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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11257 ***
+
+LITTLE FOLKS ASTRAY.
+
+BY SOPHIE MAY
+
+
+"To give room for wandering is it
+That the world was made so wide."
+
+1872
+
+
+
+TO
+
+MY YOUNG FRIEND,
+
+EMMA ADAMS.
+
+"JOHNNIE OPTIC."
+
+
+
+
+TO PARENTS.
+
+Here come the Parlins and Cliffords again. They had been sent to bed and
+nicely tucked in, but would not stay asleep. They "wanted to see the
+company down stairs;" so they have dressed themselves, and come back to
+the parlor. I trust you will pardon them, dear friends. Is it not a
+common thing, in this degenerate age, for grown people to frown and
+shake their heads, while little people do exactly as they please?
+
+Well, one thing is certain: if these children insist upon sitting up,
+they shall listen to lectures on self-will and disrespect to superiors,
+which will make their ears tingle.
+
+Moreover, they shall hear of other people, and not always of themselves.
+Fly Clifford, who expects to be in the middle, will be somewhat
+overwhelmed, like a fly in a cup of milk; for Grandma Read is to talk
+her down with her Quaker speech, and Aunt Madge with her story of the
+summer when she was a child. It is but fair that the elders should have
+a voice. That they may speak words which shall come home to many little
+hearts, and move them for good, is the earnest wish of
+
+THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+
+I. THE LETTER
+
+II. THE UNDERTAKING
+
+III. THE FROLIC
+
+IV. "TAKING OUR AIRS"
+
+V. DOTTY HAVING HER OWN WAY
+
+VI. DOTTY REBUKED
+
+VII. THE LOST FLY
+
+VIII. "THE FRECKLED DOG"
+
+IX. MARIA'S MOTHER
+
+X. FIVE MAKING A CALL
+
+XI. "THE HEN-HOUSES"
+
+XII. "GRANNY"
+
+XIII. THE PUMPKIN HOOD
+
+
+
+
+LITTLE FOLKS ASTRAY.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE LETTER.
+
+
+Katie Clifford sat on the floor, in the sun, feeding her white mice. She
+had a tea-spoon and a cup of bread and milk in her hands. If she had
+been their own mother she could not have smiled down on the little
+creatures more sweetly.
+
+"'Cause I spect they's hungry, and that's why I'm goin' to give 'em
+sumpin' to eat. Shut your moufs and open your eyes," said she, waving
+the tea-spoon, and spattering the bread and milk over their backs.
+
+"Quee, quee," squeaked the little mice, very well pleased when a drop
+happened to go into their mouths.
+
+"What are you doing there, Miss Topknot," said Horace: "O, I see;
+catching rats."
+
+Flyaway frowned fearfully, and the tuft of hair atop of her head danced
+like a war-plume.
+
+"I shouldn't think folks would call 'em names, Hollis, when they never
+did a thing to you. Nothing but clean white mouses!"
+
+"Let's see; now I look at 'em, Topknot, they _are_ white. And what's all
+this paper?"
+
+"Bed-kilts."
+
+"_In_-deed?"
+
+"You knew it by-fore!"
+
+"One, two, three; I thought the doctor gave you five. Where are they
+gone?"
+
+"Well, there hasn't but two died; the rest'll live," said Fly, swinging
+one of them around by its tail, as if it had been a tame cherry.
+
+Just then Grace came and stood in the parlor doorway.
+
+"O, fie!" said she; "what work! Ma doesn't allow that cage in the
+parlor. You just carry it out, Fly Clifford."
+
+Miss Thistledown Flyaway looked up at her sister shyly, out of the
+corners of her eyes. Grace was now a beautiful young lady of sixteen,
+and almost as tall as her mother. Flyaway adored her, but there was a
+growing doubt in her mind whether sister Grace had a right to use the
+tone of command.
+
+"'Cause I spect she isn't my mamma."
+
+"Why, Fly, you haven't started yet!"
