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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dotty Dimple at Play, 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 Play
+
+Author: Sophie May
+
+Release Date: November 27, 2003 [EBook #10320]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOTTY DIMPLE AT PLAY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         _DOTTY DIMPLE STORIES_
+
+                          DOTTY DIMPLE AT PLAY
+
+                             BY SOPHIE MAY
+
+                   AUTHOR OF "LITTLE PRUDY STORIES"
+
+                                 1868
+
+
+
+
+_Illustrated_
+
+TO THE _LITTLE "BLIND-EYED CHILDREN"_ IN THE ASYLUM FOR THE BLIND AT
+INDIANAPOLIS.
+
+[Illustration: DOTTY AND KATIE VISITING THE BLIND GIRLS.]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+CHAPTER
+
+   I. "THE BLIND-EYED CHILDREN"
+
+  II. EMILY'S TRIALS
+
+ III. PLAYING SHIP
+
+  IV. A SPOILED DINNER
+
+   V. PLAYING TRUANT
+
+  VI. A STRANGE VISIT
+
+ VII. PLAYING PRISONER
+
+VIII. PLAYING THIEF
+
+  IX. THANKSGIVING DAY
+
+   X. GRANDMA'S OLD TIMES
+
+  XI. THE CRYSTAL WEDDING
+
+
+
+
+DOTTY DIMPLE AT PLAY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+"THE BLIND-EYED CHILDREN."
+
+
+"You is goin' off, Dotty Dimpwil."
+
+"Yes, dear, and you must kiss me."
+
+"No, not now; you isn't gone yet. You's goin' nex' day after this day."
+
+Miss Dimple and Horace exchanged glances, for they had an important
+secret between them.
+
+"Dotty, does you want to hear me crow like Bantie? 'Cause," added Katie,
+with a pitying glance at her cousin, "'cause you can't bear me bimeby,
+when you didn't be to my house."
+
+"That will do, you blessed little Topknot," cried Horace, as the shrill
+crowing died on the air, and the pink bud of a mouth took its own shape
+again. "Now I just mean to tell you something nice, for you might as well
+know it and be happy a day longer: mother and you and I are going to
+Indianapolis to-morrow with Dotty--going in the cars."
+
+"O!" exclaimed the child, whirling about like a leaf in a breeze. "Going
+to 'Naplis, yidin' in the cars! O my shole!"
+
+"Yes, and you'll be good all day--won't you, darling, and not hide
+mamma's spools?"
+
+"Yes, I won't if I don't 'member. We for salt, salt, salt," sang Flyaway
+(meaning mi, fa, sol). Then she ran to the bureau, perched herself before
+it on an ottoman, and talked to herself in the glass.
+
+"Now you be good gell all day, Katie Clifford--not dishbey your mamma,
+not hide her freds o' spools, say fank you please. O my shole!"
+
+So Katie was made happy for twenty-four hours.
+
+"After we sleep one more time," said she, "then we shall go."
+
+She wished to sleep that "one more time" with Dotty; but her little head
+was so full of the journey that she aroused her bedfellow in the middle
+of the night, calling out,--
+
+"We's goin' to 'Naplis,--we for salt, salt, salt,--yidin' in the cars,
+Dotty Dimpwil."
+
+It was some time before Dotty could come out of dreamland, and understand
+what Katie said.
+
+"Won't you please to hush?" she whispered faintly, and turned away her
+face, for the new moon was shining into her eyes.
+
+"Let's we get up," cried Katie, shaking her by the shoulders; "don't you
+see the sun's all corned up bwight?"
+
+"O, that's nothing but just the moon, Katie Clifford."
+
+"O ho! is um the moon? Who cutted im in two?" said Flyaway, and dropped
+to sleep again.
+
+Dotty was really sorry to leave aunt Maria's pleasant house, and the
+charming novelties of Out West.
+
+"Phebe," said she, with a quiver in her voice, when she received the
+tomato pincushion, "I like you just as well as if you wasn't black. And,
+Katinka, I like you just as well as if you wasn't Dutch. You can cook
+better things than Norah, if your hair _isn't_ so nice."
+
+This speech pleased Katinka so much that she patted the letter O's on
+each side of her head with great satisfaction, and was very sorry she
+had not made some chocolate cakes for Dotty to eat in the cars.
+
+Uncle Henry did not like to part with his bright little niece. She had
+been so docile and affectionate during her visit, that he began to
+think her very lovely, and to wonder he had ever supposed she had a
+wayward temper.
+
+The ride to Indianapolis was a very pleasant one. Katie thought she had
+the care of the whole party, and her little face was full of anxiety.
+
+"Don't you tubble yourself, mamma," said She; "_I_'ll look out the
+winner, and tell you when we get there."
+
+"Don't let her fall out, Horace," said Mrs. Clifford; "I have a headache,
+and you must watch her."
+
+"Has you got a headache, mamma? I's solly. Lean 'gainst ME, mamma."
+
+Horace wished the conductor had been in that car, so he could have seen
+Miss Flyaway trying to prop her mother's head against her own morsel of a
+shoulder--about as secure a resting-place as a piece of thistle-down.
+
+"When _was_ it be dinner-time?" said she at last, growing very tired of
+so much care, and beginning to think "'Naplis" was a long way off.
+
+But they arrived there at last, and found Mr. Parlin waiting for them at
+the depot. After they had all been refreshed by a nice dinner, and
+Flyaway had caught a nap, which took her about as long as it takes a fly
+to eat his breakfast, then Mr. Parlin suggested that they should visit
+the Blind Asylum.
+
+"Is it where they make blinds?" asked Dotty.
+
+"O, no," replied Mr. Parlin; "it is a school where blind children
+are taught."
+
+"What is they when they is blind, uncle Eddard?"
+
+"They don't see, my dear."
+
+Flyaway shut her eyes, just to give herself an idea of their condition,
+and ran against Horace, who saved her from falling.
+
+"I was velly blind, then, Hollis," said she, "and that's what is it."
+
+"I don't see," queried Dotty,--"I don't see how people that can't see can
+see to read; so what's the use to go to school?"
+
+"They read by the sense of feeling; the letters are raised," said Mr.
+Parlin. "But here we are at the Institute."
+
+They were in the pleasantest part of the city, standing before some
+beautiful grounds which occupied an entire square, and were enclosed by
+an iron fence. In front of the building grew trees and shrubs, and on
+each side was a play-ground for the children.
+
+"Why, that house has windows," cried Dotty. "I don't see what people want
+of windows when they can't see."
+
+"Nor me needer," echoed Katie. "What um wants winners, can't see out of?"
+
+They went up a flight of stone steps, and were met at the door by a blind
+waiting-girl, who ushered them into the visitors' parlor.
+
+"Is _she_ blind-eyed?" whispered Flyaway, gazing at her earnestly. "Her
+eyes isn't shut up; where is the _see_ gone to?"
+
+Mrs. Clifford sent up her card, and the superintendent, who knew her
+well, came down to meet her. He was also "blind-eyed," but the children
+did not suspect it. They were much interested in the specimens of
+bead-work which were to be seen In the show-cases. Mr. Parlin bought
+some flowers, baskets, and other toys, to carry home to Susy and Prudy.
+Horace said,--
+
+"These beads are strung on wires, and it would be easy enough to do that
+with one's eyes shut; but it always did puzzle me to see how blind people
+can tell one color from another with the ends of their fingers."
+
+The superintendent smiled.
+
+"That would be strange indeed if it were true," said he; "but it is a
+mistake. The colors are put into separate boxes, and that is the way the
+children distinguish them."
+
+"I suppose they are much happier for being busy," said Mr. Parlin. "It
+is a beautiful thing that they can be made useful."
+
+"So it is," said the superintendent. "I am blind myself, and I know how
+necessary employment is to MY happiness."
+
+The children looked up at the noble face of the speaker with surprise.
+Was _he_ blind?
+
+"Why does he wear glasses, then?" whispered Dotty. "Grandma wears 'em
+because she can see a little, and wants to see more."
+
+The superintendent was amused. As he could not see, Dotty had
+unconsciously supposed his hearing must be rather dull; but, on the
+contrary, it was very quick, and he had caught every word.
+
+"I suppose, my child," remarked he, playfully, "these spectacles of mine
+may be called the gravestones for my dead eyes."
+
+Dotty did not understand this; but she was very sorry she had
+spoken so loud.
+
+After looking at the show-cases as long as they liked, the visitors went
+across the hall into the little ones' school-room. This was a very
+pleasant place, furnished with nice desks; and at one end were book-cases
+containing "blind books" with raised letters. Horace soon discovered
+that the Old Testament was in six volumes, each volume as large as a
+family Bible.
+
+In this cheerful room were twenty or thirty boys and girls. They looked
+very much like other children, only they did not appear to notice that
+any one was entering, and scarcely turned their heads as the door
+softly opened.
+
+Dotty had a great many new thoughts. These unfortunate little ones were
+very neatly dressed, yet they had never seen themselves in the glass; and
+how did they know whether their hair was rough or smooth, or parted in
+the middle? How could they tell when they dropped grease-spots on those
+nice clothes?
+
+"I don't see," thought Dotty, "how they know when to go to bed! O, dear!
+I should get up in the night and think 'twas morning; only I should
+s'pose 'twas night all the whole time, and not any stars either! When my
+father spoke to me, I should think it was my mother, and say, 'Yes'm.'
+And p'rhaps I should think Prudy was a beggar-man with a wig on. And
+never saw a flower nor a tree! O, dear!"
+
+While she was musing in this way, and gazing about her with eager eyes
+which saw everything, the children were reading aloud from their
+odd-looking books. It was strange to see their small fingers fly so
+rapidly over the pages. Horace said it was "a touching sight."
+
+"I wonder," went on Dotty to herself, "if they should tease God very
+hard, would he let their eyes come again? No, I s'pose not."
+
+Then she reflected further that perhaps they were glad to be blind; she
+hoped so. The teacher now called out a class in geography, and began to
+ask questions.
+
+"What can you tell me about the inhabitants of Utah?" said she.
+
+"I know," spoke up a little boy with black hair, and eyes which would
+have been bright if the lids had not shut them out of sight,--"I know;
+Utah is inhabited by a religious INSECT called Mormons."
+
+The superintendent and visitors knew that he meant _sect_ and they
+laughed at the mistake; all but Dotty and Flyaway, who did not consider
+it funny at all. Flyaway was seated in a chair, busily engaged in picking
+dirt out of the heels of her boots with a pin.
+
+Horace was much interested in the atlases and globes, upon the surface of
+which the land rose up higher than the water, and the deserts were
+powdered with sand. These blind children could travel all about the
+world with their fingers as well as he could with eyes and a pointer.
+
+The teacher--a kind-looking young lady--was quite pleased when Mr. Parlin
+said to her,--
+
+"I see very little difference between this and the Portland schools for
+small children."
+
+She wished, and so did the teachers in the other three divisions, to have
+the pupils almost forget they were blind.
+
+She allowed them to sing and recite poetry for the entertainment of their
+visitors. Some of them had very sweet voices, and Mrs. Clifford listened
+with tears. Their singing recalled to her mind the memory of beautiful
+things, as music always does; and then she remembered that through their
+whole lives these children must grope in darkness. She felt more
+sorrowful for them than they felt for themselves. These dear little
+souls, who would never see the sun, were very happy, and some of them
+really supposed it was delightful to be blind.
+
+Their teacher desired them to come forward, if they chose, and repeat
+sentences of their own composing. Some things they said were very odd.
+One bright little girl remarked very gravely,--
+
+"Happy are the blind, for they see no ghosts."
+
+This made her companions all laugh. "Yes, that's true," thought Dotty.
+"If people should come in here with ever so many pumpkins and candles
+inside, these blind children wouldn't know it; they couldn't be
+frightened. I wonder where they ever heard of ghosts. There must have
+been some naughty girl here, like Angeline."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+EMILY'S TRIALS.
+
+
+At three o'clock the little blind girls all went out to play in one yard,
+and the little blind boys in the other.
+
+"Goin' out to take their air," said Katie. Then she and Dotty followed
+the girls in respectful silence.
+
+Almost every one had a particular friend; and it was wonderful to see how
+certain any two friends were to find one another by the sense of feeling,
+and walk off together, arm in arm. It was strange, too, that they could
+move so fast without hitting things and falling down.
+
+"When I am blindfolded," thought Dotty, "it makes me dizzy, and I don't
+know where I am. When I think anything isn't there, the next I know I
+come against it, and make my nose bleed."
+
+She was not aware that while the most of these children were blind, there
+were others who had a little glimmering of eyesight. The world was night
+to some of them; to others, twilight.
+
+They did not know Dotty and Katie were following them, and they chatted
+away as if they were quite by themselves.
+
+"Emily, have you seen my Lilly Viola?" said one little girl to another.
+"Miss Percival has dressed her all over new with a red dressing-gown and
+a black hat."
+
+The speaker was a lovely little girl with curly hair; but her eyes were
+closed, and Dotty wondered what made her talk of "seeing" a doll.
+
+Emily took "Lilly Viola," and travelled all over her hat and dress and
+kid boots with her fingers.
+
+"Yes, Octavia," said she, "she is very pretty--ever so much prettier than
+my Victoria Josephine."
+
+Then both the little girls talked sweet nothings to their rag babies,
+just like any other little girls.
+
+"Is the dollies blind-eyed, too?" asked Katie, making a dash forward, and
+peeping into the cloth face of a baby.
+
+The little mamma, whose name was Octavia, smiled, and taking Katie by the
+shoulders, began to touch her all over with her fingers.
+
+"Dear little thing!" said she; "what soft hair!"
+
+"Yes," replied Katie; "velly soft. Don't you wish, though, you could see
+my new dress? It's got little blue yoses all over it."
+
+[Illustration: DOTTY AND KATIE VISITING THE BLIND GIRLS.]
+
+"I know your dress is pretty," said Octavia, gently, "and I know you are
+pretty, too, your voice is so sweet."
+
+"Well, I eat canny," said Katie, "and that makes my voice sweet. I'se got
+'most a hunnerd bushels o' canny to my house."
+
+"Have you truly?" asked the children, gathering about Flyaway, and
+kissing her.
+
+"Yes, and I'se got a sweet place in my neck, too; but my papa's kissed it
+all out o' me."
+
+"Isn't she a darling?" said Octavia, with delight.
+
+"Yes," answered Dotty, very glad to say a word to such remarkable
+children as these; "yes, she is a darling; and she has on a white dress
+with blue spots, and a hat trimmed with blue; and her hair is straw
+color. They call her Flyaway, because she can't keep still a minute."
+
+"Yes, I does; I keeps still two, free, five, _all_ the minutes," cried
+Katie; and to prove it, she flew across the yard, and began to pry into
+one of the play-houses.
+
+"She doesn't mean to be naughty; you must scuse her," spoke up Dotty,
+very loud; for she still held unconsciously to the idea that blind people
+must have dull ears. "She is a nice baby; but I s'pose you don't know
+there are some play-houses in this yard, and she'll get into mischief if
+I don't watch her."
+
+"Why, all these play-houses are ours," said little curly-haired Emily;
+"whose did you think they were?"
+
+"Yours?" asked Dotty, in surprise; "can you play?"
+
+Emily laughed merrily.
+
+"Why not? Did you think we were sick?"
+
+Dotty did not answer.
+
+"I am Mrs. Holiday," added Emily; "that is, I generally am; but
+sometimes I'm Jane. Didn't you ever read Rollo on the Atlantic?"
+
+Dotty, who could only stammer over the First Reader at her mother's knee,
+was obliged to confess that she had never made Rollo's acquaintance.
