fancy something had gone wrong at Mrs. Parlin's. She +put on her bonnet and ran across the road to Mrs. Gordon's to ask her +what she supposed Horace Clifford had been doing, which Dotty Dimple did +not wish to hear talked about, and which made her run away when she was +questioned.</p> + +<p>"I can't imagine," said Mrs. Gordon, very much surprised. "He is a +frolicsome boy, but I never thought there was anything wicked about +Horace."</p> + +<p>Then by and by she remembered how Miss Louise Parlin had lost a +breastpin in a very singular manner, and both the ladies wondered if +Horace could have taken it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p> + +<p>"One never can tell what mischief children may fall into," said Mrs. +Gray, rubbing her cheek-bone; "and that reminds me how anxious I am +about my little Charlie; he ought to have been at home an hour ago."</p> + +<p>While Mrs. Gray was saying this in Mrs. Gordon's parlor, there was a +scene of some confusion in Mr. Parlin's door-yard.</p> + +<p>"Who's this coming in at the gate?" cried Dotty.</p> + +<p>It was Deacon, but Deacon was only a part of it; the rest was two +meal-bags and a small boy. The meal-bags were full, and hung dangling +down on either side of the horse, and to each was tied a leg of little +Charlie Gray. It was droll for a tiny boy to wear such heavy clogs upon +his feet, but droller still to see him resting his curly head upon the +horse's mane.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Ums the Charlie boy," said Katie; "um can't sit up no more."</p> + +<p>"Ah, my boy, seems to me you take it very easy," said Abner, who was +just coming in from the garden, giving some weeds a ride in the +"one-wheeled coach," or wheel-barrow.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you hold your head up, darling?" said Dotty.</p> + +<p>"O, bring the camphor," screamed Susy; "he's fainted away! he's fainted +away!"</p> + +<p>"Not exactly," said Abner, untying the strings which held him to the +bags. "Old Deacon has done very well this time; the boy is sound +asleep."</p> + +<p>As soon as Abner had wheeled away his weeds, he mounted the horse and +trotted to Mrs. Gray's with the meal-bags, singing for Katie's ear,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>—</p> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Ride away, ride away"> +<tr><td align='left'>"Ride away, ride away; Charlie shall ride;</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">He shall have bag of meal tied to one side;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">He shall have little bag tied to the other,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And Charlie shall ride to see our grandmother."</span></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>The little boy stood rubbing his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Why, Charlie, darling," said Prudy, "who tied you on?"</p> + +<p>"The man'th boy over there. Hally didn't come cauthe he played ball; and +then the man'th boy tied me on."</p> + +<p>Charlie made up a lip.</p> + +<p>"Let's take him out to the swing," said Prudy. "That will wake him up, +and then we'll make a lady's chair and carry him home."</p> + +<p>"Don't want to thwing," lisped Charlie.</p> + +<p>"What for you don't?" said wee Katie.</p> + +<p>"Cauthe the ladieth will thee me."</p> + +<p>"O, you's a little scat crow!"</p> + +<p>"Hush, Katie," said the older children; "do look at his hair; it curls +almost as tight as dandelion stems."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Thee the dimple in my chin!"</p> + +<p>"Which chin?" said Prudy; "you've got three of them."</p> + +<p>"And the wuffle wound my neck! Gueth what we've got over to my houthe? +Duckth."</p> + +<p>"O, ducks?" cried Dotty; "that's what I want to make me happy. There, +Prudy, think of their velvet heads and beads of eyes, waddling about +this yard."</p> + +<p>"People sometimes take ducks' eggs and put them in a hen's nest," said +Prudy, reflectively.</p> + +<p>"O, there now," whispered Dotty, "shouldn't you think Mrs. Gray might +give me three or four eggs for carrying the milk every single night?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, I should; and perhaps she will."</p> + +<p>"I gueth my mamma wants me at home," said Charlie, yawning.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p> + +<p>Prudy and Dotty went with him; and in her eagerness concerning the +ducks' eggs, Dotty quite forgot the secret draughts of milk she and +Katie had quaffed under the acorn-tree, calling it nectar. But this was +not the last of it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3>THE WHITE TRUTH.</h3> + + +<p>Dotty continued to go to Mrs. Gray's every night with the milk. +Sometimes Katie went with her, and then they always paused a while under +the acorn-tree and played "King and Queen." Dotty said she wished they +could ever remember to bring their nipperkins, for in that case the milk +would taste a great deal more like nectar. The "nipperkins" were a pair +of handled cups which the children supposed to be silver, and which they +always used at table.</p> + +<p>Dotty knew she was doing wrong every time she played "King and Queen." +She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> knew the milk was not hers, but Mrs. Gray's; still she said to +herself, "Ruthie needn't give so much measure, all pressed down and run +over. If Queenie and I should drink a great deal more, there would +always be a quart left. Yes, I know there would."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gray never said anything about the milk; she merely poured it out +in a pan, and gave back the pail to Dotty, asking her at the same time +as many questions as the child would stay to hear.</p> + +<p>One night Dotty begged Prudy to go with her; she wished her to ask for +the ducks' eggs. When they reached the acorn tree Dotty did not stop; +she would never have thought of playing "King and Queen" with Prudy; she +was afraid of her sister's honest blue eyes.</p> + +<p>I am not quite sure Mrs. Gray would have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> given the eggs to Dotty, +though Mrs. Parlin promised her several times the amount of hens' eggs +in return. Mrs. Gray did not think Dotty was "a very sociable child;" +and then so many people were asking for eggs! But Mrs. Gray could not +say "No" to Prudy; she gave her thirteen eggs, with a hearty kiss.</p> + +<p>"Now whose will the ducklings be?" asked Dotty on the way home.</p> + +<p>"Yours and mine," replied Prudy; "half and half. Six for each, and an +odd one over."</p> + +<p>"Then," said Dotty, "we'll give that 'odd one over' to Katie."</p> + +<p>"But they may not all hatch, Dotty."</p> + +<p>"O, dear! why not? Then we can't tell how many we shall have. <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Perphaps'">Perhaps</ins> +there will be two or three odd ones over; and <i>then</i> what shall we do, +Prudy?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p> + +<p>Prudy laughed at the idea of "two or three odd ones." The eggs were put +in a barrel under the white hen; and now began a trial of patience. It +seemed to all the children that time stood still while they waited. +Would the four weeks never be gone?</p> + +<p>One day Dottie stood with Katie by the back-door blowing bubbles. The +blue sky, the white fences, the green trees, and even the people who +passed in the street, made little pictures of themselves on the bubbles. +It was very beautiful. Dotty blew with such force that her cheeks were +puffed as round as rubber balls. Katie looked on in great delight.</p> + +<p>"See," she cried, "see the trees a-yidin' on that bubbil!"</p> + +<p>Dotty dropped the pipe and kissed her.</p> + +<p>"Dear me," said she, the next minute, "there's Miss Polly coming!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p> + +<p>Katie looked along the path, and saw a forlorn woman tightly wrapped in +a brown shawl, carrying a basket on her arm, and looking sadly down at +her own calf-skin shoes, which squeaked dismally as she walked.</p> + +<p>"Is um the Polly?" whispered Katie; "is um so tired?"</p> + +<p>"No, she isn't tired," said Dotty; "but she feels dreadfully all the +whole time; I don't know what it's about, though."</p> + +<p>By this time the new-comer stood on the threshold, sighing.</p> + +<p>"How do you do, you pretty creeturs?" said she, with a dreary smile.</p> + +<p>"Yes, 'um," replied Katie; "is you the Polly, and does you feel +drefful?"</p> + +<p>The sad woman kissed the little girls,—for she was fond of +children,—sighed more heavily than ever, asked if their grandmother<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +was at home, and passed through the kitchen on her way to the parlor.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Parlin sat knitting on the sofa, Mrs. Clifford was sewing, and Miss +Louise crocheting. They all looked up and greeted the visitor politely, +but it seemed as if a dark cloud had entered the room. Miss Polly seated +herself in a rocking-chair, and began to take off her bonnet, sighing as +she untied the strings, and sighing again as she took the three pins out +of her shawl.</p> + +<p>"I hope you are well this fine weather," said Mrs. Parlin, cheerily.</p> + +<p>"As well as ever I expect to be," replied Miss Polly, in a resigned +tone.</p> + +<p>Then she opened the lids of her basket with a dismal creak, and took out +her knitting, which was as gray as a November sky. Afterwards she slowly +pinned a corn-cob to the right side of her belt, and began to knit.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> At +the end of every needle she drew a deep breath, and felt the stocking +carefully to make sure there were no "nubs" in it. She talked about the +"severe drowth" and some painful cases of sickness, after which she took +out her snuff-box, and then the three ladies saw that she had something +particular to say.</p> + +<p>"Where is your little boy, Maria?"</p> + +<p>She always called Mrs. Clifford Maria, for she had known her from a +baby.</p> + +<p>"Horace is at Augusta; I left him there the other day."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Polly, settling her mournful black cap, "so I heard! I was +very, very sorry," and she shook her head dolefully, as if it had been a +bell and she were tolling it—"very, very sorry!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Clifford could not but wonder why.</p> + +<p>"It is a dreadful thing to happen in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> family! I'm sure, Maria, I never +heard that stealing was natural to either side of the house!"</p> + +<p>"Stealing!" echoed Mrs. Clifford.</p> + +<p>"What in this world can you mean, Polly Whiting?" said Aunt Louise, +laughing nervously; for she was a very lively young lady, and laughed a +great deal. Miss Whiting thought this was no time for jokes. Her mouth +twitched downward as if there were strings at the corners. Mrs. Clifford +had turned very pale.</p> + +<p>"Poll," said she, "do speak, and tell me what you have heard? It is all +a mystery to me."</p> + +<p>"You don't say so," said Miss Whiting, looking relieved. "Well, I didn't +more than half believe it myself; but the story is going that your +Horace stole his Aunt Louise's breastpin, and sold it to a <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'pedler'">peddler</ins> for a +rusty gun."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p> + +<p>Miss Louise laughed merrily this time.</p> + +<p>"I did lose my pearl brooch," said she, "but Prudy found it yesterday in +an old glass candlestick."</p> + +<p>"What an absurd report!" said Mrs. Clifford, quite annoyed. "I hope the +children are not to be suspected every time their <i>Aunt Louise</i> misses +anything!"</p> + +<p>"They said you had decided to take Horace to the Reform School," added +Miss Whiting, "but your friends begged you to leave him at Augusta in +somebody's house locked up, with bread and water to eat."</p> + +<p>"Now tell me where you heard all this," said Aunt Louise.</p> + +<p>"Why, Mrs. Grant told me that Mrs. Small said that Mrs. Gordon told +<i>her</i>. I hope you'll excuse me for speaking of it: but I thought you +ought to know."</p> + +<p>Miss Polly Whiting was a harmless wo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>man, who went from family to family +doing little "jobs" of work. She never said what was not true, did no +mischief, and in her simple way was quite attached to the Parlins.</p> + +<p>"I heard something more that made me very angry," said she, following +Miss Louise into the pantry. "Mrs. Grant says Mrs. Gray is very much +surprised to find your mother doesn't give good measure when she sells +milk!"</p> + +<p>Aunt Louise was so indignant at this that she went at once and told her +mother.</p> + +<p>"It is a little too much to be borne," said she; "the neighbors may +invent stories about Horace, if they have nothing better to do, but they +shall not slander my mother!"</p> + +<p>The two little girls, who were the unconscious cause of all this +mischief, were just returning from Mrs. Gray's.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p> + +<p>"O, grandma," said Dotty, coming in with the empty pail; "she says she +don't want any more milk this summer, and I'm ever so glad! Come, Prudy, +let's go and swing."</p> + +<p>"Stop," said Mrs. Parlin; "why does Mrs. Gray say she wants no more +milk?"</p> + +<p>"'Cause," replied Dotty, "'cause our cow is dry, or their cow is dry, or +Mrs. Gordon has some to sell. I don't know what she told me, grandma; +I've forgot!"</p> + +<p>"Then, my dear, she did not say you brought too little milk?"</p> + +<p>Dotty winced. "No, grandma, she never."</p> + +<p>"Ruth," said Mrs. Parlin, "you are sure you have always measured the +milk in that largest quart, and thrown in a gill or two more, as I +directed?"</p> + +<p>"O, yes, ma'am, I've never failed."</p> + +<p>"Then I'm sure I cannot understand it,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> said Mrs. Parlin, her gentle +face looking troubled.</p> + +<p>"Unless the children may have spilled some," remarked Mrs. Clifford. +"Dotty, have you ever allowed little Katie to carry the pail?"</p> + +<p>"No, Dotty don't; her don't 'low me care nuffin—there now!" cried +Katie, very glad to tell her sorrows.</p> + +<p>"She's so little, you know, Aunt 'Ria," murmured Dotty, with her hand on +the door-latch.</p> + +<p>There was a struggle going on in Dotty's mind. She wished very much to +run away, and at the same time that "voice" which speaks in everybody's +heart was saying,—</p> + +<p>"Now, Dotty, be a good girl, a noble girl. Tell about drinking the milk +under the acorn tree."</p> + +<p>"But I needn't," thought Dotty, clicking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> the door-latch! "it won't be a +fib if I just keep still."</p> + +<p>"Yes, it will, Dotty Dimple!"</p> + +<p>"What! When I squeeze my lips together and don't say a word?"</p> + +<p>"'Twill be <i>acting</i> a fib, and you know it, Alice Parlin! I'm ashamed of +you! Take your fingers out of your mouth, and speak like a woman."</p> + +<p>"I will, if you'll stop till I clear my throat.—O, Grandma," cried +Dotty, "I can't tell fibs the way Jennie Vance does! 'Twas we two did +it, as true as you live!"</p> + +<p>"Did what, child? Who?"</p> + +<p>"The milk."</p> + +<p>"I don't understand, dear."</p> + +<p><ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Dt ty'">Dotty</ins> twisted the corner of her apron, and looked out of the window.</p> + +<p>"Drank it—Katie and me—under the acorn tree."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, she did," chimed in Katie; "and 'twasn't nuffin but moolly's cow +milk, and her 'pilled it on my shoe!"</p> + +<p>Grandmamma really looked relieved.</p> + +<p>"So this accounts for it! But Dotty, how could you do such a thing?"</p> + +<p>"I telled um not to," cried Katie, "but her kep' a-doin' an' a-doin'."</p> + +<p>"Ruthie gives too much measure," replied Dotty, untwisting her +apron—"'most two quarts; and when Katie and I ask for some in our +nipperkins, Ruthie says, 'No,' she must make butter. I was just as +thirsty, grandma, and I thought Mrs. Gray never would care; I did +certainly."</p> + +<p>"Yes, gamma, we fought Mis Gay would care; did cerdily!"</p> + +<p>"My dear Dotty," said Mrs. Parlin, "you had not the shadow of a right to +take what belonged to another. It was very wrong;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> but I really believe +you did not know how wrong it was."</p> + +<p>Dotty began to breathe more freely.</p> + +<p>"But you see, child," interposed Aunt Louise, "you have done a deal of +mischief; and I must go at once to Mrs. Gray's and explain matters."</p> + +<p>Dotty was distressed at the thought of Mrs. Gray, whose nose she could +seem to see "going up in the air."</p> + +<p>"Don't feel so sorry, little sister," said Prudy, as they walked off +with their arms about each other's waist; "you didn't do just right, but +I'm sure you've told the real white truth."</p> + +<p>"So I have," said Dotty, holding up her head again; "and mother says +that's worth a great deal!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + + +<h3>DOTTY'S CAMEL.</h3> + + +<p>Matters were soon set right with Mrs. Gray, who was sorry she had not +spoken frankly to Mrs. Parlin in the first place, instead of going +secretly to the neighbors and complaining that she did not receive her +due allowance of milk. Perhaps it was a good lesson for the doctor's +wife; for she ceased to gossip about the Parlins, and even took the +pains to correct the wrong story with regard to the pearl breastpin.</p> + +<p>After this Dotty and Katie carried the milk as usual; only they never +stopped under the acorn tree any more to play "King<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> and Queen." Not +that Dotty felt much shame. She held herself in high esteem. She knew +she had done wrong, but thought that by telling the truth so nobly she +had atoned for all.</p> + +<p>"I am almost as good as the little girls in the Sunday school books," +said she; "now there's Jennie Vance—I'm afraid she fibs."</p> + +<p>Jennie called one day to ask Dotty and Flyaway to go to school with her.</p> + +<p>"Jennie," said Miss Dimple, gravely, as they were walking with Katie +between them, "do they ever read the Bible to you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; why?"</p> + +<p>"O, nothing; only you don't act as if you know anything about it."</p> + +<p>"I guess my mother is one of the first ladies in this town, Miss Dimple, +and she's told me the story of Joseph's coat till I know it by heart."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well," said Dotty, looking very solemn, "it hasn't done you any good, +Jennie Vance. Now, I learn verses every Sunday, and one is this: 'Lie +not one to another.' What think of that?"</p> + +<p>Jennie's black eyes snapped. "I heard that before ever you did."</p> + +<p>"Lie not one to another," repeated Dotty, slowly. "Now, I'm <i>one</i>, +Jennie, and you're <i>another</i>; and isn't it wicked when we tell the +leastest speck of a fib?"</p> + +<p>"Of course 'tis," was the prompt reply; "but I don't tell 'em."</p> + +<p>"O, Jennie, who told your step-mother that Charlie Gray was tied up in a +meal-bag? I'm afraid," said Dotty, laying her hand solemnly on little +Katie's head as if it had been a pulpit-cushion, and she a minister +preaching,—"I'm afraid, Jennie, <i>you</i> lie one to another."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span></p> + +<p>"One to anudder," echoed Katie, breaking away and running after a toad. +Jennie knitted her brows. "It doesn't look very well for such a small +child as you are to preach to me, Dot Parlin!"</p> + +<p>"But <i>I</i> always tell the white truth myself, Jennie, because God hears +me. Do <i>you</i> think much about God?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't know as I do; nobody does, He's so far off," said Jennie, +stooping to pluck an innocent flower.</p> + +<p>"Why, Jennie, He isn't far off at all! He's everywhere, and here too. He +holds this world, and all the people, right in His arms; right in His +arms, just as if 'twas nothing but a baby."</p> + +<p>Dotty's tones were low and earnest.</p> + +<p>"Who told you so?" said Jennie.</p> + +<p>"My mamma; and she says we couldn't move nor breathe without Him not a +minute."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p> + +<p>"There, I did then!" cried Jennie, taking a long breath; "I breathed way +down ever so far, and I did it myself."</p> + +<p>"O, but God let you."</p> + +<p>Dotty felt very good and wise, and as she had finished giving her +benighted friend a lesson, she thought she would speak now of every day +matters.</p> + +<p>"Look at those little puddles in the road," said she; "don't they make +you think of pudding-sauce—molasses and cream, I mean—for +hasty-pudding?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Jennie, tossing her head, "I never saw any pudding-sauce that +looked a speck like that dirty stuff! Besides, we don't use molasses at +our house; rich folks never do; nobody but poor folks."</p> + +<p>"O, what a story!" said Dotty, coloring. "I guess you have molasses +gingerbread, if your father <i>is</i> the judge!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p> + +<p>Dotty was very much wounded. This was not the first time her little +friend had referred to her own superior wealth. "Dear, dear! Wasn't it +bad enough to have to wear Prudy's old clothes, when Jennie had new ones +and no big sister? She's always telling hints about people's being poor! +Why, my papa isn't <i>much</i> poor, only he don't buy me gold rings and silk +dresses, and my mamma wouldn't let me wear 'em if he did; so there!"</p> + +<p>By the time they reached the school-house, Dotty was almost too angry to +speak. They took their seats with Katie between them (when she was not +under their feet or in their laps), and looked over in the Testament. +The large scholars "up in the back seats," and in fact all but the very +small ones, were in the habit of reading aloud two verses each. This +morning it was the nine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>teenth chapter of Matthew, and Dotty paid little +heed till her ear was caught by these words, read quite slowly and +clearly by Abby Grant:—</p> + +<p>"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, that a rich +man shall hardly enter the kingdom of heaven.</p> + +<p>"And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the +eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."</p> + +<p>Dolly's heart gave a great bound. That meant Judge Vance just as sure as +the world. Wasn't he rich, and didn't Jennie boast of it as if it was a +great thing? She touched her friend's arm, and pointed with her small +forefinger to the passage; but Jennie did not understand.</p> + +<p>"It isn't my turn," whispered she; "what are you nudging me for?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Don't you see your papa isn't going to heaven?" said Dotty. "God won't +let him in, because he's rich."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe it," said Jennie quite unmoved.</p> + +<p>"O, but God won't, for the Bible says so. He can't get in any more than +a camel can get into a needle; and you know a camel can't."</p> + +<p>"But the needle can go into a camel," said Jennie, thoughtfully; +"perhaps that's what it means."</p> + +<p>"O, no," whispered Dotty. "I know better'n that. I'm very sorry your +papa is rich."</p> + +<p>"But he isn't so very rich," said Jennie, looking sober.</p> + +<p>"You always said he was," said Dotty, with a little triumph.</p> + +<p>"Well, he isn't rich enough for <i>that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>!</i> He's only rich a little +mite,—just a little teenty tonty mite," added Jennie, as she looked at +Dotty's earnest face, and saw the rare tear gathering on her eyelashes.</p> + +<p>"But <i>my</i> father isn't rich the least bit of a speck," said Dotty, with +a sudden joy. "Nobody ever said he was. Not so rich, at any rate, +Jennie, but you could put it through a needle. You could put it through +a needle just as easy."</p> + +<p>Jennie felt very humble—a strange thing for her. This was a new way of +looking at things.</p> + +<p>"Of course <i>he'll</i> go to heaven, you know," said Dotty; "there's no +trouble about that."</p> + +<p>"I s'pose he will," sighed Jennie, looking at her beautiful gold ring +with less pleasure than usual. She had been in the habit of twirling it +about her finger, and telling the little girls it was made of real +"carrot gold."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> But just at this moment she didn't care so much about +it; and it even seemed to her that Dotty's little hand looked very nice +and white without any rings. Perhaps people had not admired the glitter +of her forefinger so very much, after all. How did she know but they had +said, "Look at Judge Vance's little daughter. Isn't she ashamed to wear +that ring when it's a sign her father is rich, and can't go to heaven?" +The child began to wish there would come holes in her father's pockets +and let out the money; for she supposed he kept it all in his pockets, +of course.</p> + +<p>"I shall tell my mother about it," mused she; "and I don't believe but +she'll laugh and say, 'That Dotty Dimple is a very queer child.'"</p> + +<p>But just at this time little Katie began to peep into Jennie's pockets +for "candy-seeds"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> (that is, sugared spices), and to behave in many ways +so badly that Miss Prince said she must be taken home. So the girls led +her out between them; and that was the last Jennie thought of the camel. +But Dotty remembered it all the way home.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3>A SAD FRIGHT.</h3> + + +<p>But the next afternoon, as the two little girls were walking home +together, Dotty said to Jennie, with a very wise face,—</p> + +<p>"Grandma has told me what the Bible means. Now I understand every single +thing."</p> + +<p>Jennie did not seem as much delighted as had been expected.</p> + +<p>"She says God can get that camel through a needle."</p> + +<p>"O, I remember," said Jennie; "you mean that Bible camel."</p> + +<p>"There isn't anything He can't do," con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>tinued Dotty; "the richest men, +richer than your father, can get to heaven if God's a mind to take 'em."</p> + +<p>"Not bad people," said Jennie, shaking her head.</p> + +<p>"I don't know about that; she didn't say," said Dotty, looking puzzled. +"O, no, I s'pose not. God wouldn't be a mind to. For don't you see, +Jennie Vance, it's just <i>like</i> a camel. There can't anybody go through +themselves unless God <i>pulls</i> 'em through."</p> + +<p>I don't know what Grandma Parlin would have thought if she had heard her +words chopped up in this way; but it made very little difference to +Jennie, who paid no attention at all.</p> + +<p>"You're father'll get there," added Dotty; "so I thought I'd tell you."</p> + +<p>"Your shoestring's untied," said Jennie, coolly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And I don't care now if you are the richest," said Dotty, stooping to +tie the string; "for God loves me just as well when I wear Prudy's old +things; and so do all the good people in this town, and the minister +too; grandma said so. I don't care how much you talk about our old +Deacon, or our eating molasses. That isn't anything! Grandma says its +harder for rich children to be good, and I told her I was real glad I +was half-poor."</p> + +<p>"You're stepping right in the mud," cried Jennie.</p> + +<p>"And then Grandma said that it didn't make any difference any way about +that, if I only loved God; but if I didn't love God, it did."</p> + +<p>"There," said Jennie, "I haven't heard half you've said; and I guess +you've forgotten all about going strawberrying."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I almost know grandma won't be willing," replied Dotty; "we've got +company, too; see those ladies in the window."</p> + +<p>"All the better," replied Jennie, cheerily. "You go in and behave as +beautifully as ever you can, and your grandma'll be so busy talking, +she'll say yes before she thinks. That's the way my mamma does. Say +'Crossman's orchard,' remember, but don't tell which one."</p> + +<p>So Jennie staid outside while Dotty entered the parlor softly, and stood +by her grandmother's chair, waiting the proper time to speak.</p> + +<p>"Strawberrying, did you say?" asked Mrs. Parlin, presently.</p> + +<p>"Yes, grandma; the berries are just as thick."</p> + +<p>"O, just as fick!" repeated Katie, clapping her hands.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p> + +<p>"In the Crossman orchard," added Dotty.</p> + +<p>"Prosser Horcher," put in Katie, choking a little at the large words. +"May her, gamma?"</p> + +<p>Now, Dotty knew, as her grandmother did not, that there were two +orchards; and the one she meant was a mile and a half away.</p> + +<p>"Yes, you may go, Alice; it is only a few steps; but put on an old +dress, and don't stay late; you know you are hardly well since your sore +throat."</p> + +<p>Dotty had not actually told a wrong story, but for almost the first time +she had deceived, and she knew the sin was the same. While she was +exchanging her pretty pink frock for one of dark calico, her conscience +pricked so painfully that she almost wished to stay at home.</p> + +<p>"Just as soon as we get out of the village," said Jennie, "I'm going +barefoot; mother said I might."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p> + +<p>"How splendid your mother is!" sighed Dotty. "Grandma's so particular! +But any way I'm going without my stockings; I declare I will. My +throat's so far away from my feet, what hurt will it do?"</p> + +<p>"Children, obey your parents," said the troublesome voice.</p> + +<p>"Grandma isn't my parent," thought Dotty, tugging away at her +boot-lacings. They went out through the kitchen, to get Dotty's red and +white picnic basket; but they crept like a pair of thieves, lest Ruthie, +who was mixing waffles, should hear them, and take notice of Dotty's +bare ankles.</p> + +<p>Once out of the village, it did not take long for Miss Dimple to slip +off her boots and tuck them in her pocket.</p> + +<p>"O, how nice and cool!" murmured she, poking her little pink toes into +the burning sand; till presently, a thorn, which ap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>peared to be waiting +for that very purpose, thrust its way deep into her foot. She sat down +in the middle of the road and screamed. Jennie tried her best to draw +out the thorn, but only succeeded in breaking it off. Then, with a +clumsy pin, she made a voyage of discovery round and round in the soft +flesh of Dotty's foot, never hitting the thorn, or coming anywhere near +it.</p> + +<p>"O, dear!" said Jennie, petulantly; "we've wasted half an hour! What's +the use for you to be always getting into trouble? A great many berries +we shall have at this rate! and I was going to ask my mamma to let me +have a party."</p> + +<p>"There!" said Dotty, bravely, "I'm going right along now, and no more +fuss about it."</p> + +<p>It was hard work; Dotty limped badly; and all the while the cruel thorn +was tri<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>umphantly working its way farther in. The Crossman orchard was +not very far away now; but when they had reached it, and had crept under +the fence, why, where were the strawberries? What the boys had not +gathered they had trampled down; and the truth was, there had been very +few in the first place. There was nothing to do but pluck here and there +a stray berry, and make the most of it.</p> + +<p>"This is what I call a shame," sighed Jennie; "and look at the sky; it's +growing as black as a pickpocket."</p> + +<p>"Why, yes," moaned Dotty; "how fast that sun has gone down!"</p> + +<p>But this was a mistake. It was only six o'clock. The sun, understanding +his business perfectly, had not hurried one jot. The clouds were merely +spreading a dark background for some magnificent fireworks; in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> other +words, a thunder-shower was coming up.</p> + +<p>"Let's go right straight home," said Jennie; and Dotty was glad to hear +the words, for in her own brave little heart she had determined not to +be the first to surrender.</p> + +<p>"Let's go across the fields," she replied; "it's the nearest way home."</p> + +<p>By this time heavy drops were pattering down on the long grass, and +making a hollow sound on the little girls' hats.</p> + +<p>"Why, it's raining," remarked Dotty.</p> + +<p>"You don't say so," sniffed Jennie, whose temper was quite upset, +"perhaps you think you're telling some news."</p> + +<p>Then came the frightful boom of thunder.</p> + +<p>"What's that?" whispered Dotty, with white lips. "I'm afraid, Jennie; I +certainly am."</p> + +<p>"For shame, Dotty Dimple! I thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> you were the girl that knew all +about God and the Bible. I shouldn't think you'd be afraid of thunder!"</p> + +<p>"O, but I am!" was the meek reply. "I'm as afraid as I can live."</p> + +<p>"There, hush up, Dotty! When you've been and got us into a fix, you'd +better keep still."</p> + +<p>"I, Jennie Vance? I never! What a story!"