+
+"I didn't think 'twas best," responded the child, sulkily, fixing her
+eyes on the mice, who were dancing whirligigs round the wheel.
+
+"Come here to your best friend, little Topknot," said Horace. "Let's
+take that cage into the green-house, and ask papa to keep it there,
+because the mice look like water-lilies on long stems."
+
+Flyaway brightened at once. She knew water-lilies were lovely. Giving
+Grace a triumphant glance, she danced across the room, and put the cage
+in Horace's hands, with a smile of trusting love that thrilled his
+heart.
+
+"Hollis laughs at my mouses, but he don't say, 'Put 'em away,' and,
+'_Put_ 'em away;' he says, 'Little gee-urls wants to see things as much
+as anybody else,'" thought she, gratefully.
+
+"Horace," said Grace, with a curling lip, "that child is growing up
+just like you--fond of worms, and bugs, and all such disgusting things."
+
+Horace smiled. No matter for the scorn in Grace's tone; it pleased him
+to be compared in any way with his precious little Flyaway.
+
+"Topknot has a spark of sense," said he, leading her along to the
+green-house. "I'll bring her up not to scream at a spider."
+
+"Now, young lady," said he, setting the cage on the shelf beside a
+camellia, and speaking in a low voice, though they were quite alone,
+"_can_ you keep a secret?"
+
+"Course I can; What _is_ a _secrid_?"
+
+"Why, it's something you musn't ever tell, Topknot, not to anybody that
+lives."
+
+"Then I won't, _cerdily_,--not to mamma, nor papa, nor Gracie."
+
+"Nor anybody else?"
+
+"No; course not. _Whobody_ else could I? O, 'cept Phibby. There, now,
+what's the name of it."
+
+"The name of it is--a secret, and the secret is this--Sure you won't
+tell any single body, Topknot?"
+
+"No; I said, _whobody_ could I tell? O, 'cept Tinka! There now!"
+
+"Well, the secret is this," said Horace, laying his forefingers
+together, and speaking very slowly, in order to prolong the immense
+delight he felt in watching the little one's eager face. "You know
+you've got an aunt Madge?"
+
+"Yes; so've you, too."
+
+"And she lives in the city of New York."
+
+"Does she? When'd she go?"
+
+"Why, she has always lived there; ever since she was married."
+
+"O, yes; and uncle Gustus was married, too; they was both married. Is
+that all?"
+
+"And she thinks you and I are 'cute chicks, and wants us to go and see
+her."
+
+"Well, course she does; I knew that before," said Fly, turning away with
+indifference; "I did go with mamma."
+
+"O, but she means now, Topknot; this very Christmas. She said it in a
+letter."
+
+"Does she truly?" said Fly, beginning to look pleased. "But it can't be
+a _secrid_, though," added she, next moment, sadly, "'cause we can't go,
+Hollis."
+
+"But I really think we shall go, Topknot; that is, if you don't spoil
+the whole by telling."
+
+"O, I cerdily won't tell!" said Fly, fluttering all over with a sense of
+importance, like a kitten with its first mouse.
+
+The breakfast bell rang; and, with many a word of warning, Horace led
+his little sister into the dining-room.
+
+"Papa," said she, the moment she was established in her high chair, "I
+know sumpin'."
+
+"O, Topknot!" cried Horace.
+
+"I know Hollis has got his elbows on the table. There, now, _did_ I
+tell?"
+
+"Hu--sh, Topknot!"
+
+There was a quiet moment while Mr. Clifford said grace.
+
+"Hollis," whispered Katie immediately afterwards, "will I take my
+mouses?"
+
+"'Sh, Topknot!"
+
+"What's going on there between you and Horace?" laughed Grace.
+
+"A _secrid_," said Fly, nipping her little lips together. "You won't get
+me to tell."
+
+"Horace," exclaimed Mrs. Clifford, "you haven't--"
+
+"Why, mother, I thought it was all settled, and wouldn't do any harm;
+and it pleases her so!"