+
+"We have books read to us," said Emily. "In the work-hour we go into
+the sitting-room, and there we sit with the bead-boxes in our laps,
+making baskets, and then our teacher reads to us out of a book, or
+tells us a story."
+
+"That is very nice," said Dotty; "people don't read to me much."
+
+"No, of course not, because you can see. People are kinder to blind
+children--didn't you know it? I'm glad I had my eyes put out, for if they
+hadn't been put out I shouldn't have come here."
+
+"Where should you have gone, then?"
+
+"I shouldn't have gone anywhere; I should just have staid at home."
+
+"Don't you like to stay at home?"
+
+Emily shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"My paw killed a man."
+
+"I don't know what a paw is," said Dotty.
+
+"O, Flyaway Clifford, you've broken a teapot!"
+
+"No matter," said Emily, kindly; "'twas made out of a gone-to-seed poppy.
+Don't you know what a paw is? Why, it's a _paw_"
+
+In spite of this clear explanation, Dotty did not understand any better
+than before.
+
+"It was the man that married my maw, only maw died, and then there was
+another one, and she scolded and shook me."
+
+"O, I s'pose you mean a father 'n mother; now I know."
+
+"I want to tell you," pursued Emily, who loved to talk to strangers.
+"She didn't care if I was blind; she used to shake me just the same. And
+my paw had fits."
+
+The other children, who had often heard this story, did not listen to it
+with great interest, but went on with their various plays, leaving Emily
+and Dotty standing together before Emily's baby-house.
+
+"Yes, my paw had fits. I knew when they were coming, for I could smell
+them in the bottle."
+
+"Fits in a bottle!"
+
+"It was something he drank out of a bottle that made him have the fits.
+You are so little that you couldn't understand. And then he was cross.
+And once he killed a man; but he didn't go to."
+
+"Then he was guilty," said Dotty, in a solemn tone. "Did they take him to
+the court-house and hang him?"
+
+"No, of course they wouldn't hang _him_. They said it was the third
+degree, and they sent him to the State's Prison."
+
+"O, is your father in the State's Prison?"
+
+Dotty thought if her father were in such, a dreadful place, and she
+herself were blind, she should not wish to live; but here was Emily
+looking just as happy as anybody else. Indeed, the little girl was rather
+proud of being the daughter of such a wicked man. She had been pitied so
+much for her misfortunes that she had come to regard herself as quite a
+remarkable person. She could not see the horror in Dotty's face, but she
+could detect it in her voice; so she went on, well satisfied.
+
+"There isn't any other little girl in this school that has had so much
+trouble as I have. A lady told me it was because God wanted to make a
+good woman of me, and that was why it was."
+
+"Does it make people good to have trouble?" asked Dotty, trying to
+remember what dreadful trials had happened to herself. "Our house was
+burnt all up, and I felt dreadfully. I lost a tea-set, too, with gold
+rims. I didn't know I was any better for that."
+
+"O, you see, it isn't very awful to have a house burnt up," said Emily;
+"not half so awful as it is to have your eyes put out."
+
+"But then, Emily, I've been sick, and had the sore throat, and almost
+drowned--and--and--the whooping-cough when I was a baby."
+
+"What is your name?" asked Emily; "and how old are you?"
+
+"My name is Alice Parlin, and I am six years old."
+
+"Why, I am nine; and see--your head! only comes under my chin."
+
+"Of course it doesn't," replied Dotty, with some spirit. "I wouldn't be
+as tall as you are for anything, and me only six--going on seven."
+
+"I suppose your paw is rich, and good to you, and you have everything you
+want--don't you, Alice?"
+
+"No, my father isn't rich at all, Emily, and I don't have many
+things--no, indeed," replied Miss Dimple, with a desire to plume herself
+on her poverty and privations. "My aunt 'Ria has two girls, but we don't,
+only our Norah; and mother never lets me put any nightly-blue sirreup on
+my hangerjif 'cept Sundays. I think we're pretty poor."
+
+Dotty meant all she said. She had now become a traveller; had seen a
+great many elegant things; and when she thought of her home in
+Portland, it seemed to her plainer and less attractive than it had
+ever seemed before.
+
+"I don't know what you would think," said Emily, counting over her trials
+on her fingers as if they had been so many diamond rings, "if you didn't
+have anything to eat but brown bread and molasses. I guess you'd think
+_that_ was pretty poor! And got the molasses all over your face, because
+you couldn't see to put it in your mouth. And had that woman shake you
+every time you spoke. And your paw in State's Prison because he killed a
+man. O, no," repeated she, with triumph, "there isn't any other little
+girl in this school that's had so much trouble as I have."
+
+"No, I s'pose not," responded Dotty, giving up the attempt to compare
+trials with such a wretched being; "but then I may be blind, some time,
+too. P'rhaps a chicken will pick my eyes out. A cross hen flew right up
+and did so to a boy."
+
+Emily paid no attention to this foolish remark.
+
+"My paw writes me letters," said she. "Here is one in my pocket; would
+you like to read it?"
+
+Dotty took the letter, which was badly written and worse spelled.
+
+"Can you read it?" asked Emily, after Dotty had turned it over for some
+moments in silence.
+
+"No, I cannot," replied Dotty, very much ashamed; "but I'm going to
+school by and by, and then I shall learn everything."
+
+"O, no matter if you can't read it to me; my teacher has read it ever so
+many times. At the end of it, it says, 'Your unhappy and unfortunate
+paw.' That is what he always says at the end of all his letters; and he
+wants me to go to the prison to see him."
+
+"Why, you _couldn't_ see him."
+
+"No," replied Emily, not understanding that Dotty referred to her
+blindness; "no, I couldn't see him. The superintendent Wouldn't let me
+go; he says it's no place for little girls."
+
+"I shouldn't think it was," said Dotty, looking around for Flyaway, who
+was riding in a lady's chair made by two admiring little girls.
+
+"There was one thing I didn't tell," said Emily, who felt obliged to pour
+her whole history into her new friend's ears; "I was sick last spring,
+and had a fever. If it had been scarlet fever I should have died; but it
+was _imitation_ of scarlet fever, and I got well."
+
+"I'm glad you got well," said Dotty, rather tired of Emily's troubles;
+"but don't you want to play with the other girls? I do."
+
+"Yes; let us play Rollo on the Ocean," cried Octavia, who was Emily's
+bosom friend, and was seldom away from her long at a time, but had just
+now been devoting herself to Katie. "Here is the ship. All aboard!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+PLAYING SHIP.
+
+
+Now this ship was an old wagon-body, and had never been in water deeper
+than a mud puddle. A dozen little girls climbed in with great bustle and
+confusion, pretending they were walking a plank and climbing up some
+steps. After they were fairly on board they waved their handkerchiefs for
+a good by to their friends on shore. Then Octavia fired peas out of a
+little popgun twice, and this was meant as a long farewell to the land.
+Now they were fairly out on the ocean, and began to rock back and forth,
+as if tossed by a heavy sea.
+
+"See how the waves rise!" said Emily, and threw up her hands with an
+undulating motion. "I can see them," she cried, an intent look coming
+into her closed eyes; "they are green, with white bubbles like soap suds.
+And the sun shines on them so! O, 'tis as beautiful as flowers!"
+
+"Booful as flowers!" echoed Flyaway, who was one of the passengers; while
+Dotty wondered how Octavia knew the difference between green and white.
+She did not know; and what sort of a picture she painted in her mind of
+the mysterious sea I am sure I cannot tell.
+
+"Now," said Miriam Lake, the prettiest of the children, "it is time to
+strike the bells."
+
+So she struck a tea-bell with a stick eight times.
+
+"That is eight bells," explained she to Dotty, "and it means four
+o'clock. But, Jennie Holiday, where is the kitten? Why, we are not
+half ready."
+
+The children never thought they could play "ship" without a kitten, a
+gray and white one which they put into a cage just as Jennie Holiday
+did, when she and Rollo travelled by themselves from New York to
+Liverpool. When the kitten had been brought, they had got as far as Long
+Island Sound, and they said the kitten was sent by a ship of war which
+had to be "spoken."
+
+"This is a funny way to play," said Miriam. "Here we are at Halifax, and
+nobody has heaved the log yet."
+
+"No," said Octavia; "so we can't tell how many knots an hour we
+are going."
+
+"_I'm_ going a great many knocks," cried Katie, whose exertions in
+rocking from side to side had thrown her overboard once.
+
+"We never'll get to Liverpool in this world," said Emily, "unless Miss
+Percival comes and steers the ship."
+
+It happened at that very moment that Miss Percival came into the yard
+with aunt Maria.
+
+"If you will excuse me, Mrs. Clifford," said she, laughing, "I will take
+command of this ship."
+
+"No apologies are necessary," replied Mrs. Clifford. "I should be very
+glad to watch your proceedings. Is it possible, Miss Percival, that you
+are capable of guiding a vessel across the Atlantic?"
+
+"I have often tried it," said Miss Percival, going on board; "but we
+sometimes have a shipwreck."
+
+"Emily," said she, "you may heave the log." So Emily rose, and taking a
+large spool of crochet-cotton which Miss Percival gave her, held it
+above her head, turning it slowly, till a tatting shuttle, which was
+fastened at the end of the thread, fell to the ground. This was supposed
+to be the "log;" and Octavia, with one or two other girls, pretended to
+tug with much force in order to draw it in, for the ship was going so
+fast that the friction against the cord was very great. Knots had been
+made in the cotton, over which Emily ran her quick fingers.
+
+"Ten knots an hour," said she.
+
+"Very good speed," returned the captain. "I do not think we shall be able
+to take an observation to-day, as it is rather cloudy."
+
+Sailors "take observations" at noon, if the sun is out, by means of a
+sextant, with which they measure the distance from the sun to the
+southern horizon. In this way the captain can tell the exact latitude of
+the ship; but Miss Percival made believe there was a storm coming up; so
+it was not possible to take an observation.
+
+"It is two bells," said she: "the wind is out; there will be a fearful
+storm. I would advise the passengers to turn into their berths."
+
+The children lay down upon the floor. "There, there," said Miriam Lake,
+who was playing Jennie Holiday; "my poor little kitty is just as
+seasick! Her head keeps going round and round."
+
+"_My_ head has did it too," chimed in Katie, rolling herself into a ball;
+"it keeps yocking yound and yound."
+
+"I pitch about so in my berth," said Octavia, who was Rollo, "that next
+thing I shall be out on the floor. Hark! How the water is pouring in! I'm
+afraid the ship has sprung a leak; and if it has I must call the
+chambermaid."
+
+Mrs. Clifford, who stood looking on, was quite amused at the idea of
+calling the chambermaid to stop a leak in the ship.
+
+"Man the pumps!" said the captain. The girls tugged away at a pole in one
+end of the wagon, moving it up and down like a churn-dash.
+
+"I do hope this wind will go down," sighed Emily.
+
+"Well, it will," said simple Flyaway; "I _hear_ it going."
+
+"It is head wind and a heavy sea," remarked the captain; "but never fear;
+we shall weather the storm. We are now on the southern coast of Ireland.
+I don't think," added she, in a different tone, "it is best to be
+shipwrecked, children--do you? We will hurry into Liverpool, and then I
+think it likely your little visitors may enjoy keeping house with your
+dolls, or having a nice swing."
+
+"I wish I could eat something," said Dotty, with a solemn face; "but I'm
+too sick."
+
+"So'm I," groaned Flyaway. "I couldn't eat noffin'--'cept cake."
+
+"If you are in such a condition as that," said the captain, "it is
+certainly high time we landed. And here comes a pilot boat with a signal
+flying. We will take the pilot on board," added she; drawing in another
+little girl. "And look! here we are now in Liverpool."
+
+"We must go to the Adelphi," said Octavia; "that is where Rollo went, and
+found his father, and mother, and Thannie. But the kitten didn't ever get
+there--did it, Miss Percival?"
+
+The voyage being ended, and with it the fearful seasickness, the children
+went to swinging, with their teacher to push them.
+
+"Miss Percival," said aunt Maria, shaking hands with that excellent
+young lady, "I wish you joy of your noble employment. It is a blessed
+thing to be able to give so much pleasure to these dear little children."
+
+"So it seems to me," replied Miss Percival. "They are always grateful,
+too, for every little kindness."
+
+"They look very good and obedient," said Mrs. Clifford, in a low voice.
+
+"So they are. Sometimes I think they are better than children who have
+eyes; perhaps because they cannot see to get into so much mischief,"
+added Miss Percival, pinching Emily's cheek.
+
+"Aunt 'Ria," said Dotty, in raptures, "_don't_ they have good
+times here?"
+
+"Yelly good times," said little Flyaway, clutching at her mother's dress.
+"Mamma, I wish _I_ was blind-eyed, too."
+
+"You, my darling baby! Mother hopes that will never be. But if you
+cannot be blind-eyed yourself, perhaps you may make some of these little
+ones happy. Is there anything you would like to give away?"
+
+Flyaway winked slowly, trying to think what she had at home that she no
+longer wished to keep.
+
+"Yes, mamma," said she at last, with a smile of satisfaction, "I've got
+a old hat."
+
+"O, fie, Katie! I dare say you would be very glad to part with that, for
+I remember you cried the other day when I asked you to wear it. Your old
+hat would not be a pretty present."
+
+"Then I can't fink of noffin' else," said Katie, shaking her head; at the
+same time having a guilty recollection of several beautiful toys, and
+"'most a hunnerd bushels of canny;" that is to say, a small box of
+confectionery her uncle Edward had given her.
+
+Mrs. Clifford had observed of late that her little daughter was not as
+generous as she could wish. Both Katie and Dotty were peculiarly liable
+to become selfish, as they were much petted at home, and had no younger
+brothers or sisters with whom to share their treasures. Mrs. Clifford did
+not insist upon Katie's making any sacrifice. The little one did not pity
+the blind children at all. They seemed so happy that she almost envied
+them. So did Miss Dimple. It was not, after all, very grievous to be
+blind, she thought, if one could live at this Institute and have such
+nice plays.
+
+"Aunt 'Ria thinks I ought to give them something, I s'pose. When I get
+home I mean to ask mamma and grandma to dress a beautiful doll, and I'll
+send it to Emily. She'll keep it to remember me by; and it won't cost
+any of _my_ money if papa buys the head."
+
+"Good by, Emily," said she, as she parted from her. "I hope there won't
+any more bad things happen to you."
+
+"But I s'pose there will," replied Emily, cheerfully.
+
+Mr. Parlin and Horace were waiting in the hall, and the latter was
+impatiently watching the tall clock. They had been in the greenhouse,
+looking at the flowers, and in the shop, where the blind boys learn to
+make brooms and brushes.
+
+"Well, ladies, are you ready to go?" asked Mr. Parlin, taking Flyaway
+by the hand.
+
+"Yes, we ladies is ready," replied she. So this was the end of their
+visit at the Institute.
+
+After they had gone away, the little blind girls said to one another,--
+
+"What nice children those are! Which is the prettiest, Alice or Katie?"
+
+For they always spoke of people and things exactly as if they
+could see them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A SPOILED DINNER.
+
+
+Next morning, Dotty Dimple and her father started for Maine. Flyaway did
+not like this at all. Her cousin had been so pleasant and so entertaining
+that she wished to keep her always.
+
+"What _for_ you can't stay, Dotty Dimpwil?"
+
+"O," said Dotty, tearing herself away from the little clinging arms, "I
+must go home and get ready for Christmas."
+
+"No, you musser," persisted Katie; "we've got a Santa Claw in _our_
+chimley; you musser go home."
+
+"It isn't for Santa Claus at all, darling it is for my papa and mamma's
+wedding. To stand up, so they can be married over again. Now kiss me, and
+let me go."
+
+"Her's goin' home to Kismus pie," remarked Katie, as she took her
+mournful way with her mamma to the house where they were visiting. She
+did not know what a wedding might be, but was sure it had pies in it.