</p> + +<p>"You did, Miss Dimple; you spelt it out in the Reader,—'straw-bry;' or +I shouldn't have thought of such a thing."</p> + +<p>"Well, I didn't care much about going, now truly, Jennie; for I don't +feel very well."</p> + +<p>"You <i>seemed</i> to be very much pleased. You said, 'How nice!' as much as +twice; and didn't you almost laugh out loud in the spelling class? Hark! +what a clap!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I should think you'd be ashamed," said poor Dotty, hopping on one foot. +"When I laughed it was to see Charlie Gray make up faces. And should I +have gone barefoot if it hadn't been for you?"</p> + +<p>"Well, there, Dotty Dimple, you're a smart little girl, I must say! I +don't mean to ask you to my party, if my mother lets me have one; and +I've a great mind not to speak to you again as long as I live."</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't think you'd dare to quarrel, Jennie Vance, when you may die +the next minute. Let's get under this tree."</p> + +<p>"Lightning strikes trees, you goosie!"</p> + +<p>"O, Jennie Vance! isn't there a barn anywhere in this great pasture?"</p> + +<p>"Men don't keep barns in their pastures, Dot Dimple; and lightning +strikes barns too, quicker'n a flash!"</p> + +<p>Dotty covered her face with her hands.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You don't seem to know scarcely anything," continued Jennie, +soothingly. "I don't believe you know what a conductor is."</p> + +<p>"Of course I do. It's the man on the cars that takes your ticket."</p> + +<p>"No; that's one kind; but in storms like this a conductor is a—a +conductor is a—why, I mean if a thing is a conductor, Dotty,—why then +the thunder and lightning conducts it all to pieces, and that's the last +there is of it! My father's got a book of <i>hijommerty</i> that tells all +about such things. You can't know for certain. Just as likely as not, +now, our baskets are conductors; and then again perhaps they are <i>non</i>; +and I don't know which is the worst. If we were sure they were <i>either +one</i>, we ought to throw 'em away! that's a fact!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed!" cried Dotty, tossing hers behind her as if it had been a +living<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> scorpion. "Do you s'pose <i>hats</i> will conduct?"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! no. I didn't say baskets would, did I?" returned Jennie, who +still held her own dangling from her arm. "Yours was a perfect beauty, +Dot. What a fuss you make!"</p> + +<p>As Dotty had all this while been stifling her groans of pain, and had +also been careful not to express a hundredth part of her real terror of +lightning, she thought her friend's words were, to say the least, a +little severe.</p> + +<p>"Why, this is queer," cried Jennie, stopping short. "It's growing wet +here; haven't you noticed it? Now I've thought of something. There's a +bog in this town, <i>somewhere</i>, so awful and deep that once a boy slumped +into it, don't you think, up to his waist; and the more he tried to get +out the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> more he couldn't; and there he was, slump, slump, and got in as +far as his neck. And he screamed till he was black and blue; and when +they went to him there wasn't a bit of him out but the end of his nose, +and he couldn't scream any more; so all they could do was to pull him +out by the hair of his head."</p> + +<p>"Is that a true story, now, honest?" cried Dotty, wringing her hands. +"How dreadful, dreadful, dreadful! What shall we do?"</p> + +<p>"Do?" was the demure reply; "stand as stock-still as ever we can, and +try not to shake when we breathe. Next thing we might slump."</p> + +<p>"I do shake," said Dotty; "I can't help it."</p> + +<p>"Don't you say anything, Dotty Dimple. I never should have thought of +going across lots if you hadn't wanted to; and now you'd better keep +still."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p> + +<p>So even this horrid predicament was owing to Dotty; she was to blame for +everything. "Stock-still" they stood under the beating rain, their +hearts throbbing harder than the drops.</p> + +<p>Yes, there certainly was a bottomless pond—Dotty had heard of it; on +its borders grew the pitcher-plant which Uncle Henry had brought home +once. It was a green pitcher, very pretty, and if it had been glass it +could have been set on the table with maple molasses in it (only nobody +but poor people used molasses).</p> + +<p>O, there <i>was</i> a deep, deep pond, and grass grew round it and in it; and +Uncle Henry had said it was no place for children; they could not be +trusted to walk anywhere near it, for one false step might lead them +into danger. And now they had come to this very spot, this place of +unknown horrors!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> What should they do? Should they stand there and be +struck by lightning, or try to go on, and only sink deeper and deeper +till they choked and drowned?</p> + +<p>Never in all Dotty's little life had she been in such a strait as this. +She cried so loud that her voice was heard above the storm, in unearthly +shrieks. She didn't want to die! O, it was so nice to be alive! She +would as lief have the sore throat all the time, if she might only be +alive. She said not a word, but the thoughts flew through her mind like +a flock of startled swallows,—not one after another, but all together; +and so fast that they almost took her breath away.</p> + +<p>And O, such a naughty girl as she had been! Going barefoot! Telling a +story about Crossman's orchard! Making believe she never fibbed, when +she did the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> thing as that, and she knew she did. Running off to +play when grandma wished her to stay with Flyaway. Feeding Zip Coon with +plum cake to see him wag his tail, and never telling but it was brown +bread. Getting angry with the chairs and tables, and people. Doing all +manner of wickednesses.</p> + +<p>Dotty was appalled by the thought of one sin in particular. She +remembered that in repeating the Lord's prayer once, she had asked for +"daily bread and butter." Her mother had reproved her for it, but she +had done the same thing again and again. By and by, when her mother +positively forbade her to say "butter," she had said "bread and +molasses;" "for, mamma," said she, "you know I don't like <i>bare</i> bread."</p> + +<p>"I s'pose Miss Preston would say that was the awfulest wickedness of +all, and I guess it was. O, dear!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p> + +<p>Well, if she ever got home she would be a better girl. But it wasn't +likely she ever should get home.</p> + +<p>"Why, Jennie," said she, speaking now for the first time, "here we are; +and when we stand still we don't move at all; we don't go home a bit, +Jennie."</p> + +<p>"Of course not, Dotty Dimple; that's a very bright speech! I've thought +the same thought my own self before ever you did!"</p> + +<p>Another silence, broken only by the pitter patter of the rain; for the +thunder was growing less and less frequent.</p> + +<p>"But we must go home some time," cried Jennie with energy. "If it kills +us to death we must go home. Just you put your foot out, Dotty dear, and +see if it sinks way down, down. I thought it was beginning to grow a +little soft right here."</p> + +<p>"O, dear, I don't dare to!" groaned Dot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>ty, shaking with a nervous +chill; "you put your foot in your own self, Jennie Vance, and see where +it goes to. I don't want to slump down up to my hair any more'n you do. +What do you s'pose!"</p> + +<p>"Fie! for shame, Dotty Dimple! I always thought you were a coward, and +now I know it! What if I should give you my ring, made of all carrot +gold, would you do it then? Just nothing but put your foot out?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Would</i> you give me the ring now, honest?" said Dotty, raising her +little foot cautiously; "certain true?"</p> + +<p>"Why, you know, Dotty, if I said I would, I would."</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 278px;"> +<img src="images/gs02.png" width="278" height="400" alt="Dotty" title="Dotty" /> +</div> + +<p>A sudden thought was darting across Dotty's mind, like another startled +swallow; only this one came alone, and did not take her breath away; for +it was a pleasant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> thought—Where were they? Whose field was this?</p> + +<p>Why, it was Mr. Gordon's pasture. And Johnny came here for the cow every +night of his life. And, as true as the world, there was the Gordon cow +now, the red and white one, standing by the fence, lowing for Johnny.</p> + +<p>"A great deal of bottomless pond this is, and so I should think!" said +Dotty to herself with a smile. "Where a cow can go I guess I can go with +my little feet. Soft? why, it isn't any softer than anybody's field is +after it rains."</p> + +<p>So, without saying a word, the little girl put her foot out, and of +course it touched solid earth.</p> + +<p>"There!" she cried, "I did it, I did it! You said I was a coward; and +who's a coward now? Where's your gold ring, Jennie Vance?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why, the ground is as hard as a nut, I declare," said Jennie, walking +along after Dotty with great satisfaction. "I didn't much think there +was a swamp in this field all the time. Only I thought, if there was, +what a scrape it would be! Come to think of it, I believe that +bottomless pond is in the town of Augusta."</p> + +<p>"No," replied Dotty, "it's on the other side of the river. I know, for +Uncle Henry went to it in a boat. But where's my ring?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know anything about your ring; didn't know you had any."</p> + +<p>"I mean <i>yours</i>, Jennie Vance; or it <i>was</i> yours; the one on your +forefinger, with a red stone in it, that you said you'd give to me if +I'd put my foot in it."</p> + +<p>"Put your foot in what?"</p> + +<p>"Why, you know, Jennie Vance; in the mud."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, there wasn't any mud; 'twas as hard as a nut."</p> + +<p>"You know what I mean, Jennie," exclaimed Dotty, growing excited. "So +you needn't pretend!"</p> + +<p>"I'm not pretending, nor any such a thing," replied Jennie, with a great +show of candor; "it's you that are making up a story, Dotty Dimple. I +didn't say I'd give you my ring. No, ma'am; if 'twas the last words I +was to speak, I never!"</p> + +<p>"O, Jennie Vance! Jane Sidney Vance! I should think the thunder and +lightning would conduct you to pieces this minute; and a bear out of the +woods, and every thing else in this world. I never saw a little girl, +that had a father named Judge, that would lie so one to another in all +the days of my life."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Jennie, coolly, "if you've<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> got done your preaching, I'll +tell you what I said. I said, 'What if I should;' so there! I didn't say +I would, and I never meant to; and you may ask my father if I can get it +off my finger without sawing the bone in two."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!" replied Dotty, poising her head backward with queenly dignity; +"indeed!"</p> + +<p>"I didn't tell a story," said Jennie, uneasily. "I should think any +goosie might know people wouldn't give away jewels just for putting your +foot out."</p> + +<p>"It's just as well," said Dotty, with extreme dignity; "just <i>precisely</i> +as well! I have one grandmamma who is a Quakeress, and she don't think +much of little girls that wear rings. Ahem!"</p> + +<p>Jennie felt rather uncomfortable. She did not mind Dotty's anger, but +her quiet contempt was another thing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I think likely I may go to Boston next week," said she; "and if I do, +this is the last time we shall go strawberrying together this summer."</p> + +<p>"O, is it?" said Dotty.</p> + +<p>After this the two little creatures trudged on in silence till they +reached Mr. Parlin's gate. Jennie ran home in great haste as soon as she +was free from her limping companion; and Dotty entered the side-door +dripping like a naiad.</p> + +<p>"Why, Alice Parlin!" said grandmamma, in dismay; "how came you in such a +plight? We never thought of you being out in this shower. We supposed, +of course, you would go to Mrs. Gray's, and wait till it was over."</p> + +<p>"We were nowhere near Mr. Gray's," faltered Dotty, "nor anywhere else, +either."</p> + +<p>"I should think you had been standing under a water-spout," said Aunt +Louise.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Grandma, can't you put her through the wringer?" asked Prudy, laughing.</p> + +<p>Dotty sank in a wet heap on the floor, and held up her ailing foot with +a groan.</p> + +<p>"Why, child, barefoot?" cried Aunt Louise. Dotty said nothing, but +frowned with pain.</p> + +<p>"It is a cruel thorn," said her good grandmother, putting on her +spectacles and surveying the wound.</p> + +<p>"Yes, 'm," said Dotty, finding her tongue. "I almost thought 'twould go +clear through, and come out at the top of my foot."</p> + +<p>Katie took a peep. "No, it didn't," said she; "it hided."</p> + +<p>"There, there, poor little dear," said grandmother; "we'll put her right +to bed. Ruthie, don't you suppose you and I can carry her up stairs?"</p> + +<p>Not a word yet about the naughtiness;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> but plenty of pity and soft +poultices for the wounded foot.</p> + +<p>"She's a very queer child," thought Ruth, coming down stairs afterwards +to steep hops for some beer; "a very odd child. She has something on her +mind; but <i>we</i> shan't be any the wiser till she gets ready to tell it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3>MAKING POETRY.</h3> + + +<p>But when Prudy had come to bed, Dotty could talk more freely.</p> + +<p>"O, dear," said she, hiding her face in her sister's bosom; "I don't +want them to laugh at me, but I've lost my boots and my basket, and been +dripped in the rain, and got a thorn in my foot too, till it seems as if +I should die!"</p> + +<p>"But you'll never do so again, little sister," said Prudy, who could +think of no other consolation to give.</p> + +<p>"And lightning besides, Prudy! And she made me throw away my beautiful +picnic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> basket, and she kept hers, and it never hurt her a bit! Don't +you think she was just as mean! What makes grandma let me go with her, +do you s'pose? I shall grow real bad! Won't you tell her to stop it?"</p> + +<p>Dotty moaned with pain, and between her moans she talked very fast.</p> + +<p>"And all this time," said she, "we haven't any ducks!"</p> + +<p>Prudy, who was dropping off to sleep, murmured, "No."</p> + +<p>"But it's real too bad, Prudy. I never saw such a lazy old hen—did you? +Prudy, <i>did</i> you?"</p> + +<p>Presently, when Prudy thought it must be <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'arly'">nearly</ins> morning, there was a +clutch upon her shoulder, and a voice cried in her ear,—</p> + +<p>"I don't see what makes you go to sleep, Prudy Parlin, when my foot +aches so bad! And O, how I want a drink o' water!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p> + +<p>Prudy thought she should never find the match-box; but she did at last, +and lighted the lamp after several trials. It was dreary work, though, +going down stairs with those sticks in her eyes, to get the water.</p> + +<p>Dotty drained the nipperkin at two draughts, and said it wasn't half +enough.</p> + +<p>"O, you shall have all you want, little sister," said Prudy, kindly; +"you may drink up the whole barrel if you like."</p> + +<p>So down she went again, and this time brought a pitcher. On her return +she found Dotty weeping in high displeasure.</p> + +<p>"You told me to drink up that whole barrel, you did," cried the +unreasonable child, shaking her head.</p> + +<p>"Did I?" said Prudy; "well, dear, I didn't mean anything."</p> + +<p>"But you <i>said</i> so—the whole, whole barrel," repeated Dotty rocking +back and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> forth; "you talk to me just as if I—was—black!"</p> + +<p>"Hush!" said Prudy, "or you'll wake grandma. Let me see; do you want me +to tell you a conundrum? Why does an elephant carry his trunk?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know; I s'pose he can't help it; it grows on the end of his +nose."</p> + +<p>"That isn't the answer, though, Dotty; it's because—because he's a +traveller!"</p> + +<p>"An elephant a traveller? Where does he travel to? I don't believe it."</p> + +<p>"Well," replied Prudy, "I can't see any sense in it myself. O, stop a +minute! Now I know; I didn't tell it right. This is the way; 'Why is an +elephant like a traveller? Because he carries a trunk!' Isn't that +funny?"</p> + +<p>"I don't care anything about your elephants," said Dotty; "if you don't +try to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> please me, Prudy Parlin, you'll have to wake up grandma, and +call her in here, or I shall cry myself sick!"</p> + +<p>Patient Prudy crept into bed, but left the lamp burning.</p> + +<p>"Suppose we make up some poetry?" said she.</p> + +<p>"Why, you don't know how to make up poetry—do you?" said Dotty, leaning +on her elbow, and looking with dreamy eyes at the engraving of Christus +Consolator at the foot of the bed. "I love poetry when they read it in +concert at school. Don't you know,—</p> + +<div class='center'> +'Tremendous torrents! For an instant hush!'<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>Isn't that splendid?"</div> + +<p>"Very splendid, indeed," replied Prudy, pinching herself to keep awake.</p> + +<p>"I think Torrence is <i>such</i> a nice name," pursued Dotty; "don't you tell +anybody<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> but when I'm married and have some boys, I'm going to name some +of them Torrence."</p> + +<p>"Not more than one, Dotty!"</p> + +<p>"O, no, I couldn't; could I? There mustn't but one of them have the same +name; I forgot. 'Tremendous Torrence!' I shall say; and then he'll come +in and ask, 'What do you want, mother?'"</p> + +<p>Prudy suddenly hid her face under the sheet. The absurdity of little +Dotty's ideas had driven the sleep out of her eyes.</p> + +<p>"It would do very well for a name for a very queer boy," said she, +stifling a laugh; "but a torrent <i>generally</i> means the Niagara Falls."</p> + +<p>"Does it?" said Dotty; "who told you so? But I guess I shall call him by +it just the same though—if his father is willing."</p> + +<p>Dotty looked very much interested.</p> + +<p>"What will you call the rest of your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> boys?" asked Prudy, glad to talk +of anything which kept her little sister pleasant.</p> + +<p>"I shan't have but two boys, and I shall name the other one for his +father," replied Dotty, thoughtfully; "I shall have eight girls, for I +like girls very much; and I shall dress them in silk and velvet, with +gold rings on their fingers, a great deal handsomer than Jennie Vance's; +but they won't be proud a bit. They never will have to be punished; for +when they do wrong I shall look through my spectacles and say, 'Why, my +eight daughters, I am very much surprised!' And then they will obey me +in a minute."</p> + +<p>"Yes," returned Prudy; "but don't you think now we'd better go to +sleep?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed," said Dotty, drawing herself up in a little heap and +holding her throbbing foot in her hand; "if you don't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> make poetry I'm +going to make it myself. Hark!—</p> + +<p> +'Once there was a little boy going down hill;<br /> +He leaped, he foamed, he struggled; and all was o'er.'<br /> +</p> + +<p>"Do you call that poetry?" said Prudy, laughing. "Why, where's the +rhyme?"</p> + +<p>"The rhyme? I s'pose I forgot to put it in. Tell me what a rhyme is, +Prudy; <i>maybe</i> I don't know!"</p> + +<p>"A rhyme," replied her wise sister, "is a jingle like this: 'A boy and a +toy,' 'A goose and a moose.'"</p> + +<p>"O, is it? how queer! 'A hill and a pill,' that's a rhyme, too."</p> + +<p>"Now," continued Prudy, "I'll make up some real poetry, and show you +how. It won't take me more than a minute; its just as easy as +knitting-work."</p> + +<p>Prudy thought for a few seconds, and then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> recited the following lines +in a sing-song tone:—</p> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="When the sun"> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">"When the sun</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Had got his daily work done,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">He put a red silk cloud on his head,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">(<i>For a night-cap you know,</i>)</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And went to bed.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">He was there all sole alone;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">For just at that very time the moon</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>(<i>That isn't a very nice rhyme, but I can't help it,</i>)</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Was dressed and up,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And had eaten her sup-</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Per. 'Husband,' said Mrs. Moon, 'I can't stop to kiss you good by;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">I've got to leave you now and go up in the sky.'"</span></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>"O, how pretty!" said Dotty; "how it jingles! Did you make that up in +your own head?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed; just as fast as I could knit once round. I could do a +great deal better if I should spend more time. I mean to take a slate +some time and write it all full of stars, and clouds, and everything<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +splendid. I shall say, 'What a pity it is that a nice husband and wife, +like the sun and moon, can't ever live together, but have to keep +following each other round the sky and never get near enough to shake +hands!' I'll pretend that it makes the moon look very sober indeed, but +the sun isn't so tender-hearted; so he can bear it better. O, Dotty, +don't you let me forget to put that into poetry! I can jingle it off, +and make it sound beautiful!"</p> + +<p>"I should think you might put my verse into poetry, too. Can't you say +'a pill rolled down hill?'" said Dotty.</p> + +<p>"O, I can make poetry of it easier than that. You don't need to change +but one word:—</p> + +<p> +'There was a little boy going down hill,<br /> +He leaped, he foamed, he struggled;—and all was <i>still</i>.'"<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p> + +<p>Dotty repeated it several times with much delight. "That's beautiful," +said she, "now honest; and I did almost the whole of it myself!"</p> + +<p>After this she began to grow drowsy, and, forgetting her troubles, fell +asleep, to the great relief of poor sister Prudy, who was not long in +following her.</p> + +<p>Next morning Prudy awoke at nearly the usual time; but her sister was +still in the land of dreams, and she stole out of the room without +disturbing her.</p> + +<p>"Grandmamma," said she, "Dotty has had an awful night! I've had to be up +with her, and trying to pacify her, most of the time."</p> + +<p>"A whole hour," said grandma, smiling.</p> + +<p>"O, grandma, it was nearly all night, but there didn't anybody know it; +we talked low, so we needn't disturb you."</p> + +<p>Grandmother and Aunt Maria smiled at each other across the table.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I dare say, my dear," said Aunt Maria, "you thought you were as quiet +as two little mice; but I assure you you kept everybody awake, except +grandpa and Susy."</p> + +<p>"Why, Aunt 'Ria!"</p> + +<p>"But we learned a lesson in poetry-making," said Aunt Louise, "which was +worth lying awake to hear. Don't you suppose, Maria, that even prosy +people, like you and me, might jingle poetry till in time it would +become as easy as knitting-work?"</p> + +<p>Prudy blushed painfully.</p> + +<p>"I thought," said Grace, "the sun must look very jolly in his red silk +night-cap, only I was sorry you forgot to tell what he had for +breakfast."</p> + +<p>"Nothing but cold potatoes out of the cupboard," said Horace; "he keeps +bachelor's hall. It's just as well the old fellow can't meet his wife, +for she's made of green<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> cheese, and he'd be likely to slice her up and +eat her."</p> + +<p>A tear glittered on Prudy's eyelashes. Horace was the first to observe +it, and he hastened to change the subject by saying his johnny-cake was +so thin he could cut it with a pair of scissors. By that time Prudy's +tears had slyly dropped upon her napkin, and she would have recovered +her spirits if Aunt Louise had not remarked carelessly,—</p> + +<p>"Seems to me our little poetess is rather melancholy this morning."</p> + +<p>Prudy's heart was swollen so high with tears that there would have been +a flood in about a minute; but Horace exclaimed suddenly,—</p> + +<p>"O, mother, may I tell a story? Once there were two old—two maiden +ladies in Nantucket, and they earned their living by going round the +island picking up the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> 'tag-locks' the sheep had left hanging to the +bushes and rocks. Now, you wouldn't believe, would you, mother, that +those two women could get rich by selling tag-locks?"</p> + +<p>"I certainly should not," replied Mrs. Clifford, smiling fondly on her +young son; for she saw and approved of his kind little scheme for +diverting his cousin's attention.</p> + +<p>"Well, mother, they lived to be more than sixty years old; and when they +made their wills, how much money do you suppose they had to leave? I +wish you'd try to guess."</p> + +<p>"Dear me," said Mrs. Clifford, "I'm sure I can't imagine: I shall have +to give it up."</p> + +<p>"So must I," said grandmamma; "I make such poor work at guessing: I +suppose they lived very frugally?"</p> + +<p>"A thousand dollars?" suggested Grace.</p> + +<p>"A million?" said Susy.</p> + +<p>"A shilling?" chimed in Aunt Louise.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p> + +<p>"<i>Not one cent!</i>" replied Horace.</p> + +<p>"Well, well," said grandmother, "you've caught us napping this time."</p> + +<p>But only she and Aunt Maria appreciated Horace's gallantry towards his +sensitive cousin Prudy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3>A DAY ON THE SOFA.</h3> + + +<p>When Dotty Dimple awoke that morning, she was very much astonished to +see the sun so high.</p> + +<p>"The sky looks very clean," said she, "and I should think it might after +such a washing."</p> + +<p>She did not know it, but for some reason the pure blue of the heavens +made her feel dissatisfied with herself. Since she had slept upon it, +her last night's conduct seemed worse to her than ever. All this while +her grandmamma's forgiveness had not been asked. Must it be asked? Dotty +hung her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> proud head for shame. Then she offered her morning prayer, and +promised God that henceforth she would try to be good.</p> + +<p>"If Jennie Vance only stays away," added she, meekly.</p> + +<p>The fact was, Dotty was losing faith in herself. She had boasted that +she never told a lie; she had "preached" to Jennie Vance; and now, +behold, what had she been doing herself! The child was full of good +resolutions to-day, but she began to find that her strongest purposes +did not hold together any longer than her gingham dresses.</p> + +<p>Her foot was so lame and swollen that she made believe the staircase was +a hill, and slid down it accordingly. As she hobbled by the parlor door, +she saw her Aunt Maria seated on the sofa sewing. It must be very late, +she knew. Little Flyaway, who had been chasing the cat, ran to meet her, +look<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>ing very joyful because her cousin had overslept herself.</p> + +<p>"It's half past o'clock," said she, clapping her little hands; "half +past o'clock, Dotty Dimple!"</p> + +<p>Dotty felt quite ashamed, but her grandmother assured her that although +it was nearly ten o'clock, she was perfectly excusable. She seated her +in an easy chair, and gave her a cracker to nibble; for Dotty said she +was not hungry, and did not care for breakfast.</p> + +<p>There was one thought uppermost in the little girl's mind: she must ask +her grandmother's forgiveness. Some children might not have seen the +necessity, but Dotty had been well instructed at home; she knew this +good, kind grandmamma was deserving of the highest respect, and if any +of her grandchildren disobeyed her, they could do no less<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> than +acknowledge their fault. But Dotty was a very proud child; she could not +humble herself yet.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Parlin dressed the lame foot, and pitied it, and was very sorry the +little girl had any soreness of the throat; but not a word of reproach +did she utter; she was waiting to see if Dotty had anything to say for +herself.</p> + +<p>Susy and Prudy had gone to Aunt Martha's and, till "the Charlie boy" +came, there was no one at home for company but little Katie. Dotty did +not wish to think; so she made the best of the little ones, and played +"keep school."</p> + +<p>Black Dinah was the finest-looking pupil, but there were several others +made of old shawls and table-covers, who sat bolt upright, and bore +their frequent whippings very meekly. Katie and Charlie each held<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> a +birch switch, and took the government of the school, while Dotty did the +teaching.</p> + +<p>"Spell <i>man</i>," said Dotty, sternly, pointing with a bodkin at Dinah.</p> + +<p>Dinah was sulky, and kept her red silk mouth shut; but Dotty answered +for her: "m, a, n, man."</p> + +<p>"To," said she to the black and white shawl: "t, o, to." "Put," to the +green table-cover: "p, u, t, put."</p> + +<p>"We 'shamed o' you," said Katie, beating the whole school unmercifully. +"Why don't you mind in a minute? Let <i>me</i> spell 'em! Hush, Dinah! Say +put! T, o, put!"</p> + +<p>"I think," said Dotty, laughing, "it is time now for Dinah to take her +music lesson."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Katie, "lady wants um to packus."</p> + +<p>So the colored miss was set on the music<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> stool, and both her kid hands +spread out upon the keys.</p> + +<p>"Don't um packus booful?" said Katie, admiringly.</p> + +<p>But next moment Charlie was punishing the pupil because she didn't +"breeve." "Kady wanth her to breeve when her packithith."</p> + +<p>As it was an ingrain misfortune of Dinah's that she could not breathe, +she showed no signs of repentance.</p> + +<p>"Stop!" said Dotty; "she looks faint; it is rheumatism, I think."</p> + +<p>"O, O, roosum-tizzum! Poo' Dinah!" said Katie.</p> + +<p>"We must pack her in a wet sheet," said Dotty.</p> + +<p>Katie was sent to the kitchen for a towel and a basin of water; and very +soon Dinah's clothes were removed, and she was rolled up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> in a pack; +like the boy in the swamp, with "not a bit of her out but the end of her +nose."</p> + +<p>"Ow! Ow!" cried Katie, in a tone of agony, speaking for Dinah. "Ow! O, +dear!"</p> + +<p>This was what the black patient would have said, no doubt, if she had +had her faculties. Aunt Maria came in, a little alarmed, to inquire what +was the matter with Katie.</p> + +<p>"Nuffin, mamma, only we <i>suffer</i> Dinah," replied the child, dancing +round the patient; "her wants to ky, but her can't. Gets caught in her +teef comin' out!"</p> + +<p>"Very well," said Mrs. Clifford, kissing the small nurse, "you may +'suffer' Dinah as much as you like, but please don't scream quite so +loud."</p> + +<p>"Is grandma busy, Aunt 'Ria?" said Dot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>ty; "because I'd like to see her +a moment."</p> + +<p>The child had seized her knitting-work. Her face was flushed and eager. +She thought she felt brave enough to open her heart to her grandmother; +but when Mrs. Parlin entered the nursery, her face beaming with +kindness, Dotty was not ready.</p> + +<p>"O, grandma," stammered she, "are there any ducks hatched? Don't you +think that hen is very slow and very lazy?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Parlin knew her little granddaughter had not called her out of the +kitchen merely to ask about the poultry. She seated herself on the sofa, +and drew Dotty's head into her lap.</p> + +<p>"Please look at my knitting-work, grandma. Shall I seam that stitch or +<i>plain</i> it?"</p> + +<p>"You are doing very well," said Mrs. Par<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>lin, looking at the work; "you +seamed in the right place."</p> + +<p>Dotty cast about in her mind for something more to say.