+
+"Well, my son, you've made a hard day's work for me," said Mrs.
+Clifford, smiling behind her coffee-cup, as eager little Katie swayed
+back and forth in her high chair.
+
+"You won't get me to tell, Gracie Clifford. She don't want nobody but
+Hollis and me; she thinks we're very 'cute."
+
+"Who? O, Aunt Louise, probably."
+
+"No, aunt Louise never! It's the auntie that lives to New York."
+
+"Sh, Topknot!"
+
+"Well, I didn't tell, Hollis Clifford!"
+
+"So you didn't," said Grace. "But wouldn't it be nice if somebody should
+ask you to go somewhere to spend Christmas?"
+
+"Well, _there is_!"
+
+"O, Topknot," cried Horace, in mock distress, "you said you could keep
+a secret."
+
+Flyaway looked frightened.
+
+"What'd I do?" cried she; "I didn't tell nuffin 'bout the letter!"
+
+This last speech set everybody to laughing; and the little tell-tale
+looked around from one to another with a face full of innocent wonder.
+They couldn't be laughing at _her_!
+
+"I can keep secrids," said she, with dignity. "It was what I was
+a-doin'."
+
+"It is your brother Horace who cannot be trusted to keep secrets," said
+Mrs. Clifford, taking a letter from her pocket. "Hear, now, what your
+Aunt Madge has written: 'Will you lend me your children for the
+holidays, Maria? I want all three; at any rate, two.'"
+
+"That's me," cried Flyaway, tipping over her white coffee; "'_tenny
+rate two_,' means me."
+
+"Don't interrupt me, dear. 'Brother Edward has promised me Prudy and
+Dotty Dimple. They may have a Santa Claus, or whatever they like. I
+shall devote myself to making them happy, and I am sure there are plenty
+of things in New York to amuse them. Horace must come without fail; for
+the little girl-cousins always depend so much upon him.'"
+
+A smile rose to Horace's mouth; but he rubbed it off with his napkin. It
+was his boast that he was above being flattered.
+
+"But why not have Grace go, too, to keep them steady?" said Mr.
+Clifford, bluntly.
+
+Horace applied himself to his buckwheat cakes in silence, and looked
+rather gloomy.
+
+"Why, I suppose, Henry, it would hardly be safe to send Grace, on
+account of her cough."
+
+"I'm so sorry you asked Dr. De Bruler a word about it, mamma; but I
+suppose I must submit," said Grace, with a face as cloudy as Horace's.
+
+"Horace, my son, do you really feel equal to the task of taking this
+tuft of feathers to New York?"
+
+"I don't know why not, father; I'm willing to try."
+
+"Horace has good courage," said Grace, shaking her auburn curls like so
+many exclamation points. "I never could! I never would! I'd as soon have
+the care of a flying squirrel!"
+
+"Hollis never called me a _squirl_," said Fly, demurely. "I've got two
+brothers, and one of 'em is an angel, and the other isn't; but Hollis
+is _'most_ as good as the one up in the sky."
+
+"Well, my son," remarked Mr. Clifford, after a pause, "if your mother
+gives her consent, I suppose I shall give mine; but it does not look
+clear to me yet. One thing is certain, Horace; if you do undertake this
+journey, you must live on the watch: you must sleep with both eyes open.
+Don't trust the child out of your sight--not for a moment. Don't even
+let go her hand on the street."
+
+"I do believe Horace will be as careful as either you or I, Henry, or I
+certainly wouldn't trust him with our last little darling," said Mrs.
+Clifford.
+
+His mother's words dropped like balm upon Horace's wounded spirit. He
+looked up, and felt himself a man again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE UNDERTAKING.
+
+
+When Flyaway knew she was going to New York, it was about as easy to fit
+her dresses as to clothe a buzzing blue-bottle fly. With spinning head
+and dancing feet, she was set down, at last, in the cars.