+
+"There goes a right smart little girl," said Horace, with a sweep of his
+thumb towards the Cleveland cars. "If it wasn't for Prudy, I should like
+her better than any other cousin I have in the world."
+
+"She is an engaging child," replied his mother, "and really seems to be
+outgrowing her naughty ways."
+
+Thus, you see, Dotty Dimple, in coming away from Indiana, had left in the
+minds of her friends only "golden opinions." Perhaps she was rather
+overrated. Everything had gone well with her during her visit; why should
+she not be pleasant and happy? I am inclined to think there was the same
+old naughtiness in her heart, only just now it was asleep. We shall see.
+
+Nothing remarkable occurred on the homeward journey, except that Mr.
+Parlin bought some gold-fishes in Boston, and carried them home as a
+present to Mrs. Read. They travelled one night in a sleeping-car, and by
+that means reached Portland a day earlier than they were expected.
+
+Dotty hardly knew whether to be glad or sorry for this. There was a great
+deal to be said on both sides of the question. She had anticipated the
+pleasure of being met at the depot by Susy and Prudy, and now that was
+not to be thought of; but it would be delightful to give the family a
+surprise. On the whole, she was very well satisfied.
+
+As they drove up to the new home, however, what was their astonishment to
+find it closed! There was not even a window open, or any other sign that
+the house was inhabited. Dotty ran to every door, and shook it.
+
+"Why, papa, papa, do you s'pose there's anybody dead?"
+
+"The probability is, Alice, that they have gone away. I will run over to
+Mrs. Prosser's, and see if she knows anything about it."
+
+Mrs. Prosser was the nearest neighbor on the left. Her little
+daughter came to the door in tears, having hurt herself against a
+trunk in the hall.
+
+"Miss Carrie," said Mr. Parlin, "can you tell me where Mrs. Parlin and
+the rest of the family are gone?"
+
+"Yes, Caddy Prosser, the house is shut up," added Dotty, "and I'm afraid
+they're dead."
+
+"I don't know where they're gone, nor anything," sobbed Carrie. "I
+didn't know the trunk was in the entry, and I came so fast I fell
+right over it."
+
+"I am very sorry you are hurt," said Mr. Parlin. "Is your mother at
+home?"
+
+"No, sir, she isn't; her trunk came, but she didn't."
+
+There was no information to be obtained at the Prossers'; so Mr. Parlin
+went to Mr. Lawrence's, the nearest neighbor on the right, making the
+same inquiries; but all he learned was, that a carriage had been seen
+standing at Mr. Parlin's door; who had gone away in it nobody could tell.
+
+Dotty paced the pavement with restless steps, her mind agitated by a
+thousand wild fancies: Grandma Read never went anywhere; perhaps she was
+locked up in the house, and Zip too. Norah was at Cape Elizabeth; she had
+walked out to see her friend Bridget, the girl with red hair; and, just
+as likely as not, she didn't ever mean to come back again. Mother, and
+Susy, and Prudy had gone to Willowbrook, to grandpa Parlin's--of course
+they had,--and left grandma Bead all alone in the house, with nothing to
+eat. How strange! How unkind!
+
+"Grandma!" she called out under Mrs. Read's window.
+
+There was no answer. Dotty fancied the white curtain moved just a little;
+but that was because a fly was balancing himself on its folds. Grandma
+was not there, or, if she was, she must be very sound asleep. O, dear,
+dear! And here were Dotty and her father come home a day earlier than
+they were expected; and instead of giving the family a joyful surprise,
+they had a surprise themselves, only not a joyful one, by any means. How
+impolite it was in everybody, how unkind, to go away! At first, Dotty had
+been alarmed; but now her indignation got the better of her fears. When
+she _did_ see Prudy again,--the sister who pretended to love her so
+much,--she wouldn't take the presents out of her trunk for ever so long,
+just to tease the naughty girl!
+
+Meanwhile her father did not appear to be at all disturbed.
+
+"Perhaps they have gone to the Islands, or somewhere else not far away,
+to spend the day. It is now nearly two o'clock. You may go to the
+Preble House with me, and take-your dinner, and then I will unlock the
+house, and find some one to stay with you till night. Would you like
+that? Or would you prefer to go at once to your aunt Eastman's? You may
+have your choice."
+
+Dotty reflected about half a minute. "I will go to aunt Eastman's, if you
+please, papa."
+
+This appeared to her decidedly the most dignified course. She would go to
+aunt Eastman's, and she would not be in the least haste about coming back
+again. She would teach her sisters, especially Prudy, that it is best to
+be hospitable towards one's friends when they have been away on a long
+journey. Her anger may seem very absurd; but you must remember, little
+friends, that Dotty Dimple had now become a travelled young lady; she had
+seen the world, and her self-esteem had grown every day she had been
+away. Her heart was all aglow with love towards the dear ones at home,
+and it was very chilling to find the door locked in her face. She did not
+stop to reflect that no unkindness had been intended.
+
+As they drove to aunt Eastman's, her father observed that her bright
+little face was very downcast, but supposed her sadness arose from the
+disappointment. There are depths of foolishness in children's hearts
+which even their parents cannot fathom.
+
+Strange to say, neither Mr. Parlin nor Dotty had thought that the family
+might be visiting at Mr. Eastman's; but such was the case. It was
+Johnny's birthday, and his father had sent the carriage into the city
+that morning for Mrs. Parlin, grandma Read, and the children. As for
+Norah, Dotty was right with regard to her; she _had_ walked out to the
+Cape to see the auburn-haired Bridget.
+
+"I'm glad Johnny was born to-day instead of to-morrow," said Prudy, "for
+to-morrow we wouldn't go out of the house for anything, auntie."
+
+"I can seem to see cousin Dimple," said Percy; "she'll carry her head
+higher than ever."
+
+Prudy cast upon the youth as strong a look of disapproval as her gentle
+face could express.
+
+"Percy, you mustn't talk so about Dotty. She is my sister. She isn't so
+very proud; but if I was as handsome as she is, I should be proud too."
+
+"O, no; she is very meek--Dimple is; just like a little lamb. Don't you
+remember that verse she used to repeat?--
+
+'But, chillens, you should never let
+  Your naughty _ankles_ rise;
+Your little hands were never made
+  To tear each uzzer's eyes--out.'"
+
+"If she's cross, it's because you and Johnny tease her so," said Prudy.
+"I think it's a shame."
+
+Percy only laughed. He and Prudy were sitting in the doorway, arranging
+bouquets for the dinner-table. Susy joined them, bearing in her hands
+some dahlias and tuberoses.
+
+"Why, Prudy," said she, "what makes your face all aflame?"
+
+"She has been fighting for your little dove of a sister," replied Percy;
+"the one that went West to finish her education."
+
+This speech only deepened the color in Prudy's face, though she tried
+hard to subdue her anger, and closed her lips with the firm resolve not
+to open them again till she could speak pleasantly.
+
+"Look!" exclaimed Percy; "there's a carriage turning the corner. Why,
+it's Dimple herself and uncle Edward!"
+
+"It can't be!"
+
+"It is!"
+
+Both little girls ran to the gate.
+
+"O, father! O, Dotty! Why, when did you get home?"
+
+By this time Mrs. Parlin had come out: also Mrs. Eastman and Johnny.
+Everybody was as surprised and delighted as possible; and even Miss
+Dimple, sitting in state in the coach, was perfectly satisfied, and
+condescended to alight, instead of riding through the carriage gateway.
+
+"O, Dotty Dimple, I'm so glad to see you!" cried Prudy.
+
+"It is my sister Alice,
+  And she is grown so dear, so dear,
+That I would be the jewel
+  That trembles at her ear,--
+
+only you don't wear ear-rings, you know."
+
+"Are you glad to see me, though, Prudy? Then what made you go off and
+shut the house up?"
+
+"O, we didn't expect you till to-morrow; and it's Johnny's birthday.
+Dinner is almost ready; aren't you glad? Such a dinner, too!"
+
+"Any bill of fare?" asked Dotty, with a sudden recollection of
+past grandeur.
+
+"A bill of fare? O, no; those are for hotels. But there's almost
+everything else. Now you can go up stairs with me, and wash your face."
+
+Dotty appeared at table with smooth hair and a fresh ruffle which Prudy
+had basted in the neck of her dress. She looked very neat and prim, and,
+as Percy had predicted, carried her head higher than ever.
+
+"I suppose," said aunt Eastman, "you will have a great many
+wonderful things to tell us, Dotty, for I am sure you travelled with
+your eyes open."
+
+"Yes'm; I hardly ever went to sleep in the cars. But when you said
+'eyes,' auntie, it made me think of the blind children. We went to the
+'Sylum to see them."
+
+"How do they look?" asked Johnny.
+
+"They don't _look_ at all; they are blind."
+
+"Astonishing! I'd open my eyes if I were they."
+
+"Why, Percy, they are blind--stone-blind!"
+
+"How is that? How blind is a stone?"
+
+Dotty busied herself with her turkey. Her Eastman cousins all had a way
+of rendering her very uncomfortable. They made remarks which were
+intended to be witty, but were only pert. They were not really
+kind-hearted, or they would have been more thoughtful of the feelings
+of others.
+
+"Alice," said dear Mrs. Read, trying to turn the conversation, "I see
+thee wears a very pretty ring."
+
+Dotty took it off her finger, and passed it around for inspection.
+
+"I never had a ring before," said she, with animation. "I never had
+anything to wear--'cept _clothes_"
+
+Percy laughed.
+
+"I found the pearl in an oyster stew, grandma. It is such a very funny
+place Out West"
+
+"Yes, it is really a pearl," said Percy, "only spoiled by boiling. Look
+her, Toddlekins; oysters don't grow Out West; they grow here on the
+coast. You'd better study astronomy."
+
+Dotty took refuge in silence again, like an oyster withdrawing into
+his shell.
+
+"O, Dotty," said Susy, presently, "tell me what you saw Out West. I want
+to hear all about it."
+
+"Well, I saw a pandrammer," replied Dotty, briefly.
+
+"What in the world is that?" said Johnny.
+
+"It is a long picture, and they keep pulling it out like India rubber."
+
+"She means a _panorama_" cried Johnny. "Why, I went to one last night. We
+can see as much as you can, without going Out West, either."
+
+Here was another sensation. Dotty might as well have been eating ashes as
+the delirious dinner before her.
+
+"Don't you like your pudding, dear?" asked aunt Eastman.
+
+"O, yes'm; I always like _coker-whacker"_ replied the unfortunate Dotty,
+stumbling over the word _tapioca_.
+
+In spite of their mother's warning frown, the three young Eastmans
+laughed, while Susy and Prudy, who had kinder hearts and better manners,
+drew down their mouths with the greatest solemnity.
+
+"I ain't going to speak another word," cried the persecuted little
+traveller, setting down her goblet, and hitting it against her plate till
+it rang again.
+
+"_Error!_" called out Florence from the other side of the table; "there's
+no such word as _ain't_."
+
+This was too much. Dotty had smarted under these cruel blows long enough.
+She hastily arose from the table, and rushed out of the room.
+
+"Florence and Percy, you are both very thoughtless," said Mrs. Eastman,
+reprovingly.
+
+Mrs. Parlin looked deeply pained, as she always did when her little
+daughter gave way to her temper; but she made no allusion to the subject,
+and tried to go on with her dinner as if nothing had happened.
+
+Dotty ran into the front yard, threw herself on the ground, and buried
+her face in a verbena bed.
+
+There! it wasn't of any use; she couldn't be good; it wouldn't last! When
+she had just come home, and had so many things to tell, and supposed
+everybody would be glad to see her and hear her talk,--why, Percy and
+Florence must just spoil it all by laughing. O, it was too bad!
+
+"I wish I hadn't come! I wish I'd been switched off!" sighed Dotty,
+meaning, if she meant anything, that she wished the cars had whirled her
+away to the ends of the earth, instead of bringing her home, where people
+were all ready with one accord to trample her into the dust.
+
+"Here I've been 'way off, and know how to travel, and keep my ticket in
+my glove. Six years old, going on seven. Been down in a coal mine,--Prudy
+never'd dare to. Had a jigger cut out of my side. Been to the 'Sylum.
+One of the conductors said, 'That's a fine little daughter of yours,
+sir.' I heard him. Aunt 'Ria washed all those grease-spots out of my
+dress, and I had on a clean ruffle. And then, just 'cause I couldn't say
+_coker-whacker_--"
+
+"There, there, don't feel so bad, you precious sister," said a
+soothing voice; and a soft cheek was pressed to Dotty's, and a pair of
+loving arms clasped her close. "Percy was real too-bad, and so was
+Flossy--so there!"
+
+"O, Prudy, I wish they were every one of 'em in the penitential, locked
+in, and Johnny too! Me just got home, and never did a single thing to
+them! And there they laughed right in my face!"
+
+"But you know, dear, they don't think," said Prudy, who found it unsafe
+to sympathize too much with her angry sister; "they never do think; they
+don't mean any harm."
+
+"I'll make 'em think!" cried Dotty, fiercely. "I'll scare 'em so they'll
+think! I'll take a pumpkin, and I'll take a watermelon, and I'll take--"
+
+"Dear me, Dotty, that is a beautiful ring on your finger. I wish I had
+one just like it."
+
+Dotty cast a suspicious glance at her sister.
+
+"Don't you try to pacify ME, Prudy Parlin."
+
+Prudy held a handful of southernwood to her nose, and smiled behind it.
+
+"This isn't _temper_, Prudy Parlin, 'cause you said your own self they
+'bused me."
+
+"Such a cunning little pearl!" remarked Prudy, still admiring the ring;
+"how glad I should be if you'd wish it on to my finger, Dotty!"
+
+"They 'bused me, Prudy Parlin, and you know it."
+
+"Only till night, Dotty Dimple. Just wish it on till night."
+
+"Well, there," exclaimed Dotty, at last; "hold out your finger if you
+can't stop teasing. But I _haven't_ any temper, and you needn't act
+just's if you's trying to pacify me."
+
+"O, thank you, Dotty; on my third finger."
+
+"Now I've wished it on, Prudy; and its a good-enough wish for you, when
+you won't pity me; but now I'm going up in the bathing-room to stay, and
+you can't make me come down--not a single step."
+
+"I shan't want you to come down, Dotty. There's the very place I'm going
+to myself. We'll carry up the needle-gun; it's the nicest thing to play
+with. Come, let's hurry up stairs the back way, little sister, for
+they'll be out from dinner, and see us."
+
+Dotty needed no second hint. In half an hour she was so far recovered
+from the _megrims_ as to be hungry; when Prudy secretly begged some
+pudding for her of the willing Angeline.
+
+Then the same little peacemaker went to her cousins, and made them each
+and all promise to be more careful of her sister's feelings; after which
+there was nut-cracking in the wood-shed, and a loud call for Miss Dimple,
+who consented to go down after much urging, and was the merriest one of
+the whole party.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+PLAYING TRUANT.
+
+
+For several days after her return Dotty Dimple was in a state of jubilee.
+She had a great deal to tell, and the whole household was ready to
+listen. Norah would stand with a dish or a rolling-pin in her hand, and
+almost forget what she had intended to do in her desire to hear every
+word Miss Dotty was saying.
+
+Once, when she related her adventure with the pigeon-pie, grandma Read,
+who was clear-starching her caps, let the starch boil over on the stove;
+and at another time Mrs. Parlin was so much absorbed in a description of
+Phebe, that she almost spiced a custard with cayenne pepper.