</p> + +<p>"Grandma, you know what fireflies are? Well, if you scratch 'em will +they light a lamp? Susy says they have <i>fosfos</i> under their wings, like +a match."</p> + +<p>"No, Alice; with all the scratching in the world, they could not be made +to light a lamp."</p> + +<p>Dotty sighed.</p> + +<p>"Grandma, there are some things in this world I hate, and one is +skeetos."</p> + +<p>"They are vexatious little creatures, it is true."</p> + +<p>There was a long pause.</p> + +<p>"Grandma, are skeetos idiotic? You said people without brains were +idiotic, and there isn't any place in a skeeto's head for brains."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Dotty," said grandma, rising with a smile, "if you sent for me to ask +me such foolish questions as these, I must really beg to be excused. I +have a pudding to make for dinner."</p> + +<p>"Grandma, O, grandma," cried Dotty, seizing her skirts, "I have +something to say, now truly; something real sober. I—I—"</p> + +<p>"Well, my dear," said Mrs. Parlin, encouragingly.</p> + +<p>"I—I—O, grandma, which do you think can knit the best, Prudy or I?"</p> + +<p>"My dear Dotty," said the kind grandmother, stroking the child's hair, +"don't be afraid to tell the whole story. I know you have a trouble at +your heart. Do you think you were a naughty girl last night?"</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/gs03.png" width="400" height="249" alt="Dotty and "The Charlie Boy."" title="Dotty and "The Charlie Boy."—" /> +<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Dotty and "The Charlie Boy."</span>—<a href='#Page_113'>Page 113</a>.</span> +</div> + +<p>Dotty's head drooped. She tried to say,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> "Yes, ma'am;" but, like +Dinah, "the words got caught in her teef comin' out."</p> + +<p>"We didn't go where you thought we did, grandma," faltered she at last. +"Mr. Crossman has two orchards, and we went to just the one you wouldn't +have s'posed."</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear; so I have learned to-day."</p> + +<p>"I deceived you a-purpose, grandma; for if I hadn't deceived you, you +wouldn't have let me go."</p> + +<p>There was a sorrowful expression on Mrs. Parlin's face as she listened +to these words, though they told her nothing new.</p> + +<p>"Has you got a pain, gamma?" said little Katie, tenderly.</p> + +<p>"I did another wickedness, grandma," said Dotty, in a low voice; "I went +barefoot, and you never said I might."</p> + +<p>"Poor little one, you were sorely punished for that," said grandma, +kindly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And another, too, I did; I threw my basket away; but that wasn't much +wicked; Jennie made me think perhaps 'twas a non."</p> + +<p>"A what?"</p> + +<p>"A <i>non</i>, that catches lightning, you know; so I threw it away to save +my life."</p> + +<p>Grandma smiled.</p> + +<p>"And now," continued Dotty, twirling her fingers, "can you—can +you—forgive me, grandma?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed I can and will, child, if you are truly sorry."</p> + +<p>"There now, grandma," said Dotty, looking distressed, "you think I don't +feel sorry because I don't cry. I can't cry as much as Prudy does, ever; +and besides, I cried all my tears away last night."</p> + +<p>Dotty rubbed her eyes vigorously as she spoke, but no "happy mist" came +over them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why, my dear little Alice," said grandmamma, "it is quite unnecessary +for you to rub your eyes. Don't you know you can <i>prove</i> to me that you +are sorry?"</p> + +<p>"How, grandma?"</p> + +<p>"Never do any of these naughty things again. That is the way I shall +know that you really repent. Sometimes children think they are sorry, +and make a great parade, but forget it next day, and repeat the +offence."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, grandma, I don't mean ever to deceive or disobey again," said +Dotty, with a great deal more than her usual humility.</p> + +<p>"Ask your heavenly Father to help you keep that promise," said Mrs. +Parlin, solemnly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3>WASHING THE PIG.</h3> + + +<p>After her grandmother had left the room, Miss Dotty lay on the sofa for +five minutes, thinking.</p> + +<p>"Then it doesn't make any difference how much anybody cries, or how much +they don't cry. If they are truly sorry, then they won't do it again; +that's all."</p> + +<p>Then she wondered if <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Jenny'">Jennie</ins> Vance had asked her step-mother's pardon. She +thought she ought to talk to Jennie, and tell her how much happier she +would feel if she would only try to be a good little girl.</p> + +<p>"That child is growing naughty every day<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> of her life," mused Miss +Dimple, with a feeling of pity.</p> + +<p>There was plenty of time to learn the morning's lesson by heart, for +Dotty was obliged to keep very quiet all day. The thorn had been removed +from her foot, but the healing must be a work of time; and more than +that, her throat was quite sore.</p> + +<p>It seemed as if Susy and Prudy would never come; and when at last their +cheerful voices were heard ringing through the house, it was a welcome +sound indeed. They had brought some oranges for Katie and Dotty, with +sundry other niceties, from Aunt Martha's.</p> + +<p>"Did you know," said Dotty, "I haven't had any breakfast to-day? I've +lost one meal, and I never shall make it up as long as I live; for I +couldn't eat two breakfasts, you know."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what we'll do," said Aunt Louise, laughing; "if you'll +wake me up at twelve o'clock some night, I'll rise and prepare a +breakfast for you, and that will make it all right."</p> + +<p>Dotty looked at her auntie as if she did not know whether to take her in +earnest or not.</p> + +<p>"I've been sick at home all day, Prudy," said she; "and I s'pose +<i>you've</i> been having a good time."</p> + +<p>"Splendid! And Lightning Dodger brought us home."</p> + +<p>"Who's Lightning Dodger?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Aunt Martha's horse; don't you know? They call him that because +they say he goes so fast the lightning don't have time to hit him."</p> + +<p>"O, you don't believe it—do you?" cried Dotty; "I guess that's +poetry."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Little sister," replied Prudy, speaking in a low voice, "don't say +'poetry' ever again. There's something about it that's very queer. I +thought I knew how to make poetry, but they all laugh at me, even +grandma."</p> + +<p>Dotty looked greatly surprised.</p> + +<p>"Yes," continued Prudy, with a trembling voice; "I can rhyme verses and +jingle them; but there's something else I don't put in, I s'pose, that +belongs there. Some time I'll look in the big dictionary and see what it +is."</p> + +<p>"Is Prudy telling about the party?" asked Susy, from the corner.</p> + +<p>"What party?" cried Dotty, dancing on her well foot.</p> + +<p>"There, now, don't feel so happy, darling, for you can't go; its a +family party, and Cousin Lydia wrote she hadn't room for the two +youngest; that's you and Flyaway."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p> + +<p>Dotty looked as if she had received a blow. True, she knew nothing about +<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Couisn'">Cousin</ins> Lydia, who lived twenty miles away; but if that individual was +going to have a party, of course Dotty wished to go to it.</p> + +<p>"Uncle John is going, all <i>his</i> wife and children," said Prudy; "and I +don't see why Dotty can't."</p> + +<p>Uncle John was Aunt Martha's husband, and "all <i>his</i> wife and children" +meant only Aunt Martha and Lonnie.</p> + +<p>"<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Couisin'">Cousin</ins> Lydia wanted to make me cry," exclaimed Dotty, her eyes shooting +out sparks of displeasure; "she 'spected I'd cry, and that's +why—Katie," added she, drawing the little one up to her, "Cousin Lydia +won't let you come to her house."</p> + +<p>"What <i>for</i> she won't?" cried Katie, looking defiant. "If I good would +her put me in the closet? I don't like her tall, tenny rate."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p> + +<p>This was the strongest expression of wrath Katie dared use; and when she +said she did not like a person "tall tenny rate," it meant that she was +very, very angry.</p> + +<p>"Has Cousin Yiddy got some heart?" asked she indignantly.</p> + +<p>"Not a bit," replied Dotty, fiercely.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Parlin now tried to explain. She said Mrs. Tenny did not intend any +disrespect to the two youngest ones; but she really had no room for +them, as her guests were to spend the night.</p> + +<p>"The mistake she made was in asking Susy and Prudy," said Aunt Louise; +"but I suppose she was curious to see our little poetess."</p> + +<p>Prudy blushed, and hid her face behind the curtain.</p> + +<p>"Poor little sister," thought she, "how she feels!" For Dotty sat in the +rocking-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>chair, as stiff as a jointed doll, looking as if she loved +nobody and nobody loved her. Her beautiful eyes had ceased to shoot +sparks of fire, and now appeared hard and frozen, like thick blue ice. +In fact, a fit of the pouts was coming on very fast, and gentle Prudy +dreaded it. She had been so happy in the thought of riding to +Bloomingdale; could she give up that pleasure, and stay at home with +Dotty? Nothing less, she knew, would satisfy the child. All her life +Prudy had been learning to think of the happiness of others before her +own. She cast another glance at the still face.</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to Bloomingdale," sighed she, behind the curtain.</p> + +<p>But when she told Mrs. Parlin so, that night, her voice was very +tremulous.</p> + +<p>"You dear little girl," said grandma, giving her a hearty kiss; "you +need not make<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> any such resolve. Your sister Alice must learn to bear +disappointments as well as you. You are going to Bloomingdale with us, +my child; so bring your blue dress to me, and let me see if it is in +order."</p> + +<p>Though Prudy's offer to remain at home had been made in all good faith, +and though she was really sorry to think of leaving Dotty alone, still I +cannot say her heart did not bound with delight on being told she <i>must</i> +go.</p> + +<p>Thursday morning came clear and bright, and with it Miss Polly, downcast +and sad, in a mournful brown bonnet, the front of which, as Prudy said, +was "making a courtesy." Miss Polly was, however, in as good spirits as +usual, and had come to keep house with Ruth, and help take care of the +children for this day and the next.</p> + +<p>Till the last minute Prudy and Dotty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> walked the piazza, their arms +about each other's waist.</p> + +<p>"I s'pose," said Dotty, sullenly, "when you are at that old Cousin +Lydia's, having good times, you won't think anything about me and Katie, +left here all alone."</p> + +<p>"Why, little sister!"</p> + +<p>"Maybe," continued Dotty, "the ducks will hatch while you're gone. I saw +the white hen flying over the fence with one of those eggs in her +mouth."</p> + +<p>"A piece of the shell?"</p> + +<p>"O, no, a whole egg, right in her bill," replied Dotty, who supposed she +was telling the truth. "And you know those big strawberries that cost a +cent apiece, Prudy; you'll be sorry you couldn't be here to help eat 'em +in cream."</p> + +<p>Perhaps Dotty hoped, even at this last moment, that Prudy would be +induced to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> stay at home. If so, she was doomed to be disappointed.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Prudy, "I'm glad you'll have such nice times, Dotty."</p> + +<p>"O, it won't be nice at all. Something will happen; now you see if it +don't," said Dotty, determined to be miserable.</p> + +<p>After the two carriages, with the horses "Deacon" and "Judge," had +driven off, and grandpa had given his last warning about fire, and +Horace and the girls had waved their handkerchiefs for the last time, +Dotty proceeded to the kitchen to see if she could find anything +wherewith to make herself unhappy. Ruth stood by the flour-board +kneading bread, and cutting it with a chopping-knife in a brisk, lively +way. Polly sat by the stove sighing and rubbing silver.</p> + +<p>"Dear me, child, what are you doing with my starch?" said Ruth as she +saw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> Dotty with the bowl at her lips, and a sticky stream tickling down +her apron.</p> + +<p>"Starch?" cried Dotty, in disgust; "and you never told me, Ruthie! How +did I know it wasn't arrow-root?"</p> + +<p>"You see, Polly," said Ruth in a discouraged tone, "just what we are to +expect from these children to-day. Next thing we know, that morsel of a +Katie will be running away. They are enough to try the patience of Job +when they both of them set out to see what they <i>can</i> do. And if Jennie +Vance comes, the house will be turned upside down in five minutes."</p> + +<p>Ruth might have known better than to complain to Polly, who always had +something in her own experience which was worse than anybody else had +known.</p> + +<p>"We all have our trials," sighed that sorrowful woman; "if it isn't +children, it's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> aches and pains. Now, for my part, I've been troubled +for ten years with—"</p> + +<p>Here followed a list of diseases. Ruth shut her lips together, resolved +to say nothing more about her own trials.</p> + +<p>"They don't either of them like me," thought Dotty. "I'm going off in +the barn, and perhaps they'll think I'm dead. Katie," said she, sternly, +"I'm going off somewhere, and you mustn't try to find me."</p> + +<p>Then there was some one else who felt quite alone in the world, and that +was little Katie. Her cousin had pushed her one side as if she was of no +value. Katie was a very little child, but she was old enough to feel +aggrieved. She went into the parlor, and threw herself face downwards on +the sofa, thinking.</p> + +<p>"Somebody leave me alone. O, dear! Some naughty folks don't think I'm +any gooder than a baby."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then the poor little thing ran out to "breve the fleshy air." No, she +wasn't quite alone in the world after all, for there was Charlie Gray at +the gate.</p> + +<p>"Is um <i>you?</i>" she cried gleefully.</p> + +<p>Charlie said it was.</p> + +<p>"You didn't came to see big folks—did you? You camed to see Katie. I +love you deely."</p> + +<p>Then she tried to kiss him; but Charlie drew away.</p> + +<p>"O, is your face sore?" asked the little girl.</p> + +<p>By this time they had got as far as the seat in the trees, and Charlie +had found his tongue.</p> + +<p>"I didn't come thee <i>you</i>," said he. "I came thee your grandpa'th pig."</p> + +<p>"O," said Katie, perfectly satisfied.</p> + +<p>Off they started for the pig-pen.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 282px;"> +<img src="images/gs04.png" width="282" height="400" alt="Washing the Pig." title="Washing the Pig." /> +<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Washing the Pig.</span>—<a href='#Page_137'>Page 137</a>.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'm glad Dotty Dimble goed away," said Katie, swinging Charlie's hand; +"her's stinchy and foolidge."</p> + +<p>"Good girlth don't thay tho," said sweet little Charlie rather shocked.</p> + +<p>"Well, I do; stinchy and foolidge!" repeated Katie, as severely as if +she had known what the words meant.</p> + +<p>The pig was not expecting any visitors, and when he found that Charlie +and Katie had brought him nothing to eat, he did not seem very glad to +see them.</p> + +<p>"How you do, piggy?" said Katie, swinging a stick through the opening by +the trough.</p> + +<p>Piggy ran away, looking very unamiable; and then he came back again, +rolling his little eyes, and grunting sulkily.</p> + +<p>"He don't look pleathant," said Charlie.</p> + +<p>"No," replied Katie, archly; "I guess um don't want to be kissed."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span></p> + +<p>Piggy winked his pink eyes, as if to say, "Ah, but I do."</p> + +<p>"Does you?" said Katie, kindly, "then I'll frow you one;" and she did it +from the tips of her clean fingers.</p> + +<p>"But piggy's velly dirty," said she, wiping her lips on her apron.</p> + +<p>"Don't they wath him?" said Charlie; "they wath theep."</p> + +<p>"Um isn't a sheep," returned Katie; "um's a pig."</p> + +<p>"But your gwampa could wath him."</p> + +<p>"No, gampa couldn't; gampa's deaf. I'll tell Ruthie, and Ruthie'll wash +him with the toof brush."</p> + +<p>"I with thee would," sighed Charlie; "thee ought to. O ho!" he added, a +bright thought striking him; "you got a mop?"</p> + +<p>"A mop?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; a bwoom 'thout any bwoom on it; only wags."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></p> + +<p>Katie knew what he meant in a minute; and soon her hair was flying in +the wind, as she ran into the house for her handled mop. She looked +first in the parlor, and then in the front hall; but at last she found +it in the wash-room. She was very sly about it, for she was not sure +Ruthie would approve of this kind of housework. Then Charlie tugged out +a pail of water, and dipped in the mop; and between them both they +<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'thurst'">thrust</ins> it through the opening of the pen, upon piggy's back. But the +dirty creature did not love clean water. When he felt the mop coming +down, he thought the sky was falling, and ran as fast as Chicken Little +frightened by the rose-leaf.</p> + +<p>It was of no use. The mop was wilful, and fell into the trough; and +there it staid, though the children spent the rest of the forenoon in +vain attempts to hook it out.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> When Ruthie went that noon to feed the +pig, she found the trough choked with a mop, a hoe, a shovel, and +several clothes-pins. She did not stop to inquire into the matter, but +took the articles out, one by one, saying to herself, with a smile,—</p> + +<p>"Some of that baby's work. I couldn't think what had become of my mop; +she's enough to try the patience of Job. And now," added Ruth, throwing +her apron over her head, "I may as well look up Miss Dimple. There's not +a better child in the world than she is when she pleases; but deary me, +when things do go wrong!"</p> + +<p>Just then a wagon drove up to the gate, and Ruth said, as she saw a +burly figure alight from it,—</p> + +<p>"Why, that can't be Uncle Seth? I'm afraid something has happened at our +house!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3>A DARK DAY.</h3> + + +<p>Meanwhile Dotty was lying on the hay in the barn scaffold. It is very +easy to be unhappy when we particularly try to be so; and Dotty had +arrived at the point of <i>almost</i> believing that she <i>almost</i> wished she +was actually dead.</p> + +<p>And, to add to her gloom, a fierce-looking man, with a long horse-whip +in his hand, came and peeped in at the barn door, and screamed to Dotty +in a hoarse voice that "Ruth Dillon wanted her right off, and none of +her dilly-dallying."</p> + +<p>And then, on going into the house, what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> should she learn but that this +man had come to take Ruth home, because her mother was sick. The +children—so Ruth said—must stay with Polly and be little ladies.</p> + +<p>O, dear, it was as lonesome as a line-storm, after lively Ruth had gone +away. Dotty began to think she liked her brisk little scoldings, after +all.</p> + +<p>"Does you feel so bad?" said little Flyaway, gazing on her sober cousin +with pity; "your mouth looks just this way;" and, putting up both hands, +she drew down her own little lips at the corners.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I feel bad," said Dotty. "You needn't talk to me; where's your +orange?"</p> + +<p>"I squoze it," replied Flyaway; "and falled it down my froat. But I +didn't had enough. If you pees, um, give me some more."</p> + +<p>"Why, what an idea!" said Dotty, laughing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span></p> + +<p>But when she began to divide her own orange into sections, Katie looked +on expectantly, knowing she should have a share. Dotty ate two quarters, +gave one to Katie, and reserved the fourth for Polly. She longed to eat +this last morsel herself, but Polly had praised her once for giving away +some toys, and she wished to hear her say again, "Why, what a generous +little girl!"</p> + +<p>But when she smilingly offered the bite, what was her surprise to hear +Polly say in an indifferent tone,—</p> + +<p>"Well, well, child, you needn't have saved such a tiny piece for me; it +doesn't amount to anything!"</p> + +<p>At the same time she ate the whole at a mouthful. Dotty felt very much +irritated. Did Miss Polly think oranges grew on bushes? What was the use +to be generous if people wouldn't say "thank you?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I don't feel much better than I did when I gave the beggar my money. +But I didn't do my 'alms before men' this time, though," said she, +looking at her little fat arms and wondering what her grandmother meant +by talking of her giving <i>them</i> away.</p> + +<p>"I s'pose it's my <i>fingers</i> that grow on the ends of my arms, and that's +what I give with," she concluded.</p> + +<p>On the whole she was passing a dismal day. She had been told that she +must not go away; and it happened that nobody came, not even Jennie +Vance.</p> + +<p>"If Prudy had been left alone, all the girls in town would have come to +see her," thought the forlorn Miss Dimple, putting a string round one of +her front teeth, and trying to pull it out by way of amusement.</p> + +<p>"O, dear, I can't move my tooth one inch. If I could get it out, and put +my tongue<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> in the hole, then there'd be a gold one come. But I can't. O, +dear!"</p> + +<p>"Where is your little cousin?" said Miss Polly, coming into the room +with her knitting in her hand. "I thought she was with you: I don't +wonder they call her Flyaway."</p> + +<p>"I don't know where she is, I'm sure, Miss Polly. Won't you please pull +my tooth! And do you 'spose I can keep my tongue out of the hole?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Dotty, I thought you were going to take care of that child," said +Miss Polly, dropping her knitting without getting around to the +seam-needle, and walking away faster than her usual slow pace.</p> + +<p>"There's nothing so bad for me as worry of mind: I shall be sick as sure +as this world!"</p> + +<p>Dotty knew she had been selfish and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> careless. She not only felt ashamed +of herself, but also very much afraid that something dreadful had +happened to Katie, in which case she would be greatly to blame. She +anxiously joined in the search for the missing child. I am sure you +would never guess where she was found. In the watering trough! Not +drowned, because the water was not deep enough!</p> + +<p>"I was trying to srim," said she, as they drew her out; "and <span class="smcap">that's</span> what +is it."</p> + +<p>Even Miss Polly smiled at the dripping little figure with hair clinging +close to its head; but Flyaway looked very solemn.</p> + +<p>"It makes me povokin'," said she, knitting her brows, "to have you laugh +at me!"</p> + +<p>"It would look well in you, Dotty," said Miss Polly, "to pay more +attention to this baby, and let your teeth alone."</p> + +<p>Dotty twisted a lock of her front hair,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> and said nothing; but she +remembered her grandmother's last words,—"Alice, I depend upon you to +amuse your little cousin, as your Aunt Maria told you. You know you can +make her very happy when you please."</p> + +<p>"Seems to me," thought Dotty, "that baby might grow faster and have more +sense. <i>I</i> never got into a watering-trough in my life!—Why, how dark +it is! Hark!" said she, aloud; "what is that rattling against the +windows?"</p> + +<p>For she heard</p> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="the driving hail"> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 6em;">"the driving hail</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Upon the window beat with icy flail."</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p>"That is hail," replied Polly—"frozen drops of rain."</p> + +<p>"Why Miss Polly," said Dotty, giving a fierce twitch at her tooth, "rain +can't freeze the least speck in the summer. You don't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> mean to tell a +wrong story, but you've made a mistake."</p> + +<p>"Her's made a 'stake," said Katie.</p> + +<p>"Now, look, Polly, it's stones! They're pattering, clickety-click, all +over the yard. Dear, dear! The grass will look just like the +gravel-path, and the windows will crack in two."</p> + +<p>"Never you mind," said Polly, knitting as usual; "if it does any harm, +'twill only kill a few chickens."</p> + +<p>Upon this there was another wail; for next to ducks Dotty loved +chickens. But lo! before her tears had rolled down to meet her dimples, +the patter of hail was over.</p> + +<p>"Come and see the rainbow," said Polly, from the door-stone.</p> + +<p>It was a glorious sight, an arch of varied splendor resting against the +blue sky.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That isn't a rainbow," said Dotty; "it's a hail-bow!"</p> + +<p>"What a big, big, big bubbil!" shouted Katie.</p> + +<p>"She thinks somebody is blowing all that out of soapsuds, I s'pose," +said Dotty; "I guess 'twould take a giant with a 'normous pipe—don't +you, Polly?"</p> + +<p>"There, now," said Miss Polly, "I just want you to hold some of this +hail in your hand. What do you call that but ice?"</p> + +<p>"So it is," said Dotty; "cold lumps of frozen ice, as true as this +world."</p> + +<p>"And not stones," returned Polly. "Now you won't think next time you +know so much better than older people—will you?"</p> + +<p>"But I don't see, Miss Polly, how it got here from Greenland; I don't, +now honest."</p> + +<p>"I didn't say anything about Greenland,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> child. I said it was rain, and +it froze in the air coming down; and so it did."</p> + +<p>"Did it? Why, you know a great deal—don't you, Miss Polly? Did you ever +go to school?"</p> + +<p>Polly sighed dismally.</p> + +<p>"O, yes, I went now and then a day. I was what is called a 'bound girl.' +I didn't have nice, easy times, like you little ones. You have no idea +of my hardships. It was delve and dig from sunrise to sunset."</p> + +<p>"Why, what a naughty mother to make you dig! Did you have a ladies' +hoe?"</p> + +<p>"My mother died, Dotty, when I was a creeping baby. The woman who took +me to bring up was a hard-faced woman. She made me work like a slave."</p> + +<p>"Did she? But by and by you grew up, Miss Polly, and, when you had a +husband, he didn't make you a dog—did he?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I never had a husband or anybody else to take care of me," said Polly. +"Come, children, we must go into the house."</p> + +<p>They all three entered the parlor, and Miss Whiting fastened the window +tightly to exclude the air, for it was one of her afflictions that she +was "easy to take cold."</p> + +<p>"I don't see," queried Dotty, "why your husband didn't marry you. I +should have thought he would."</p> + +<p>"He didn't want to, I suppose," said Polly, grimly.</p> + +<p>Dotty fell into a brown study. It was certainly very unkind in <i>some</i> +man that he hadn't married Miss Polly and taken care of her, so she need +not have wandered around the world with a double-covered basket and a +snuff-box. It was a great pity; still Dotty could not see that just now +it had anything to do with Polly's forgetting to set the table.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> "I'm so +hungry," said she; "isn't it 'most supper time?"</p> + +<p>"It's only five; but you appear to be so lonesome that I'll make a fire +this minute and put on the tea-kettle," replied the kind-hearted Polly. +"What does your grandmother generally have for supper?"</p> + +<p>"Cake sometimes," answered Dotty, her eyes brightening; "and tarts."</p> + +<p>"And perjerves," added Katie; "and—and—yice puddin'."</p> + +<p>"She keeps the cake in a stone jar," said Dotty, eagerly; "and the +strawberries are down cellar in a glass dish—cost a cent apiece."</p> + +<p>"The slips they grew from cost a cent apiece; that is what you mean," +said Polly; "you hear things rather hap-hazard sometimes, Dotty, and you +ought to be more careful."</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 271px;"> +<img src="images/gs05.png" width="271" height="400" alt="A Dark Day." title="A Dark Day." /> +<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">A Dark Day.</span>—<a href='#Page_154'>Page 154</a>.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p> + +<p>The tea-kettle was soon singing on the stove, and Dotty forgot her +peculiar trials when she saw the table covered with dainties. She was +not sure grandma would have approved of the cake and tarts, but they +were certainly very nice, and it was a pleasure to see how Polly enjoyed +them. Dotty presumed she had never had such things when she lived with +the "hard-faced woman."</p> + +<p>"It wasn't everywhere," she said, "that she saw such thick cream as rose +to the tops of Mrs. Parlin's pans."</p> + +<p>She poured it freely over the strawberries and into her own tea, which +it made so delicious that she drank three cups. Then after supper she +seemed to feel quite cheery for her, and, taking Katie in her arms, +rocked her to sleep to the tune of "China," which is not very lively +music, it must be confessed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Aunt 'Ria puts her to bed awake," said Dotty. "She's going to sleep in +my bed to-night."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said Polly, "but you will sleep with me."</p> + +<p>"Why, Miss Polly! what if Katie should wake up?"</p> + +<p>"She won't be likely to; but I can't help it if she does. I may have the +nightmare in the night."</p> + +<p>"What is the nightmare?"</p> + +<p>"It is something perfectly dreadful, child! I sincerely hope you'll +never know by sad experience. It's the most like dying of any feeling I +ever had in my life. I can't move a finger, but if I don't move it's +sure death; and somebody has to shake me to bring me out of it."</p> + +<p>Dotty turned pale.</p> + +<p>"Miss Polly, O, please, I'd rather sleep with Katie!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But how would you feel to have me die in the night?"</p> + +<p>"O, dear, dear, dear," cried Dotty; "let me go for the doctor this +minute!"</p> + +<p>"Why, child, I haven't got it now, and perhaps I shan't have it at all; +but if I do, I shall groan, and that's the way you will know."</p> + +<p>Dotty ran into the shed, threw her apron, still sticky with starch, over +her head, and screamed at the wood-pile.</p> + +<p>"O, if grandma were only at home, or Ruth, or Abner!"</p> + +<p>"Why, what's the matter, little Goody-Two-Shoes?" said a manly voice. +Abner had just come from his day's work in the meadow.</p> + +<p>"Polly's here," gasped Dotty. "She's afraid she's going to die in the +night, and she wants me to shake her."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p> + +<p>Abner leaned against a beam and laughed heartily.</p> + +<p>"Never you fear, little one! I have heard that story about Polly's dying +in the night ever since I can remember; and she hasn't died yet. You +just say your prayers, dear, and go to sleep like a good little girl, +and that's the last you'll know about it till morning."</p> + +<p>So saying, he caught Dotty by the shoulders, and tossed her up to the +rafters. The child's spirits rose at once. It was such a comfort to have +that strong Abner in the house in case of accidents.</p> + +<p>She said her prayers more earnestly than usual, but it was nearly five +minutes before she fell asleep. The last thing she heard was Miss Polly +singing a very mournful hymn through her nose; and, while she was +wondering why it should keep people alive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> to shake them, she passed +into dreamland. Very little good would such a heavy sleeper have done if +Miss Polly had had an ill turn. It was Polly who was obliged to shake +Dotty, and that rather roughly, before she could rouse her.</p> + +<p>"Where am I? Who is it?" said she. "O, Miss Polly, are you dead?"</p> + +<p>"Hush, child; don't speak so loud; or you'll wake Abner. Little Katie is +sick, and I want you to stay with her while I go down stairs and light a +fire."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3>THE END OF THE WORLD.</h3> + + +<p>Dotty shuddered. It seemed so unearthly and horrible to be awake at +night; to see a lamp burning, and Katie looking so very white. It was +the strawberries which had made her ill, as Miss Polly confessed. When +that good but ignorant woman had gone down stairs, Dotty had much ado to +keep from screaming outright.