+
+"Here we are, all by ourselves, darling, starting off for Gotham. Wave
+your handkerchief to mamma. Don't you see her kissing her hand? There,
+you needn't spring out of the window! And I declare, Brown-brimmer, if
+you haven't thrown away your handkerchief! Here, cry into mine!"
+
+"I didn't want to cry, Hollis; I wanted to laugh," said the child,
+wiping her eyes with her doll's cloak. "When you ride in carriages, you
+don't get anywhere; but when you ride in the cars, you get there right
+off."
+
+"Yes; that's so, my dear. You are in the right of it, as you always are.
+Now I am going to turn the seat over, and sit where I can look at
+you--just so."
+
+"O, that's just as splendid, Hollis! Now there's only me and Flipperty.
+There, I put her 'pellent cloak on wrong; but see, now, I've
+un-_wrong-side-outed_ it! Don't she sit up like a lady?"
+
+Her name was Flipperty Flop. She was a large jointed doll (not a doll
+with large joints,) had seen a great deal of the world, and didn't think
+much of it. She came of a high family, and had such blue blood in her
+veins, that the ground wasn't good enough for her to walk on. She wore
+a "'pellent cloak" and rubber boots, and had a shopping-bag on her arm
+full of "choclid" cakes. She was nearly as large as her mother, and all
+of two years older. A great deal had happened to her before her mother
+was born, and a great deal more since. Sometimes it was dropsy, and she
+had to be tapped, when pints of sawdust would run out. Sometimes it was
+consumption, and she wasted to such a skeleton that she had to be
+revived with cotton. She had lost her head more than once, but it never
+affected her brains: she was all the better with a young head now and
+then on her old shoulders. Her present ailment appeared to be small-pox;
+she was badly pitted with pins and a penknife. "I declare I forgot to
+get a ticket for her," said Horace. "What if the conductor shouldn't
+let her pass?"
+
+"O, Hollis, but he must?" cried Fly, springing to her feet; "_I_ shan't
+pass athout my Flipperty! Tell the 'ductor 'bout my white mouses died,
+and I can't go athout sumpin to carry."
+
+"Pshaw! Dotty Dimple don't carry dolls. She don't like 'em: sensible
+girls never do."
+
+"Well, _I_ like 'em," said Flyaway, nothing daunted. "You knew it
+byfore; 'n if you didn't want Flipperty, you'd ought to not come!"
+
+Horace laughed, as he always did when his little sister tried her power
+over him. The conductor was an old acquaintance, and he told him how it
+stood with Flipperty, how she was needed at New York, and all that;
+whereupon Mr. Van Dusen gave Fly a little green card, and told her to
+keep it to show to all the conductors on the road; for it was a free
+pass, and would take Flipperty all over the United States.
+
+"Yes, sir, if you please," said Fly, with a blush and a smile, and put
+the "free pass" in Miss Flop's cloak pocket.
+
+After this, she never once failed to show it, whenever Mr. Van Dusen, or
+any other conductor, came near, but always had to hunt for it, and once
+brought up a cookie instead, which fearful mistake mortified her to the
+depths of her soul.
+
+Horace was sure all eyes were fixed on his charming little charge, and
+was proud of the honor of showing her off; but he paid for it dearly; it
+cost him more than his Latin, with all the irregular verbs. There was no
+such thing as her being comfortable. She was full of care about him,
+herself, and the baggage. Flipperty lost off a rubber boot, which
+bounced over into the next seat. Horace had to ask a gentleman and his
+sick daughter to move, and, after all, it was in an old lady's lap.
+
+Then Fly's feet were cold, and Horace took her to the stove; but that
+made her eyes too hot, and she danced back, to lie with her head on his
+breast and her feet against the window, till she suddenly whirled
+straight about, and planted her tiny boots under his chin.
+
+"O, Topknot, Topknot, I pity that woman with the baby, if she feels as
+lame all over as I do!"
+
+"Where's the baby, Hollis? O, I see."
+
+"What's the matter, now? Why upon earth can't you sit still, child?"
+said Horace, next minute, catching her as she was darting into the
+aisle, dragging Miss Flop by the hair of the head.