+
+All these evidences of interest were very flattering to Dotty. Sometimes
+she took Prudy one side, and told her the same story twice over, to which
+Prudy always listened with unfailing politeness. As I said before, while
+this excitement lasted Miss Dimple was in a state of jubilee. But by and
+by the novelty wore off; she had told the family everything she could
+possibly think of, and now longed for a few pairs of fresh ears into
+which to pour her stories. Everybody else was working for Christmas;
+Dotty alone was idle; for no one had time to give her a daily stint, and
+see that she accomplished it.
+
+"After the holidays I shall have to go to school; so now is my time to
+play," said she to herself, "and I ought to play every minute, as tight
+as I can spring."
+
+But she tried so hard to be happy that the effort was really very
+tiresome. If she had only had something to do, I am almost sure she would
+not have fallen into the misfortune which I am about to record.
+
+One day her mother sent her to a worsted store to pattern some worsteds.
+A girl behind the counter gave her the right shades, and she slowly
+started for home. It was about four o'clock of a November day. Dotty,
+glancing idly at the sky, saw that the sun was already getting low.
+
+"How queer it is!" thought she; "it seems as if the sun grows sleepy very
+early nowadays, and goes to bed right in the middle of the afternoon.
+Well, I declare, if there isn't Lina Rosenberg!"
+
+The beautiful little Jewess was just turning an opposite corner, and, as
+usual, the sight of her face bewitched Dotty in a minute.
+
+[Illustration: LINA ROSENBERG INVITES DOTTY TO HER HOUSE.]
+
+"O, Lina Rosenberg, come over here! How do you do?"
+
+"I'm very well, Dotty: how do YOU do? Only I wish you wouldn't call
+me a BUG!"
+
+"Well, then, Lina, you mustn't have bugs in your name if you don't want
+to be called by 'em. Did you know I'd been Out West?"
+
+"No; you haven't, Dotty Dimple!"
+
+"Yes, I have; you may ask my father. I kept my own ticket right in my
+glove, and took 'most the whole care of myself. Went to the Blind 'Sylum;
+found a pearl in an oyster; been 'way down in a coal mine; and--and--"
+
+"Come to my house, won't you, and tell me all about it?" said Lina
+Rosenberg, looking as beguiling as possible, and taking Dotty's
+unresisting hand.
+
+Dotty knew very well that her mother would never allow her to go to
+Lina's house; but she did not like to say that, and she only replied,--
+
+"I've matched my worsteds, and now I must go home."
+
+"O, you can go home afterwards. My mother said to me to-day, 'Do you
+bring Dotty Dimple home to supper this very night. She'll be so glad to
+see you!'"
+
+Dotty gave another glance at the sky, then one at the city clock.
+
+"What time do you drink tea, Lina?"
+
+"At five, 'most always."
+
+Dotty had long felt a great curiosity about the domestic affairs of the
+Jews; and here was an unexpected opportunity to sit down at the very
+table with them. She had an invitation from the head of the family, and
+that was something which did not happen every day. She could go home any
+time afterwards; for their own tea-hour was not till half past six.
+
+"I'll walk along with you a little way, Lina, and think it over."
+
+It was true Mrs. Parlin did not approve of Mandoline or any of her
+family; but Dotty thought she would forget that, just for once.
+
+"O, dear! I keep thinking how my mamma said, 'I do not wish you to
+play with Lina Rosenberg!' Now I can 'most always forget easy enough;
+but when I TRY to forget, it says itself over and over--and I remember
+just as hard!"
+
+As they turned another corner they met Susy, who had been sent to the
+dye-house.
+
+"Why, Dotty," said she, "what are you doing on that street?"
+
+Lina spoke up very boldly,--
+
+"She's going to the doctor's with me, Susy Parlin, to get a plaster for
+my mother."
+
+At this wicked speech Dotty's heart almost sank into her boots; for she
+had never known before that Lina would tell a deliberate lie.
+
+Lina lived in a little grocery store. Her father was gone away to-day,>
+and her mother had just served a customer with a pound of damp brown
+sugar, saying, as she clipped the string,--
+
+"It's very cheap sweetening at that price; we are going to rise on it
+to-morrow."
+
+After that she stood a minute in front of the store, and shook her
+head at Jacob, a little boy, some three years old, who was trying to
+balance a patent washboard against a tree which grew out of the brick
+pavement. It was a large, scrawny tree, which looked as if it was
+obliged to live there, but didn't want to, and had tried in vain to
+get burnt up in the Portland fire. From the lower branches of the
+tree depended a couple of dun-colored hams, and a painted board, with
+the words, "Good Family Butter."
+
+"Come in, Jacob, you naughty boy!" said Mrs. Rosenberg, this time shaking
+him, because she was afraid he would injure the patent wash-board. Then
+Jacob, who had been waiting for the shaking, and would not stir without
+it, went in at the side door crying; for the family lived in one end of
+the store.
+
+Mrs. Rosenberg had a great many children, and was obliged to work very
+hard at various employments. Just now she went to spreading pumpkin-seeds
+to dry under the stove. She was not expecting company; and when Mandoline
+entered with Dotty, she looked up from her work with a frown.
+
+"Who've you brought home with you this time, Mandoline Rosenberg?" said
+she. "Take off your hat and hang it over them tommatuses; but mind yer
+don't drop it into that dish of lard."
+
+"Mother," pleaded Mandoline, "we want to go up chamber to see my pretty
+things; her mother sent her a-purpose."
+
+"No, she didn't; no such a thing! You're a master hand to pick up
+children and fetch 'em home here, and then crawl out of it by lying!
+Besides, you've got to knit. I must have those socks done by to-morrow
+noon, Mandy, or I'll know the reason why."
+
+As Mrs. Rosenberg spoke, she pushed a waiter full of seeds under the
+stove as if she hated the very sight of them; and when she stood up
+again, Dotty observed that her dirty calico dress did not come anywhere
+near the tops of her calf-skin shoes.
+
+"But, mother," said Mandoline, with a winning smile, "this is Dotty
+Dimple, the little girl that gave me the needle-book."
+
+This was partly true. Dotty had given Mandoline an old needle-book; but
+it had been in return for some maple sugar, which the little Jewess had
+pilfered from her father's store.
+
+"Dotty Dimple, is it?" said Mrs. Rosenberg, with a sharp look at the
+little guest.
+
+"I don't know now any better than I did before. That's a name for a
+doll-baby; I should say."
+
+"Alice Parlin, mother."
+
+"Is it? O, well; you may take her up stairs out of my way; but mind, you
+must knit every minute you're gone."
+
+Dotty was greatly abashed by this reception, and would have rushed out of
+the house, but Mandoline held her fast.
+
+"You shan't go a step," said she, "I'll hide your hat."
+
+So Dotty, under peril of going home bareheaded, was obliged to creep up
+the rickety staircase with Mandoline. She likened her feelings on the
+occasion to those of a person whom "the mayor is putting in the lockup."
+Indeed, the "lock-up" was Dotty's dream of all the horrors, and she had
+no doubt it was the mayor himself who always stood with his hands
+outstretched, ready to thrust wicked people into it.
+
+The chamber which the little girls entered was an unfinished one, and
+from the rafters hung paper bags of dried herbs; for, besides being a
+housekeeper and clerk, Mrs. Rosenberg was something of a doctress withal,
+and made "bitters" for her particular friends.
+
+"Sit down here on the bed, Dotty Dimple, and look at my paper dolls,"
+said Lina, producing from under a disjointed chair, an old cigar box full
+of paper heroes and heroines. Mandoline was an artist in he! way, and
+these figures were clad in the most brilliant costumes of silver and
+gold. Dotty was dazzled. Never before had it been her lot to see such
+magnificent dolls,--dolls which shone so in the sun; every one of them a
+king or a queen, and fit to wear a crown.
+
+"O, Lina," sighed she, in ecstasy, "where _do_ you get your silver
+and gold?"
+
+"Tease for it," replied the little Jewess.
+
+Dotty knew, to her own sorrow, that Lina was capable of teasing. It was
+hard to keep so much as an apple or a peppermint away from her if she
+happened to set her heart on it.
+
+"I'll give you twenty dolls," said Lina, "if you'll let me have your
+ring; and it isn't a very pretty ring, either; looks like brass."
+
+Dotty locked her fingers together.
+
+"You can't tease away my owny dony pearl, Lina, if it _is_ brass; so you
+needn't try."
+
+"Mandoline!" called out Mrs. Rosenberg's sharp voice from down stairs,
+"are you at work?"
+
+"O, dear!" said Lina, sauntering along to an old chest, and taking her
+knitting from the top of it; "that's always the way. I thought if you
+came, mother'd let me play."
+
+Dotty understood from this remark why Lina had asked her to go home with
+her. It was not because she wished to hear any of Dotty's brilliant
+stories, for she had not asked a single question about Out West; it was
+because she hoped for a reprieve from the dreaded knitting.
+
+"She's a real naughty little girl," thought Miss Dimple; "and if she
+hadn't hided my hat, I'd go right home."
+
+There was a heavy tread on the stairs. Mrs. Rosenberg was coming up,
+partly to see if her daughter was knitting, and partly to hang a paper
+bag on the long pole overhead. Mandoline was dreadfully afraid of her
+mother, and, in her eagerness to be found hard at work, she rattled her
+needles very fast, while her fingers wandered aimlessly about among the
+stitches. Mrs. Rosenberg detected the cheat at once; and, as she was
+needing the money for the socks, she scolded Mandoline soundly, and
+pelted her pretty little hands, rat, tat, tat, with a steel thimble.
+
+Dotty was a little startled, and peeped out at Lina from the corners of
+her eyes. Mrs. Rosenberg scolded so hard that the paper bags overhead
+seemed to rattle, and some yellow pollen dropped out of one of them like
+shooting stars.
+
+Dotty had never known that there are such cruel people in the world; but
+let me tell you, little reader, every mother is not like the gentle,
+low-voiced woman who takes you in her lap, and kindly reproves you when
+you have done wrong. No; there are very different mothers; hard-working,
+ignorant ones, who do not know how to treat their children any more than
+you know how to build a brick house.
+
+Mrs. Rosenberg was so severe and unreasonable, that her little daughter,
+through fear of her, had learned to deceive. Still Mrs. Rosenberg loved
+Mandoline, and would have been a better mother, perhaps, if she had only
+known how, and had not had so much work to do.
+
+Presently she went down stairs, and left the little girls together.
+
+"Good!" said Lina, in a low voice. "She's gone; now we'll play."
+
+"But you can't knit if you play, Lina. Tell me where you hided my hat,
+'cause I want to go home."
+
+"You shan't go home till after supper, you little darling Dotty Dimple."
+
+"O, but I must go, for my mother doesn't know where I am," said Dotty, in
+a dreary tone. She had no longer any curiosity regarding Jewish suppers;
+all she wanted was the liberty to get away. But it is always easier to
+fall into a trap than to get out of it. Mandoline would not produce the
+missing hat, and it was no light matter for Dotty to go down stairs,
+among the noisy, quarrelsome children, and beg the severe Mrs. Rosenberg
+to take her part. If she did so, perhaps the woman would pelt her with
+the steel thimble. Perhaps, too, she would say Mandoline might keep the
+hat. So Dotty played "synagogue," and all the while the sun was dropping
+down, down the sky, as if it had a leaden weight attached to it, to make
+it go faster.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A STRANGE VISIT.
+
+
+The same warfare of words continued to come up from the kitchen, and
+presently the odor of sausages stole up, too; Mrs. Rosenberg was
+preparing supper. It seemed to the impatient Dotty that she was a long
+while about it; but she worked as fast as she could, with so many
+children clinging to her skirts, and impeding her movements.
+
+"Supper, Mandoline!" called she at last, in a shrill voice; and the
+little girls went down.
+
+The supper was palatable enough, but very unwholesome, and the
+table-cloth was dirty and wrinkled.
+
+"You don't seem to like my cooking," said Mrs. Rosenberg, with a
+displeased glance at Dotty's full plate.
+
+"Yes'm," replied the little guest, faintly; "but I've eaten up my
+appetite."
+
+At the same time she swallowed a little oily gravy in desperation, and
+looked slyly to see if Solly was watching her. Yes, he was, and so were
+all the rest of the family, as if she had been a peculiar kind of animal,
+just caught and caged.
+
+"I suppose they are dreadful nice folks at your house," continued Mrs.
+Rosenberg. "I almost wonder your mother let you come here to play with my
+poor little girl. Mandy's just as good as you are, though,--you can tell
+her so,--and she's got a sight prettier eyes."
+
+Dotty's heart kept swelling and swelling, till presently it seemed as if
+there wasn't room enough in her whole body to hold it. She thought of
+the cheerful, orderly tea-table at home; she recalled her mother's gentle
+ways, her lovely face, and longed to kiss her cheek, and whisper,
+"Forgive me."
+
+"Mamma'll be just as patient with me," thought Dotty; "she always is! But
+if I once get home, I'll never make her patient any more. I'll never run
+away again; not unless she _asks_ me to--I won't."
+
+The children, as fast as they finished their suppers, jumped up and ran
+away from the table--all but Solly, who had some faint idea that it was
+not polite to do so before company. He was a natural gentleman; and it
+was unfortunate that just at this time his mother was obliged to send
+him to Munjoy of an errand. Otherwise he would have made his sister give
+up Dotty's hat, and perhaps would have walked home with the unhappy
+child himself.
+
+As it was, Dotty did not seem to have a friend in the world. It was now
+so dark that she hardly dared look out of doors; but even in the
+brightest daylight she could not have found her way home.
+
+"You've got to stay all night," said Mandoline. "Isn't that splendid?"
+
+Mandoline did not mean to be cruel. She had observed that her mother
+urged her own guests to stay, and sometimes kept them almost by force.
+This she supposed was true politeness. More than that, she was anxious,
+for private reasons, to hold Dotty, so she might not have to knit so
+much. She knew, too, that her mother was proud to have such a well-bred
+little girl in the house. So she would not give up Dotty's hat.
+
+At eight o'clock, Dotty went to bed with Mandoline in the unfinished
+chamber, sorely against her will; and Mandoline told her such dreadful
+stories that she could not close her eyes for fright.
+
+"This is the queerest house I was ever in," thought she, "and the
+queerest bed. I s'pose it's made of pin-feathers, for they stick into
+me awfully."
+
+The bed was on the floor, and was founded upon woolsacks and buffalo
+skins. The sleeping arrangements in this house were somewhat peculiar.
+Mrs. Rosenberg was like the old woman in the shoe, and she stowed her
+numerous family away for the night in as little space as possible. For
+instance, the four youngest children slept together in one trundle-bed,
+two at the top and two at the bottom, their feet coming together in the
+middle. But Mandoline had left the trundle bed, and was lying on the
+floor with her guest. The companion the trundle-bed--little Kosina--was
+quite indignant at being deserted, and made a loud outcry, in the hope of
+attracting her mother's attention.
+
+"I don't want to sleep alone!" said she; "I don't want to sleep
+_alo-o-one!_"
+
+At another time Dotty would have laughed heartily. It was so absurd for a
+child to be lonesome when there were three in the bed! But Dotty was too
+low-spirited even to smile. Mrs. Rosenberg came up and boxed Rosina's
+ears; and after that the trundle-bed subsided.
+
+At last, when Dotty supposed it must be midnight, though it was only
+nine o'clock, there came a loud knocking at the side door. She hid her
+face under the coverlet, feeling sure it was either a wild Indian or a
+highway robber.
+
+"Don't be afraid," said Mandoline, rousing herself. "It is somebody
+after beer, and mother has locked up the store."
+
+No, it was Mr. Parlin's voice which spoke. Dotty's swollen heart gave a
+great bound, and then sank heavier than ever.
+
+"My little daughter Alice has run away." That was what he said. "Is she
+in your house, Mrs. Rosenberg?"