</p> + +<p>"I thought somebody would die," said she to herself; "but I didn't +s'pose it would be Katie. O, Katie, Katie Clifford! you're the +cunningist child. We can't have you die!"</p> + +<p>"Somebody leave me alone," moaned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> Katie; "and 'twas you'n the Polly +woman. I don't love anybody in this world!"</p> + +<p>"Darling! I didn't mean to," said Dotty, "now honest. Polly said, 'O, +dear! she was going to die'; but I might have known she wouldn't. She +told a wrong story—I mean she made a mistake."</p> + +<p>"You was naughty," said Katie, "velly naughty; but you didn't mean to."</p> + +<p>"No, Katie; 'twas Polly that was naughty."</p> + +<p>"The krilt got off o' me," said Katie, picking at the tufted coverlet; +"and then I was sick."</p> + +<p>"Miss Polly said it was the strawberries, darling; and the cream poured +over them so thick."</p> + +<p>"And getting into the watering-trough," added Dotty to herself, +uneasily.</p> + +<p>"Yes," sighed Katie: "'twas the stawbollies. Did <i>I</i> ask for the +stawbollies? No,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> but the Polly woman gave 'em to me. <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'didn't'">Didn't</ins> want 'em; I +wanted to be well."</p> + +<p>After two weary hours, which seemed as long as days almost, poor little +Katie was easier, and fell asleep. Dotty, who had taken several naps in +her chair, would now have gone to bed again; but Miss Polly was dressed, +and said she could not close her eyes if she tried; she meant to go down +stairs to her knitting. Dotty was afraid to stay alone. She was always a +little timid, and to-night her nerves had been considerably tried. The +lamp cast frightful shadows, and the newly-risen moon shone through the +white curtains with ghostly light. She could "preach" to Jennie Vance +about God's "holding the whole world in his arms;" but she could not +always remember it herself. She put on a white wrapper of Susy's, and, +looking like a wimpled nun, followed Polly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> down stairs. If she thought +of wee Katie at all, she thought there were good angels in the room to +guard her; but she could not trust <i>herself</i> with them; she would rather +keep close to Polly.</p> + +<p>"I think," whispered Polly, unlocking the back door and looking out at +the sky, "it must be very near morning; but the clocks have both run +down, and I can only guess at the time by my feelings."</p> + +<p>Then Polly made a brisk fire in the stove, and set the tea-kettle to +humming.</p> + +<p>"Now I will get the milk-pail," said she, "and you may put on the +tea-pot. I am faint for want of something to drink."</p> + +<p>It was one of Polly's peculiarities that she always talked to children +as if they had as much judgment as grown people. Dotty did not know +where to look for any tea-pot except the very best one, which stood on +a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> shelf in the china closet; that she brought and set on the stove, +empty.</p> + +<p>"Let me go too, let me go too!" cried she, as Polly was walking out with +the milk-pails.</p> + +<p>The daisies, with "their little lamps of dew," seemed still asleep, and +so did all the "red-mouthed flowers" in the garden. The cows looked up +with languid surprise at sight of their visitors, but offered no +objections to being milked. Dotty gave one hasty peep at the white hen +sitting on the venerable duck's eggs; but the hen seemed offended. Dotty +ran away, and took a survey of the "green gloom" of the trees, in the +midst of which was suspended the swing, looking now as melancholy as a +gallows.</p> + +<p>"O, what a dreadful night this is!" thought the child, standing bolt +upright, lest she should fall asleep. "Where's the sun?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> He hasn't taken +off his red silk night cap. He hasn't got back from China yet. Only +think,—if he shouldn't come back at all! I heard somebody say, the +other day, the world was coming to an end. Miss Polly," said she, aloud, +re-entering the barn, "isn't this the longest night you ever saw in all +the days of your life?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it has been considerable long, I am free to confess," replied +Polly, who thought she had had a very hard time keeping house, as was +indeed the truth.</p> + +<p>"Do you s'pose, Miss Polly, that some morning the sun won't rise any +more?"</p> + +<p>"O, yes," replied Miss Polly, who was always ready with a hymn:—</p> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="God reigns above"> +<tr><td align='left'>"'God reigns above,—he reigns alone;</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: .5em;">Systems burn out, and leave His throne.'</span></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>"Why, yes, dear; the world will certainly come to an end one of these +days; and <i>then</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> the sun won't rise, of course; there won't be any +sun."</p> + +<p>And Miss Polly began to hum one of her sorrowful tunes, beating time +with the two streams of milk which dripped mournfully into the pail.</p> + +<p>"She is afraid this is the end of the world," thought Dotty, with a +throbbing heart, and a stifling sensation at the throat; "she don't +believe the sun is ever going to rise any more."</p> + +<p>The music suddenly ceased.</p> + +<p>"These are very poor cows," said Polly, in a reflective tone; "or else +they don't give down their milk. I understood you to say, Dotty, that +Ruth milked very early."</p> + +<p>"If everything's coming to an end, it's no wonder the cows act so," said +Dotty, to herself, but she dared not say it aloud.</p> + +<p>They went into the house, the trail of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> Susy's long wrapper following +after little Dotty Dimple like the closing feet in one of Polly's +long-metre verses. Still the moon shone with the same white, ghostly +light, and the sun continued to keep away.</p> + +<p>"This beats all," said Polly, mournfully; as she washed her hands, +strained the milk, and set the pans away. "If I judged by my feelings, I +should say it must be six o'clock, or very near it. At any rate, I'm +going to have a cup of tea. What's this smell?"</p> + +<p>On the stove stood a pool of something which looked like liquid silver, +and proved to be the remains of the best tea-pot. At any other time +Dotty would have felt very sorry; but now the accident seemed a mere +trifle, when compared with the staying away of the sun. Who could tell +"if ever morn should rise?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span></p> + +<p>Even Miss Polly, with her constitutional gloom, was not just now so +miserable as Dotty, and never dreamed that it was anything but +sleepiness which made the little girl so sober. Dotty was not a child +who could tell all the thoughts which troubled her youthful brain.</p> + +<p>"Well, well," said Polly, giving another inquiring glance at the sky; +"not a streak of daylight yet! I'll tell you what it is, Dotty; we might +as well go to bed."</p> + +<p>But hark! As she spoke there was a loud report as of a pistol. It seemed +to come from the cellar.</p> + +<p>Miss Polly clapped both hands to her ears. Dotty shrieked, and hid her +face in her lap, and shrieked again.</p> + +<p>"It has come! It has come!" cried she,—meaning the end of the +world,—and stopped her ears.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What, what, what!" whispered Polly, in sore affright, walking back and +forth, and taking snuff as she went. It was certainly startling to hear +a pistol go off so unexpectedly, at that solemn hour, under one's very +roof. Polly naturally thought first of housebreakers. She had barred and +double-barred every door and window; but now she remembered with +dreadful remorse she had not fastened the outside cellar door. No doubt +it had been left open, and burglars had got into the cellar. O, what a +responsibility had been put upon her! and why hadn't somebody +particularly warned her to attend to that door? Perhaps the burglars +were stealing pork. But they would not have fired a pistol at the +barrel—would they? O, no; they were trying to blow up the house!</p> + +<p>Polly took three pinches of snuff, one after the other, as fast as she +could, slipped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> off her shoes, went to the kitchen window, and peeped +through the blinds. Not much to be seen but moonlight, and the deep +shadows of the ragged trees.</p> + +<p>Another pistol-shot; then another. The sound came from that part of the +cellar called the soap-room, directly under Polly's feet.</p> + +<p>She did not wait for further warning. Every moment was precious. She +meant to save what lives she could, for Polly was strictly +conscientious. She took the nearly frantic Dotty into the china closet, +dragging her like a sack of meal, and turned the key.</p> + +<p>"Stay there, child, if you know when you're well off," whispered she +through the keyhole. "The house is blowing up. I'm going to call Abner."</p> + +<p>In her consternation Polly had not re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>flected that Dotty was as likely +to be blown up in the closet as anywhere else. The unfortunate little +girl screamed and struggled in her prison in vain. There was no way of +escape. Night of horrors! As far as she was concerned, there were two +ends to the world, and they were coming right together. Her agony is not +to be described.</p> + +<p>Abner came very soon; but it seemed an age. Being a brave man who had +served three months in the army, he had the courage to walk down cellar +and face the enemy.</p> + +<p>He found nothing worse, however, than a few bottles of beer which had +blown off their own heads. He brought them up in his arms.</p> + +<p>"Here," said he, "are your burglars, with their throats cut from ear to +ear."</p> + +<p>"Well, if I ever had such a fright in all the days of my life!" cried +Polly, staring at the bottles, and catching her breath.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span></p> + +<p>Abner poured some of the beer into a goblet, and drank to the health of +Miss Dimple, who climbed upon his knee, and felt as if the world had +suddenly stopped coming to an end; and she was greatly relieved.</p> + +<p>"But who fired the guns?" said she, not understanding yet what it all +meant.</p> + +<p>"It was only the beer coming out to get the air," said Abner, taking +another glass. "You couldn't expect beer with the spirit of a hop in it +to stay bottled up with a stopper in!"</p> + +<p>"I never had such queer feelings," exclaimed Polly, rolling up her eyes; +"and now it's all over, I feel as if I was going to faint away."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't advise you to," said Abner, coolly. "The enemy is routed, +and victory is ours. Drink a little beer, Polly; it will revive your +spirits. But what is the object, may I ask, of your prowling about the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +house with this poor little girl at this hour of night?"</p> + +<p>"Why, what time is it? I thought by my feelings it must have been +daybreak long enough ago."</p> + +<p>It was Abner's private opinion that Polly would do well to think less of +her "feelings" now and always; but he only said, consulting his watch,—</p> + +<p>"It's just one o'clock, ladies; time for respectable people to be in +bed."</p> + +<p>Polly said she had never felt such surprise before in her life. She was +afraid she should be sick; for sitting up in the night was always too +much for her.</p> + +<p>Dotty said her prayers over again, and fell into a sleep "sweeter than a +nest of nightingales." And with her last waking thought she thanked God +the round red sun was not worn out yet, and the world had not come to an +end.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h3>CRAZY DUCKLINGS.</h3> + + +<p>When the family came home, Miss Polly had a most doleful story to tell +about Katie's experiment in the watering-trough, the child's illness, +the explosion of the beer, and her own fright and "dreadful feelings."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Parlin regretted the loss of the tea-pot; Miss Louise said she had +heard of "witches making tea," and perhaps this was the way they did it.</p> + +<p>In return for Miss Whiting's laborious services in taking care of the +children, Mrs. Parlin gave her various articles of food to carry home; +for Polly had one room in Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> Grant's house, which she was accustomed +to call her home, though she did not stay there very much. Polly sighed +her gratitude, put on her dark bonnet, and said, as she went away,—</p> + +<p>"Now, Mrs. Parlin, if it should so happen that you should all go away +again, don't fail to ask me to come and keep house. You have always been +so kind to me that I feel it a privilege to do any such little thing for +you."</p> + +<p>But in her heart poor Polly thought it was anything but a "little +thing," and it cost her a great effort to promise to undertake it again. +Mrs. Parlin thanked Miss Polly very politely; but for her part she +thought privately it would be a long while before they would, any of +them, be willing to trust such a nervous person with the care of the +children a second time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Good by, all," said Polly, going off with her double-covered basket on +her arm; "remember me to Margaret when you write."</p> + +<p>"What a funny thing to say!" remarked Prudy; "how can we remember people +to anybody, or forget them to anybody either?"</p> + +<p>"O, it was awful," said Dotty, linking arms with Prudy and walking her +off to the seat in the trees. "Miss Polly scared me so I don't believe I +shall ever be afraid of lightning again!"</p> + +<p>Little Flyaway ran after them, holding her nipperkin of milk close to +her bosom, to keep off the flies, as she thought.</p> + +<p>"I was defful sick," said she; "and did I ask the Polly woman for the +stawbollies? No, she was naughty; <i>I</i> didn't want 'em. She gived me +stawbollies and stawbollies."</p> + +<p>Prudy had to hear over and over again the trials which both the children +had suffered.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> She had had a delightful time herself, as she always did +have, wherever she was. She told Dotty and Flyaway of several +interesting events which had happened; but, best of all, she had brought +them a quantity of beautiful shells, which they were to divide with +Ruthie. The brisk Ruth had come back again as energetic as ever. It +proved that her mother had not been so very ill, after all.</p> + +<p>"Bless that Prudy's little white heart," said she, kissing her on both +cheeks; "she never forgets anybody but herself."</p> + +<p>Ruthie did not praise children as a general thing; but she loved Prudy +in spite of herself.</p> + +<p>Aunt Maria had brought Dotty a beautiful doll. "Because," said she, "I +knew you would try to take good care of my little Katie."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span></p> + +<p>"O, thank you ever so much, Aunt 'Ria," cried Dotty, handing the dolly +at once to Prudy to be admired. But next minute her conscience pricked +her. She had no right to a present. True, Katie ought to have known +better than to try to swim; still, as Dotty acknowledged,—</p> + +<p>"I needn't have felt so sober, I s'pose, and then I should have taken +care of her."</p> + +<p>Dotty was learning to pay heed to these little pricks of conscience. +Slowly and sadly she walked back to her Aunt Maria, who was standing on +the piazza training the clematis.</p> + +<p>"I s'pose, auntie, you thought I took care of the baby; but I didn't. I +let her swim. Miss Polly said <i>she</i> had the 'blues,' and so did I."</p> + +<p>Aunt Maria smiled. "Very well," said she; "then keep the doll as a +recompense for the suffering you have endured. I hope<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> you will not see +two such gloomy days again during the summer."</p> + +<p>"O, you darling auntie! May I keep the dolly?"</p> + +<p>There was no sting now to mar Dotty's pleasure in her new possession. +Her troubles seemed to be over; life was blossoming into beauty once +more.</p> + +<p>"Good news! Good news!" she cried, rushing into the house, her head, +with its multitude of curl-papers, looking like a huge corn-ball. "Two +duckies have pecked out!"</p> + +<p>"You don't say so!" said Susy, coolly. "High time, I should think!"</p> + +<p>So thought the patient and astonished old hen, who had been wondering +every day for a week if this wasn't an uncommonly "backward season." But +at last the eggs, like riches, had taken to themselves wings.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span></p> + +<p>The soft, speckled creatures found plenty of admiring friends to welcome +them as they tried their first "peep" at the world. They did not see +much of the world, however, for some time, it must be confessed, on +account of the corn-meal dough which the children sprinkled into their +eyes.</p> + +<p>"We won't let you starve, our ony dony Ducky Daddleses," said Dotty.</p> + +<p>"Our deenty doiny Diddleses," said Katie after her, running hither and +thither like a squirrel.</p> + +<p>It was a time of great satisfaction. Dotty regretted that Jennie Vance +had gone to Boston, for it would have been pleasant to see Jennie +envious. What were gold rings compared to ducklings? The blunt little +beaks pecked out very fast. As soon as they were all out, except the two +eggs which were addled, the step-mother hen gathered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> her family +together and went to house-keeping, gipsy fashion, in the back yard. She +clucked to the ducklings, and they followed her, their little feet going +pat, pat, on the soft grass. A nice time they had, no doubt, eating +picked-up dinners, with now and then a banquet of corn-meal dough. There +were eleven ducklings, five for Dotty, five for Prudy, and one for +Katie, the little girl with flying hair.</p> + +<p>After they had been alive two days, Prudy thought they ought to have a +bath; so she took the large iron pan which Ruth used for baking +johnny-cakes, filled it with water, put the tiny creatures in, and bade +them "swim," to Madam Biddy's great alarm. They did it well, though they +were as badly crowded as the five and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.</p> + +<p>Katie wished the Charlie boy to see the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> ducklings, which were "velly +difrunt from a piggie;" but dear Charlie was very ill, and when the +children went with the milk, they were not allowed to see him.</p> + +<p>I may as well give you here the history of the ducklings.</p> + +<p>The next morning after their "swim" there were only ten left, and +Dotty's lamentations could be heard all over the house. It was Katie's +odd one, she said, that was gone, the one with a black picture on his +back that looked like a clover. Next morning there were nine; and on the +tenth day there was but one solitary duckling left to pipe out his +sorrows all alone. The anguish of the children was painful to be behold. +Dotty's grief affected her somewhat like the jumping toothache. Who +could have carried away those dear, dear little duckies?</p> + +<p>Who indeed? About this time the un<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>principled old cat was found in the +cellar, wiping her lips and purring over a little soft, speckled down.</p> + +<p>"It was you that did it, was it, you wicked mizzable kitty?" burst forth +the bereaved Dotty behind the swinging broomstick. "I must strike you +with the soft end. I will! I will! If I'd known before that you'd eat +live duckies! O, pussy, pussy, when I've given you my own little bones +on a plate with gravy!"</p> + +<p>"Whose little bones did you say, my dear!" asked Abner.</p> + +<p>"Chickens and turkeys, and so forth!" replied Dotty, dancing about in +her rage.</p> + +<p>"Why, dear little damsel, do I really understand you to say you eat +chickens? Then you are as bad as the cat."</p> + +<p>"Why, Abner!"</p> + +<p>"And worse, for you have no claws."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No claws?"</p> + +<p>"No—have you? If you had, I should conclude they had been made to tear +little birds and mice in pieces."</p> + +<p>"Is that what kitty's claws were made for?"</p> + +<p>"So I am told. The truth is, she behaves much better for a cat than you +do for a little girl."</p> + +<p>Dotty scowled at her feet and patted them with the broom.</p> + +<p>"And better than I do for a young man."</p> + +<p>"But she ate my duckies—so there!"</p> + +<p>"And Prudy's too," said Abner. "But Prudy doesn't beat her for it. It +isn't pleasant to see nice little girls show so much temper, Dotty. Now +I'm going to tell you something; all those ducklings were a little +crazy, and it didn't make much difference what became of them."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Crazy?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, their minds were not properly balanced. There's one left, I +believe. I'm going to make a lunatic asylum for him, and put him in this +very day."</p> + +<p>Dotty calmed herself and watched Abner as he made a pen with high +stakes, and set in one corner of it a pan of water for swimming +purposes.</p> + +<p>The "speckling," as she called him, was Dotty's own; and when he was put +into this insane hospital, all safe from the cat, his little mistress +was in a measure consoled.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry he is crazy," said she; "but I s'pose the hen didn't hatch +him well. Maybe he'll get his senses by and by."</p> + +<p>All this while dear little Charlie Gray was very ill. But I will tell +you more about him in another chapter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h3>"THE CHARLIE BOY."</h3> + + +<p>Dotty heard of Charlie's illness every day; but, like all young +children, she thought very little about it. Some one said he was "as +white as his pillow." Dotty was amazed, for she had never seen any one +as white as that. Then she heard her grandmother say she was "afraid +Charlie would die."</p> + +<p>"Die?" It sounded to Dotty like a word heard in a dream. She only knew +that people must die before they went to heaven, and when they died they +were very, very cold.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 254px;"> +<img src="images/gs06.png" width="254" height="400" alt="Dotty in the Swing." title="Dotty in the Swing." /> +<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Dotty in the Swing.</span>—<a href='#Page_189'>Page 189</a>.</span> +</div> + +<p>One night, when she went with the milk,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> Mrs. Gray was weeping. She +asked Dotty if she would like to see little Charlie "once more."</p> + +<p>Dotty entered the darkened room with a strange feeling of awe. There he +lay, so still she hardly dared to breathe. Darling, darling Charlie!</p> + +<p>But when she had touched the little hot hand and kissed the sweet wasted +face, her heart grew lighter. What had made them think he was going to +heaven? He did not look any more like an angel now than he had always +looked. His face was not as white as the pillow; no, indeed; and he was +not cold; his lips were warmer than hers.</p> + +<p>"He used to have three chins once," whispered Dotty, "darling Charlie!"</p> + +<p>"You love my little Charlie—don't you, darling?" said Mrs. Gray; and +then she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> clasped Dotty in her arms and sobbed over her; but Charlie did +not seem to notice it.</p> + +<p>"Yes, 'm, I do love him," said Dotty; "Prudy says he's the cunningest +boy there is in this town."</p> + +<p>And then she softly kissed Mrs. Gray's cheek, though she had never +kissed her before, and did not know why she was doing it now.</p> + +<p>"When he gets well, won't you let him come to our house and play +croquet? We play it now with marbles, a teenty-tonty game, and the +wickets are made of hairpins spread out wide."</p> + +<p>Dotty spoke very low, and Charlie did not pay the least attention; but +Mrs. Gray sobbed still more, and held Dotty closer in her arms, +saying,—</p> + +<p>"<i>Don't</i> talk so, dear!"</p> + +<p>"How sorry you do feel to have him so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> sick! He won't grow up, I s'pose, +if he can't play. When he stays in bed it makes him grow littler and +littler! Why, how little his neck is! It looks like a dandelion stem!"</p> + +<p>"Don't, <i>don't</i>, dear child! Every word you say strikes right to my +heart!"</p> + +<p>Dotty looked up in Mrs. Gray's face with surprise. What had she said +that was wrong? Perhaps she ought not to have talked about dandelions; +she would not do it again.</p> + +<p>"Dotty," said Mrs. Gray, looking sorrowfully towards the bed, "when +fathers and mothers are not very wise, and do not know very well how to +take proper care of their families, sometimes the Saviour calls their +little children away."</p> + +<p>Dotty knew what she meant now. She meant that Charlie was really going +to heaven.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></p> + +<p>"O, Mrs. Gray," said she, "how Prudy and I will feel!" She would have +said more, but was afraid she should make another mistake.</p> + +<p>She kissed the unconscious little sufferer good by, though still it all +seemed like a dream. Was this the same boy who had tried to wash the +piggy? The same who had meal-bags tied to his feet?</p> + +<p>"A long kiss is a heart-kiss," she repeated to herself; and somehow she +wondered if Charlie couldn't take it to heaven with him. Then she walked +home all alone with her thoughts.</p> + +<p>Next day they told her Charlie was dead. Dotty sat on the sofa for a +long time without saying a word; then she went into the nursery, and +staid by herself for an hour or two. When she returned she had her new +doll in her arms, dressed in black. She wore a strip<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> of black crape +about her own neck, and had caught Flyaway long enough to put one upon +her arm, as well as upon the knobs of the nursery doors.</p> + +<p>"Prudy," said she, "it is polite to do so when we lose people we love. +Charlie was my friend and Katie's friend, and we shall treat him with +the <i>respect</i> of a friend."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Katie, skipping after a fly, "spec of a fend."</p> + +<p>Dotty had never looked on death.</p> + +<p>"You musn't be frightened, little sister," said Prudy, as they walked +hand in hand to Mrs. Gray's, behind the rest of their own family, on the +day of the funeral. "Charlie is just as cold as marble, lying in a +casket; but <i>he</i> doesn't know it. The part of him that <i>knows</i> is in a +beautiful world where we can't see him."</p> + +<p>"Why can't we see him?" said Dotty, peering anxiously into the sky.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I don't know exactly why," replied Prudy, "but Grandma Read says God +doesn't wish it. And He has put a seal over our eyes, so an angel could +stand right before us, and we shouldn't know it."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Dotty in a low voice; and though she could see nothing, it +seemed to her the air was full of angels.</p> + +<p>"But I think likely Charlie can see us, Dotty, for the seal has been +taken off his eyes. O, it is beautiful to be dead!"</p> + +<p>After this Dotty was not at all afraid when she touched the cold face in +the casket, for she knew Charlie was not there.</p> + +<p>"It is beautiful to be dead!" said she next day to Katie. "Charlie is +very glad of it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, he's in the ground-up,—in heaven!" said Katie in a dreamy way; +for, in her small mind, she believed heaven was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> place called "in the +ground-up," and that was all she cared about it.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Charlie is in the ground," replied Dotty, "but he doesn't know it. +That dog Pincher was put in the ground; but I think likely <i>he</i> knew it, +for his soul wasn't in heaven; and he hadn't any soul, not a real one."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Katie, dancing out at the door, "when will the Charlie boy +come back? I want um play."</p> + +<p>"Why, Katie," said Dotty, in a tone of reproof, "haven't I told you he +is all dead?"</p> + +<p>"Well, <span class="smcap">you</span> isn't dead—<span class="smcap">is</span> you? Less us go an' swing!"</p> + +<p>The little girls ran out to the trees, and soon forgot all about their +old playmate. But, after this, whenever any one spoke of Charlie, Katie +thought,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"The Charlie boy's in the ground-up,—in heaven," and Dotty thought,—</p> + +<p>"O, it is beautiful to be dead!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>For the present, we will leave them swinging under the tree at Grandma +Parlin's; but if we see Miss Dimple again, she will have been spirited +away to her own mother's home in the city of Portland.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes</h3> +<p>Obvious punctuation errors repaired.</p> + +<p>The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. +Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'apprear'">appear</ins>.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Dotty Dimple at Her Grandmother's, by Sophie May + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOTTY DIMPLE AT HER GRANDMOTHER'S *** + +***** This file should be named 20699-h.htm or 20699-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/6/9/20699/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Dotty Dimple at Her Grandmother's + +Author: Sophie May + +Release Date: February 27, 2007 [EBook #20699] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOTTY DIMPLE AT HER GRANDMOTHER'S *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +SOPHIE MAY'S + +LITTLE FOLKS' BOOKS. + +_Any volume sold separately._ + + +=DOTTY DIMPLE SERIES.=--Six volumes. Illustrated. Per volume, 75 cents. + + Dotty Dimple at her Grandmother's. + Dotty Dimple at Home. + Dotty Dimple out West. + Dotty Dimple at Play. + Dotty Dimple at School. + Dotty Dimple's Flyaway. + + +=FLAXIE FRIZZLE STORIES.=--Six volumes. Illustrated. Per volume, 75 +cents. + + Flaxie Frizzle. Little Pitchers. Flaxie's Kittyleen. + Doctor Papa. The Twin Cousins. Flaxie Growing Up. + + +=LITTLE PRUDY STORIES.=--Six volumes. Handsomely Illustrated. Per +volume, 75 cents. + + Little Prudy. + Little Prudy's Sister Susy. + Little Prudy's Captain Horace. + Little Prudy's Story Book. + Little Prudy's Cousin Grace. + Little Prudy's Dotty Dimple. + + +=LITTLE PRUDY'S FLYAWAY SERIES.=--Six volumes. Illustrated. Per volume, +75 cents. + + Little Folks Astray. Little Grandmother. + Prudy Keeping House. Little Grandfather. + Aunt Madge's Story. Miss Thistledown. + + +LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS. + +BOSTON. + +[Illustration: "MISS PATTY, ISN'T THIS THE LONGEST NIGHT YOU EVER +SAW?"