+
+"O, Hollis, don't you see there's a dolly over there, with two girls and
+a lady with red clo'es on? 'Haps they'd be willing for her to get
+'quainted with Flipperty?"
+
+"Well, Topknot, 'haps they would, but 'haps I wouldn't. I can't have you
+dancing all over the car, in this style."
+
+Flyaways's lip quivered, and a tear started. Horace was moved. One of
+Fly's tears weighed a pound with him, even when it only wet her
+eyelashes, and wasn't heavy enough to drop.
+
+"Well, there, darling, you just sit still,--not still enough, though, to
+give you a pain (Fly always said it gave her a pain to sit still),--and
+I'll bring the girls and dollie over here to you. Will that do?"
+
+Fly thought it would.
+
+A dreadful fit of bashfulness came over Horace, when he stood face to
+face with the black-eyed lady and her daughters, and tried to speak.
+
+"I've got a little girl travelling with me, ma'am; she's so--so uneasy,
+that I don't know what to do with her. Will you let me take--I mean, are
+you willing--"
+
+"Bring her over here, and we will try to amuse her," said the black-eyed
+lady, pleasantly; but Horace was sure he saw the oldest girl laughing at
+him.
+
+"It's no fun to go and make a fool of yourself," thought he, leading Fly
+to the new acquaintances, and standing by as she settled herself shyly
+in the seat.
+
+"How do you do, little one? What is your name?--_Flyaway_?--Well, you
+look like it. We saw you were a darling, clear across the aisle. And you
+have a kind brother, I know."
+
+At these words Fly, for want of some answer to make, sprang forward and
+kissed Horace on the bridge of the nose.
+
+"There, you've knocked off my cap."
+
+In stooping to pick it up, he awkwardly hit his head against the older
+girl, who already looked so mischievous that he was rather afraid of
+her.
+
+"Wish I could get out of the way. She expects me to speak, but I shan't.
+
+  "'Needles and pins, needles and pins,
+    When a man travels his trouble begins.'"
+
+Horace was obliged to stand, very ill at ease, till the black-eyed lady
+had found out where he lived, who his father was, and what was his
+mother's name before she was married.
+
+"Tell your father, when you go home, you have seen Mrs. Bonnycastle,
+formerly Ann Jones, and give him my regards. I knew he married a lady
+from Maine."
+
+"I know sumpin," struck in Fly; "if ever _I_ marry anybody, I'll marry
+my own brother Hollis. I mean if I don't be a ole maid!"
+
+"And what is 'a ole maid,' you little witch?"
+
+"I don' know; some folks is," was the wise reply. Flyaway was about to
+add "Gampa Clifford," but did not feel well enough acquainted to talk of
+family matters.
+
+When the Bonnycastles left, at Cleveland, Horace thought that was the
+last of them. Miss Gerty was "decent-looking, looked some like Cassy
+Hallock; but he couldn't bear to see folks giggle; hoped he never should
+set eyes on those people again." Whether he ever did, you shall hear one
+of these days.
+
+"O, Topknot," said he, "your hair looks like a mop. Do you want all
+creation laughing at you? You'll mortify me to death."
+
+"You ought to water it. If you don't take better care o' your little
+sister, I won't never ride with you no more, Hollis Clifford!"
+
+"Well, see that you don't, you little scarecrow," said the suffering
+boy, out of all patience. "If you are going to act in New York as you
+have on the road, I wish I was well out of this scrape."
+
+Flyaway was really a sight to behold. How she managed to tear her dress
+off the waist, and loose five boot buttons, and last, but not least, the
+very hat she wore on her head, _would_ have been a mystery if you hadn't
+seen her run.
+
+When they reached the city, Horace put the soft, flying locks in as
+good order as he could, and tied them up in his handkerchief.
+
+"I wisht I hadn't come," whined Fly; "I don't want to wear a hangerfiss;
+'tisn't speckerble!"