+
+"Yes," replied Mrs. Rosenberg, "I expect its likely she is; but she and
+my Mandoline's been abed and asleep two hours."
+
+"O, papa, I'm wide awake!" cried little Dotty, with an eager shriek,
+which pierced the rafters.
+
+"Good night, then," said Mr. Parlin, coldly.
+
+"O, but, papa, I want to go home. What did my mamma say about me?"
+
+"She said she had sent you of an errand. When you have finished your
+errand, you may come home. Good night."
+
+"O, NOT good night!" screamed Dotty, almost falling down stairs in her
+haste, and fastening her dress as she ran. "It was 'cause Lina hid my
+hat; and that was why--"
+
+"By the way," said Mr. Parlin, without paying the slightest attention to
+his half-frantic little daughter, who was clinging to his knees, and
+pleading with her whole soul, "Mrs. Rosenberg, I'm sorry to trouble you,
+but if you will be kind enough to keep this little runaway girl till I
+send for her, I shall be very much obliged."
+
+"O, certainly, Mr. Parlin; certainly, sir," replied the Jewess, smiling
+very sweetly, and trying to pat Dotty's head, which was in such violent
+motion that she only succeeded in touching the end of her nose. No one
+who had looked at Mrs. Rosenberg at that moment would have suspected her
+of being a vixen. She was sure Mr. Parlin would pay her handsomely if she
+kept his daughter there for a day or two; and the prospect of a little
+money always made the poor woman very amiable.
+
+"Thank you, madam," said Mr. Parlin, gently disengaging himself from
+Dotty. "When you are tired of my little daughter, will you please let me
+know? Goodnight, Mrs. Rosenberg; good-night, Alice."
+
+And, before Dotty had time to scream again, he was gone.
+
+For a moment she stood quite still, gazing at the door-latch; then rushed
+out into the darkness, calling, "Papa, papa!" But Mrs. Rosenberg laid her
+strong hands upon her, and brought her back.
+
+"So your mother didn't say you might come? I thought it was queer. Hush!
+hush! Don't go into fits, child. There are no bears in this house, and
+nothing will hurt you."
+
+Mrs. Rosenberg's manner was much kinder than it had been before; and with
+a child's quick insight, Dotty perceived that her father's coming had
+wrought the change.
+
+"I want to go home! I want to go home!" cried she, with another
+passionate outburst. "O, take me--do! They won't send for me, never! Take
+me, and I'll give you--O, Mrs. Rosenberg, I'll give you--"
+
+For a little while there was quite a scene at the little grocery, and it
+repented Mandoline that she had ever hidden Dotty's hat. The trundle-bed
+waked up at both ends and screamed; the black and tan dog, who slept
+under the counter in the store, barked lustily; the parrot in the blue
+cage called out, "Quit that! quit that!" and Mrs. Rosenberg was afraid a
+policeman would come in to inquire the cause of the uproar. She pattered
+about in a pair of her husband's cotton-velvet slippers, and tucked all
+her little ones into bed again, very much as if they had been clothes in
+a boiler, which she was forcing down with a stick. She was a woman who
+would be obeyed; and Dotty, finding it of no use to hold out against
+fate, went up stairs at last, and lay down beside Mandoline on the
+"pin-feathers."
+
+This stolen visit had turned out quite, quite different from her
+anticipations. Instead of a delightful supper of some mysterious Jewish
+cookery, she had been drinking gall and wormwood. That Lina would not
+let her go--THAT was the gall; that her father made her stay--THIS was
+the wormwood.
+
+"She is a tough piece," sighed Mrs. Rosenberg, as she laid her weary
+limbs to repose; "I didn't know, one while, but she'd get away in spite
+of me. I wonder what her father'll pay me. He seems to think this is a
+house of correction. Her mother won't be likely to let her stay more than
+one day. I'll have on the best table-cloth for breakfast; and along in
+the forenoon I'll fetch out some macaroni cakes and lager beer; that'll
+coax her up, I guess."
+
+Just then Mrs. Rosenberg down stairs and Dotty Dimple up stairs both fell
+asleep. One dreamed of running away and being chased by a dog with a hat
+on his head, who barked "Good-night" as fiercely as a bite. The other
+dreamed of money and brown sugar. And all the while the rats were
+treating themselves to nibbles of wood; but nobody heard them. Be
+careful, old rats! Your teeth have done mischief before now! The night
+wore on to the wee small hours, when a loud noise like a cannon startled
+Mrs. Rosenberg; or was she dreaming? The house was shaken to its very
+foundation, as if by an earthquake, and the room was full of smoke. She
+was just running for the children, when the building fell together with a
+crash, the roof was blown off into the street, the windows were shivered
+to atoms, and tongues of flame leaped madly up from the ruins.
+
+What did it mean? She was so stunned by the shock that she scarcely cared
+whether one of her children was spared or not; she only thought in her
+stupor that Mr. Parlin would not pay her for Dotty's lodging if the child
+was blown to pieces.
+
+"I know how it happened," said she, twitching at her own hair to arouse
+herself. "Just as Abraham always said; the rats have been nibbling
+matches in the store; they've burned a hole through the floor, and set
+fire to that keg of gunpowder. Yes, that's it!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+PLAYING PRISONER.
+
+
+I know how it happened, too. It came of eating sausages. Mrs. Rosenberg,
+after she was fairly awake, felt so uncomfortable and oppressed that she
+went up stairs to see if the children were safe. Really, I do suppose
+those little human souls were precious to her, after all.
+
+There lay Mandoline and Dotty side by side on the buffalo skins; and the
+Jewish mother stood in her short night-dress, with a tallow candle in
+her hand, and gazed at them tenderly. That horrible dream had stirred
+the fountain of love in her heart They made a beautiful picture, and
+there was no stain of evil in their young faces. It seems as if the
+angel of Sleep flies away with loads of naughtiness, for he always
+leaves sleeping children looking very innocent. But, alas! he brings
+back next morning all he carried away, for the little ones wake up with
+just as bad hearts as ever.
+
+"What sweet little creeters!" said Mrs. Rosenberg, bending over and
+kissing them both; "just like seraphims right out of the clouds."
+
+Softly, madam! If a drop of tallow should fall on them from that candle,
+they might take to themselves wings and fly away. That was what Cupid did
+in the fairy story, and you are in fairy-land yourself, Mrs. Rosenberg;
+you are still half asleep.
+
+She looked at Mandoline's perfect little hand, lying outside the
+patchwork quilt.
+
+"It doesn't seem, now," murmured the mother, with a tear in her eye,
+"that I could ever whack them pretty fingers with a thimble. I do believe
+if I wasn't pestered to death with everything under the sun to do, I
+might be kind o' half-way decent."
+
+Perhaps the poor woman told the truth; I think she did.
+
+Then, as she stood there, she breathed a little prayer without any
+words,--not for herself--for she did not suppose God would hear
+_that_,--but for her children that she "banged about" every day of
+their lives.
+
+She was not really a Jewess, for she had no religion of any sort, and
+never went to church; but I am sure of one thing: little overworked
+Mandoline would have loved her mother better if she had known she ever
+prayed for her at all.
+
+In the morning, Mrs. Rosenberg was just as hard and sharp as ever; she
+could not stop to be pleasant. Dotty longed to get away; but she was an
+exile from her own dear home; whither could she turn?
+
+It was a cold morning, and the children ran down stairs half dressed and
+shivering. Dotty spread out her stiff, red fingers before the
+cooking-stove like the sticks of a fan. "O, hum!" thought she, drearily,
+"I wish I could see the red coals in our grate. My mamma wouldn't let me
+go to the table with such hair as this. Prudy'd say 'twas 'harum scarum.'
+But I can't brush it with a tooth-comb, 'thout any glass--so there!"
+
+Dotty's curly hair looked quite as respectable as Mandoline's. Mrs.
+Rosenberg was far too busy to attend to her children's heads. They might
+be rough on the outside, and full of mischief inside; but she could not
+stop to inquire.
+
+"What a dreadful nice breakfast!" remarked Judith, rubbing her hands,
+and accidentally hitting little Jacob, who forthwith spilled some
+molasses on the clean table-cloth, and had his ears boxed in consequence.
+It was very evident that this meal was a much better one than usual--a
+sort of festival in honor of Dotty Dimple: Dutch cheese and pickles,
+mince-pie and gingerbread, pepper-boxes and green and yellow dishes, were
+mixed up together as if they had been stirred about with a spoon.
+
+Dotty had not intended to eat a mouthful; but after her light supper
+of the night before, she was really hungry, and, in spite of her
+best resolves, the fish-hash and corncake gradually disappeared from
+her plate.
+
+After breakfast she felt more resigned, and armed herself to meet her
+fate. Mrs. Rosenberg graciously allowed Mandoline to lay aside her
+tedious knitting, and give her undivided attention to her guest. Dotty
+had no heart for play.
+
+"Seems as if I should choke in this house," said she; "let's go out
+and breathe."
+
+The air inside the house was rather stifling from a mixture of odors, and
+soon the grocery began to fill with loud-talking men and boys; but not
+the least of Dotty's troubles was the black and tan dog, who seemed to
+have just such a temper as Mrs. Rosenberg, and would certainly have
+scolded if he had had the gift of speech.
+
+The two little girls went out to walk; but it was not a pleasant street
+where the grocery stood, and Dotty hurried on to a better part of the
+town. They fluttered about for two or three hours, as aimless as a couple
+of white butterflies. Just as they were turning to go back to the dismal
+little grocery, which Dotty thought was more like a lock-up than ever,
+they met Mr. and Mrs. Parlin riding out in a carriage.
+
+[Illustration: DOTTY AND THE BLACK-AND-TAN DOG.]
+
+Dotty felt a sudden tumult of joy and shame, but the joy was uppermost.
+She rushed headlong across the street, swinging her arms and startling
+the horse, who supposed she was some new and improved kind of windmill,
+dressed up in a little girl's clothes.
+
+"O, my darling mamma, my darling mamma!"
+
+To her surprise, the horse did not stop. He only pricked up his ears, and
+looked with displeasure at the windmill, but kept along as before.
+
+"Mamma, mamma, I say!"
+
+Her mother never even looked at her, but turned her gaze to the blackened
+trees, the heaps of ruin along the pavement.
+
+"O; papa! O, stop, papa! It's me! It's Dotty!"
+
+Mr. Parlin bent on his runaway daughter a glance of indifference, and
+called out, in passing,--
+
+"What strange little girl is this, who seems to know us so well? It
+_looks_ like my daughter Alice. If it is, she needn't come to my house
+to-day; she may go and finish her visit at Mrs. Rosenberg's."
+
+Then the horse trotted on,--indeed, he had never paused a moment,--and
+carried both those dear, dear people out of sight.
+
+What did they mean? What had happened to Dotty Dimple, that her own
+father and mother did not know her?
+
+She looked down at the skirt of her dress, at her gaiters, at her little
+bare hands, to make sure no wicked fairy had changed her. Not that she
+suspected any such thing. She understood but too well what her father
+and mother meant. They knew her, but had not chosen to recognize her,
+because they were displeased.
+
+Dotty's little heart, the swelling of which had net gone down at all
+during the night, now ached terribly. She covered her face with her
+hands, and groaned aloud.
+
+"Don't," said Mandoline, touched with pity. "They no business to
+treat you so."
+
+"O, Lina, don't you talk! You don't know anything about it. You never had
+such a father'n mother's they are! And now they won't let me come into
+the house!"
+
+This wail of despair would have melted Mrs. Parlin if she could have
+heard it. It was only because she thought it necessary to be severe that
+she had consented to do as her husband advised, and turn coldly away
+from her dear little daughter. Dotty was a loving child, in spite of her
+disobedience, and this treatment was almost more than she could bear. She
+found no consolation in talking with Lina, for she knew Lina could not
+understand her feelings.
+
+"She hasn't any Susy and Prudy at her house, nor no _anything_" thought
+Dotty. "If I lived with Mrs. Rosenberg and that dog, I'd want to be
+locked out; I'd ask if I couldn't. But, O, my darling mamma! I've been
+naughty too many times! When I'd been naughty fifty, sixty, five hundred
+times, then she forgave me; but now she can't forgive me any more; it
+isn't possible."
+
+Dotty staggered against a girl who was drawing a baby-carriage, but
+recovered herself.
+
+"It isn't possible to forgive me any more. She told me not to go on the
+water, and I went. She told me not to have temper, and I had it. Every
+single thing she's told me not to do, I always went and did it. She said,
+'I do not wish you to play with Lina Rosenberg;' and then I went right
+off and played with her. I didn't have a bit good time; but that's
+nothing. She hided my hat--Lina did; but if I'd gone home, straight home,
+and not gone to her house, then she couldn't have hided it.
+
+"I was naughty; I was real naughty; I was as naughty as King Herod and
+King Pharaoh. Nobody'll ever love me. I'm a poor _orphanless_ child! I've
+got a father'n mother, but it's just the same as if I didn't, for they
+won't let me call 'em by it. O, they didn't die, but they won't be any
+father'n mother to ME!
+
+"'What strange little girl is this?' that's what my papa said. '_ Looks_
+like my daughter Alice!' O, I wish I could die!"
+
+"Come, come," said Lina; "let's go home. Mother said you and I might have
+some macaroni cakes and lager beer, if we wouldn't let the rest of 'em
+see us at it."
+
+"I don't care anything about your _locker_ beer, Lina Rosenberg, nor your
+whiskey and tobacco pipes, either. Nor neither, nor nothing," added the
+desolate child, standing "stock still," with the back of her head against
+a pile of bricks, her eyes closed, and her hands folded across her bosom.
+
+"There, there; you're a pretty sight now, Dotty Dimple! What if you
+should freeze so! Come along and behave."
+
+"I can't, I can't!"
+
+"If you don't, Dotty, I'll have to go into that barber's shop. I know the
+man, and I'll make him carry you home _piggerback_"
+
+"Well, if I've got to go, I'll go," said Dotty, rousing herself,
+and starting; "but I'd rather be dead, over'n over; and wish I was;
+so there!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+PLAYING THIEF.
+
+
+This day was the longest one to be found in the almanac; it was longer
+than all the line of railroad from Maine to Indiana and back again.
+
+Dotty shut her lips together, and suffered in silence. But when the
+afternoon was half spent, it suddenly occurred to her that if she did not
+go home she should die. Soldiers had died of homesickness, for she had
+heard her father say so. She had not been able to swallow a mouthful of
+dinner, and that fact was of itself rather alarming.
+
+"Perhaps I'm going to have the _typo_. Any way, my head aches. Besides,
+my papa didn't say I _mustn't_ go home. He said I must finish my visit,
+and I _have_. O, I've finished _that_ all up, ever and ever and ever so
+long ago."
+
+She and Mandoline went out again to "breathe," Mrs. Rosenberg giving her
+daughter a warning glance from the doorway, which meant, "Be watchful,
+Mandy!" for the look of fixed despair on the little prisoner's face gave
+the woman some anxiety lest she should try to escape.
+
+The unhappy child walked on in silence, twisting a lock of her front
+hair, and looking up at the sky. A few soft snow-flakes were dropping out
+of the clouds. Every flake seemed to fall on her heart. Winter was
+coming. It was a gray, miserable world, and she was left out in the cold.
+She remembered she had been happy once, but that was ages ago. It wasn't
+likely she should ever smile again; and as for laughter, she knew that
+was over with her forever. Susy and Prudy were at home, making book-marks
+and cologne mats; _they_ could smile, for they hadn't run away.
+
+"I shouldn't think my mamma'd care if I went in at the back door,"
+thought Dotty, meekly. "If she locks me out, I can lie down on the steps
+and freeze."
+
+But the question was, how to get away from Mandoline, who had her in
+charge like a sharp-eyed sheriff.