--Page 161.] + + + + +DOTTY DIMPLE +STORIES + +BY SOPHIE MAY. + +ILLUSTRATED + +DOTTY AT HER GRANDMOTHER'S + +LEE & SHEPARD BOSTON + + + + +_DOTTY DIMPLE STORIES._ + +DOTTY DIMPLE + +AT HER GRANDMOTHER'S. + +BY SOPHIE MAY, + +AUTHOR OF "LITTLE PRUDY STORIES." + +Illustrated. + + +BOSTON + +LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS 10 MILK STREET + + Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, + + BY LEE AND SHEPARD, + + In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. + +TO + +_SARAH G. PEIRCE_ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. DOTTY'S PIN-MONEY, 7 + + II. PLAYING KING AND QUEEN, 23 + + III. THE WHITE TRUTH, 42 + + IV. DOTTY'S CAMEL, 57 + + V. A SAD FRIGHT, 68 + + VI. MAKING POETRY, 94 + + VII. A DAY ON THE SOFA, 109 + + VIII. WASHING THE PIG, 122 + + IX. A DARK DAY, 139 + + X. "THE END OF THE WORLD," 156 + + XI. CRAZY DUCKLINGS, 170 + + XII. "THE CHARLIE BOY," 182 + + + + +DOTTY DIMPLE AT HER GRANDMOTHER'S. + + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +DOTTY'S PIN-MONEY + + +Everything was very fresh and beautiful one morning in May, as if God +had just made the world. The new grass had begun to grow, and the fields +were dotted over with short, golden-topped dandelions. + +The three Parlin children had come to their grandmother's much earlier +in the season than usual; and now on this bright Sabbath morning they +were going to church. + +Dotty Dimple, otherwise Alice, thought the fields looked like her Aunt +Maria's green velvet toilet-cushion stuck full of pins. The spiders had +spread their gauzy webs over the grass, and the dew upon them sparkled +in the sunshine like jewels. "Such nice tablecloths as they would have +made for the fairies," thought Dotty, "if there only were any fairies." + +"The world is ever so much handsomer than it was a week ago," said +Prudy, pointing towards the far-off hills. "I'd like to be on that +mountain, and just put my hand out and touch the sky." + +"That largest pick," said Dotty, "is Mount Blue. It's covered with +blueberries, and that's why it's so blue." + +"Who told you that?" asked Susy, smiling. "It isn't time yet for +blueberries; and if it was, we couldn't see them forty miles off without +a telescope." + +"Jennie Vance told me," said Dotty; "and she ought to know, for her +father is the judge." + +By this time the children had reached the church, and were waiting on +the steps for the rest of the family. It was pleasant to watch the +people coming from up and down the street, looking so neat and peaceful. +But when Jennie Vance drew near with her new summer silk and the elegant +feather in her hat, Dotty's heart gave a quick double beat, half +admiration, half envy. Jennie's black eyes were shining with vanity, and +her nicely gaitered feet tripped daintily up the steps. + +"How d'ye do?" said she, carelessly, to Dotty, and swept by her like a +little ship under full sail. + +"Jennie Vance needn't talk so about her new mother," whispered Prudy, +"for she gives her fifty-two new dresses, one for every Sunday." + +Dotty's brow darkened. Just now it seemed to her one of the greatest +trials in the whole world that the dress she wore had been made over +from one of Prudy's. It was a fine white organdie with a little pink +sprig, but there was a darn in the skirt. Then there was no feather in +her hat, and no breastpin at her throat. + +Poor Dotty! She did not hear much of the sermon, but sat very quiet, +counting the nails in the pews and the pipes in the organ, and watching +old Mr. Gordon, who had a red silk kerchief spread over his head to +guard it against the draught from the window. She listened a little to +the prayers, it is true, because she knew it was wrong to let her +thoughts wander when Mr. Preston was speaking to God. + +When the services were over, and she was going to her Sabbath school +class, she passed Jennie Vance in the aisle. + +"Where are you going, Jennie?" said she. + +"Going home. My mamma says I needn't stay to say my lessons and miss a +warm dinner." + +Jennie said this with such a toss of the head that Dotty longed to reply +in a cutting manner. + +"It isn't polite to have warm dinners on Sunday, Jennie Vance! But you +said your father had a _step-wife_, and perhaps she doesn't know!" + +"I didn't say my papa had a step-wife, Dotty Dimple." + +But this was all Jennie had time to retort, for Dotty now entered the +pew where her class were to sit. Miss Preston was the teacher, and it +was her custom to have each of her little pupils repeat a half dozen +verses or so, which she explained to them in a very clear manner. The +children did not always understand her, however; and you shall see +hereafter how Dotty's queer little brain grew befogged. The last clause +of one of her verses to-day was this:-- + +"The Lord loveth a cheerful giver." + +"Suppose," said Miss Preston, "there were two little girls living in a +beautiful house, with everything nice to eat and wear, and there should +come a poor man in rags, and beg for charity. One of the little girls is +so sorry for him that she runs to her mamma and asks, as a favor, to be +allowed to give him some of her Christmas money. The other little girl +shakes her head, and says, 'O, sister what makes you do so? But if you +do it _I_ must.' Then she pours out half her money for the beggar, but +scowls all the while.--Which is the 'cheerful giver?'" + +"The first little girl. O, of course, Miss Preston." Then Dotty fell to +thinking:-- + +"I don't have much to give away but just pieces of oranges; but I don't +scowl when I do it. I'm a great deal more 'cheerful' than Jennie Vance; +for I never saw her give away anything but a thimble after the pig had +chewed it. 'There, take it, Lu Piper,' said she, 'for it pinches, and I +don't want it.' I shouldn't think _that_ was very cheerful, I am sure." + +Thus Dotty treasured up the lesson for the sake of her friend. It was +really surprising how anxious she was that Jennie should always do +right. + +Now it happened that before the week was out a man came to Mr. Parlin's +back door begging. Dotty wondered if it might not be the same man Miss +Preston had mentioned, only he was in another suit of clothes. She and +Jennie were swinging, with Katie between them, and Susy and Prudy were +playing croquet. They all ran to see what the man wanted. He was not +ragged, and if it had not been for the green shade over his eyes and the +crooked walking-stick in his hand, the children would not have thought +of his being a beggar. He was a very fleshy man, and the walk seemed to +have taken away his breath. + +"Little maidens," said he, in gentle tones, "have you anything to give a +poor tired wayfarer?" + +There was no answer, for the children did not know what to say. But the +man seemed to know what to do; he seated himself on the door-step, and +wiped his face with a cotton handkerchief. Little Katie, the girl with +flying hair, who was sometimes called 'Flyaway,' looked at him with +surprise as he puffed at every breath. + +"When um breeves," said she to Dotty, "seems's um _whissils_." + +"Come here, little maiden," said the beggar, pointing to Dotty; "you are +the handsomest of all, and you may take this document of mine. It will +tell you that I am a man of great sorrows." + +Dotty, very much flattered, took the paper from his hands. It was greasy +and crumpled, looking as if it had been lying beside bread and butter in +a dirty pocket. She gave it to Susy, for she could not read it herself. +It was written by one of the "selectmen" of a far-away town, and asked +all kind people to take pity on the bearer, who was described as "a poor +woman with a family of children." Susy laughed, and pointed out the word +"woman" to Prudy. + +"Why do you smile, little ladies? Isn't it writ right? 'Twas writ by a +lawyer." + +"I will carry it in to my grandmother," said Susy; and she entered the +house, followed by all the children. + +"Who knows but he's a _griller_?" said Jennie. + +"Lem _me_ see paper," cried Katie, snatching at it, and holding it up to +her left ear. + +"O, dear!" sighed she, in a grieved tone; "it won't talk to me, Susy. I +don't hear nuffin 'tall." + +"She's a cunning baby, so she is," said Dotty. "She s'poses writing +talks to people; she thinks that's the way they read it." + +Grandmamma Parlin thought the man was probably an impostor. She went +herself and talked with him; but, when she came back, instead of +searching the closets for old garments, as Dotty had expected, she +seated herself at her sewing, and did not offer to bestow a single +copper on the beggar. + +"Susy," said she, "he says he is hungry, and I cannot turn him away +without food. You may spread some bread and butter, with ham between the +slices, and carry out to him." + +"What makes her so cruel?" whispered Dotty. + +"O, Grandma knows best," replied Prudy. "She never is cruel." + +"What makes you put on so much butter?" said Jennie Vance; "I wouldn't +give him a single thing but cold beans." + +Dotty, whose Sunday school lesson was all the while ringing in her ears, +looked at the judge's daughter severely. + +"Would you pour cold beans into anybody's hands, Jennie Vance? Once my +mamma gave some preserves to a beggar,--quince preserves,--she did." + +Jennie only tossed her head. + +"I'm going to give him some money," continued Dotty, defiantly; "just as +cheerfully as ever I can." + +"O, yes, because he called you the handsomest." + +"No, Jennie Vance; because _I_ am not stingy." + +"Um isn't stinchy," echoed Katie. + +"I've got some Christmas money here. I earned it by picking pins off the +floor, six for a cent. It took a great while, Jennie, but _I_ wouldn't +be selfish, like _some_ little girls." + +"Now, little sister," said Prudy, taking Dotty one side, "don't give +your money to this man. You'll be sorry by and by." + +But there was a stubborn look in Dotty's eyes, and she marched off to +her money-box as fast as she could go. When she returned with the pieces +of scrip, which amounted in all to fifteen cents, the children were +grouped about the beggar, who sat upon the door-step, the plate of +sandwiches before him. + +"Here's some money, sir, for your sick children," cried Dotty, with an +air of importance. + +"Blessings on your pretty face," replied the man, eagerly. + +Dotty cast a triumphant glance at Jennie. + +"Ahem! This is better than nothing," added the beggar, in a different +tone, after he had counted the money. "And now haven't any of the rest +of you little maidens something to give a poor old wayfarer that's been +in the wars and stove himself up for his country?" + +There was no reply from any one of the little girls, even tender Prudy. +And as Dotty saw her precious scrip swallowed up in that dreadfully +dingy wallet, it suddenly occurred to her that she had not done such a +very wise thing, after all. + +"Why don't you eat your luncheon, sir?" said Jennie Vance; for the man, +after taking up the slices of bread and looking at them had put them +down again with an air of disdain. + +"I thought, by the looks of the house, that Christians lived here," said +he, shaking his head slowly. "Haven't you a piece of apple pie, or a cup +custard, to give a poor man that's been in prison for you in the south +country? Not so much as a cup of coffee or a slice of beefsteak? No. I +see how it is," he added, wiping his face and rising with an effort; +"you are selfish, good-for-nothing creeters, the whole of you. Here I've +been wasting my time, and all I get for it is just dog's victuals, and +enough scrip to light my pipe." + +With this he began to walk off, puffing. Dotty longed to run after him +and call out, "Please, sir, give me back my money." But it was too late; +and summoning all her pride, she managed to crush down the tears. + +"Tell the people in this house that I shake off the dust of my feet +against them," wheezed the stranger, indignantly. "The dust of my +feet--do you hear?" + +"What a wicked, disagreeable old thing!" murmured Jennie Vance. + +"Dish-gwee-bly old fing!" cried "Flyaway," nodding her head till her +hair danced like little tufts of corn-silk. + +"I'm glad I didn't give him any of _my_ money," said Jennie, loftily. + +"So am I," returned Susy. + +Prudy said nothing. + +"I didn't see him shake his feet," said Dotty, changing the subject; +"and the dust wouldn't come off if he did shake 'em." + +"Have you any more Christmas money left, Dotty," said Jennie, twirling +her gold ring on her finger. + +"O, yes, ever so much at home. And I shall soon have more," added Dotty, +with a great effort to be cheerful; "for people are always dropping +pins." + +"I've got any quantity of scrip," pursued Jennie; "and I don't have to +work for it, either." + +"O, dear," thought Dotty, "what's the use to be good? I 'sposed if I +gave away my money _cheerfully_, they'd all feel ashamed of themselves; +but they don't! I wish I had it back in my box, I do!" + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +PLAYING KING AND QUEEN. + + +"What are you hunting for on your hands and knees, Alice?" said +grandmamma, next day. + +"O, nothing, only pins, grandma; but I can't find any. Isn't this a +_hidden-mist_ carpet?" + +"No, dear; a _hit-and-miss_ carpet is made of rags. But what do you want +of pins?" + +"She has given away what Aunt Ria paid her for Christmas," said Prudy, +speaking for her; "she gave it all to the beggar." + +"Yes, she did; one, two, free, four, nineteen, tenteen," said Katie; +"and the gemplum didn't love little goorls." + +"Why, Alice! to that man who was here yesterday?" + +Dotty was frowning at Prudy behind a chair. "Yes, 'm," she answered, in +a stifled voice. + +"Were you sorry for him?" + +"No, ma'am." + +"Did you hear me say I did not believe he was in need of charity?" + +"Yes, 'm." + +Grandma looked puzzled, till she remembered that Alice had always been +fond of praise; and then she began to understand her motives. + +"Did you suppose Jennie Vance and your sisters would think you were +generous?" asked she, in a low voice. + +Dotty looked at the carpet, but made no reply. + +"Because, if that was your reason, Alice, it was doing 'your alms +before men, to be seen of them.' God is not pleased when you do so. I +told you about that the other day." + +Still the little girl did not understand. Her thoughts were like these: + +"Grandma thinks I'm ever so silly! Prudy thinks I'm silly! But isn't +Jennie silly too? And O, she takes cake, all secret, out of her new +mother's tin chest. I don't know what will become of Jennie Vance." + +Mrs. Parlin was about to say more, when Miss Flyaway, who had been all +over the house in two minutes, danced in, saying, "the Charlie boy" had +come! + +It was little lisping Charlie Gray, saying, "If you pleathe, 'm, may we +have the Deacon to go to mill? And then, if we may, can you thpare uth a +quart 'o milk every thingle night? Cauthe, if you can't, then you +muthn't." + +Deacon was the old horse; and as Mr. Parlin was quite willing he should +go to mill, Harry Gray came an hour afterwards and led him away. With +regard to the other request, Mrs. Parlin had to think a few minutes. + +"Yes, Charlie," said she, at last; "you may have the milk, because I +would like to oblige your mother; and you may tell her I will send it +every night by the children." + +Now, Mrs. Gray was the doctor's wife. She was a kind woman, and kept one +closet shelf full of canned fruit and jellies for sick people; but for +all that, the children did not like her very well. Prudy thought it +might be because her nose turned up "like the nose of a tea-kettle;" but +Susy said it was because she asked so many questions. If the little +Parlins met her on the street when they went of an errand, she always +stopped them to inquire what they had been buying at the store, or took +their parcels out of their hands and felt them with her fingers. She was +interested in very little things, and knew how all the parlors in town +were papered and carpeted, and what sort of cooking-stoves everybody +used. + +Dotty hung her head when her grandmother said she wished her to go every +night to Mrs. Gray's with a quart of milk. + +"Must I?" said she. "Why, grandma, she'll ask me if my mother keeps a +girl, and how many teaspoons we've got in the house; she will, honestly. +Mayn't somebody go with me?" + +"Ask me will I go?" said Katie, "for I love to shake my head!" + +"And, grandma," added Dotty, "Mrs. Gray's eyes are so sharp, why, +they're so sharp they almost prick! And it's no use for Katie to go with +me, she's so little." + +"O, I'm isn't _much_ little," cried Katie. "I's growing big." + +"I should think Prudy might go," said Dotty Dimple, with her finger in +her mouth; "you don't make Prudy do a single thing!" + +"Prudy goes for the ice every morning," replied Mrs. Parlin. "I wish you +to do as I ask you, Alice, and make no more remarks about Mrs. Gray." + +"Yes, 'm," said Dotty in a dreary tone; "mayn't Katie come too? she's +better than nobody." + +Katie ran for her hat, delighted to be thought better than nobody. The +milk was put into a little covered tin pail. Dotty watched Ruth as she +strained it, and saw that she poured in not only a quart, but a great +deal more. "Why do you do so?" said Dotty. "That's too much." + +"Your grandmother told me to," replied Ruth, washing the milk-pail. +"She said 'Good measure, pressed down and running over.' That's her way +of doing things." + +"But I don't believe grandma 'spected you to press it down and run it +_all_ over. Why, there's enough in this pail to make a pound of butter. +Come, Katie." + +"Let me do some help," said the little one, catching hold of the handle, +and making the pail much heavier. Dotty endured the weight as long as +she could; then, gently pushing off the "little hindering" hand, she +said,-- + +"And now, as we go along, we might as well be playing, Flyaway." + +"Fwhat?" + +"Playing a play, dear. We'll make believe you're the queen with a gold +crown on your head." + +Katie put her hand to her forehead. + +"O, no, dear; you haven't anything on your head now but the +broadest-brimmedest kind of a hat; we'll _call_ it a crown. And I'm the +king that's married to you." + +"O, yes, mallied." + +"And we're going--going--" + +"Rouspin," suggested Flyaway. + +"No; great people like us don't go raspberrying. Sit down here, Queenie, +under this acorn tree, and I'll tell you; we're going to the castle." + +"O, yes, the cassil?" + +"Where we keep our throne, dear, and our gold dresses." + +"Does we have any gold dollies to the cassil?" + +"O, yes, Queenie; all sizes." + +"Does we have," continued Flyaway, winking slowly, "does we have--dip +toast?" + +"Why, Queenie, what should we want of that? Yes, we can have dip toast, +I s'pose; the girl can make it on the gold stove, with a silver +pie-knife. But we shall have nicer things than ever you saw." + +"Nicer than turnipers?" + +"Pshaw! turnovers are nothing, Queenie; we shall give them to the piggy. +We shall live on wedding cake and strawberries. Tea and coffee, and such +low things, we shall give to ducks. O, what ducks they will be! They +will sing tunes such as canaries don't know how. We'll give them our tea +and coffee, and we'll drink--what d'ye call it? O, here's some." + +Dotty took up the pail. + +"You see how white it is; sugar frosting in it. Drink a little, it's so +nice." + +"It tastes just like moolly cow's milk," said Flyaway, wiping her lips +with her finger. + +"No," said Dotty, helping herself; "it's nectar; that's what Susy says +they drink; now I remember." + +"Stop!" said a small voice in the ear of Dotty's spirit; "that is what I +should call taking other people's things." + +"Poh!" said Dotty, sipping again; "it's grandpa's cow. When Jennie Vance +takes cake, it's wicked, because--because it is. This is only play, you +know." + +Dotty took another draught. + +"Come, Queenie," said she, "let's be going to the castle." + +Katie sprang up so suddenly that she fell forward on her nose, and said +her foot was "dizzy." It had been taking a short nap as she sat on the +stump; but she was soon able to walk, and shortly the royal pair arrived +at the castle, which was, in plain language, a wooden house painted +white. + +"So you have come at last," said Mrs. Gray, from the door-way. "They +don't milk very early at your house--do they?" + +"No, ma'am, not so _very_." + +"Have you seen anything of my little Charlie?" + +"No, ma'am, not since a great while ago,--before supper." + +"How is your grandfather?" + +"Pretty well, thank you, ma'am." + +"No, gampa isn't," said Katie, decidedly; "he's deaf." + +"And what about your Aunt Maria? Didn't I see her go off in the stage +this morning?" + +"Yes, 'm," replied Dotty, determined to give no more information than +was necessary. + +"She's gone off," struck in Katie; "gone to Dusty, my mamma has." + +"Ah indeed! to Augusta?" repeated Mrs. Gray, thoughtfully. "Any of your +friends sick there?" + +"No, ma'am," replied Dotty, scowling at her shoes. + +"She's gone," continued Katie, gravely, "to buy me Free Little Kittens." + +Mrs. Gray smiled. "I should think your mother could find kittens enough +in this town, without going to Augusta. I thought I saw Horace on the +top of the stage, but I wasn't sure." + +Dotty made no reply. + +"Hollis was," cried Katie, eagerly; "he goed to Dusty too. I fink they +put Hollis in jail!" + +"In jail!" exclaimed Mrs. Gray, throwing up her hands. + +"He stealed, Hollis did," added Katie, solemnly. + +"Hush, Katie, hush!" whispered Dotty Dimple, seizing the child by the +hand and hurrying her away. Mrs. Gray followed the children to the door. + +"What does she mean, Dotty! what can she have heard?" + +"She doesn't mean anything, ma'am," replied Dotty, beginning to run; +"and she hasn't heard anything, either." + +Dotty's behavior was so odd, that Mrs. Gray's curiosity was aroused. For +the moment she quite forgot her anxiety about her little Charlie, who +had been missing for some time. + +"What made you say Horace stole?" said Dotty, as soon as they were out +of hearing. + +"Hollis did," answered Katie, catching her breath; "he stealed skosh +seeds out of gampa's razor cupbard." + +"What did Horace want of squash seeds?" + +"He eated 'em; I sawed him!" + +"There, you're the funniest baby, Katie Clifford! Now you've been and +made Mrs. Gray think your brother's carried to jail." + +This was not quite true. Mrs. Gray had no idea Horace had been taken to +jail; but she did fancy something had gone wrong at Mrs. Parlin's. She +put on her bonnet and ran across the road to Mrs. Gordon's to ask her +what she supposed Horace Clifford had been doing, which Dotty Dimple did +not wish to hear talked about, and which made her run away when she was +questioned. + +"I can't imagine," said Mrs. Gordon, very much surprised. "He is a +frolicsome boy, but I never thought there was anything wicked about +Horace." + +Then by and by she remembered how Miss Louise Parlin had lost a +breastpin in a very singular manner, and both the ladies wondered if +Horace could have taken it. + +"One never can tell what mischief children may fall into," said Mrs. +Gray, rubbing her cheek-bone; "and that reminds me how anxious I am +about my little Charlie; he ought to have been at home an hour ago." + +While Mrs. Gray was saying this in Mrs. Gordon's parlor, there was a +scene of some confusion in Mr. Parlin's door-yard. + +"Who's this coming in at the gate?" cried Dotty. + +It was Deacon, but Deacon was only a part of it; the rest was two +meal-bags and a small boy. The meal-bags were full, and hung dangling +down on either side of the horse, and to each was tied a leg of little +Charlie Gray. It was droll for a tiny boy to wear such heavy clogs upon +his feet, but droller still to see him resting his curly head upon the +horse's mane. + +"Ums the Charlie boy," said Katie; "um can't sit up no more." + +"Ah, my boy, seems to me you take it very easy," said Abner, who was +just coming in from the garden, giving some weeds a ride in the +"one-wheeled coach," or wheel-barrow. + +"Why don't you hold your head up, darling?" said Dotty. + +"O, bring the camphor," screamed Susy; "he's fainted away! he's fainted +away!" + +"Not exactly," said Abner, untying the strings which held him to the +bags. "Old Deacon has done very well this time; the boy is sound +asleep." + +As soon as Abner had wheeled away his weeds, he mounted the horse and +trotted to Mrs. Gray's with the meal-bags, singing for Katie's ear,-- + + "Ride away, ride away; Charlie shall ride; + He shall have bag of meal tied to one side; + He shall have little bag tied to the other, + And Charlie shall ride to see our grandmother." + +The little boy stood rubbing his eyes. + +"Why, Charlie, darling," said Prudy, "who tied you on?" + +"The man'th boy over there. Hally didn't come cauthe he played ball; and +then the man'th boy tied me on." + +Charlie made up a lip. + +"Let's take him out to the swing," said Prudy. "That will wake him up, +and then we'll make a lady's chair and carry him home." + +"Don't want to thwing," lisped Charlie. + +"What for you don't?" said wee Katie. + +"Cauthe the ladieth will thee me." + +"O, you's a little scat crow!" + +"Hush, Katie," said the older children; "do look at his hair; it curls +almost as tight as dandelion stems." + +"Thee the dimple in my chin!" + +"Which chin?" said Prudy; "you've got three of them." + +"And the wuffle wound my neck! Gueth what we've got over to my houthe? +Duckth." + +"O, ducks?" cried Dotty; "that's what I want to make me happy. There, +Prudy, think of their velvet heads and beads of eyes, waddling about +this yard." + +"People sometimes take ducks' eggs and put them in a hen's nest," said +Prudy, reflectively. + +"O, there now," whispered Dotty, "shouldn't you think Mrs. Gray might +give me three or four eggs for carrying the milk every single night?" + +"Why, yes, I should; and perhaps she will." + +"I gueth my mamma wants me at home," said Charlie, yawning. + +Prudy and Dotty went with him; and in her eagerness concerning the +ducks' eggs, Dotty quite forgot the secret draughts of milk she and +Katie had quaffed under the acorn-tree, calling it nectar. But this was +not the last of it. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE WHITE TRUTH. + + +Dotty continued to go to Mrs. Gray's every night with the milk. +Sometimes Katie went with her, and then they always paused a while under +the acorn-tree and played "King and Queen." Dotty said she wished they +could ever remember to bring their nipperkins, for in that case the milk +would taste a great deal more like nectar. The "nipperkins" were a pair +of handled cups which the children supposed to be silver, and which they +always used at table. + +Dotty knew she was doing wrong every time she played "King and Queen." +She knew the milk was not hers, but Mrs. Gray's; still she said to +herself, "Ruthie needn't give so much measure, all pressed down and run +over. If Queenie and I should drink a great deal more, there would +always be a quart left. Yes, I know there would." + +Mrs. Gray never said anything about the milk; she merely poured it out +in a pan, and gave back the pail to Dotty, asking her at the same time +as many questions as the child would stay to hear. + +One night Dotty begged Prudy to go with her; she wished her to ask for +the ducks' eggs. When they reached the acorn tree Dotty did not stop; +she would never have thought of playing "King and Queen" with Prudy; she +was afraid of her sister's honest blue eyes. + +I am not quite sure Mrs. Gray would have given the eggs to Dotty, +though Mrs. Parlin promised her several times the amount of hens' eggs +in return. Mrs. Gray did not think Dotty was "a very sociable child;" +and then so many people were asking for eggs! But Mrs. Gray could not +say "No" to Prudy; she gave her thirteen eggs, with a hearty kiss. + +"Now whose will the ducklings be?" asked Dotty on the way home. + +"Yours and mine," replied Prudy; "half and half. Six for each, and an +odd one over." + +"Then," said Dotty, "we'll give that 'odd one over' to Katie." + +"But they may not all hatch, Dotty." + +"O, dear! why not? Then we can't tell how many we shall have. Perhaps +there will be two or three odd ones over; and _then_ what shall we do, +Prudy?" + +Prudy laughed at the idea of "two or three odd ones." The eggs were put +in a barrel under the white hen; and now began a trial of patience. It +seemed to all the children that time stood still while they waited. +Would the four weeks never be gone? + +One day Dottie stood with Katie by the back-door blowing bubbles. The +blue sky, the white fences, the green trees, and even the people who +passed in the street, made little pictures of themselves on the bubbles. +It was very beautiful. Dotty blew with such force that her cheeks were +puffed as round as rubber balls. Katie looked on in great delight. + +"See," she cried, "see the trees a-yidin' on that bubbil!" + +Dotty dropped the pipe and kissed her. + +"Dear me," said she, the next minute, "there's Miss Polly coming!" + +Katie looked along the path, and saw a forlorn woman tightly wrapped in +a brown shawl, carrying a basket on her arm, and looking sadly down at +her own calf-skin shoes, which squeaked dismally as she walked. + +"Is um the Polly?" whispered Katie; "is um so tired?" + +"No, she isn't tired," said Dotty; "but she feels dreadfully all the +whole time; I don't know what it's about, though." + +By this time the new-comer stood on the threshold, sighing. + +"How do you do, you pretty creeturs?" said she, with a dreary smile. + +"Yes, 'um," replied Katie; "is you the Polly, and does you feel +drefful?" + +The sad woman kissed the little girls,--for she was fond of +children,--sighed more heavily than ever, asked if their grandmother +was at home, and passed through the kitchen on her way to the parlor. + +Mrs. Parlin sat knitting on the sofa, Mrs. Clifford was sewing, and Miss +Louise crocheting. They all looked up and greeted the visitor politely, +but it seemed as if a dark cloud had entered the room. Miss Polly seated +herself in a rocking-chair, and began to take off her bonnet, sighing as +she untied the strings, and sighing again as she took the three pins out +of her shawl. + +"I hope you are well this fine weather," said Mrs. Parlin, cheerily. + +"As well as ever I expect to be," replied Miss Polly, in a resigned +tone. + +Then she opened the lids of her basket with a dismal creak, and took out +her knitting, which was as gray as a November sky. Afterwards she slowly +pinned a corn-cob to the right side of her belt, and began to knit. At +the end of every needle she drew a deep breath, and felt the stocking +carefully to make sure there were no "nubs" in it. She talked about the +"severe drowth" and some painful cases of sickness, after which she took +out her snuff-box, and then the three ladies saw that she had something +particular to say. + +"Where is your little boy, Maria?" + +She always called Mrs. Clifford Maria, for she had known her from a +baby. + +"Horace is at Augusta; I left him there the other day." + +"Yes," said Polly, settling her mournful black cap, "so I heard! I was +very, very sorry," and she shook her head dolefully, as if it had been a +bell and she were tolling it--"very, very sorry!" + +Mrs. Clifford could not but wonder why. + +"It is a dreadful thing to happen in a family! I'm sure, Maria, I never +heard that stealing was natural to either side of the house!" + +"Stealing!" echoed Mrs. Clifford. + +"What in this world can you mean, Polly Whiting?" said Aunt Louise, +laughing nervously; for she was a very lively young lady, and laughed a +great deal. Miss Whiting thought this was no time for jokes. Her mouth +twitched downward as if there were strings at the corners. Mrs. Clifford +had turned very pale. + +"Poll," said she, "do speak, and tell me what you have heard? It is all +a mystery to me." + +"You don't say so," said Miss Whiting, looking relieved. "Well, I didn't +more than half believe it myself; but the story is going that your +Horace stole his Aunt Louise's breastpin, and sold it to a peddler for a +rusty gun." + +Miss Louise laughed merrily this time. + +"I did lose my pearl brooch," said she, "but Prudy found it yesterday in +an old glass candlestick." + +"What an absurd report!" said Mrs. Clifford, quite annoyed. "I hope the +children are not to be suspected every time their _Aunt Louise_ misses +anything!" + +"They said you had decided to take Horace to the Reform School," added +Miss Whiting, "but your friends begged you to leave him at Augusta in +somebody's house locked up, with bread and water to eat." + +"Now tell me where you heard all this," said Aunt Louise. + +"Why, Mrs. Grant told me that Mrs. Small said that Mrs. Gordon told +_her_. I hope you'll excuse me for speaking of it: but I thought you +ought to know." + +Miss Polly Whiting was a harmless woman, who went from family to family +doing little "jobs" of work. She never said what was not true, did no +mischief, and in her simple way was quite attached to the Parlins. + +"I heard something more that made me very angry," said she, following +Miss Louise into the pantry. "Mrs. Grant says Mrs. Gray is very much +surprised to find your mother doesn't give good measure when she sells +milk!" + +Aunt Louise was so indignant at this that she went at once and told her +mother. + +"It is a little too much to be borne," said she; "the neighbors may +invent stories about Horace, if they have nothing better to do, but they +shall not slander my mother!" + +The two little girls, who were the unconscious cause of all this +mischief, were just returning from Mrs. Gray's. + +"O, grandma," said Dotty, coming in with the empty pail; "she says she +don't want any more milk this summer, and I'm ever so glad! Come, Prudy, +let's go and swing." + +"Stop," said Mrs. Parlin; "why does Mrs. Gray say she wants no more +milk?" + +"'Cause," replied Dotty, "'cause our cow is dry, or their cow is dry, or +Mrs. Gordon has some to sell. I don't know what she told me, grandma; +I've forgot!" + +"Then, my dear, she did not say you brought too little milk?" + +Dotty winced. "No, grandma, she never." + +"Ruth," said Mrs. Parlin, "you are sure you have always measured the +milk in that largest quart, and thrown in a gill or two more, as I +directed?" + +"O, yes, ma'am, I've never failed." + +"Then I'm sure I cannot understand it," said Mrs. Parlin, her gentle +face looking troubled. + +"Unless the children may have spilled some," remarked Mrs. Clifford. +"Dotty, have you ever allowed little Katie to carry the pail?" + +"No, Dotty don't; her don't 'low me care nuffin--there now!" cried +Katie, very glad to tell her sorrows. + +"She's so little, you know, Aunt 'Ria," murmured Dotty, with her hand on +the door-latch. + +There was a struggle going on in Dotty's mind. She wished very much to +run away, and at the same time that "voice" which speaks in everybody's +heart was saying,-- + +"Now, Dotty, be a good girl, a noble girl. Tell about drinking the milk +under the acorn tree." + +"But I needn't," thought Dotty, clicking the door-latch! "it won't be a +fib if I just keep still." + +"Yes, it will, Dotty Dimple!" + +"What! When I squeeze my lips together and don't say a word?" + +"'Twill be _acting_ a fib, and you know it, Alice Parlin! I'm ashamed of +you! Take your fingers out of your mouth, and speak like a woman." + +"I will, if you'll stop till I clear my throat.--O, Grandma," cried +Dotty, "I can't tell fibs the way Jennie Vance does! 