+
+"Hush right up! I'm not going to have you get cold!--My sorrows! Shan't
+I be thankful when I get where there's a woman to take care of her?"
+
+On the platform at the depot, aunt Madge, Prudy, and Dotty Dimple, were
+waiting for them. A hearty laugh went the rounds, which Fly thought was
+decidedly silly. Aunt Madge took the young travellers right into her
+arms, and hugged them in her own cordial style, as if her heart had been
+hungry for them for many a day.
+
+"We're so glad!--for it did seem as if you'd never come," exclaimed
+Dotty Dimple.
+
+"And I'd like to know," said Horace, "how you happened to get here
+first."
+
+"O, we came by express--came yesterday."
+
+"By 'spress?" cried Flyaway, pulling away from aunt Madge, who was
+trying to pin her frock together; "_we_ came by a 'ductor.--Why, where's
+Flipperty's ticket?"
+
+Horace seized Prudy with one hand, and Dotty Dimple with the other,
+turning them round and round.
+
+"I don't see anything of the express mark, 'Handle with care.' What has
+become of it?"
+
+"O, we were done up in brown paper," said Prudy, laughing, "and the
+express mark was on that; but aunt Madge took it off as soon as she got
+the packages home."
+
+"Why, what a story, Prudy Parlin! We didn't have a speck of brown paper
+round us. Just cloaks and hats with feathers in!"
+
+Dotty spoke with some irritation. She had all along been rather
+sensitive about being sent by express, and could not bear any allusion
+to the subject.
+
+"There, that's Miss Dimple herself. Let me shake hands with your
+Dimpleship! Didn't come to New York to take a joke,--did you?"
+
+"No, her Dimpleship came to New York to get warm," said Peacemaker
+Prudy; "and so did I, too. You don't know how cold it is in Maine."
+
+By this time they were rattling over the stones in their aunt's elegant
+carriage. It was dusk; the lamps were lighted, the streets crowded with
+people, the shops blazing with gay colors.
+
+"I didn't come here to get warm, either," said Dotty, determined to
+have the last word: "I was warm enough in Portland. I s'pose we've got a
+furnace,--haven't we?--and a coal grate, too."
+
+"I do hope Horace hasnt't got her started in a contrary fit," thought
+Prudy; "I brought her all the way from home without her saying a cross
+word."
+
+But aunt Madge had a witch's broom, to sweep cobwebs out of the sky.
+Putting her arm around Dotty, she said,--
+
+"You all came to bring sunshine into my house; bless your happy hearts."
+
+That cleared Dotty's sky, and she put up her lips for a kiss; while
+Flyaway, with her "hangerfiss" on, danced about the carriage like a fly
+in a bottle, kissing everybody, and Horace twice over.
+
+"'Cause I spect we've got there. But, Hollis," said she, with the
+comical shade of care which so often flitted across her little face,
+"you never put the trunk in here. Now that 'ductor has gone and carried
+off my nightie."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE FROLIC.
+
+
+If Aunt Madge had dressed in linsey woolsey, with a checked apron on,
+she would still have been lovely. A white rose is lovely even in a
+cracked tea-cup. But Colonel Augustus Allen was a rich man, and his wife
+could afford to dress elegantly. Horace followed her to-night with
+admiring eyes.
+
+"They say she isn't as handsome as Aunt Louise, but I know better; you
+needn't tell me! Her eyes have got the real good twinkle, and that's
+enough said."
+
+Horace was like most boys; he mistook loveliness for beauty. Mrs.
+Allen's small figure, gentle gray eyes, and fair curls made her seem
+almost insignificant beside the splendid Louise; but Horace knew better;
+you needn't tell _him_!
+
+"Horace," said Aunt Madge, "your Uncle Augustus is gone, and that is one
+reason, you know, why I begged for company during the holidays. You will
+be the only gentleman in the house, and we ladies herewith put ourselves
+under your protection. Will you accept the charge?"
+
+"He needn't _pertect_ ME," spoke up Miss Dimple, from the depths of an
+easy-chair; "I can pertect myself."