+
+"That's the street I turn to go to my house--isn't it, Lina?" asked
+she, quickly.
+
+"I shan't tell you, Dotty Dimple. Why do you ask?"
+
+"'Cause I'm going home. I'm sick. Good by."
+
+"But you musn't go a step, Dotty Dimple."
+
+"Yes, I shall; you're not my mamma, Lina Rosenberg; you mustn't tell me
+what to do."
+
+"Well, I'm going everywhere you go, Dotty, but I shan't say whether it's
+the way to your house, or the way to Boston; and _you_ don't know."
+
+Dotty was not to be so easily baffled.
+
+"I don't know myself, Lina Rosenberg, but if you're so mean as not to
+tell, I can ask somebody else that _will_ tell--don't you see?"
+
+This was a difficulty which Lina had not provided for. She was very sorry
+Dotty had come out "to breathe."
+
+Very soon they overtook a lady, who pointed out the right street to
+Dotty; and it was in an opposite direction from the one she was taking.
+
+"Now I've found out, Miss Rosenberg, and you can't help yourself."
+
+"Well, I shall go with you, Dotty, just the same. I shall go right up to
+your house, and tell your mother you've run away _again_"
+
+It was very disagreeable to Miss Dimple to be pursued in this way; but
+she put on an air of defiance.
+
+"I shouldn't think you'd want to go where you wasn't wanted, Miss
+Rosenberg."
+
+Lina had never intended to do such a thing; she had not courage enough.
+
+"O, dear! what shall I do to make you go back with me? My mother'll scold
+me awfully for letting you get away."
+
+"Well, there; you've got the dreadfulest mother, Lina, and I'm real
+sorry; but it's no use to tease me; I wouldn't go back, not if you should
+cut me up into little pieces as big as a cent."
+
+Lina was ready to fall upon her knees, right on the pavement. She
+offered Dotty paper dolls enough to people a colony; but Miss Dimple was
+as firm as a rock, now her face was once set towards home. Lina turned on
+her heel, and slowly walked away. Dotty called after her:--
+
+"There, Lina, now you've told an awful story! You said you'd go to my
+house, and tell my mother I'd run away again; and now you don't dare go;
+so you've told an awful wicked story."
+
+With this parting thrust at her tormentor, Dotty turned again to the
+misery of her own thoughts. Her home was already in sight; but the
+uncertainty as to her reception there made her little feet falter in
+their course. Her head sank lower and lower, till her chin snuggled into
+the hollow of her neck, and her eyes peered out keenly from under her
+hat, to make sure no one was watching. There was a door-yard on one
+side of the house. She touched the gate-latch as gently as if it had
+been a loaded gun, and crept noiselessly along to the side door. Here
+she paused. Her heart throbbed loudly; but, in spite of that, she could
+hear Norah walking about, and rattling the covers of the stove, as she
+put in coal.
+
+Dotty's courage failed. What if Norah should make believe she didn't know
+her, and shut the door in her face?
+
+"I can't see Norah, and hear her say, 'What strange little girl is this?
+It _looks_ like our Alice; but it can't be any such a child!' No, I can't
+see anybody. I've finished my visit; I have a right to come home; but
+p'rhaps they won't think so. I feel's if I wasn't half so good as
+tea-grounds, or coffee-grounds, or potato-skins," continued she, with a
+pang of despair. "I know what I'll do; I'll go down cellar; that's where
+the rats stay; and if I _am_ bad, I hope I'm as good as a rat, for I
+don't bite."
+
+One of the cellar windows had been left out in order to admit coal.
+Through this window crept Dotty, regardless of her white stockings and
+crimson dress. When she had fairly got her head through the opening, and
+was no longer afraid of being seen, she breathed more freely.
+
+"Here I am! Not a bit of me out. But I must go on my tipsy-toes, or
+they'll hear me, and think it's a _buggler_"
+
+There was quite a steep hill to walk over, and she found it anything
+but a path of roses. Once or twice she stumbled and fell upon her hands
+and knees.
+
+"Seems to me," said she, drawing out her foot, which had sunk above the
+ankle in coal,--"seems to me I have as many feet as a caterpillar."
+
+But she kept on, down the Hill of Difficulty, till she reached solid
+ground. It was not a very cheerful apartment, that is certain. The light
+had much difficulty in getting in at the little windows, and when it did
+fight its way through it was not good for much; it was a gloomy light,
+and looked as if it had had a hard time.
+
+Dotty went up to the furnace for comfort. It was a tall, black thing,
+doing its best to give warmth and cheer to the rooms up stairs, but it
+was of no use to the cellar. It was like some brilliant people, who shine
+in society, but are dull and stupid at home. Dotty opened the furnace
+door, and tried to warm her cold fingers.
+
+"Why, my hands are as black as a _sip_," sighed she; as if she could have
+expected anything else.
+
+There did not seem to be one ray of hope in her little dark soul. She
+had no tears to shed,--she seldom had,--but when she was in trouble, she
+was always in the lowest depths.
+
+"Pretty well for me to make believe I was a thief, and was going to
+steal! 'Who is this strange little girl?' said he; 'it _looks_ like--'"
+
+She heard voices near the cellar door. What if Norah should come down
+after butter? Dotty was not prepared for that. She could not hide in the
+keg of lard, of course; and what _should_ she do?
+
+"My head is tipside up; I can't think." Then she began to wonder how long
+she could live down there, in case she was not discovered.
+
+"I s'pose I can climb up on the swing shelf, and sleep there nights. I
+can hide behind things in the daytime, and when I'm hungry I can eat out
+of the jars and boxes."
+
+The sound of voices came down distinctly from the kitchen overhead. Dotty
+crouched behind an apple barrel, and listened. Grandma Read was talking
+to Mrs. Parlin, who seemed to be in another room.
+
+"Mary, my glasses _are_ gone this time," said she. "If little Alice were
+only here, I should set her to hunting."
+
+"She don't know I'm in the house this minute," thought Dotty; "no,
+_under_ the house. Dear me!"
+
+With that she walked softly up the stairs, and listened at the
+door-latch; for the sound of her grandmother's voice was encouraging, and
+Dotty, in her loneliness, longed to be near the dear people of the
+family, even if she could not see them.
+
+"Edward," said her mother,--what music there was in her voice!--"if you
+are going after that dear child, you'd better take a shawl to wrap her
+in, for it is snowing fast. And be sure to tell her we love her dearly,
+every one of us, and don't believe she will ever run away again."
+
+"O, was her papa going after her? Did they love her, after all? Were they
+willing to keep her in the house?"
+
+Dotty opened the door before she knew it. "O, mamma, mamma!" cried she,
+rushing into her mother's arms.
+
+"Why, Dotty, you darling child, where did you come from?" exclaimed Mrs.
+Parlin, in great surprise, kissing the little, dirty girl, and taking her
+right to her heart, in spite of the coal-dust.
+
+"If you'll let me stay at home," gasped Dotty, "if you'll _let_ me stay
+at home, I'll live in the kitchen, and won't go near the table."
+
+"Where _did you_ come from?" said Mr. Parlin, kissing a clean place on
+Dotty's black face, and laughing under his breath.
+
+"I came through the cellar window, papa."
+
+"Through the cellar window, child?"
+
+"Yes, papa; I didn't s'pose you'd care!"
+
+"Care! My dear, your mother is the one to care! Just look at your
+stockings!"
+
+"There was coal there, thrown in," said Dotty, with a quivering lip;
+"and I had to walk over it, and under it, and through it."
+
+"Was my little daughter afraid to come in by the door?"
+
+"I didn't know's you wanted me, papa.
+
+"I thought you'd say, 'What strange child is this?'"
+
+Mr. Parlin, looking at the black streaks on Dotty's woeful face, found it
+very difficult to keep from laughing. "A strange child' she appeared to
+be, certainly.
+
+"But I'd got my visit all finished up, ever and ever so long ago."
+
+"So you really chose to come back to us, my dear?"
+
+"O, papa, you don't know! Did you think, did you s'pose--"
+
+Here Dotty broke down completely, and, seizing her father's shirt-bosom
+in both her grimy hands, she buried her face in it, and sprinkled it with
+tears of ink.
+
+There was great surprise throughout the house when Dotty's arrival
+became known.
+
+"We didn't know how to live without you any longer," said Prudy; "and
+tomorrow Thanksgiving Day."
+
+"But I never should have come up," said Dotty, "if I hadn't heard mamma
+talk about loving me just the same; I never _could_ have come up."
+
+"Excuse me for smiling," said Prudy; "but you look as if you had fallen
+into the inkstand. It is _so_ funny!"
+
+Dotty was not at all amused herself; but after she was dressed in clean
+clothes, she felt very happy, and enjoyed her supper remarkably well. The
+thought that they "didn't know how to live without her" gave a relish to
+every mouthful.
+
+It was a delightful evening to the little wanderer. The parlor looked so
+cheerful in the rosy firelight that Dotty thought she "would like to kiss
+every single thing in the room." It was unpleasant out of doors, and the
+wind blew as if all the people in the world were deaf, and must be made
+to hear; but Dotty did not mind that. She looked out of the window, and
+said to Prudy,--
+
+"Seems as if the wind had blown out all the stars; but no matter--is it?
+It is all nice in the house."
+
+Then she dropped the curtain, and went to sit in her mother's lap. Not a
+word of reproach had been uttered by any one yet; for it was thought the
+child had suffered enough.
+
+"Mamma," said Dotty, laying her tired head on her mother's bosom, "don't
+you think I'm like the prodigal's--daughter? Yesterday I felt a whisper
+'way down in my mind,--I didn't hear it, but I _felt_ it,--and it said,
+'You mustn't disobey your mamma; you mustn't play with Lina Rosenberg!'"
+
+"Only think, my child, if you had only paid attention to that whisper!"
+
+"Yes, mamma, but I tried to forget it, and by and by I did forget
+it--almost. There's one thing I know," added Dotty, clasping her hands
+together; "I'll never run away again. If I'm going to, I'll catch myself
+by the shoulder, and hold on just as hard!"
+
+"My blessed child, I hope so," said Mrs. Parfin, with tears in her eyes
+and a stronger faith in her heart than she had felt for many a day that
+Dotty really meant to do better. "You don't know how it did distress your
+papa and me to have you stay in that house a night and a day; but we
+hoped it would prove a lesson to you; we meant it for your best good."
+
+To make sure the lesson would not be forgotten, Prudy read her little
+sister a private lecture. She had written it that afternoon with carmine
+ink, on the nicest of tinted paper. Dotty received it very humbly, and
+laid it away in the rosewood box with her precious things.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PRUDY'S LECTURE.
+
+"We must keep good company, Dotty, or not any at all. This is a fact.
+
+"Even an apple is known by the company it keeps. Grandpa Parlin says if
+you put apples in a potato bin, they won't taste like apples--they'll
+taste like potatoes.
+
+"Sometimes I think, Dotty, you'd be as good and nice as a
+summer-sweeting, if you wouldn't play with naughty children, like Lina
+Rosenberg; but if you do, you'll be like a potato, as true as you live.
+
+"Finis."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THANKSGIVING DAY.
+
+
+The next day was Thanksgiving. Dotty wakened in such a happy mood that it
+seemed to her the world had never looked so bright before.
+
+"I don't think, Prudy, it's the turkey and plum pudding we're going to
+have that makes me so happy--do you?"
+
+"What is it, then, little sister?"
+
+"O, it's 'cause I dreamed I was sleeping on pin-feathers, and woke up and
+found I wasn't. You'd feel a great deal better, Prudy, if you'd run away
+and had such a dreadful time, and got home again."
+
+"I don't want to try it," returned Prudy, with a smile.
+
+"No; but it's so nice to be forgiven!" said Dotty, laying her hand on her
+heart, "it makes you feel so easy right in here."
+
+A fear came over Prudy that the little runaway had not been punished
+enough. But Dotty went on:--
+
+"It makes you feel as if you'd never be naughty again. Now, if my mamma
+was always thumping me with a thimble, and scolding me so as to shake the
+house, I shouldn't care; but when she is just like an angel, and forgives
+me, I _do_ care."
+
+"I'm so glad, Dotty! I think, honestly, mother's the best woman that
+ever lived."
+
+"Then why didn't she marry the best man?" asked Dotty, quickly.
+
+"Who is that?"
+
+"Why, Abraham Lincoln, of course." Prudy laughed.
+
+"Yes; I suppose Mr. Lincoln was the best man that ever lived; but papa
+comes next."
+
+"Yes," said Dotty; "I think he does. And I'd rather have him for a father
+than Mr. Lincoln, 'cause I'm better 'quainted with him. I shouldn't dare
+kiss the President. And, besides that, he's dead."
+
+"You're a funny girl, Dotty; but what you say is true. Everything happens
+just right in this world."
+
+"Does it?" said Dotty, wrinkling her brows anxiously; "does it,
+now truly?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, Dotty. Anybody wouldn't think so, but it does."
+
+"Then I suppose it happens right for me to be a bad girl and run away."
+
+"No, indeed, Dotty; because you can help it. Everything is right that we
+_can't_ help; that's what I mean."
+
+"Then I s'pose 'twas right for me to crawl through the cellar window,"
+said Dotty; "for I'm sure I couldn't help it"
+
+"O, dear me! you ask such queer questions that I can't answer them, Dotty
+Dimple. All I know is this: everything happens just right in this
+world--_when you can't help it_."
+
+With which sage remark Prudy stepped out of bed, and began to dress
+herself. Dotty planted her elbow in the pillow, and leaned her head
+on her hand.
+
+"I don't believe it happens just right for Mrs. Rosenberg to keep that
+dog, or to thump so with a thimble; but, then, I don't know."
+
+"I'm hurrying to get dressed," said Prudy. "The first bell has rung."
+
+"Why, I never heard it," cried Dotty, springing up. "I wouldn't be late
+to-day for anything."
+
+Prudy looked anxiously at her little sister to see if she was cross; but
+her face was as serene as the cloudless sky; she had waked up right, and
+meant to be good all day. When Dotty had one of her especially good days,
+Prudy's cup of happiness was full. She ran down stairs singing,--
+
+"Thank God for pleasant weather!
+  Shout it merrily, ye hills,
+And clap your hands together,
+  Ye exulting little rills.
+
+"Thank him, bird and birdling,
+  As ye grow and sing;
+Mingle in thanksgiving,
+  Every living thing,
+  Every living thing,
+  Every living thing."
+
+Dotty was so anxious to redeem her character in everybody's eyes, that
+she hardly knew what she was doing. Mrs. Parlin sent her into the kitchen
+with a message to Norah concerning the turkey; but she forgot it on the
+way, and stood by Norah's elbow gazing at the raisins, fruit, and other
+nice things in a maze.
+
+"What did my mamma send me here for? She ought to said it over twice.
+Any way, Norah, now I think of it, I wish you please wouldn't starch my
+aprons on the inside; starch 'em on the outside, 'cause they rub
+against my neck."
+
+"Go back and see what your mamma wants," said Norah, laughing.
+
+"Why, mamma," cried Dotty reappearing in the parlor quite crestfallen--"
+why, mamma, I went right up to Norah to ask her, and asked her something
+else. My head spins dreadfully."
+
+Mrs. Parlin repeated the message; and Dotty delivered it this time
+correctly, adding,--
+
+"Now, Norah, I'm all dressed for dinner; so I can do something for you
+just as well as not. Such days as, this, when you have so much to do, you
+ought to let me help."
+
+To Dotty's surprise Norah found this suggestion rather amusing.
+
+"For mercy's sake," said she, "I have got my hands full now; and when you
+are round, Miss Dotty, and have one of your good fits, it seems as if I
+should fly."
+
+"What do you mean by a good fit?"