'Twas we two did +it, as true as you live!" + +"Did what, child? Who?" + +"The milk." + +"I don't understand, dear." + +Dotty twisted the corner of her apron, and looked out of the window. + +"Drank it--Katie and me--under the acorn tree." + +"Yes, she did," chimed in Katie; "and 'twasn't nuffin but moolly's cow +milk, and her 'pilled it on my shoe!" + +Grandmamma really looked relieved. + +"So this accounts for it! But Dotty, how could you do such a thing?" + +"I telled um not to," cried Katie, "but her kep' a-doin' an' a-doin'." + +"Ruthie gives too much measure," replied Dotty, untwisting her +apron--"'most two quarts; and when Katie and I ask for some in our +nipperkins, Ruthie says, 'No,' she must make butter. I was just as +thirsty, grandma, and I thought Mrs. Gray never would care; I did +certainly." + +"Yes, gamma, we fought Mis Gay would care; did cerdily!" + +"My dear Dotty," said Mrs. Parlin, "you had not the shadow of a right to +take what belonged to another. It was very wrong; but I really believe +you did not know how wrong it was." + +Dotty began to breathe more freely. + +"But you see, child," interposed Aunt Louise, "you have done a deal of +mischief; and I must go at once to Mrs. Gray's and explain matters." + +Dotty was distressed at the thought of Mrs. Gray, whose nose she could +seem to see "going up in the air." + +"Don't feel so sorry, little sister," said Prudy, as they walked off +with their arms about each other's waist; "you didn't do just right, but +I'm sure you've told the real white truth." + +"So I have," said Dotty, holding up her head again; "and mother says +that's worth a great deal!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +DOTTY'S CAMEL. + + +Matters were soon set right with Mrs. Gray, who was sorry she had not +spoken frankly to Mrs. Parlin in the first place, instead of going +secretly to the neighbors and complaining that she did not receive her +due allowance of milk. Perhaps it was a good lesson for the doctor's +wife; for she ceased to gossip about the Parlins, and even took the +pains to correct the wrong story with regard to the pearl breastpin. + +After this Dotty and Katie carried the milk as usual; only they never +stopped under the acorn tree any more to play "King and Queen." Not +that Dotty felt much shame. She held herself in high esteem. She knew +she had done wrong, but thought that by telling the truth so nobly she +had atoned for all. + +"I am almost as good as the little girls in the Sunday school books," +said she; "now there's Jennie Vance--I'm afraid she fibs." + +Jennie called one day to ask Dotty and Flyaway to go to school with her. + +"Jennie," said Miss Dimple, gravely, as they were walking with Katie +between them, "do they ever read the Bible to you?" + +"Yes; why?" + +"O, nothing; only you don't act as if you know anything about it." + +"I guess my mother is one of the first ladies in this town, Miss Dimple, +and she's told me the story of Joseph's coat till I know it by heart." + +"Well," said Dotty, looking very solemn, "it hasn't done you any good, +Jennie Vance. Now, I learn verses every Sunday, and one is this: 'Lie +not one to another.' What think of that?" + +Jennie's black eyes snapped. "I heard that before ever you did." + +"Lie not one to another," repeated Dotty, slowly. "Now, I'm _one_, +Jennie, and you're _another_; and isn't it wicked when we tell the +leastest speck of a fib?" + +"Of course 'tis," was the prompt reply; "but I don't tell 'em." + +"O, Jennie, who told your step-mother that Charlie Gray was tied up in a +meal-bag? I'm afraid," said Dotty, laying her hand solemnly on little +Katie's head as if it had been a pulpit-cushion, and she a minister +preaching,--"I'm afraid, Jennie, _you_ lie one to another." + +"One to anudder," echoed Katie, breaking away and running after a toad. +Jennie knitted her brows. "It doesn't look very well for such a small +child as you are to preach to me, Dot Parlin!" + +"But _I_ always tell the white truth myself, Jennie, because God hears +me. Do _you_ think much about God?" + +"No, I don't know as I do; nobody does, He's so far off," said Jennie, +stooping to pluck an innocent flower. + +"Why, Jennie, He isn't far off at all! He's everywhere, and here too. He +holds this world, and all the people, right in His arms; right in His +arms, just as if 'twas nothing but a baby." + +Dotty's tones were low and earnest. + +"Who told you so?" said Jennie. + +"My mamma; and she says we couldn't move nor breathe without Him not a +minute." + +"There, I did then!" cried Jennie, taking a long breath; "I breathed way +down ever so far, and I did it myself." + +"O, but God let you." + +Dotty felt very good and wise, and as she had finished giving her +benighted friend a lesson, she thought she would speak now of every day +matters. + +"Look at those little puddles in the road," said she; "don't they make +you think of pudding-sauce--molasses and cream, I mean--for +hasty-pudding?" + +"No," said Jennie, tossing her head, "I never saw any pudding-sauce that +looked a speck like that dirty stuff! Besides, we don't use molasses at +our house; rich folks never do; nobody but poor folks." + +"O, what a story!" said Dotty, coloring. "I guess you have molasses +gingerbread, if your father _is_ the judge!" + +Dotty was very much wounded. This was not the first time her little +friend had referred to her own superior wealth. "Dear, dear! Wasn't it +bad enough to have to wear Prudy's old clothes, when Jennie had new ones +and no big sister? She's always telling hints about people's being poor! +Why, my papa isn't _much_ poor, only he don't buy me gold rings and silk +dresses, and my mamma wouldn't let me wear 'em if he did; so there!" + +By the time they reached the school-house, Dotty was almost too angry to +speak. They took their seats with Katie between them (when she was not +under their feet or in their laps), and looked over in the Testament. +The large scholars "up in the back seats," and in fact all but the very +small ones, were in the habit of reading aloud two verses each. This +morning it was the nineteenth chapter of Matthew, and Dotty paid little +heed till her ear was caught by these words, read quite slowly and +clearly by Abby Grant:-- + +"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, that a rich +man shall hardly enter the kingdom of heaven. + +"And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the +eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." + +Dolly's heart gave a great bound. That meant Judge Vance just as sure as +the world. Wasn't he rich, and didn't Jennie boast of it as if it was a +great thing? She touched her friend's arm, and pointed with her small +forefinger to the passage; but Jennie did not understand. + +"It isn't my turn," whispered she; "what are you nudging me for?" + +"Don't you see your papa isn't going to heaven?" said Dotty. "God won't +let him in, because he's rich." + +"I don't believe it," said Jennie quite unmoved. + +"O, but God won't, for the Bible says so. He can't get in any more than +a camel can get into a needle; and you know a camel can't." + +"But the needle can go into a camel," said Jennie, thoughtfully; +"perhaps that's what it means." + +"O, no," whispered Dotty. "I know better'n that. I'm very sorry your +papa is rich." + +"But he isn't so very rich," said Jennie, looking sober. + +"You always said he was," said Dotty, with a little triumph. + +"Well, he isn't rich enough for _that_! He's only rich a little +mite,--just a little teenty tonty mite," added Jennie, as she looked at +Dotty's earnest face, and saw the rare tear gathering on her eyelashes. + +"But _my_ father isn't rich the least bit of a speck," said Dotty, with +a sudden joy. "Nobody ever said he was. Not so rich, at any rate, +Jennie, but you could put it through a needle. You could put it through +a needle just as easy." + +Jennie felt very humble--a strange thing for her. This was a new way of +looking at things. + +"Of course _he'll_ go to heaven, you know," said Dotty; "there's no +trouble about that." + +"I s'pose he will," sighed Jennie, looking at her beautiful gold ring +with less pleasure than usual. She had been in the habit of twirling it +about her finger, and telling the little girls it was made of real +"carrot gold." But just at this moment she didn't care so much about +it; and it even seemed to her that Dotty's little hand looked very nice +and white without any rings. Perhaps people had not admired the glitter +of her forefinger so very much, after all. How did she know but they had +said, "Look at Judge Vance's little daughter. Isn't she ashamed to wear +that ring when it's a sign her father is rich, and can't go to heaven?" +The child began to wish there would come holes in her father's pockets +and let out the money; for she supposed he kept it all in his pockets, +of course. + +"I shall tell my mother about it," mused she; "and I don't believe but +she'll laugh and say, 'That Dotty Dimple is a very queer child.'" + +But just at this time little Katie began to peep into Jennie's pockets +for "candy-seeds" (that is, sugared spices), and to behave in many ways +so badly that Miss Prince said she must be taken home. So the girls led +her out between them; and that was the last Jennie thought of the camel. +But Dotty remembered it all the way home. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +A SAD FRIGHT. + + +But the next afternoon, as the two little girls were walking home +together, Dotty said to Jennie, with a very wise face,-- + +"Grandma has told me what the Bible means. Now I understand every single +thing." + +Jennie did not seem as much delighted as had been expected. + +"She says God can get that camel through a needle." + +"O, I remember," said Jennie; "you mean that Bible camel." + +"There isn't anything He can't do," continued Dotty; "the richest men, +richer than your father, can get to heaven if God's a mind to take 'em." + +"Not bad people," said Jennie, shaking her head. + +"I don't know about that; she didn't say," said Dotty, looking puzzled. +"O, no, I s'pose not. God wouldn't be a mind to. For don't you see, +Jennie Vance, it's just _like_ a camel. There can't anybody go through +themselves unless God _pulls_ 'em through." + +I don't know what Grandma Parlin would have thought if she had heard her +words chopped up in this way; but it made very little difference to +Jennie, who paid no attention at all. + +"You're father'll get there," added Dotty; "so I thought I'd tell you." + +"Your shoestring's untied," said Jennie, coolly. + +"And I don't care now if you are the richest," said Dotty, stooping to +tie the string; "for God loves me just as well when I wear Prudy's old +things; and so do all the good people in this town, and the minister +too; grandma said so. I don't care how much you talk about our old +Deacon, or our eating molasses. That isn't anything! Grandma says its +harder for rich children to be good, and I told her I was real glad I +was half-poor." + +"You're stepping right in the mud," cried Jennie. + +"And then Grandma said that it didn't make any difference any way about +that, if I only loved God; but if I didn't love God, it did." + +"There," said Jennie, "I haven't heard half you've said; and I guess +you've forgotten all about going strawberrying." + +"I almost know grandma won't be willing," replied Dotty; "we've got +company, too; see those ladies in the window." + +"All the better," replied Jennie, cheerily. "You go in and behave as +beautifully as ever you can, and your grandma'll be so busy talking, +she'll say yes before she thinks. That's the way my mamma does. Say +'Crossman's orchard,' remember, but don't tell which one." + +So Jennie staid outside while Dotty entered the parlor softly, and stood +by her grandmother's chair, waiting the proper time to speak. + +"Strawberrying, did you say?" asked Mrs. Parlin, presently. + +"Yes, grandma; the berries are just as thick." + +"O, just as fick!" repeated Katie, clapping her hands. + +"In the Crossman orchard," added Dotty. + +"Prosser Horcher," put in Katie, choking a little at the large words. +"May her, gamma?" + +Now, Dotty knew, as her grandmother did not, that there were two +orchards; and the one she meant was a mile and a half away. + +"Yes, you may go, Alice; it is only a few steps; but put on an old +dress, and don't stay late; you know you are hardly well since your sore +throat." + +Dotty had not actually told a wrong story, but for almost the first time +she had deceived, and she knew the sin was the same. While she was +exchanging her pretty pink frock for one of dark calico, her conscience +pricked so painfully that she almost wished to stay at home. + +"Just as soon as we get out of the village," said Jennie, "I'm going +barefoot; mother said I might." + +"How splendid your mother is!" sighed Dotty. "Grandma's so particular! +But any way I'm going without my stockings; I declare I will. My +throat's so far away from my feet, what hurt will it do?" + +"Children, obey your parents," said the troublesome voice. + +"Grandma isn't my parent," thought Dotty, tugging away at her +boot-lacings. They went out through the kitchen, to get Dotty's red and +white picnic basket; but they crept like a pair of thieves, lest Ruthie, +who was mixing waffles, should hear them, and take notice of Dotty's +bare ankles. + +Once out of the village, it did not take long for Miss Dimple to slip +off her boots and tuck them in her pocket. + +"O, how nice and cool!" murmured she, poking her little pink toes into +the burning sand; till presently, a thorn, which appeared to be waiting +for that very purpose, thrust its way deep into her foot. She sat down +in the middle of the road and screamed. Jennie tried her best to draw +out the thorn, but only succeeded in breaking it off. Then, with a +clumsy pin, she made a voyage of discovery round and round in the soft +flesh of Dotty's foot, never hitting the thorn, or coming anywhere near +it. + +"O, dear!" said Jennie, petulantly; "we've wasted half an hour! What's +the use for you to be always getting into trouble? A great many berries +we shall have at this rate! and I was going to ask my mamma to let me +have a party." + +"There!" said Dotty, bravely, "I'm going right along now, and no more +fuss about it." + +It was hard work; Dotty limped badly; and all the while the cruel thorn +was triumphantly working its way farther in. The Crossman orchard was +not very far away now; but when they had reached it, and had crept under +the fence, why, where were the strawberries? What the boys had not +gathered they had trampled down; and the truth was, there had been very +few in the first place. There was nothing to do but pluck here and there +a stray berry, and make the most of it. + +"This is what I call a shame," sighed Jennie; "and look at the sky; it's +growing as black as a pickpocket." + +"Why, yes," moaned Dotty; "how fast that sun has gone down!" + +But this was a mistake. It was only six o'clock. The sun, understanding +his business perfectly, had not hurried one jot. The clouds were merely +spreading a dark background for some magnificent fireworks; in other +words, a thunder-shower was coming up. + +"Let's go right straight home," said Jennie; and Dotty was glad to hear +the words, for in her own brave little heart she had determined not to +be the first to surrender. + +"Let's go across the fields," she replied; "it's the nearest way home." + +By this time heavy drops were pattering down on the long grass, and +making a hollow sound on the little girls' hats. + +"Why, it's raining," remarked Dotty. + +"You don't say so," sniffed Jennie, whose temper was quite upset, +"perhaps you think you're telling some news." + +Then came the frightful boom of thunder. + +"What's that?" whispered Dotty, with white lips. "I'm afraid, Jennie; I +certainly am." + +"For shame, Dotty Dimple! I thought you were the girl that knew all +about God and the Bible. I shouldn't think you'd be afraid of thunder!" + +"O, but I am!" was the meek reply. "I'm as afraid as I can live." + +"There, hush up, Dotty! When you've been and got us into a fix, you'd +better keep still." + +"I, Jennie Vance? I never! What a story!" + +"You did, Miss Dimple; you spelt it out in the Reader,--'straw-bry;' or +I shouldn't have thought of such a thing." + +"Well, I didn't care much about going, now truly, Jennie; for I don't +feel very well." + +"You _seemed_ to be very much pleased. You said, 'How nice!' as much as +twice; and didn't you almost laugh out loud in the spelling class? Hark! +what a clap!" + +"I should think you'd be ashamed," said poor Dotty, hopping on one foot. +"When I laughed it was to see Charlie Gray make up faces. And should I +have gone barefoot if it hadn't been for you?" + +"Well, there, Dotty Dimple, you're a smart little girl, I must say! I +don't mean to ask you to my party, if my mother lets me have one; and +I've a great mind not to speak to you again as long as I live." + +"I shouldn't think you'd dare to quarrel, Jennie Vance, when you may die +the next minute. Let's get under this tree." + +"Lightning strikes trees, you goosie!" + +"O, Jennie Vance! isn't there a barn anywhere in this great pasture?" + +"Men don't keep barns in their pastures, Dot Dimple; and lightning +strikes barns too, quicker'n a flash!" + +Dotty covered her face with her hands. + +"You don't seem to know scarcely anything," continued Jennie, +soothingly. "I don't believe you know what a conductor is." + +"Of course I do. It's the man on the cars that takes your ticket." + +"No; that's one kind; but in storms like this a conductor is a--a +conductor is a--why, I mean if a thing is a conductor, Dotty,--why then +the thunder and lightning conducts it all to pieces, and that's the last +there is of it! My father's got a book of _hijommerty_ that tells all +about such things. You can't know for certain. Just as likely as not, +now, our baskets are conductors; and then again perhaps they are _non_; +and I don't know which is the worst. If we were sure they were _either +one_, we ought to throw 'em away! that's a fact!" + +"Yes, indeed!" cried Dotty, tossing hers behind her as if it had been a +living scorpion. "Do you s'pose _hats_ will conduct?" + +"Nonsense! no. I didn't say baskets would, did I?" returned Jennie, who +still held her own dangling from her arm. "Yours was a perfect beauty, +Dot. What a fuss you make!" + +As Dotty had all this while been stifling her groans of pain, and had +also been careful not to express a hundredth part of her real terror of +lightning, she thought her friend's words were, to say the least, a +little severe. + +"Why, this is queer," cried Jennie, stopping short. "It's growing wet +here; haven't you noticed it? Now I've thought of something. There's a +bog in this town, _somewhere_, so awful and deep that once a boy slumped +into it, don't you think, up to his waist; and the more he tried to get +out the more he couldn't; and there he was, slump, slump, and got in as +far as his neck. And he screamed till he was black and blue; and when +they went to him there wasn't a bit of him out but the end of his nose, +and he couldn't scream any more; so all they could do was to pull him +out by the hair of his head." + +"Is that a true story, now, honest?" cried Dotty, wringing her hands. +"How dreadful, dreadful, dreadful! What shall we do?" + +"Do?" was the demure reply; "stand as stock-still as ever we can, and +try not to shake when we breathe. Next thing we might slump." + +"I do shake," said Dotty; "I can't help it." + +"Don't you say anything, Dotty Dimple. I never should have thought of +going across lots if you hadn't wanted to; and now you'd better keep +still." + +So even this horrid predicament was owing to Dotty; she was to blame for +everything. "Stock-still" they stood under the beating rain, their +hearts throbbing harder than the drops. + +Yes, there certainly was a bottomless pond--Dotty had heard of it; on +its borders grew the pitcher-plant which Uncle Henry had brought home +once. It was a green pitcher, very pretty, and if it had been glass it +could have been set on the table with maple molasses in it (only nobody +but poor people used molasses). + +O, there _was_ a deep, deep pond, and grass grew round it and in it; and +Uncle Henry had said it was no place for children; they could not be +trusted to walk anywhere near it, for one false step might lead them +into danger. And now they had come to this very spot, this place of +unknown horrors! What should they do? Should they stand there and be +struck by lightning, or try to go on, and only sink deeper and deeper +till they choked and drowned? + +Never in all Dotty's little life had she been in such a strait as this. +She cried so loud that her voice was heard above the storm, in unearthly +shrieks. She didn't want to die! O, it was so nice to be alive! She +would as lief have the sore throat all the time, if she might only be +alive. She said not a word, but the thoughts flew through her mind like +a flock of startled swallows,--not one after another, but all together; +and so fast that they almost took her breath away. + +And O, such a naughty girl as she had been! Going barefoot! Telling a +story about Crossman's orchard! Making believe she never fibbed, when +she did the same thing as that, and she knew she did. Running off to +play when grandma wished her to stay with Flyaway. Feeding Zip Coon with +plum cake to see him wag his tail, and never telling but it was brown +bread. Getting angry with the chairs and tables, and people. Doing all +manner of wickednesses. + +Dotty was appalled by the thought of one sin in particular. She +remembered that in repeating the Lord's prayer once, she had asked for +"daily bread and butter." Her mother had reproved her for it, but she +had done the same thing again and again. By and by, when her mother +positively forbade her to say "butter," she had said "bread and +molasses;" "for, mamma," said she, "you know I don't like _bare_ bread." + +"I s'pose Miss Preston would say that was the awfulest wickedness of +all, and I guess it was. O, dear!" + +Well, if she ever got home she would be a better girl. But it wasn't +likely she ever should get home. + +"Why, Jennie," said she, speaking now for the first time, "here we are; +and when we stand still we don't move at all; we don't go home a bit, +Jennie." + +"Of course not, Dotty Dimple; that's a very bright speech! I've thought +the same thought my own self before ever you did!" + +Another silence, broken only by the pitter patter of the rain; for the +thunder was growing less and less frequent. + +"But we must go home some time," cried Jennie with energy. "If it kills +us to death we must go home. Just you put your foot out, Dotty dear, and +see if it sinks way down, down. I thought it was beginning to grow a +little soft right here." + +"O, dear, I don't dare to!" groaned Dotty, shaking with a nervous +chill; "you put your foot in your own self, Jennie Vance, and see where +it goes to. I don't want to slump down up to my hair any more'n you do. +What do you s'pose!" + +"Fie! for shame, Dotty Dimple! I always thought you were a coward, and +now I know it! What if I should give you my ring, made of all carrot +gold, would you do it then? Just nothing but put your foot out?" + +"_Would_ you give me the ring now, honest?" said Dotty, raising her +little foot cautiously; "certain true?" + +"Why, you know, Dotty, if I said I would, I would." + +[Illustration] + +A sudden thought was darting across Dotty's mind, like another startled +swallow; only this one came alone, and did not take her breath away; for +it was a pleasant thought--Where were they? Whose field was this? + +Why, it was Mr. Gordon's pasture. And Johnny came here for the cow every +night of his life. And, as true as the world, there was the Gordon cow +now, the red and white one, standing by the fence, lowing for Johnny. + +"A great deal of bottomless pond this is, and so I should think!" said +Dotty to herself with a smile. "Where a cow can go I guess I can go with +my little feet. Soft? why, it isn't any softer than anybody's field is +after it rains." + +So, without saying a word, the little girl put her foot out, and of +course it touched solid earth. + +"There!" she cried, "I did it, I did it! You said I was a coward; and +who's a coward now? Where's your gold ring, Jennie Vance?" + +"Why, the ground is as hard as a nut, I declare," said Jennie, walking +along after Dotty with great satisfaction. "I didn't much think there +was a swamp in this field all the time. Only I thought, if there was, +what a scrape it would be! Come to think of it, I believe that +bottomless pond is in the town of Augusta." + +"No," replied Dotty, "it's on the other side of the river. I know, for +Uncle Henry went to it in a boat. But where's my ring?" + +"I don't know anything about your ring; didn't know you had any." + +"I mean _yours_, Jennie Vance; or it _was_ yours; the one on your +forefinger, with a red stone in it, that you said you'd give to me if +I'd put my foot in it." + +"Put your foot in what?" + +"Why, you know, Jennie Vance; in the mud." + +"Well, there wasn't any mud; 'twas as hard as a nut." + +"You know what I mean, Jennie," exclaimed Dotty, growing excited. "So +you needn't pretend!" + +"I'm not pretending, nor any such a thing," replied Jennie, with a great +show of candor; "it's you that are making up a story, Dotty Dimple. I +didn't say I'd give you my ring. No, ma'am; if 'twas the last words I +was to speak, I never!" + +"O, Jennie Vance! Jane Sidney Vance! I should think the thunder and +lightning would conduct you to pieces this minute; and a bear out of the +woods, and every thing else in this world. I never saw a little girl, +that had a father named Judge, that would lie so one to another in all +the days of my life." + +"Well," said Jennie, coolly, "if you've got done your preaching, I'll +tell you what I said. I said, 'What if I should;' so there! I didn't say +I would, and I never meant to; and you may ask my father if I can get it +off my finger without sawing the bone in two." + +"Indeed!" replied Dotty, poising her head backward with queenly dignity; +"indeed!" + +"I didn't tell a story," said Jennie, uneasily. "I should think any +goosie might know people wouldn't give away jewels just for putting your +foot out." + +"It's just as well," said Dotty, with extreme dignity; "just _precisely_ +as well! I have one grandmamma who is a Quakeress, and she don't think +much of little girls that wear rings. Ahem!" + +Jennie felt rather uncomfortable. She did not mind Dotty's anger, but +her quiet contempt was another thing. + +"I think likely I may go to Boston next week," said she; "and if I do, +this is the last time we shall go strawberrying together this summer." + +"O, is it?" said Dotty. + +After this the two little creatures trudged on in silence till they +reached Mr. Parlin's gate. Jennie ran home in great haste as soon as she +was free from her limping companion; and Dotty entered the side-door +dripping like a naiad. + +"Why, Alice Parlin!" said grandmamma, in dismay; "how came you in such a +plight? We never thought of you being out in this shower. We supposed, +of course, you would go to Mrs. Gray's, and wait till it was over." + +"We were nowhere near Mr. Gray's," faltered Dotty, "nor anywhere else, +either." + +"I should think you had been standing under a water-spout," said Aunt +Louise. + +"Grandma, can't you put her through the wringer?" asked Prudy, laughing. + +Dotty sank in a wet heap on the floor, and held up her ailing foot with +a groan. + +"Why, child, barefoot?" cried Aunt Louise. Dotty said nothing, but +frowned with pain. + +"It is a cruel thorn," said her good grandmother, putting on her +spectacles and surveying the wound. + +"Yes, 'm," said Dotty, finding her tongue. "I almost thought 'twould go +clear through, and come out at the top of my foot." + +Katie took a peep. "No, it didn't," said she; "it hided." + +"There, there, poor little dear," said grandmother; "we'll put her right +to bed. Ruthie, don't you suppose you and I can carry her up stairs?" + +Not a word yet about the naughtiness; but plenty of pity and soft +poultices for the wounded foot. + +"She's a very queer child," thought Ruth, coming down stairs afterwards +to steep hops for some beer; "a very odd child. She has something on her +mind; but _we_ shan't be any the wiser till she gets ready to tell it." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +MAKING POETRY. + + +But when Prudy had come to bed, Dotty could talk more freely. + +"O, dear," said she, hiding her face in her sister's bosom; "I don't +want them to laugh at me, but I've lost my boots and my basket, and been +dripped in the rain, and got a thorn in my foot too, till it seems as if +I should die!" + +"But you'll never do so again, little sister," said Prudy, who could +think of no other consolation to give. + +"And lightning besides, Prudy! And she made me throw away my beautiful +picnic basket, and she kept hers, and it never hurt her a bit! Don't +you think she was just as mean! What makes grandma let me go with her, +do you s'pose? I shall grow real bad! Won't you tell her to stop it?" + +Dotty moaned with pain, and between her moans she talked very fast. + +"And all this time," said she, "we haven't any ducks!" + +Prudy, who was dropping off to sleep, murmured, "No." + +"But it's real too bad, Prudy. I never saw such a lazy old hen--did you? +Prudy, _did_ you?" + +Presently, when Prudy thought it must be nearly morning, there was a +clutch upon her shoulder, and a voice cried in her ear,-- + +"I don't see what makes you go to sleep, Prudy Parlin, when my foot +aches so bad! And O, how I want a drink o' water!" + +Prudy thought she should never find the match-box; but she did at last, +and lighted the lamp after several trials. It was dreary work, though, +going down stairs with those sticks in her eyes, to get the water. + +Dotty drained the nipperkin at two draughts, and said it wasn't half +enough. + +"O, you shall have all you want, little sister," said Prudy, kindly; +"you may drink up the whole barrel if you like." + +So down she went again, and this time brought a pitcher. On her return +she found Dotty weeping in high displeasure. + +"You told me to drink up that whole barrel, you did," cried the +unreasonable child, shaking her head. + +"Did I?" said Prudy; "well, dear, I didn't mean anything." + +"But you _said_ so--the whole, whole barrel," repeated Dotty rocking +back and forth; "you talk to me just as if I--was--black!" + +"Hush!" said Prudy, "or you'll wake grandma. Let me see; do you want me +to tell you a conundrum? Why does an elephant carry his trunk?" + +"I don't know; I s'pose he can't help it; it grows on the end of his +nose." + +"That isn't the answer, though, Dotty; it's because--because he's a +traveller!" + +"An elephant a traveller? Where does he travel to? I don't believe it." + +"Well," replied Prudy, "I can't see any sense in it myself. O, stop a +minute! Now I know; I didn't tell it right. This is the way; 'Why is an +elephant like a traveller? Because he carries a trunk!' Isn't that +funny?" + +"I don't care anything about your elephants," said Dotty; "if you don't +try to please me, Prudy Parlin, you'll have to wake up grandma, and +call her in here, or I shall cry myself sick!" + +Patient Prudy crept into bed, but left the lamp burning. + +"Suppose we make up some poetry?" said she. + +"Why, you don't know how to make up poetry--do you?" said Dotty, leaning +on her elbow, and looking with dreamy eyes at the engraving of Christus +Consolator at the foot of the bed. "I love poetry when they read it in +concert at school. Don't you know,-- + + 'Tremendous torrents! For an instant hush!' + +Isn't that splendid?" + +"Very splendid, indeed," replied Prudy, pinching herself to keep awake. + +"I think Torrence is _such_ a nice name," pursued Dotty; "don't you tell +anybody but when I'm married and have some boys, I'm going to name some +of them Torrence." + +"Not more than one, Dotty!" + +"O, no, I couldn't; could I? There mustn't but one of them have the same +name; I forgot. 'Tremendous Torrence!' I shall say; and then he'll come +in and ask, 'What do you want, mother?'" + +Prudy suddenly hid her face under the sheet. The absurdity of little +Dotty's ideas had driven the sleep out of her eyes. + +"It would do very well for a name for a very queer boy," said she, +stifling a laugh; "but a torrent _generally_ means the Niagara Falls." + +"Does it?" said Dotty; "who told you so? But I guess I shall call him by +it just the same though--if his father is willing." + +Dotty looked very much interested. + +"What will you call the rest of your boys?" asked Prudy, glad to talk +of anything which kept her little sister pleasant. + +"I shan't have but two boys, and I shall name the other one for his +father," replied Dotty, thoughtfully; "I shall have eight girls, for I +like girls very much; and I shall dress them in silk and velvet, with +gold rings on their fingers, a great deal handsomer than Jennie Vance's; +but they won't be proud a bit. They never will have to be punished; for +when they do wrong I shall look through my spectacles and say, 'Why, my +eight daughters, I am very much surprised!' And then they will obey me +in a minute." + +"Yes," returned Prudy; "but don't you think now we'd better go to +sleep?" + +"No, indeed," said Dotty, drawing herself up in a little heap and +holding her throbbing foot in her hand; "if you don't make poetry I'm +going to make it myself. Hark!