+
+"Don't mind going to the Museum alone, I suppose, and crossing ferries,
+and riding in the Park, and being out after dark?"
+
+"No; I'm not afraid of things," replied the strong-minded young lady;
+"ask Prudy if I am. And my father lets me go in the horse-cars all over
+Portland. That's since I travelled out west."
+
+Here the bell sounded, and the only gentleman of the house gave his arm
+to Mrs. Allen, to lead her out to what he supposed was supper, though he
+soon found it went by the name of dinner. Neither he nor his young
+cousins were accustomed to seeing so much silver and so many servants;
+but they tried to appear as unconcerned as if it were an every-day
+affair. Dotty afterwards said to Prudy and Horace, "I was 'stonished
+when that man came to the back of my chair with the butter; but I said,
+'_If_ you please, sir,' just as if I 'spected it. _He_ don't know but my
+father's rich."
+
+After dinner Fly's eyes drew together, and Prudy said,--
+
+"O, darling, you don't know what's going to happen. Auntie said you
+might sleep with Dotty and me to-night, right in the middle."
+
+"O, dear!" drawled Flyaway; "when there's two abed, I sleep; but when
+there's three abed, I open out my eyes, and can't."
+
+"So you don't like to sleep with your cousins," said Dotty, "your dear
+cousins, that came all the way from Portland to see you."
+
+"Yes, I do," said Fly, quickly; "my eyes'll open out; but that's no
+matter, 'cause I don't want to go to sleep; I'd ravver not."
+
+They went up stairs, into a beautiful room, which aunt Madge had
+arranged for them with two beds, to suit a whim of Dotty's.
+
+"Now isn't this just splendid?" said Miss Dimple; "the carpet so soft
+your boots go in like feathers; and then such pictures! Look, Fly! here
+are two little girls out in a snow-storm, with an umbrella over 'em.
+Aren't you glad it isn't you? And here are some squirrels, just as
+natural as if they were eating grandpa's oilnuts. And see that pretty
+lady with the kid, or the dog. Any way she is kissing him; and it was
+all she had left out of the whole family, and she wanted to kiss
+somebody."
+
+"Yes," said aunt Madge.
+
+  "'Her sole companion in a dearth
+  Of love upon a hopeless earth.'
+
+"If that makes you look so sober, children, I'm going to take it down.
+Here, on this bracket, is the head of our blessed Saviour."
+
+"O, I'm glad," said Fly. "He'll be right there, a-looking on, when we
+say our prayers."
+
+"Hear that creature talk!" whispered Dotty.
+
+"And these things a-shinin' down over the bed: who's these?" said
+Flyaway, dancing about the room, with "opened-out" eyes.
+
+"Don't you know? That's Christ blessing little children," said Dotty,
+gently. "I always know Him by the rainbow round His head."
+
+"Aureole," corrected Aunt Madge.
+
+"But wasn't it just _like_ a rainbow--red, blue and green?"
+
+"O, no; our Saviour did not really have any such crown of light, Dotty.
+He looked just like other men, only purer and holier. Artists have tried
+in vain to make his expression heavenly enough; so they paint him with
+an aureole."
+
+Prudy said nothing; but as she looked at the picture, a happy feeling
+came over her. She remembered how Christ "called little children like
+lambs to his fold," and it seemed as if He was very near to-night, and
+the room was full of peace. Aunt Madge had done well to place such
+paintings before her young guests; good pictures bring good thoughts.
+
+"All, everywhere, it's so spl-endid!" said Fly; "what's that thing with
+a glass house over it!"
+
+"A clock."
+
+"What a funny clock! It looks like a little dog wagging its tail."
+
+"That's the _penderlum_," explained Dotty; "it beats the time. Every
+clock has a penderlum. Generally hangs down before though, and this
+hangs behind. I declare, Prudy, it does look like a dog wagging its
+tail."
+
+"Hark! it strikes eight," said Aunt Madge. "Time little girls were in
+bed, getting rested for a happy day to-morrow."