+
+"Why, you have spells, child--you know you do--when butter wouldn't melt
+in your mouth."
+
+"Do I?" said Dotty. "I thought butter always melted in anybody's mouth.
+Does it make my mouth cold to be good, d'ye s'pose?"
+
+"La, me, I don't know," replied the girl, washing a potato vigorously.
+
+"_I_ might wash those potatoes," said Dotty, plucking Norah's sleeve;
+"do you put soap on them?"
+
+"Not much soap--no."
+
+"Well, then, Norah, you shouldn't put _any_ soap on them; that's why I
+asked; for my mother just washes and rinses 'em; that's the proper way."
+
+"For pity's sake," said Norah, giving the little busybody a good-natured
+push. "What's going on in the parlor, Miss Dotty? You'd better run and
+see. If you should go in there and look out of the window, perhaps a
+monkey would come along with an organ."
+
+"No, he wouldn't, Norah, and if he did, Prudy'd let me know."
+
+As Dotty spoke she was employed in slicing an onion, while the tears ran
+down her cheeks; but a scream from Norah caused her to drop the knife.
+
+"Why, what is it?" said Dotty.
+
+"Ugh! It's some horrid little _animil_ crawling down my neck."
+
+"Let me get him," cried Dotty, seizing a pin, and rushing at poor
+Norah, who tried in vain to ward off the pin and at the same time catch
+the spider.
+
+"_Will_ you let me alone, child?"
+
+"No, no; I want the bug myself," cried Dotty, pricking Norah on
+the cheek.
+
+"Want the bug?"
+
+"Yes; mayn't I stick him through with a pin from ear to ear? I know a
+lady Out West that's making a c'lection of bugs."
+
+"Well, here he is, then; and a pretty scrape I've had catching him;
+thanks be to you all the same, Miss Dimple."
+
+As it turned out to be only a hair-pin, Dotty shook her head in disdain,
+and went on slicing onions.
+
+"Sure now," said Norah, "I should think you'd be wanting to go and see
+what's become of your sister Prudy. Maybe she's off on the street
+somewhere, and never asked you to go with her."
+
+"Now you're telling a hint," exclaimed Dotty, making a dash at a turnip.
+"I know what you mean by your monkeys and things; you want to get me
+away. It's not polite to tell hints, Norah; my mamma says so."
+
+But as Dotty began to see that she really was not wanted, she concluded
+to go, though she must have it seem that she went of her own accord, and
+not because of Norah's "hints."
+
+"Did you think it was a buggler, when I opened the cellar-door last
+night, Norah?"
+
+"No; I can't say as I did--not when I looked at you," replied
+Norah, gravely.
+
+"'Cause I'm going into the parlor to ask mother if _she_ thought I was a
+buggler. I believe I won't help you any more now, Norah; p'rhaps I'll
+come out by and by."
+
+So Dotty skipped away; but it never occurred to her that she had been
+troublesome. She merely thought it very strange Norah did not appreciate
+her services.
+
+"I s'pose she knows mother'll help her if I don't," said she to herself.
+
+Dotty's goodness ran on with a ceaseless flow till two o'clock, when that
+event took place which the children regarded as the most important one of
+the day--that is, dinner.
+
+After the silent blessing, Mr. Parlin turned to his youngest daughter,
+and said,--
+
+"Alice, do you know what Thanksgiving Day is for?"
+
+"Yes, sir; for turkey."
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"No, sir; for plum pudding."
+
+"What do you think about it, Prudy?"
+
+"I think the same as Dotty does, sir," replied Prudy, with a wistful
+glance at her father's right hand, which held the carving knife.
+
+"What do you say, Susy?"
+
+"It comes in the almanac, just like Christmas, sir; and it's something
+about the Pilgrim Fathers and the Mayflower."
+
+"No, Susy; it does not come in the almanac; the Governor appoints it. We
+have so many blessings that he sets apart one day in the year in which we
+are to think them over, and be thankful for them."
+
+"Yes, sir; yes, indeed," said Susy. "I _always_ knew that."
+
+"Now, before I carve the turkey, what if I ask the question all around
+what we feel most thankful for to-day? We will begin with grandmamma."
+
+"If thee asks me first," said grandma Read, clasping her blue-veined,
+beautiful old hands, "I shall say I have everything to be thankful for;
+but I am most thankful for peace. Thee knows how I feel about war."
+
+The children thought this a strange answer. They had almost forgotten
+there had ever been a war.
+
+"Now, Mary, what have you to say?" asked Mr. Parlin of his wife.
+
+"I am thankful we are all alive," replied Mrs. Parlin, looking at the
+faces around the table with a loving smile.
+
+"And I," said her husband, "am thankful we all have our eyesight. I have
+thought more about it since I have visited two or three Blind Asylums.
+Susy, it is your turn."
+
+"Papa, I'm thankful I'm so near thirteen."
+
+Mr. Parlin stroked his mustache to hide a smile. He thought that was a
+very _young_ remark.
+
+"And you, Prudy?"
+
+"I'm so thankful, sir," answered Prudy, reflecting a while, "so thankful
+_this_ house isn't burnt up."
+
+"Bless your little grateful heart," said her father, leaning towards her
+and stroking her cheek. "For my part, I think one fire is quite enough
+for one family. I confess I never should have dreamed of being thankful
+we hadn't had _two_. Well, Alice, what have you to say? I see a thought
+in your eyes."
+
+"Why, papa," said Dotty, laying her forefingers together with emphasis,
+"I've known what I'm thankful for, for two days. I'm thankful Mrs.
+Rosenberg isn't my mother!"
+
+A smile went around the table.
+
+"But, papa, I am, truly. What should I want _her_ for a mother for?"
+
+"Indeed, I see no reason, my child, since you already have a pretty good
+mother of your own."
+
+"Pretty good, papa!" said Dotty, in a tone of mild reproof. "Why, if she
+was YOUR mother, you'd think she was _very_ good."
+
+"Granted," returned Mr. Parlin.
+
+"I don't think you'd like it, papa, to have her scold so she shakes
+down cobwebs."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Mrs. Rosenberg."
+
+"Never mind, my dear; we will not discuss that woman to-day. I hope you
+will some time learn to pronounce her name."
+
+Then followed a few remarks from Mr. Parlin upon our duty to the Giver
+of all good things; after which he began at last to carve the turkey.
+The children thought it was certainly time he did so. They were afraid
+their thankfulness would die out if they did not have something to eat
+pretty soon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+GRANDMA'S OLD TIMES.
+
+
+Grandma Read was in her own room, sitting before a bright "clean" fire.
+She did not like coal; she said it made too much dust; so she always used
+wood. She sat with her knitting in her hands, clicking the needles
+merrily while she looked into the coals.
+
+People can see a great many things in coals. Just now she saw the face of
+her dear husband, who had long ago been buried out of her sight. He had a
+broad-brimmed hat on his head, and there was a twinkle in his eye, for he
+had been a funny man, and very fond of a joke. Grandma smiled as if she
+could almost hear him tell one of his droll stories.
+
+Presently there was a little tap at the door. Grandma roused herself, and
+looked up to see who was coming.
+
+"Walk in," said she; "walk in, my dear."
+
+"Yes'm, we came a-purpose to walk in," replied a cheery voice; and
+Prudy and Dotty danced into the room, with their arms about each
+other's waists.
+
+"O, how pleasant it seems in here!" said Prudy; "when I come in I always
+feel just like singing."
+
+"Thee likes my clean fire," said grandma.
+
+"But, grandma," said Dotty, "I should think you'd be lonesome 'thout
+anybody but _you_."
+
+"No, my dear; the room is always full."
+
+"Full, grandma?"
+
+"Yes; full of _memories_."
+
+The children looked about; but they only two sunny windows; a table with
+books on it, and a pair of gold fishes; a bed with snowy coverlet and
+very high pillows; a green and white carpet; a mahogany bureau and
+washing-stand; and then the bright fireplace, with a marble mantel, and a
+pair of gilt bellows hanging on a brass nail.
+
+It was a very neat and cheerful room; but they could not understand why
+there should be any more memories in it than there were in any other part
+of the house.
+
+"We old people live very much in the past," said grandma Read. "Prudence,
+if thee'll pick up this stitch for me, I will tell thee what I was
+thinking of when thee and Alice came in."
+
+So saying, she held out the little red mitten she was knitting, and at
+the same time took the spectacles off her nose and offered them to
+Prudy. Prudy laughed.
+
+"Why, grandma! my eyes are as good as can be. I don't wear glasses."
+
+"So thee doesn't, child, surely. I am a little absent-minded, thinking of
+old mother Knowles."
+
+"Grandma, please wait a minute," said Prudy, after she had picked up the
+stitch. "If you are going to tell a story, I want to get my work and
+bring it in here. I'm in a hurry about that scarf for mamma."
+
+"It is nothing very remarkable," said Mrs. Read, as the children seated
+themselves, one on each side of her, Prudy with her crocheting of
+violet and white worsted, and Dotty with nothing at all to do but play
+with the tongs.
+
+"Mrs. Knowles was a very large, fleshy woman, who lived near my father's
+house when I was a little girl. Some people were very much afraid of
+her, and thought her a witch. Her sister's husband, Mr. Palmer, got very
+angry with her, and declared she bewitched his cattle."
+
+"Did she, grandma?" asked Dotty.
+
+"No, indeed, my dear; and couldn't have done it if she had tried."
+
+"Then 'twas very _unpertinent_ for him to say so!"
+
+"He was a lazy man, and did not take proper care of his animals.
+Sometimes he came over and talked with my mother about his trials with
+his wicked sister-in-law. He said he often went to the barn in the
+morning, and found his poor cattle had walked up to the top of the
+scaffold; and how could they do that unless they were bewitched?"
+
+"Did they truly do it? I know what the scaffold is; it is a high place
+where you look for hen's eggs."
+
+"Yes; I believe the cows did really walk up there; but this was the way
+it happened, Alice: They were not properly fastened into their stalls,
+and being very hungry, they went into the barn for something to eat. The
+barn floor was covered with hay, and there was a hill of hay which led
+right up to the scaffold; so they could get there well enough without
+being bewitched."
+
+"Did your mother--my great-grandma--believe in witches?" asked Prudy.
+"What did she say to Mr. Palmer?"
+
+"O, no! she had no faith in witches; thy great grandmother was a sensible
+woman." She said to him, "Friend Asa, thee'd better have some good strong
+bows made for thy cattle, and put on their necks; and then I think
+thee'll find they can't get out of their stalls. Thee says they are as
+lean as Pharaoh's kine, and I would advise thee to feed them better.
+Cattle that are well fed and well cared for will never go bewitched."
+
+"Did Mrs. Knowles know what people said about her?" asked Prudy.
+
+"Yes; she heard the stories, and it made her feel very badly."
+
+"How did she look?"
+
+"A little like thy grandmother Parlin, if I remember, only she was
+much larger."
+
+"Did she know anything?"
+
+"O, yes; it was rather an ignorant neighborhood; but she was one of the
+most intelligent women in it."
+
+"Did she ever go anywhere?"
+
+"Yes; she came to my mother for sympathy. I remember just how she looked
+in her tow and linen dress, with her hair fastened at the back of the
+head with a goose-quill."
+
+"There, there!" cried Dotty, "that was what made 'em call her a witch!"
+
+"O, no; a goose-quill was quite a common fashion in those times, and a
+great deal prettier, too, than the waterfalls thee sees nowadays. Mrs.
+Knowles dressed like other people, and looked like other people, for
+aught I know; but I wished she would not come to our house so much."
+
+"Didn't you like her?"
+
+"Yes; I liked her very well, for she carried peppermints in a black bag
+on her arm; but I was afraid the stories were true, and she might bewitch
+my mother."
+
+"Why, grandma, I shouldn't have thought that of _you_!"
+
+"I was a very small girl then, Prudence; and the children I played with
+belonged, for the most part, to ignorant families."
+
+"Grandma was like an apple playing with potatoes," remarked Dotty, one
+side to Prudy.
+
+"I used to watch Mrs. Knowles," continued Mrs. Read, "hoping to see her
+cry; for they said if she was really a witch, she could shed but three
+tears, and those out of her left eye."
+
+"Did you ever catch her crying?"
+
+"Once," replied grandma, with a smile; "and then she kept her
+handkerchief at her face. I was quite disappointed, for I couldn't tell
+which eye she cried out of."
+
+"Please tell some more," said Dotty.
+
+"They said Mrs. Knowles was often seen in a high wind riding off on a
+broomstick. It ought to have been a strong broomstick, for she was a very
+large woman."
+
+"Why, grandma," said Prudy, thrusting her hook into a stitch, "I can't
+help thinking what queer days you lived in! Now, when I talk to _my_
+grandchildren, I shall tell them of such beautiful things; of swings and
+picnics, and Christmas trees."
+
+"So shall I to _my_ grandchildren," said Dotty; "but not always. I shall
+have to look sober sometimes, and tell 'em how I had the sore throat, and
+couldn't swallow anything but boiled custards and cream toast. 'For,'
+says I, 'children, it was _very_ different in those days.'"
+
+"Ah, well, you little folks look forward, and we old folks look
+backward; but it all seems like a dream, either way, to me," said
+grandma Read, binding off the thumb of her little red mitten--"like a
+dream when it is told."
+
+"Speaking of telling dreams, grandma, I had a funny one last night," said
+Prudy, "about a queer old gentleman. Guess who it was."
+
+"Thy grandfather, perhaps. Does thee remember, Alice, how thee used to
+sit on his knee and comb his hair with a toothpick?"
+
+"I don't think 'twas me," said Dotty; "for I wasn't born then."
+
+"It was I," replied Prudy. "I remember grandpa now, but I didn't use to.
+It wasn't grandpa I dreamed about--it was Santa Claus."
+
+Grandma smiled, and raised her spectacles to the top of her forehead.
+
+"We never talked about fairies in my day," said she. "I never heard of a
+Santa Claus when I was young."
+
+"Well, grandma, he came down the chimney in a coach that looked like a
+Quaker bonnet on wheels--but he was all a-dazzle with gold buttons; and
+what do you think he said?"
+
+"Something very foolish, I presume."
+
+"He said, 'Miss Prudy, I'm going to be married.' Only think! and he such
+a very old bachelor."
+
+"Did thee dream out the bride?"
+
+"It was Mother Goose."
+
+"Very well," said Mrs. Read, smiling. "I should think that was a very
+good match."
+
+"She did look so funny, grandma, with a great hump on her nose, and one
+on her back! Santa Claus kissed her; and what do you think she said?"
+
+"I am sure I can't tell; I am not acquainted with thy fairy folks."
+
+"Why, she shook her sides, and, said she, 'Sing a song o' sixpence.'"
+
+"That was as sensible a speech as thee could expect from that quarter."
+
+"O, grandma, you don't care anything about my dream, or I could go on and
+describe the wedding-cake; how she put sage in it, and pepper, and
+mustard, and baked it on top of one of our registers. What do you suppose
+made me dream such a queer thing?"
+
+"Thee was probably thinking of thy mother's wedding."
+
+"O, Christmas is going to be splendided than ever, this year," said
+Dotty; "isn't it grandma? Did you have any Christmases when you
+were young?"
+
+"O, yes; but we didn't make much account of Christmas in those days."
+
+"Why, grandma! I knew you lived on bean porridge, but I s'posed you had
+something to eat Christmas!"
+
+"O, sometimes I had a little saucer-pie, sweetened with molasses, and the
+crust made of raised dough."
+
+"Poor, dear grandma!"
+
+"I remember my father used to put a great backlog on the fire Christmas
+morning, as large as the fireplace would hold; and that was all the
+celebration we ever had."
+
+"Didn't you have Christmas presents?"