-- + + 'Once there was a little boy going down hill; + He leaped, he foamed, he struggled; and all was o'er.' + +"Do you call that poetry?" said Prudy, laughing. "Why, where's the +rhyme?" + +"The rhyme? I s'pose I forgot to put it in. Tell me what a rhyme is, +Prudy; _maybe_ I don't know!" + +"A rhyme," replied her wise sister, "is a jingle like this: 'A boy and a +toy,' 'A goose and a moose.'" + +"O, is it? how queer! 'A hill and a pill,' that's a rhyme, too." + +"Now," continued Prudy, "I'll make up some real poetry, and show you +how. It won't take me more than a minute; its just as easy as +knitting-work." + +Prudy thought for a few seconds, and then recited the following lines +in a sing-song tone:-- + + "When the sun + Had got his daily work done, + He put a red silk cloud on his head, + (_For a night-cap you know,_) + And went to bed. + He was there all sole alone; + For just at that very time the moon + (_That isn't a very nice rhyme, but I can't help it,_) + Was dressed and up, + And had eaten her sup- + Per. 'Husband,' said Mrs. Moon, 'I can't stop to kiss you good by; + I've got to leave you now and go up in the sky.'" + +"O, how pretty!" said Dotty; "how it jingles! Did you make that up in +your own head?" + +"Yes, indeed; just as fast as I could knit once round. I could do a +great deal better if I should spend more time. I mean to take a slate +some time and write it all full of stars, and clouds, and everything +splendid. I shall say, 'What a pity it is that a nice husband and wife, +like the sun and moon, can't ever live together, but have to keep +following each other round the sky and never get near enough to shake +hands!' I'll pretend that it makes the moon look very sober indeed, but +the sun isn't so tender-hearted; so he can bear it better. O, Dotty, +don't you let me forget to put that into poetry! I can jingle it off, +and make it sound beautiful!" + +"I should think you might put my verse into poetry, too. Can't you say +'a pill rolled down hill?'" said Dotty. + +"O, I can make poetry of it easier than that. You don't need to change +but one word:-- + + 'There was a little boy going down hill, + He leaped, he foamed, he struggled;--and all was _still_.'" + +Dotty repeated it several times with much delight. "That's beautiful," +said she, "now honest; and I did almost the whole of it myself!" + +After this she began to grow drowsy, and, forgetting her troubles, fell +asleep, to the great relief of poor sister Prudy, who was not long in +following her. + +Next morning Prudy awoke at nearly the usual time; but her sister was +still in the land of dreams, and she stole out of the room without +disturbing her. + +"Grandmamma," said she, "Dotty has had an awful night! I've had to be up +with her, and trying to pacify her, most of the time." + +"A whole hour," said grandma, smiling. + +"O, grandma, it was nearly all night, but there didn't anybody know it; +we talked low, so we needn't disturb you." + +Grandmother and Aunt Maria smiled at each other across the table. + +"I dare say, my dear," said Aunt Maria, "you thought you were as quiet +as two little mice; but I assure you you kept everybody awake, except +grandpa and Susy." + +"Why, Aunt 'Ria!" + +"But we learned a lesson in poetry-making," said Aunt Louise, "which was +worth lying awake to hear. Don't you suppose, Maria, that even prosy +people, like you and me, might jingle poetry till in time it would +become as easy as knitting-work?" + +Prudy blushed painfully. + +"I thought," said Grace, "the sun must look very jolly in his red silk +night-cap, only I was sorry you forgot to tell what he had for +breakfast." + +"Nothing but cold potatoes out of the cupboard," said Horace; "he keeps +bachelor's hall. It's just as well the old fellow can't meet his wife, +for she's made of green cheese, and he'd be likely to slice her up and +eat her." + +A tear glittered on Prudy's eyelashes. Horace was the first to observe +it, and he hastened to change the subject by saying his johnny-cake was +so thin he could cut it with a pair of scissors. By that time Prudy's +tears had slyly dropped upon her napkin, and she would have recovered +her spirits if Aunt Louise had not remarked carelessly,-- + +"Seems to me our little poetess is rather melancholy this morning." + +Prudy's heart was swollen so high with tears that there would have been +a flood in about a minute; but Horace exclaimed suddenly,-- + +"O, mother, may I tell a story? Once there were two old--two maiden +ladies in Nantucket, and they earned their living by going round the +island picking up the 'tag-locks' the sheep had left hanging to the +bushes and rocks. Now, you wouldn't believe, would you, mother, that +those two women could get rich by selling tag-locks?" + +"I certainly should not," replied Mrs. Clifford, smiling fondly on her +young son; for she saw and approved of his kind little scheme for +diverting his cousin's attention. + +"Well, mother, they lived to be more than sixty years old; and when they +made their wills, how much money do you suppose they had to leave? I +wish you'd try to guess." + +"Dear me," said Mrs. Clifford, "I'm sure I can't imagine: I shall have +to give it up." + +"So must I," said grandmamma; "I make such poor work at guessing: I +suppose they lived very frugally?" + +"A thousand dollars?" suggested Grace. + +"A million?" said Susy. + +"A shilling?" chimed in Aunt Louise. + +"_Not one cent!_" replied Horace. + +"Well, well," said grandmother, "you've caught us napping this time." + +But only she and Aunt Maria appreciated Horace's gallantry towards his +sensitive cousin Prudy. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +A DAY ON THE SOFA. + + +When Dotty Dimple awoke that morning, she was very much astonished to +see the sun so high. + +"The sky looks very clean," said she, "and I should think it might after +such a washing." + +She did not know it, but for some reason the pure blue of the heavens +made her feel dissatisfied with herself. Since she had slept upon it, +her last night's conduct seemed worse to her than ever. All this while +her grandmamma's forgiveness had not been asked. Must it be asked? Dotty +hung her proud head for shame. Then she offered her morning prayer, and +promised God that henceforth she would try to be good. + +"If Jennie Vance only stays away," added she, meekly. + +The fact was, Dotty was losing faith in herself. She had boasted that +she never told a lie; she had "preached" to Jennie Vance; and now, +behold, what had she been doing herself! The child was full of good +resolutions to-day, but she began to find that her strongest purposes +did not hold together any longer than her gingham dresses. + +Her foot was so lame and swollen that she made believe the staircase was +a hill, and slid down it accordingly. As she hobbled by the parlor door, +she saw her Aunt Maria seated on the sofa sewing. It must be very late, +she knew. Little Flyaway, who had been chasing the cat, ran to meet her, +looking very joyful because her cousin had overslept herself. + +"It's half past o'clock," said she, clapping her little hands; "half +past o'clock, Dotty Dimple!" + +Dotty felt quite ashamed, but her grandmother assured her that although +it was nearly ten o'clock, she was perfectly excusable. She seated her +in an easy chair, and gave her a cracker to nibble; for Dotty said she +was not hungry, and did not care for breakfast. + +There was one thought uppermost in the little girl's mind: she must ask +her grandmother's forgiveness. Some children might not have seen the +necessity, but Dotty had been well instructed at home; she knew this +good, kind grandmamma was deserving of the highest respect, and if any +of her grandchildren disobeyed her, they could do no less than +acknowledge their fault. But Dotty was a very proud child; she could not +humble herself yet. + +Mrs. Parlin dressed the lame foot, and pitied it, and was very sorry the +little girl had any soreness of the throat; but not a word of reproach +did she utter; she was waiting to see if Dotty had anything to say for +herself. + +Susy and Prudy had gone to Aunt Martha's and, till "the Charlie boy" +came, there was no one at home for company but little Katie. Dotty did +not wish to think; so she made the best of the little ones, and played +"keep school." + +Black Dinah was the finest-looking pupil, but there were several others +made of old shawls and table-covers, who sat bolt upright, and bore +their frequent whippings very meekly. Katie and Charlie each held a +birch switch, and took the government of the school, while Dotty did the +teaching. + +"Spell _man_," said Dotty, sternly, pointing with a bodkin at Dinah. + +Dinah was sulky, and kept her red silk mouth shut; but Dotty answered +for her: "m, a, n, man." + +"To," said she to the black and white shawl: "t, o, to." "Put," to the +green table-cover: "p, u, t, put." + +"We 'shamed o' you," said Katie, beating the whole school unmercifully. +"Why don't you mind in a minute? Let _me_ spell 'em! Hush, Dinah! Say +put! T, o, put!" + +"I think," said Dotty, laughing, "it is time now for Dinah to take her +music lesson." + +"Yes," said Katie, "lady wants um to packus." + +So the colored miss was set on the music stool, and both her kid hands +spread out upon the keys. + +"Don't um packus booful?" said Katie, admiringly. + +But next moment Charlie was punishing the pupil because she didn't +"breeve." "Kady wanth her to breeve when her packithith." + +As it was an ingrain misfortune of Dinah's that she could not breathe, +she showed no signs of repentance. + +"Stop!" said Dotty; "she looks faint; it is rheumatism, I think." + +"O, O, roosum-tizzum! Poo' Dinah!" said Katie. + +"We must pack her in a wet sheet," said Dotty. + +Katie was sent to the kitchen for a towel and a basin of water; and very +soon Dinah's clothes were removed, and she was rolled up in a pack; +like the boy in the swamp, with "not a bit of her out but the end of her +nose." + +"Ow! Ow!" cried Katie, in a tone of agony, speaking for Dinah. "Ow! O, +dear!" + +This was what the black patient would have said, no doubt, if she had +had her faculties. Aunt Maria came in, a little alarmed, to inquire what +was the matter with Katie. + +"Nuffin, mamma, only we _suffer_ Dinah," replied the child, dancing +round the patient; "her wants to ky, but her can't. Gets caught in her +teef comin' out!" + +"Very well," said Mrs. Clifford, kissing the small nurse, "you may +'suffer' Dinah as much as you like, but please don't scream quite so +loud." + +"Is grandma busy, Aunt 'Ria?" said Dotty; "because I'd like to see her +a moment." + +The child had seized her knitting-work. Her face was flushed and eager. +She thought she felt brave enough to open her heart to her grandmother; +but when Mrs. Parlin entered the nursery, her face beaming with +kindness, Dotty was not ready. + +"O, grandma," stammered she, "are there any ducks hatched? Don't you +think that hen is very slow and very lazy?" + +Mrs. Parlin knew her little granddaughter had not called her out of the +kitchen merely to ask about the poultry. She seated herself on the sofa, +and drew Dotty's head into her lap. + +"Please look at my knitting-work, grandma. Shall I seam that stitch or +_plain_ it?" + +"You are doing very well," said Mrs. Parlin, looking at the work; "you +seamed in the right place." + +Dotty cast about in her mind for something more to say. + +"Grandma, you know what fireflies are? Well, if you scratch 'em will +they light a lamp? Susy says they have _fosfos_ under their wings, like +a match." + +"No, Alice; with all the scratching in the world, they could not be made +to light a lamp." + +Dotty sighed. + +"Grandma, there are some things in this world I hate, and one is +skeetos." + +"They are vexatious little creatures, it is true." + +There was a long pause. + +"Grandma, are skeetos idiotic? You said people without brains were +idiotic, and there isn't any place in a skeeto's head for brains." + +"Dotty," said grandma, rising with a smile, "if you sent for me to ask +me such foolish questions as these, I must really beg to be excused. I +have a pudding to make for dinner." + +"Grandma, O, grandma," cried Dotty, seizing her skirts, "I have +something to say, now truly; something real sober. I--I--" + +"Well, my dear," said Mrs. Parlin, encouragingly. + +"I--I--O, grandma, which do you think can knit the best, Prudy or I?" + +"My dear Dotty," said the kind grandmother, stroking the child's hair, +"don't be afraid to tell the whole story. I know you have a trouble at +your heart. Do you think you were a naughty girl last night?" + +[Illustration: DOTTY AND "THE CHARLIE BOY."--Page 113.] + +Dotty's head drooped. She tried to say, "Yes, ma'am;" but, like +Dinah, "the words got caught in her teef comin' out." + +"We didn't go where you thought we did, grandma," faltered she at last. +"Mr. Crossman has two orchards, and we went to just the one you wouldn't +have s'posed." + +"Yes, dear; so I have learned to-day." + +"I deceived you a-purpose, grandma; for if I hadn't deceived you, you +wouldn't have let me go." + +There was a sorrowful expression on Mrs. Parlin's face as she listened +to these words, though they told her nothing new. + +"Has you got a pain, gamma?" said little Katie, tenderly. + +"I did another wickedness, grandma," said Dotty, in a low voice; "I went +barefoot, and you never said I might." + +"Poor little one, you were sorely punished for that," said grandma, +kindly. + +"And another, too, I did; I threw my basket away; but that wasn't much +wicked; Jennie made me think perhaps 'twas a non." + +"A what?" + +"A _non_, that catches lightning, you know; so I threw it away to save +my life." + +Grandma smiled. + +"And now," continued Dotty, twirling her fingers, "can you--can +you--forgive me, grandma?" + +"Indeed I can and will, child, if you are truly sorry." + +"There now, grandma," said Dotty, looking distressed, "you think I don't +feel sorry because I don't cry. I can't cry as much as Prudy does, ever; +and besides, I cried all my tears away last night." + +Dotty rubbed her eyes vigorously as she spoke, but no "happy mist" came +over them. + +"Why, my dear little Alice," said grandmamma, "it is quite unnecessary +for you to rub your eyes. Don't you know you can _prove_ to me that you +are sorry?" + +"How, grandma?" + +"Never do any of these naughty things again. That is the way I shall +know that you really repent. Sometimes children think they are sorry, +and make a great parade, but forget it next day, and repeat the +offence." + +"Indeed, grandma, I don't mean ever to deceive or disobey again," said +Dotty, with a great deal more than her usual humility. + +"Ask your heavenly Father to help you keep that promise," said Mrs. +Parlin, solemnly. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +WASHING THE PIG. + + +After her grandmother had left the room, Miss Dotty lay on the sofa for +five minutes, thinking. + +"Then it doesn't make any difference how much anybody cries, or how much +they don't cry. If they are truly sorry, then they won't do it again; +that's all." + +Then she wondered if Jennie Vance had asked her step-mother's pardon. She +thought she ought to talk to Jennie, and tell her how much happier she +would feel if she would only try to be a good little girl. + +"That child is growing naughty every day of her life," mused Miss +Dimple, with a feeling of pity. + +There was plenty of time to learn the morning's lesson by heart, for +Dotty was obliged to keep very quiet all day. The thorn had been removed +from her foot, but the healing must be a work of time; and more than +that, her throat was quite sore. + +It seemed as if Susy and Prudy would never come; and when at last their +cheerful voices were heard ringing through the house, it was a welcome +sound indeed. They had brought some oranges for Katie and Dotty, with +sundry other niceties, from Aunt Martha's. + +"Did you know," said Dotty, "I haven't had any breakfast to-day? I've +lost one meal, and I never shall make it up as long as I live; for I +couldn't eat two breakfasts, you know." + +"I'll tell you what we'll do," said Aunt Louise, laughing; "if you'll +wake me up at twelve o'clock some night, I'll rise and prepare a +breakfast for you, and that will make it all right." + +Dotty looked at her auntie as if she did not know whether to take her in +earnest or not. + +"I've been sick at home all day, Prudy," said she; "and I s'pose +_you've_ been having a good time." + +"Splendid! And Lightning Dodger brought us home." + +"Who's Lightning Dodger?" + +"Why, Aunt Martha's horse; don't you know? They call him that because +they say he goes so fast the lightning don't have time to hit him." + +"O, you don't believe it--do you?" cried Dotty; "I guess that's +poetry." + +"Little sister," replied Prudy, speaking in a low voice, "don't say +'poetry' ever again. There's something about it that's very queer. I +thought I knew how to make poetry, but they all laugh at me, even +grandma." + +Dotty looked greatly surprised. + +"Yes," continued Prudy, with a trembling voice; "I can rhyme verses and +jingle them; but there's something else I don't put in, I s'pose, that +belongs there. Some time I'll look in the big dictionary and see what it +is." + +"Is Prudy telling about the party?" asked Susy, from the corner. + +"What party?" cried Dotty, dancing on her well foot. + +"There, now, don't feel so happy, darling, for you can't go; its a +family party, and Cousin Lydia wrote she hadn't room for the two +youngest; that's you and Flyaway." + +Dotty looked as if she had received a blow. True, she knew nothing about +Cousin Lydia, who lived twenty miles away; but if that individual was +going to have a party, of course Dotty wished to go to it. + +"Uncle John is going, all _his_ wife and children," said Prudy; "and I +don't see why Dotty can't." + +Uncle John was Aunt Martha's husband, and "all _his_ wife and children" +meant only Aunt Martha and Lonnie. + +"Cousin Lydia wanted to make me cry," exclaimed Dotty, her eyes shooting +out sparks of displeasure; "she 'spected I'd cry, and that's +why--Katie," added she, drawing the little one up to her, "Cousin Lydia +won't let you come to her house." + +"What _for_ she won't?" cried Katie, looking defiant. "If I good would +her put me in the closet? I don't like her tall, tenny rate." + +This was the strongest expression of wrath Katie dared use; and when she +said she did not like a person "tall tenny rate," it meant that she was +very, very angry. + +"Has Cousin Yiddy got some heart?" asked she indignantly. + +"Not a bit," replied Dotty, fiercely. + +Mrs. Parlin now tried to explain. She said Mrs. Tenny did not intend any +disrespect to the two youngest ones; but she really had no room for +them, as her guests were to spend the night. + +"The mistake she made was in asking Susy and Prudy," said Aunt Louise; +"but I suppose she was curious to see our little poetess." + +Prudy blushed, and hid her face behind the curtain. + +"Poor little sister," thought she, "how she feels!" For Dotty sat in the +rocking-chair, as stiff as a jointed doll, looking as if she loved +nobody and nobody loved her. Her beautiful eyes had ceased to shoot +sparks of fire, and now appeared hard and frozen, like thick blue ice. +In fact, a fit of the pouts was coming on very fast, and gentle Prudy +dreaded it. She had been so happy in the thought of riding to +Bloomingdale; could she give up that pleasure, and stay at home with +Dotty? Nothing less, she knew, would satisfy the child. All her life +Prudy had been learning to think of the happiness of others before her +own. She cast another glance at the still face. + +"I'm not going to Bloomingdale," sighed she, behind the curtain. + +But when she told Mrs. Parlin so, that night, her voice was very +tremulous. + +"You dear little girl," said grandma, giving her a hearty kiss; "you +need not make any such resolve. Your sister Alice must learn to bear +disappointments as well as you. You are going to Bloomingdale with us, +my child; so bring your blue dress to me, and let me see if it is in +order." + +Though Prudy's offer to remain at home had been made in all good faith, +and though she was really sorry to think of leaving Dotty alone, still I +cannot say her heart did not bound with delight on being told she _must_ +go. + +Thursday morning came clear and bright, and with it Miss Polly, downcast +and sad, in a mournful brown bonnet, the front of which, as Prudy said, +was "making a courtesy." Miss Polly was, however, in as good spirits as +usual, and had come to keep house with Ruth, and help take care of the +children for this day and the next. + +Till the last minute Prudy and Dotty walked the piazza, their arms +about each other's waist. + +"I s'pose," said Dotty, sullenly, "when you are at that old Cousin +Lydia's, having good times, you won't think anything about me and Katie, +left here all alone." + +"Why, little sister!" + +"Maybe," continued Dotty, "the ducks will hatch while you're gone. I saw +the white hen flying over the fence with one of those eggs in her +mouth." + +"A piece of the shell?" + +"O, no, a whole egg, right in her bill," replied Dotty, who supposed she +was telling the truth. "And you know those big strawberries that cost a +cent apiece, Prudy; you'll be sorry you couldn't be here to help eat 'em +in cream." + +Perhaps Dotty hoped, even at this last moment, that Prudy would be +induced to stay at home. If so, she was doomed to be disappointed. + +"Well," said Prudy, "I'm glad you'll have such nice times, Dotty." + +"O, it won't be nice at all. Something will happen; now you see if it +don't," said Dotty, determined to be miserable. + +After the two carriages, with the horses "Deacon" and "Judge," had +driven off, and grandpa had given his last warning about fire, and +Horace and the girls had waved their handkerchiefs for the last time, +Dotty proceeded to the kitchen to see if she could find anything +wherewith to make herself unhappy. Ruth stood by the flour-board +kneading bread, and cutting it with a chopping-knife in a brisk, lively +way. Polly sat by the stove sighing and rubbing silver. + +"Dear me, child, what are you doing with my starch?" said Ruth as she +saw Dotty with the bowl at her lips, and a sticky stream tickling down +her apron. + +"Starch?" cried Dotty, in disgust; "and you never told me, Ruthie! How +did I know it wasn't arrow-root?" + +"You see, Polly," said Ruth in a discouraged tone, "just what we are to +expect from these children to-day. Next thing we know, that morsel of a +Katie will be running away. They are enough to try the patience of Job +when they both of them set out to see what they _can_ do. And if Jennie +Vance comes, the house will be turned upside down in five minutes." + +Ruth might have known better than to complain to Polly, who always had +something in her own experience which was worse than anybody else had +known. + +"We all have our trials," sighed that sorrowful woman; "if it isn't +children, it's aches and pains. Now, for my part, I've been troubled +for ten years with--" + +Here followed a list of diseases. Ruth shut her lips together, resolved +to say nothing more about her own trials. + +"They don't either of them like me," thought Dotty. "I'm going off in +the barn, and perhaps they'll think I'm dead. Katie," said she, sternly, +"I'm going off somewhere, and you mustn't try to find me." + +Then there was some one else who felt quite alone in the world, and that +was little Katie. Her cousin had pushed her one side as if she was of no +value. Katie was a very little child, but she was old enough to feel +aggrieved. She went into the parlor, and threw herself face downwards on +the sofa, thinking. + +"Somebody leave me alone. O, dear! Some naughty folks don't think I'm +any gooder than a baby." + +Then the poor little thing ran out to "breve the fleshy air." No, she +wasn't quite alone in the world after all, for there was Charlie Gray at +the gate. + +"Is um _you_?" she cried gleefully. + +Charlie said it was. + +"You didn't came to see big folks--did you? You camed to see Katie. I +love you deely." + +Then she tried to kiss him; but Charlie drew away. + +"O, is your face sore?" asked the little girl. + +By this time they had got as far as the seat in the trees, and Charlie +had found his tongue. + +"I didn't come thee _you_," said he. "I came thee your grandpa'th pig." + +"O," said Katie, perfectly satisfied. + +Off they started for the pig-pen. + +[Illustration: WASHING THE PIG.--Page 137.] + +"I'm glad Dotty Dimble goed away," said Katie, swinging Charlie's hand; +"her's stinchy and foolidge." + +"Good girlth don't thay tho," said sweet little Charlie rather shocked. + +"Well, I do; stinchy and foolidge!" repeated Katie, as severely as if +she had known what the words meant. + +The pig was not expecting any visitors, and when he found that Charlie +and Katie had brought him nothing to eat, he did not seem very glad to +see them. + +"How you do, piggy?" said Katie, swinging a stick through the opening by +the trough. + +Piggy ran away, looking very unamiable; and then he came back again, +rolling his little eyes, and grunting sulkily. + +"He don't look pleathant," said Charlie. + +"No," replied Katie, archly; "I guess um don't want to be kissed." + +Piggy winked his pink eyes, as if to say, "Ah, but I do." + +"Does you?" said Katie, kindly, "then I'll frow you one;" and she did it +from the tips of her clean fingers. + +"But piggy's velly dirty," said she, wiping her lips on her apron. + +"Don't they wath him?" said Charlie; "they wath theep." + +"Um isn't a sheep," returned Katie; "um's a pig." + +"But your gwampa could wath him." + +"No, gampa couldn't; gampa's deaf. I'll tell Ruthie, and Ruthie'll wash +him with the toof brush." + +"I with thee would," sighed Charlie; "thee ought to. O ho!" he added, a +bright thought striking him; "you got a mop?" + +"A mop?" + +"Yes; a bwoom 'thout any bwoom on it; only wags." + +Katie knew what he meant in a minute; and soon her hair was flying in +the wind, as she ran into the house for her handled mop. She looked +first in the parlor, and then in the front hall; but at last she found +it in the wash-room. She was very sly about it, for she was not sure +Ruthie would approve of this kind of housework. Then Charlie tugged out +a pail of water, and dipped in the mop; and between them both they +thrust it through the opening of the pen, upon piggy's back. But the +dirty creature did not love clean water. When he felt the mop coming +down, he thought the sky was falling, and ran as fast as Chicken Little +frightened by the rose-leaf. + +It was of no use. The mop was wilful, and fell into the trough; and +there it staid, though the children spent the rest of the forenoon in +vain attempts to hook it out. When Ruthie went that noon to feed the +pig, she found the trough choked with a mop, a hoe, a shovel, and +several clothes-pins. She did not stop to inquire into the matter, but +took the articles out, one by one, saying to herself, with a smile,-- + +"Some of that baby's work. I couldn't think what had become of my mop; +she's enough to try the patience of Job. And now," added Ruth, throwing +her apron over her head, "I may as well look up Miss Dimple. There's not +a better child in the world than she is when she pleases; but deary me, +when things do go wrong!" + +Just then a wagon drove up to the gate, and Ruth said, as she saw a +burly figure alight from it,-- + +"Why, that can't be Uncle Seth? I'm afraid something has happened at our +house!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A DARK DAY. + + +Meanwhile Dotty was lying on the hay in the barn scaffold. It is very +easy to be unhappy when we particularly try to be so; and Dotty had +arrived at the point of _almost_ believing that she _almost_ wished she +was actually dead. + +And, to add to her gloom, a fierce-looking man, with a long horse-whip +in his hand, came and peeped in at the barn door, and screamed to Dotty +in a hoarse voice that "Ruth Dillon wanted her right off, and none of +her dilly-dallying." + +And then, on going into the house, what should she learn but that this +man had come to take Ruth home, because her mother was sick. The +children--so Ruth said--must stay with Polly and be little ladies. + +O, dear, it was as lonesome as a line-storm, after lively Ruth had gone +away. Dotty began to think she liked her brisk little scoldings, after +all. + +"Does you feel so bad?" said little Flyaway, gazing on her sober cousin +with pity; "your mouth looks just this way;" and, putting up both hands, +she drew down her own little lips at the corners. + +"Yes, I feel bad," said Dotty. "You needn't talk to me; where's your +orange?" + +"I squoze it," replied Flyaway; "and falled it down my froat. But I +didn't had enough. If you pees, um, give me some more." + +"Why, what an idea!" said Dotty, laughing. + +But when she began to divide her own orange into sections, Katie looked +on expectantly, knowing she should have a share. Dotty ate two quarters, +gave one to Katie, and reserved the fourth for Polly. She longed to eat +this last morsel herself, but Polly had praised her once for giving away +some toys, and she wished to hear her say again, "Why, what a generous +little girl!" + +But when she smilingly offered the bite, what was her surprise to hear +Polly say in an indifferent tone,-- + +"Well, well, child, you needn't have saved such a tiny piece for me; it +doesn't amount to anything!" + +At the same time she ate the whole at a mouthful. Dotty felt very much +irritated. Did Miss Polly think oranges grew on bushes? What was the use +to be generous if people wouldn't say "thank you?" + +"I don't feel much better than I did when I gave the beggar my money. +But I didn't do my 'alms before men' this time, though," said she, +looking at her little fat arms and wondering what her grandmother meant +by talking of her giving _them_ away. + +"I s'pose it's my _fingers_ that grow on the ends of my arms, and that's +what I give with," she concluded. + +On the whole she was passing a dismal day. She had been told that she +must not go away; and it happened that nobody came, not even Jennie +Vance. + +"If Prudy had been left alone, all the girls in town would have come to +see her," thought the forlorn Miss Dimple, putting a string round one of +her front teeth, and trying to pull it out by way of amusement. + +"O, dear, I can't move my tooth one inch. If I could get it out, and put +my tongue in the hole, then there'd be a gold one come. But I can't. O, +dear!" + +"Where is your little cousin?" said Miss Polly, coming into the room +with her knitting in her hand. "I thought she was with you: I don't +wonder they call her Flyaway." + +"I don't know where she is, I'm sure, Miss Polly. Won't you please pull +my tooth! And do you 'spose I can keep my tongue out of the hole?" + +"Why, Dotty, I thought you were going to take care of that child," said +Miss Polly, dropping her knitting without getting around to the +seam-needle, and walking away faster than her usual slow pace. + +"There's nothing so bad for me as worry of mind: I shall be sick as sure +as this world!" + +Dotty knew she had been selfish and careless. She not only felt ashamed +of herself, but also very much afraid that something dreadful had +happened to Katie, in which case she would be greatly to blame. She +anxiously joined in the search for the missing child. I am sure you +would never guess where she was found. In the watering trough! Not +drowned, because the water was not deep enough! + +"I was trying to srim," said she, as they drew her out; "and THAT'S what +is it." + +Even Miss Polly smiled at the dripping little figure with hair clinging +close to its head; but Flyaway looked very solemn. + +"It makes me povokin'," said she, knitting her brows, "to have you laugh +at me!" + +"It would look well in you, Dotty," said Miss Polly, "to pay more +attention to this baby, and let your teeth alone." + +Dotty twisted a lock of her front hair, and said nothing; but she +remembered her grandmother's last words,--"Alice, I depend upon you to +amuse your little cousin, as your Aunt Maria told you. You know you can +make her very happy when you please." + +"Seems to me," thought Dotty, "that baby might grow faster and have more +sense. _I_ never got into a watering-trough in my life!