+
+"No, Alice; not so much as a brass thimble."
+
+"Poor grandma! I shouldn't think you would have wanted to live! Didn't
+anybody love you?" said Dotty, putting her fingers under Mrs. Read's cap,
+and smoothing her soft gray hair; "why, I love every hair of your head."
+
+"I am glad thee does, child; but that doesn't take much love, for thee
+knows I haven't a great deal of hair."
+
+"But, grandma, how could you live without Christmas trees and things?"
+
+"I was happy enough, Alice."
+
+"But you'd have been a great deal happier, grandma, if you'd had a Santa
+Claus! It's so nice to believe what isn't true!"
+
+"Ah! does thee think so? There was one thing I believed when I was a very
+little girl, and it was not true. I believed the cattle knelt at
+midnight on Christmas eve."
+
+"Knelt, grandma? For what?"
+
+"Because our blessed Lord was born in a manger."
+
+"But they didn't know that. Cows can't read the Bible."
+
+"It was an idle story, of course, like the one about Mother Knowles. A
+man who worked at our house, Israel Grossman, told it to me, and I
+thought it was true."
+
+Here grandma gazed into the coals again. She could see Israel Grossman
+sitting on a stump, whittling a stick and puffing away at a short pipe.
+
+"Well, children," said she, "I have talked to you long enough about
+things that are past and gone. On the whole, I don't say they were good
+old times, for the times now are a great deal better."
+
+"Yes, indeed," said Prudy.
+
+"Except one thing," added grandma, looking at Dotty, who was snapping the
+tongs together. "Children had more to do in my day than they have now."
+
+Dotty blushed.
+
+"Grandma," said she, "I'm having a playtime, you know, 'cause there can't
+anybody stop to fix my work. But mother says after the holidays I'm going
+to have a stint every day."
+
+"That's right, dear. Now thee may run down and get me a skein of red yarn
+thee will find on the top shelf in the nursery closet."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE CRYSTAL WEDDING.
+
+
+As the crystal wedding was to take place on the twenty-fourth, the
+Christmas tree was deferred till the night after, and was not looked
+forward too by the children as anything very important. They had had a
+tree, a Kris Kringle, or something of the sort, every year since they
+could remember; but a wedding was a rare event, and to be a bridesmaid
+was as great an honor, Dotty thought, as could be conferred on any
+little girl.
+
+It was intended that everything should be as much as possible like the
+original wedding. Mrs. Parlin was to wear the same dove-colored silk and
+bridal veil she had worn then, and Mr. Parlin the same coat and white
+vest, though they were decidedly out of fashion by this time. Dotty was
+resplendent in a white dress with a long sash, a gold necklace of her
+aunt Eastman's, and a pair of white kid slippers. Johnny was to be
+groomsman. He was a boy who was always startling his friends with some
+new idea, and this time he had "borrowed" a silver bouquet-holder out of
+his mother's drawer, and filled it with the loveliest greenhouse flowers.
+
+Until Dotty saw this, she had been happy; but the thought of standing up
+with a boy who held such a beautiful toy, while her own little hands
+would be empty--this was too much.
+
+"Johnny Eastman," said she, with a trembling voice, "how do you think it
+will look to be holding flowers up to your nose when the minister's
+a-praying? I'd be so 'shamed, so 'shamed, Johnny Eastman!"
+
+"You want the bouquet-holder yourself, you know you do," said Johnny;
+"you want everything you see; and if folks don't give right up to you,
+then there's a fuss."
+
+"O, Johnny Eastman, I'm a girl, and that's the only reason why I want the
+bouquet-holder! If I was a boy, do you s'pose I'd touch such a thing? But
+I can't wear flowers in the button-holes of my coat--now can I?"
+
+The children were in the guest chamber, preparing to go down--all but
+Prudy, who was in her mother's room, assisting at the bridal toilet. Susy
+and Flossy stood before the mirror, and Johnny and Dotty in the middle of
+the room, confronting each other with angry brows.
+
+[Illustration: DOTTY WANTS THE BOUQUET-HOLDER.]
+
+"Hush, children!" said Susy, in an absentminded way, and went on
+brushing her hair, which was one of the greatest trials in the whole
+world, because it would not curl. She had frizzed it with curling-tongs,
+rolled it on papers, and drenched it with soap suds till there was
+danger of its fading entirely away; still it was as straight, after all,
+as an Indian's.
+
+"O, dear!" said she; "it sticks up all over my head like a skein of yarn.
+Children, do hush!"
+
+"Mine curls too tight, if anything; don't you think so?" asked Flossy,
+trying not to look as well satisfied with herself as she really felt;
+adding, by way of parenthesis, "Johnny, why can't you be quiet?"
+
+"Are you going to let me have that bouquet-holder, Johnny Eastman?"
+continued Dotty; "'cause I'm going right out to tell my mother. She'll
+be so mortified she'll send you right home, if you hold it up to your
+nose, when you are nothing but a boy."
+
+"That's right, Dimple, run and tell."
+
+"No, I shan't tell if you'll give it to me. And you may have one of the
+roses in your button-hole, Johnny. That's the way the Pickings man had,
+that wrote Little Nell; father said so. There's a good boy, now!"
+
+Dotty dropped her voice to a milder key, and smiled as sweetly as the
+bitterness of her feelings would permit. She had set her heart on the
+toy, and her white slippers, and even her gold necklace, dwindled into
+nothing in comparison.
+
+"Whose mother owns this bouquet-holder, I'd like to know?" said Johnny,
+flourishing it above his head. "And whose father brought home the flowers
+from the green-house?"
+
+"Well, any way, Johnny, 'twas my aunt and uncle, you know; and they'd be
+willing, 'cause your mamma let me have her necklace 'thout my asking."
+
+"I can't help it if they're both as willing as two peas," cried Johnny.
+"I'm not willing myself, and that's enough."
+
+"O, what a boy! I was going to put some of my nightly blue sirreup on
+your hangerjif, and now I won't--see if I do!"
+
+"I don't want anybody's sirup," retorted Johnny; "'tic'ly such a cross
+party's as you are."
+
+"Johnny Eastman, you just stop murdering me."
+
+"Murdering you?"
+
+"Yes; 'he that hateth his brother.'"
+
+"I'm not your brother, I should hope."
+
+"Well, a cousin's just as bad."
+
+"No, not half so bad. I wouldn't be your brother if I had to be a
+beggar."
+
+"And I wouldn't let you be a brother, Johnny Eastman, not if I had to go
+and be a heathen."
+
+"O, what a Dotty!"
+
+"O, what a Johnny!"
+
+By this time the little bridesmaid's face was anything but pleasant to
+behold. Both her dimples were buried out of sight, and she had as many
+wrinkles in her forehead as grandma Head. Johnny danced about the room,
+holding before her eyes the bone of contention, then drawing it away
+again in the most provoking manner.
+
+"If you act so, Johnny Eastman, I won't have you for my bridegroom."
+
+"And I won't have you for my bride--so there!"
+
+The moment these words were spoken, the angry children were frightened.
+They had not intended to go so far. It had been their greatest pleasure
+for several weeks to think of "standing up" at a wedding; and they would
+neither of them have missed the honor on any account. But now, in their
+foolish strife, they had made it impossible to do the very thing they
+most desired to do. They had said the fatal words, and were both of them
+too proud to draw back. There was one comfort. "The wedding will be
+stopped," thought Dotty; "they can't be married 'thout Johnny and me."
+
+The guests were all assembled. It was now time for the bridal train to go
+down stairs and have the ceremony performed. As the children left the
+chamber, uncertain what to do, but resolved that whichever "stood up,"
+the other would sit down, Johnny seized a bottle of panacea which stood
+on the mantel, and wet the corner of Dotty's handkerchief.
+
+"There is some sirup worth having," said he; "stronger than yours. Rub
+it in your eyes, and see if it isn't."
+
+The boy did not mean what he said, or at any rate we will hope he did
+not; but Dotty, in her haste and agitation, obeyed him without stopping
+one moment to think.
+
+Instantly the wedding was forgotten, the bouquet-holder, the anger, the
+disappointment, and everything else but the agony in her eyes. It was so
+dreadful that she could only scream, and spin round and round like a top.
+
+A scene of confusion followed. The poor child was so frantic that her
+father was obliged to hold her by main force, while her mother tried to
+bathe her eyes with cold water. They were fearfully inflamed, and for a
+whole hour the wedding was delayed, while poor Dotty lay struggling in
+her father's arms, or tore about the nursery like a wild creature.
+
+Johnny was very sorry. He said he did not know what was in the bottle; he
+had sprinkled his cousin's handkerchief in sport.
+
+"She talks so much about her 'nightly blue sirreup,'" said he to his
+mother, "that I thought I would tease her a little speck."
+
+"I don't know but you have put her eyes out," said his mother, severely.
+
+"O, do you think so?" wailed Johnny. "O, don't say so, mother!"
+
+"I hope not, my child; but panacea is a very powerful thing. I don't know
+precisely what is in it, but you have certainly tried a dangerous
+experiment."
+
+"I didn't mean to, mother; I'll never do so again."
+
+"That is what you always say," replied his mother, shaking her head; "and
+that is why I am so discouraged about you. Nothing seems to make any
+impression upon you. If you have really made your cousin blind for life I
+hope it will be a lesson to you."
+
+While Mrs. Eastman talked, looking very stately in her velvet dress,
+Master Johnny was balancing himself on the hat-tree in the hall, as if he
+scarcely heard what she said; but, in spite of his disrespectful manner,
+he was really unhappy.
+
+"I knew something would go wrong," continued Mrs. Eastman, "when it was
+first proposed that you and Dotty should stand up together, and I did not
+approve of the plan. What is the reason you two children must always be
+quarrelling?"
+
+"She is the one that begins it," replied Johnny. "If I could have stood
+up with Prudy, there wouldn't have been any fuss."
+
+"With Prudy, indeed! I dare say you would be glad to do so now, you
+naughty boy. Your kind aunt Mary suggested it, but I told her, No. Since
+you have hurt Dotty so terribly, you cannot be groomsman."
+
+"O, mother!"
+
+"No, my son. She is unable to perform her part, and you must give up
+yours. Percy will take your place."
+
+In spite of his manliness, Johnny dropped a few tears, which he
+brushed away with the back of his hand; but his mother, for once in
+her life, was firm.
+
+I will not say that Johnny's disappointment was not some consolation to
+Dotty, who lay on the sofa in the parlor with her eyes bandaged, while
+the wedding ceremony was performed. If Johnny had been one of the group,
+while her own poor little self was left out, necklace, slippers, and
+all, she would have thought it unjust.
+
+As it was, it seemed hard enough. She was in total darkness, but her
+"mind made pictures while her eyes were shut." She could almost see how
+the bride and bridegroom looked, holding each other by the hand, with the
+tall Percy on one side, and the short Prudy on the other,--the dear
+Prudy, who was so sorry for her sister that she could not enjoy taking
+her place, though a fairer little bridesmaid than she made could hardly
+be found in the city.
+
+The same clergyman officiated now who had married Mr. and Mrs. Parlin
+fifteen years before; and after he had married them over again, he made a
+speech which caused Dotty to cry a little under her handkerchief; or, if
+not the speech, it was the panacea that brought the tears--she did not
+know which.
+
+He said he remembered just how Edward Parlin and Mary Read looked when
+they stood before him in the bloom of their youth, and promised to live
+together as husband and wife. They had seemed very happy then; but he
+thought they were happier now; he could read in their faces the history
+of fifteen beautiful years. He did not wonder the time had passed very
+pleasantly, for they knew how to make each other happy; they had tried to
+do right, and they had three lovely children, who were blessings to them,
+and would be blessings to any parents.
+
+It was here that Dotty felt the tears start.
+
+"I'm not a blessing at all," thought she; "he doesn't know anything about
+it, how I act, and had temper up stairs with Johnny! Johnny's put my eyes
+out for it, and I'll have to go to the 'Sylum, I suppose. If I do, I
+shan't be a blessing so much as I am now! To anybody ever!"
+
+By and by aunt Eastman presented the bride with a bridal rose, which
+looked as nearly as possible like the one she had given her at the first
+wedding, and which grew from a slip of the same plant. Dotty could not
+see the rose, but she heard her aunt say she hoped to attend Mrs.
+Parlin's Golden Wedding.
+
+"I shall be ever so old by that time," thought the little girl.
+"Fifteen from fifty leaves--leaves--I don't know what it leaves; but I
+shall be a blind old lady, and wear a cap. Perhaps God wants to make a
+very good woman of me, same as Emily, and that's why he let Johnny put
+my eyes out."
+
+Here some one came along and offered Miss Dimple a slice of wedding cake,
+which tasted just as delicious as if she could see it; then some one
+else put a glass of lemonade to her lips.
+
+"Has my little girl a kiss for me?" said Mrs. Parlin, coming to the sofa
+as soon as she could break away from her guests.
+
+The gentle "mother-touch" went to Dotty's heart. She threw her arms about
+Mrs. Parlin's neck, wrinkling her collar and tumbling her veil.
+
+"Take care, my child," said Mr. Parlin, laughing; "do not crush
+the bride. Everybody has been coming up to salute her, and you
+must understand that she does you a great honor to go to you and
+_beg_ a kiss."
+
+"It is just like you, though, mamma. You are so good to me, and so is
+everybody! No matter how naughty I am, and spoil weddings, they don't
+say, 'You hateful thing!'"
+
+"Would it make you a better child, do you think, Dotty, to be scolded
+when you do wrong?"
+
+"Why, no, indeed, mamma. It's all that makes me _not_ be the wickedest
+girl in this city, is 'cause you are so good to me; I know it is."
+
+Mrs. Parlin kissed the little mouth that said these sweet words.
+
+"And now that I am blind, mamma, you are so kind, I s'pose you'll feed me
+with a spoon."
+
+"You will surely be taken care of, dear, as long as your eyes are in
+this state."
+
+"But shan't I be always blind?"
+
+"No, indeed, child; you will be quite well in a day or two."
+
+"O, I'm so glad, mamma. I was thinking I shouldn't ever go to school, and
+should have to be sent to the 'Sylum."
+
+While Dotty was speaking, Johnny came up to the sofa, and, taking her
+hand, said, in a tone of real sorrow,--
+
+"Look here, Dotty; I was a naughty boy; will you forgive me?"
+
+As Johnny was not in the habit of begging pardon, and did it now of his
+own free will, Dotty was greatly astonished.
+
+"Yes, Johnny," said she, "I forgive you all up. But then I don't ever
+want you to put my eyes out again."
+
+"I won't, now, honest; see 'f I do," replied Master Johnny, in a choked
+voice. "And you may have that bouquet-holder, to keep; mother said so."
+
+"O, Johnny!"
+
+"Yes; mother says we can call it a 'peace offering.' Let's not quarrel
+any more, Dotty, just to see how 'twill seem."
+
+"What, never!" exclaimed Dotty, starting up on her elbow, and trying to
+look through her thick bandage at Johnny. "Never! Why, don't you mean to
+come to my house any more, Johnny Eastman?"
+
+"Yes; but I won't quarrel unless you begin it."
+
+"O, _I_ shan't begin it," replied Miss Dimple, confidently; "I never do,
+you know."
+
+Johnny had the grace not to retort. He was ashamed of his ungentlemanly
+conduct, and knelt before the sofa, gazing sadly at his blindfolded
+little cousin. It was a humble place for him, and we will leave him
+there, hoping his penitence may do him good for the future.
+
+As for Miss Dimple, we will bid her goodbye while her eyes are closed. Be
+patient, little Dotty; the pain will soon be over, and when we see you
+again, you will be trudging merrily to school with a book under your arm.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dotty Dimple at Play, by Sophie May
+
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