--Why, how +dark it is! Hark!" said she, aloud; "what is that rattling against the +windows?" + +For she heard + + "the driving hail + Upon the window beat with icy flail." + +"That is hail," replied Polly--"frozen drops of rain." + +"Why Miss Polly," said Dotty, giving a fierce twitch at her tooth, "rain +can't freeze the least speck in the summer. You don't mean to tell a +wrong story, but you've made a mistake." + +"Her's made a 'stake," said Katie. + +"Now, look, Polly, it's stones! They're pattering, clickety-click, all +over the yard. Dear, dear! The grass will look just like the +gravel-path, and the windows will crack in two." + +"Never you mind," said Polly, knitting as usual; "if it does any harm, +'twill only kill a few chickens." + +Upon this there was another wail; for next to ducks Dotty loved +chickens. But lo! before her tears had rolled down to meet her dimples, +the patter of hail was over. + +"Come and see the rainbow," said Polly, from the door-stone. + +It was a glorious sight, an arch of varied splendor resting against the +blue sky. + +"That isn't a rainbow," said Dotty; "it's a hail-bow!" + +"What a big, big, big bubbil!" shouted Katie. + +"She thinks somebody is blowing all that out of soapsuds, I s'pose," +said Dotty; "I guess 'twould take a giant with a 'normous pipe--don't +you, Polly?" + +"There, now," said Miss Polly, "I just want you to hold some of this +hail in your hand. What do you call that but ice?" + +"So it is," said Dotty; "cold lumps of frozen ice, as true as this +world." + +"And not stones," returned Polly. "Now you won't think next time you +know so much better than older people--will you?" + +"But I don't see, Miss Polly, how it got here from Greenland; I don't, +now honest." + +"I didn't say anything about Greenland, child. I said it was rain, and +it froze in the air coming down; and so it did." + +"Did it? Why, you know a great deal--don't you, Miss Polly? Did you ever +go to school?" + +Polly sighed dismally. + +"O, yes, I went now and then a day. I was what is called a 'bound girl.' +I didn't have nice, easy times, like you little ones. You have no idea +of my hardships. It was delve and dig from sunrise to sunset." + +"Why, what a naughty mother to make you dig! Did you have a ladies' +hoe?" + +"My mother died, Dotty, when I was a creeping baby. The woman who took +me to bring up was a hard-faced woman. She made me work like a slave." + +"Did she? But by and by you grew up, Miss Polly, and, when you had a +husband, he didn't make you a dog--did he?" + +"I never had a husband or anybody else to take care of me," said Polly. +"Come, children, we must go into the house." + +They all three entered the parlor, and Miss Whiting fastened the window +tightly to exclude the air, for it was one of her afflictions that she +was "easy to take cold." + +"I don't see," queried Dotty, "why your husband didn't marry you. I +should have thought he would." + +"He didn't want to, I suppose," said Polly, grimly. + +Dotty fell into a brown study. It was certainly very unkind in _some_ +man that he hadn't married Miss Polly and taken care of her, so she need +not have wandered around the world with a double-covered basket and a +snuff-box. It was a great pity; still Dotty could not see that just now +it had anything to do with Polly's forgetting to set the table. "I'm so +hungry," said she; "isn't it 'most supper time?" + +"It's only five; but you appear to be so lonesome that I'll make a fire +this minute and put on the tea-kettle," replied the kind-hearted Polly. +"What does your grandmother generally have for supper?" + +"Cake sometimes," answered Dotty, her eyes brightening; "and tarts." + +"And perjerves," added Katie; "and--and--yice puddin'." + +"She keeps the cake in a stone jar," said Dotty, eagerly; "and the +strawberries are down cellar in a glass dish--cost a cent apiece." + +"The slips they grew from cost a cent apiece; that is what you mean," +said Polly; "you hear things rather hap-hazard sometimes, Dotty, and you +ought to be more careful." + +[Illustration: A DARK DAY.--Page 154.] + +The tea-kettle was soon singing on the stove, and Dotty forgot her +peculiar trials when she saw the table covered with dainties. She was +not sure grandma would have approved of the cake and tarts, but they +were certainly very nice, and it was a pleasure to see how Polly enjoyed +them. Dotty presumed she had never had such things when she lived with +the "hard-faced woman." + +"It wasn't everywhere," she said, "that she saw such thick cream as rose +to the tops of Mrs. Parlin's pans." + +She poured it freely over the strawberries and into her own tea, which +it made so delicious that she drank three cups. Then after supper she +seemed to feel quite cheery for her, and, taking Katie in her arms, +rocked her to sleep to the tune of "China," which is not very lively +music, it must be confessed. + +"Aunt 'Ria puts her to bed awake," said Dotty. "She's going to sleep in +my bed to-night." + +"Very well," said Polly, "but you will sleep with me." + +"Why, Miss Polly! what if Katie should wake up?" + +"She won't be likely to; but I can't help it if she does. I may have the +nightmare in the night." + +"What is the nightmare?" + +"It is something perfectly dreadful, child! I sincerely hope you'll +never know by sad experience. It's the most like dying of any feeling I +ever had in my life. I can't move a finger, but if I don't move it's +sure death; and somebody has to shake me to bring me out of it." + +Dotty turned pale. + +"Miss Polly, O, please, I'd rather sleep with Katie!" + +"But how would you feel to have me die in the night?" + +"O, dear, dear, dear," cried Dotty; "let me go for the doctor this +minute!" + +"Why, child, I haven't got it now, and perhaps I shan't have it at all; +but if I do, I shall groan, and that's the way you will know." + +Dotty ran into the shed, threw her apron, still sticky with starch, over +her head, and screamed at the wood-pile. + +"O, if grandma were only at home, or Ruth, or Abner!" + +"Why, what's the matter, little Goody-Two-Shoes?" said a manly voice. +Abner had just come from his day's work in the meadow. + +"Polly's here," gasped Dotty. "She's afraid she's going to die in the +night, and she wants me to shake her." + +Abner leaned against a beam and laughed heartily. + +"Never you fear, little one! I have heard that story about Polly's dying +in the night ever since I can remember; and she hasn't died yet. You +just say your prayers, dear, and go to sleep like a good little girl, +and that's the last you'll know about it till morning." + +So saying, he caught Dotty by the shoulders, and tossed her up to the +rafters. The child's spirits rose at once. It was such a comfort to have +that strong Abner in the house in case of accidents. + +She said her prayers more earnestly than usual, but it was nearly five +minutes before she fell asleep. The last thing she heard was Miss Polly +singing a very mournful hymn through her nose; and, while she was +wondering why it should keep people alive to shake them, she passed +into dreamland. Very little good would such a heavy sleeper have done if +Miss Polly had had an ill turn. It was Polly who was obliged to shake +Dotty, and that rather roughly, before she could rouse her. + +"Where am I? Who is it?" said she. "O, Miss Polly, are you dead?" + +"Hush, child; don't speak so loud; or you'll wake Abner. Little Katie is +sick, and I want you to stay with her while I go down stairs and light a +fire." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE END OF THE WORLD. + + +Dotty shuddered. It seemed so unearthly and horrible to be awake at +night; to see a lamp burning, and Katie looking so very white. It was +the strawberries which had made her ill, as Miss Polly confessed. When +that good but ignorant woman had gone down stairs, Dotty had much ado to +keep from screaming outright. + +"I thought somebody would die," said she to herself; "but I didn't +s'pose it would be Katie. O, Katie, Katie Clifford! you're the +cunningist child. We can't have you die!" + +"Somebody leave me alone," moaned Katie; "and 'twas you'n the Polly +woman. I don't love anybody in this world!" + +"Darling! I didn't mean to," said Dotty, "now honest. Polly said, 'O, +dear! she was going to die'; but I might have known she wouldn't. She +told a wrong story--I mean she made a mistake." + +"You was naughty," said Katie, "velly naughty; but you didn't mean to." + +"No, Katie; 'twas Polly that was naughty." + +"The krilt got off o' me," said Katie, picking at the tufted coverlet; +"and then I was sick." + +"Miss Polly said it was the strawberries, darling; and the cream poured +over them so thick." + +"And getting into the watering-trough," added Dotty to herself, +uneasily. + +"Yes," sighed Katie: "'twas the stawbollies. Did _I_ ask for the +stawbollies? No, but the Polly woman gave 'em to me. Didn't want 'em; I +wanted to be well." + +After two weary hours, which seemed as long as days almost, poor little +Katie was easier, and fell asleep. Dotty, who had taken several naps in +her chair, would now have gone to bed again; but Miss Polly was dressed, +and said she could not close her eyes if she tried; she meant to go down +stairs to her knitting. Dotty was afraid to stay alone. She was always a +little timid, and to-night her nerves had been considerably tried. The +lamp cast frightful shadows, and the newly-risen moon shone through the +white curtains with ghostly light. She could "preach" to Jennie Vance +about God's "holding the whole world in his arms;" but she could not +always remember it herself. She put on a white wrapper of Susy's, and, +looking like a wimpled nun, followed Polly down stairs. If she thought +of wee Katie at all, she thought there were good angels in the room to +guard her; but she could not trust _herself_ with them; she would rather +keep close to Polly. + +"I think," whispered Polly, unlocking the back door and looking out at +the sky, "it must be very near morning; but the clocks have both run +down, and I can only guess at the time by my feelings." + +Then Polly made a brisk fire in the stove, and set the tea-kettle to +humming. + +"Now I will get the milk-pail," said she, "and you may put on the +tea-pot. I am faint for want of something to drink." + +It was one of Polly's peculiarities that she always talked to children +as if they had as much judgment as grown people. Dotty did not know +where to look for any tea-pot except the very best one, which stood on +a shelf in the china closet; that she brought and set on the stove, +empty. + +"Let me go too, let me go too!" cried she, as Polly was walking out with +the milk-pails. + +The daisies, with "their little lamps of dew," seemed still asleep, and +so did all the "red-mouthed flowers" in the garden. The cows looked up +with languid surprise at sight of their visitors, but offered no +objections to being milked. Dotty gave one hasty peep at the white hen +sitting on the venerable duck's eggs; but the hen seemed offended. Dotty +ran away, and took a survey of the "green gloom" of the trees, in the +midst of which was suspended the swing, looking now as melancholy as a +gallows. + +"O, what a dreadful night this is!" thought the child, standing bolt +upright, lest she should fall asleep. "Where's the sun? He hasn't taken +off his red silk night cap. He hasn't got back from China yet. Only +think,--if he shouldn't come back at all! I heard somebody say, the +other day, the world was coming to an end. Miss Polly," said she, aloud, +re-entering the barn, "isn't this the longest night you ever saw in all +the days of your life?" + +"Yes, it has been considerable long, I am free to confess," replied +Polly, who thought she had had a very hard time keeping house, as was +indeed the truth. + +"Do you s'pose, Miss Polly, that some morning the sun won't rise any +more?" + +"O, yes," replied Miss Polly, who was always ready with a hymn:-- + + "'God reigns above,--he reigns alone; + Systems burn out, and leave His throne.' + +"Why, yes, dear; the world will certainly come to an end one of these +days; and _then_ the sun won't rise, of course; there won't be any +sun." + +And Miss Polly began to hum one of her sorrowful tunes, beating time +with the two streams of milk which dripped mournfully into the pail. + +"She is afraid this is the end of the world," thought Dotty, with a +throbbing heart, and a stifling sensation at the throat; "she don't +believe the sun is ever going to rise any more." + +The music suddenly ceased. + +"These are very poor cows," said Polly, in a reflective tone; "or else +they don't give down their milk. I understood you to say, Dotty, that +Ruth milked very early." + +"If everything's coming to an end, it's no wonder the cows act so," said +Dotty, to herself, but she dared not say it aloud. + +They went into the house, the trail of Susy's long wrapper following +after little Dotty Dimple like the closing feet in one of Polly's +long-metre verses. Still the moon shone with the same white, ghostly +light, and the sun continued to keep away. + +"This beats all," said Polly, mournfully; as she washed her hands, +strained the milk, and set the pans away. "If I judged by my feelings, I +should say it must be six o'clock, or very near it. At any rate, I'm +going to have a cup of tea. What's this smell?" + +On the stove stood a pool of something which looked like liquid silver, +and proved to be the remains of the best tea-pot. At any other time +Dotty would have felt very sorry; but now the accident seemed a mere +trifle, when compared with the staying away of the sun. Who could tell +"if ever morn should rise?" + +Even Miss Polly, with her constitutional gloom, was not just now so +miserable as Dotty, and never dreamed that it was anything but +sleepiness which made the little girl so sober. Dotty was not a child +who could tell all the thoughts which troubled her youthful brain. + +"Well, well," said Polly, giving another inquiring glance at the sky; +"not a streak of daylight yet! I'll tell you what it is, Dotty; we might +as well go to bed." + +But hark! As she spoke there was a loud report as of a pistol. It seemed +to come from the cellar. + +Miss Polly clapped both hands to her ears. Dotty shrieked, and hid her +face in her lap, and shrieked again. + +"It has come! It has come!" cried she,--meaning the end of the +world,--and stopped her ears. + +"What, what, what!" whispered Polly, in sore affright, walking back and +forth, and taking snuff as she went. It was certainly startling to hear +a pistol go off so unexpectedly, at that solemn hour, under one's very +roof. Polly naturally thought first of housebreakers. She had barred and +double-barred every door and window; but now she remembered with +dreadful remorse she had not fastened the outside cellar door. No doubt +it had been left open, and burglars had got into the cellar. O, what a +responsibility had been put upon her! and why hadn't somebody +particularly warned her to attend to that door? Perhaps the burglars +were stealing pork. But they would not have fired a pistol at the +barrel--would they? O, no; they were trying to blow up the house! + +Polly took three pinches of snuff, one after the other, as fast as she +could, slipped off her shoes, went to the kitchen window, and peeped +through the blinds. Not much to be seen but moonlight, and the deep +shadows of the ragged trees. + +Another pistol-shot; then another. The sound came from that part of the +cellar called the soap-room, directly under Polly's feet. + +She did not wait for further warning. Every moment was precious. She +meant to save what lives she could, for Polly was strictly +conscientious. She took the nearly frantic Dotty into the china closet, +dragging her like a sack of meal, and turned the key. + +"Stay there, child, if you know when you're well off," whispered she +through the keyhole. "The house is blowing up. I'm going to call Abner." + +In her consternation Polly had not reflected that Dotty was as likely +to be blown up in the closet as anywhere else. The unfortunate little +girl screamed and struggled in her prison in vain. There was no way of +escape. Night of horrors! As far as she was concerned, there were two +ends to the world, and they were coming right together. Her agony is not +to be described. + +Abner came very soon; but it seemed an age. Being a brave man who had +served three months in the army, he had the courage to walk down cellar +and face the enemy. + +He found nothing worse, however, than a few bottles of beer which had +blown off their own heads. He brought them up in his arms. + +"Here," said he, "are your burglars, with their throats cut from ear to +ear." + +"Well, if I ever had such a fright in all the days of my life!" cried +Polly, staring at the bottles, and catching her breath. + +Abner poured some of the beer into a goblet, and drank to the health of +Miss Dimple, who climbed upon his knee, and felt as if the world had +suddenly stopped coming to an end; and she was greatly relieved. + +"But who fired the guns?" said she, not understanding yet what it all +meant. + +"It was only the beer coming out to get the air," said Abner, taking +another glass. "You couldn't expect beer with the spirit of a hop in it +to stay bottled up with a stopper in!" + +"I never had such queer feelings," exclaimed Polly, rolling up her eyes; +"and now it's all over, I feel as if I was going to faint away." + +"I wouldn't advise you to," said Abner, coolly. "The enemy is routed, +and victory is ours. Drink a little beer, Polly; it will revive your +spirits. But what is the object, may I ask, of your prowling about the +house with this poor little girl at this hour of night?" + +"Why, what time is it? I thought by my feelings it must have been +daybreak long enough ago." + +It was Abner's private opinion that Polly would do well to think less of +her "feelings" now and always; but he only said, consulting his watch,-- + +"It's just one o'clock, ladies; time for respectable people to be in +bed." + +Polly said she had never felt such surprise before in her life. She was +afraid she should be sick; for sitting up in the night was always too +much for her. + +Dotty said her prayers over again, and fell into a sleep "sweeter than a +nest of nightingales." And with her last waking thought she thanked God +the round red sun was not worn out yet, and the world had not come to an +end. + + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +CRAZY DUCKLINGS. + + +When the family came home, Miss Polly had a most doleful story to tell +about Katie's experiment in the watering-trough, the child's illness, +the explosion of the beer, and her own fright and "dreadful feelings." + +Mrs. Parlin regretted the loss of the tea-pot; Miss Louise said she had +heard of "witches making tea," and perhaps this was the way they did it. + +In return for Miss Whiting's laborious services in taking care of the +children, Mrs. Parlin gave her various articles of food to carry home; +for Polly had one room in Mr. Grant's house, which she was accustomed +to call her home, though she did not stay there very much. Polly sighed +her gratitude, put on her dark bonnet, and said, as she went away,-- + +"Now, Mrs. Parlin, if it should so happen that you should all go away +again, don't fail to ask me to come and keep house. You have always been +so kind to me that I feel it a privilege to do any such little thing for +you." + +But in her heart poor Polly thought it was anything but a "little +thing," and it cost her a great effort to promise to undertake it again. +Mrs. Parlin thanked Miss Polly very politely; but for her part she +thought privately it would be a long while before they would, any of +them, be willing to trust such a nervous person with the care of the +children a second time. + +"Good by, all," said Polly, going off with her double-covered basket on +her arm; "remember me to Margaret when you write." + +"What a funny thing to say!" remarked Prudy; "how can we remember people +to anybody, or forget them to anybody either?" + +"O, it was awful," said Dotty, linking arms with Prudy and walking her +off to the seat in the trees. "Miss Polly scared me so I don't believe I +shall ever be afraid of lightning again!" + +Little Flyaway ran after them, holding her nipperkin of milk close to +her bosom, to keep off the flies, as she thought. + +"I was defful sick," said she; "and did I ask the Polly woman for the +stawbollies? No, she was naughty; _I_ didn't want 'em. She gived me +stawbollies and stawbollies." + +Prudy had to hear over and over again the trials which both the children +had suffered. She had had a delightful time herself, as she always did +have, wherever she was. She told Dotty and Flyaway of several +interesting events which had happened; but, best of all, she had brought +them a quantity of beautiful shells, which they were to divide with +Ruthie. The brisk Ruth had come back again as energetic as ever. It +proved that her mother had not been so very ill, after all. + +"Bless that Prudy's little white heart," said she, kissing her on both +cheeks; "she never forgets anybody but herself." + +Ruthie did not praise children as a general thing; but she loved Prudy +in spite of herself. + +Aunt Maria had brought Dotty a beautiful doll. "Because," said she, "I +knew you would try to take good care of my little Katie." + +"O, thank you ever so much, Aunt 'Ria," cried Dotty, handing the dolly +at once to Prudy to be admired. But next minute her conscience pricked +her. She had no right to a present. True, Katie ought to have known +better than to try to swim; still, as Dotty acknowledged,-- + +"I needn't have felt so sober, I s'pose, and then I should have taken +care of her." + +Dotty was learning to pay heed to these little pricks of conscience. +Slowly and sadly she walked back to her Aunt Maria, who was standing on +the piazza training the clematis. + +"I s'pose, auntie, you thought I took care of the baby; but I didn't. I +let her swim. Miss Polly said _she_ had the 'blues,' and so did I." + +Aunt Maria smiled. "Very well," said she; "then keep the doll as a +recompense for the suffering you have endured. I hope you will not see +two such gloomy days again during the summer." + +"O, you darling auntie! May I keep the dolly?" + +There was no sting now to mar Dotty's pleasure in her new possession. +Her troubles seemed to be over; life was blossoming into beauty once +more. + +"Good news! Good news!" she cried, rushing into the house, her head, +with its multitude of curl-papers, looking like a huge corn-ball. "Two +duckies have pecked out!" + +"You don't say so!" said Susy, coolly. "High time, I should think!" + +So thought the patient and astonished old hen, who had been wondering +every day for a week if this wasn't an uncommonly "backward season." But +at last the eggs, like riches, had taken to themselves wings. + +The soft, speckled creatures found plenty of admiring friends to welcome +them as they tried their first "peep" at the world. They did not see +much of the world, however, for some time, it must be confessed, on +account of the corn-meal dough which the children sprinkled into their +eyes. + +"We won't let you starve, our ony dony Ducky Daddleses," said Dotty. + +"Our deenty doiny Diddleses," said Katie after her, running hither and +thither like a squirrel. + +It was a time of great satisfaction. Dotty regretted that Jennie Vance +had gone to Boston, for it would have been pleasant to see Jennie +envious. What were gold rings compared to ducklings? The blunt little +beaks pecked out very fast. As soon as they were all out, except the two +eggs which were addled, the step-mother hen gathered her family +together and went to house-keeping, gipsy fashion, in the back yard. She +clucked to the ducklings, and they followed her, their little feet going +pat, pat, on the soft grass. A nice time they had, no doubt, eating +picked-up dinners, with now and then a banquet of corn-meal dough. There +were eleven ducklings, five for Dotty, five for Prudy, and one for +Katie, the little girl with flying hair. + +After they had been alive two days, Prudy thought they ought to have a +bath; so she took the large iron pan which Ruth used for baking +johnny-cakes, filled it with water, put the tiny creatures in, and bade +them "swim," to Madam Biddy's great alarm. They did it well, though they +were as badly crowded as the five and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie. + +Katie wished the Charlie boy to see the ducklings, which were "velly +difrunt from a piggie;" but dear Charlie was very ill, and when the +children went with the milk, they were not allowed to see him. + +I may as well give you here the history of the ducklings. + +The next morning after their "swim" there were only ten left, and +Dotty's lamentations could be heard all over the house. It was Katie's +odd one, she said, that was gone, the one with a black picture on his +back that looked like a clover. Next morning there were nine; and on the +tenth day there was but one solitary duckling left to pipe out his +sorrows all alone. The anguish of the children was painful to be behold. +Dotty's grief affected her somewhat like the jumping toothache. Who +could have carried away those dear, dear little duckies? + +Who indeed? About this time the unprincipled old cat was found in the +cellar, wiping her lips and purring over a little soft, speckled down. + +"It was you that did it, was it, you wicked mizzable kitty?" burst forth +the bereaved Dotty behind the swinging broomstick. "I must strike you +with the soft end. I will! I will! If I'd known before that you'd eat +live duckies! O, pussy, pussy, when I've given you my own little bones +on a plate with gravy!" + +"Whose little bones did you say, my dear!" asked Abner. + +"Chickens and turkeys, and so forth!" replied Dotty, dancing about in +her rage. + +"Why, dear little damsel, do I really understand you to say you eat +chickens? Then you are as bad as the cat." + +"Why, Abner!" + +"And worse, for you have no claws." + +"No claws?" + +"No--have you? If you had, I should conclude they had been made to tear +little birds and mice in pieces." + +"Is that what kitty's claws were made for?" + +"So I am told. The truth is, she behaves much better for a cat than you +do for a little girl." + +Dotty scowled at her feet and patted them with the broom. + +"And better than I do for a young man." + +"But she ate my duckies--so there!" + +"And Prudy's too," said Abner. "But Prudy doesn't beat her for it. It +isn't pleasant to see nice little girls show so much temper, Dotty. Now +I'm going to tell you something; all those ducklings were a little +crazy, and it didn't make much difference what became of them." + +"Crazy?" + +"Yes, their minds were not properly balanced. There's one left, I +believe. I'm going to make a lunatic asylum for him, and put him in this +very day." + +Dotty calmed herself and watched Abner as he made a pen with high +stakes, and set in one corner of it a pan of water for swimming +purposes. + +The "speckling," as she called him, was Dotty's own; and when he was put +into this insane hospital, all safe from the cat, his little mistress +was in a measure consoled. + +"I am sorry he is crazy," said she; "but I s'pose the hen didn't hatch +him well. Maybe he'll get his senses by and by." + +All this while dear little Charlie Gray was very ill. But I will tell +you more about him in another chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +"THE CHARLIE BOY." + + +Dotty heard of Charlie's illness every day; but, like all young +children, she thought very little about it. Some one said he was "as +white as his pillow." Dotty was amazed, for she had never seen any one +as white as that. Then she heard her grandmother say she was "afraid +Charlie would die." + +"Die?" It sounded to Dotty like a word heard in a dream. She only knew +that people must die before they went to heaven, and when they died they +were very, very cold. + +[Illustration: DOTTY IN THE SWING.--Page 189.] + +One night, when she went with the milk, Mrs. Gray was weeping. She +asked Dotty if she would like to see little Charlie "once more." + +Dotty entered the darkened room with a strange feeling of awe. There he +lay, so still she hardly dared to breathe. Darling, darling Charlie! + +But when she had touched the little hot hand and kissed the sweet wasted +face, her heart grew lighter. What had made them think he was going to +heaven? He did not look any more like an angel now than he had always +looked. His face was not as white as the pillow; no, indeed; and he was +not cold; his lips were warmer than hers. + +"He used to have three chins once," whispered Dotty, "darling Charlie!" + +"You love my little Charlie--don't you, darling?" said Mrs. Gray; and +then she clasped Dotty in her arms and sobbed over her; but Charlie did +not seem to notice it. + +"Yes, 'm, I do love him," said Dotty; "Prudy says he's the cunningest +boy there is in this town." + +And then she softly kissed Mrs. Gray's cheek, though she had never +kissed her before, and did not know why she was doing it now. + +"When he gets well, won't you let him come to our house and play +croquet? We play it now with marbles, a teenty-tonty game, and the +wickets are made of hairpins spread out wide." + +Dotty spoke very low, and Charlie did not pay the least attention; but +Mrs. Gray sobbed still more, and held Dotty closer in her arms, +saying,-- + +"_Don't_ talk so, dear!" + +"How sorry you do feel to have him so sick! He won't grow up, I s'pose, +if he can't play. When he stays in bed it makes him grow littler and +littler! Why, how little his neck is! It looks like a dandelion stem!" + +"Don't, _don't_, dear child! Every word you say strikes right to my +heart!" + +Dotty looked up in Mrs. Gray's face with surprise. What had she said +that was wrong? Perhaps she ought not to have talked about dandelions; +she would not do it again. + +"Dotty," said Mrs. Gray, looking sorrowfully towards the bed, "when +fathers and mothers are not very wise, and do not know very well how to +take proper care of their families, sometimes the Saviour calls their +little children away." + +Dotty knew what she meant now. She meant that Charlie was really going +to heaven. + +"O, Mrs. Gray," said she, "how Prudy and I will feel!" She would have +said more, but was afraid she should make another mistake. + +She kissed the unconscious little sufferer good by, though still it all +seemed like a dream. Was this the same boy who had tried to wash the +piggy? The same who had meal-bags tied to his feet? + +"A long kiss is a heart-kiss," she repeated to herself; and somehow she +wondered if Charlie couldn't take it to heaven with him. Then she walked +home all alone with her thoughts. + +Next day they told her Charlie was dead. Dotty sat on the sofa for a +long time without saying a word; then she went into the nursery, and +staid by herself for an hour or two. When she returned she had her new +doll in her arms, dressed in black. She wore a strip of black crape +about her own neck, and had caught Flyaway long enough to put one upon +her arm, as well as upon the knobs of the nursery doors. + +"Prudy," said she, "it is polite to do so when we lose people we love. +Charlie was my friend and Katie's friend, and we shall treat him with +the _respect_ of a friend." + +"Yes," said Katie, skipping after a fly, "spec of a fend." + +Dotty had never looked on death. + +"You musn't be frightened, little sister," said Prudy, as they walked +hand in hand to Mrs. Gray's, behind the rest of their own family, on the +day of the funeral. "Charlie is just as cold as marble, lying in a +casket; but _he_ doesn't know it. The part of him that _knows_ is in a +beautiful world where we can't see him." + +"Why can't we see him?" said Dotty, peering anxiously into the sky. + +"I don't know exactly why," replied Prudy, "but Grandma Read says God +doesn't wish it. And He has put a seal over our eyes, so an angel could +stand right before us, and we shouldn't know it." + +"Ah!" said Dotty in a low voice; and though she could see nothing, it +seemed to her the air was full of angels. + +"But I think likely Charlie can see us, Dotty, for the seal has been +taken off his eyes. O, it is beautiful to be dead!" + +After this Dotty was not at all afraid when she touched the cold face in +the casket, for she knew Charlie was not there. + +"It is beautiful to be dead!" said she next day to Katie. "Charlie is +very glad of it." + +"Yes, he's in the ground-up,--in heaven!" said Katie in a dreamy way; +for, in her small mind, she believed heaven was a place called "in the +ground-up," and that was all she cared about it. + +"Yes, Charlie is in the ground," replied Dotty, "but he doesn't know it. +That dog Pincher was put in the ground; but I think likely _he_ knew it, +for his soul wasn't in heaven; and he hadn't any soul, not a real one." + +"Well," said Katie, dancing out at the door, "when will the Charlie boy +come back? I want um play." + +"Why, Katie," said Dotty, in a tone of reproof, "haven't I told you he +is all dead?" + +"Well, YOU isn't dead--IS you? Less us go an' swing!" + +The little girls ran out to the trees, and soon forgot all about their +old playmate. But, after this, whenever any one spoke of Charlie, Katie +thought,-- + +"The Charlie boy's in the ground-up,--in heaven," and Dotty thought,-- + +"O, it is beautiful to be dead!" + + * * * * * + +For the present, we will leave them swinging under the tree at Grandma +Parlin's; but if we see Miss Dimple again, she will have been spirited +away to her own mother's home in the city of Portland. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Page 4, the word "To" has been presumed as the original is unclear. + +Page 17, "Jenny" changed to "Jennie" to conform to rest of text. +(hands, Jennie Vance) + +Page 23, "Vauce" changed to "Vance". (No, Jennie Vance) + +Page 44, "Perphaps" changed to "Perhaps". (Perhaps there will be two) + +Page 49, "pedler" changed to "peddler". (to a peddler) + +Page 54, "Dt ty" changed to "Dotty". (Dotty twisted the) + +Page 95, "arly" changed to "nearly". (must be nearly morning) + +Page 122, "Jenny" changed to "Jennie" to conform to rest of text. +(Jenny had asked) + +Page 126, "Couisn" changed to "Cousin". (nothing about Cousin) + +Page 126, "Couisin" changed to "Cousin". (Cousin Lydia wanted) + +Page 137, "thurst" changed to "thrust". (thrust it through) + +Page 158, "didn't" changed to "Didn't". (Didn't want 'em) + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Dotty Dimple at Her Grandmother's, by Sophie May + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOTTY DIMPLE AT HER GRANDMOTHER'S *** + +***** This file should be named 20699.txt or 20699.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/6/9/20699/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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