+
+"I don't spect that thing knows what time it is," said Fly, gazing at
+the clock doubtfully, "and my eyes are all opened out; but if you want
+me to, auntie, I will!"
+
+So Flyaway slipped off her clothes in a twinkling.
+
+"We're going to lie, all three, in this big bed, Fly, just for one
+night," said Dotty; "and after that we must take turns which shall sleep
+with you. There, child, you're all undressed, and I haven't got my boots
+off yet. You're quicker'n a chain o' lightning, and always was."
+
+"Why, how did that kitty get in here?" said auntie, as a loud mewing
+was heard. "I certainly shut her out before we came up stairs."
+
+Dotty ran round the room, with one boot on, and Prudy in her stockings,
+helping their aunt in the search. The kitten was not under the bed, or
+in either of the closets, or inside the curtains.
+
+"Look ahind the _pendlum_," said Fly, laughing and skipping about in
+high glee; "look ahind the pendlum; look atween the pillow-case."
+
+Still the mewing went on.
+
+"O, here is the kitty--I've found her," said auntie, suddenly seizing
+Fly by the shoulders, and stopping her mocking-bird mouth. "Poor pussy,
+she has turned white--white all over!"
+
+"You don't mean to say that was Fly Clifford?" cried Prudy.
+
+"Shut her up, auntie," said Dotty Dimple; "she's a kitty. I always knew
+her name was Kitty."
+
+Fly ran and courtesied before the mirror in her nightie.
+
+"O, Kitty Clifford, Kitty Clifford," she cried, "when'll you be a cat?"
+
+"Pretty soon, if you can catch mice as well as you can mew," laughed
+auntie; "but look you, my dear; are you going to bed to-night? or shall
+I shut you down cellar?"
+
+"Don't shut me down _cellow_, auntie," cried the mocking-bird, crowing
+like a chicken; "shut me in the barn with the banties."
+
+Next moment it occurred to the child that this style of behavior was not
+very "speckerful;" so she hastily dropped on her knees before her
+auntie, and began to say her prayers. The change was so sudden, from
+the shrill crow of a chicken to the gentle voice of a little girl
+praying, that no one could keep a sober face. Prudy ran into the closet,
+and Dotty laughed into her handkerchief.
+
+"There, now, that's done," said Flyaway, jumping up as suddenly as she
+had knelt down. "Now I must pray Flipperty."
+
+And before any one could think what the child meant to do, she had
+dragged out her dolly, and knelt it on the rug, face downward, over her
+own lap.
+
+"O, the wicked creature!" whispered Dotty. But Aunt Madge said nothing.
+
+"Pray," said the little one, in a tone of command. Then, in a fine,
+squeaking voice, Fly repeated a prayer. It was intended to be
+Flipperty's voice, and Flipperty was too young to talk plain.
+
+"There, that will do," said Aunt Madge, her large gray eyes trying not
+to twinkle; "did she ever say her prayers before?"
+
+"Yes, um; she's a goody girl--when I 'member to pray her!"
+
+"Well, dear, I wouldn't 'pray her' any more. It makes us laugh to see
+such a droll sight, and nobody wishes to laugh when you are talking to
+your Father in heaven."
+
+"No'm," replied Flyaway, winking her eyes solemnly.
+
+But when the "three abed" had been tucked in and kissed, Fly called her
+auntie back to ask, "How can Flipperty grow up a goody girl _athout_ she
+says her prayers?"
+
+There was such a mixture of play and earnestness in the child's eyes,
+that auntie had to turn away her face before she could answer seriously.
+
+"Why, little girls can think and feel you know; but with dollies it is
+different. Now, good night, pet; you won't have beautiful dreams, if you
+talk any more."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+"TAKING OUR AIRS."
+
+
+Flyaway awoke singing, and sprang up in bed, saying,--
+
+"Why, I thought I's a car, and that's why I whissiled."
+
+"But you are not a car," yawned Prudy; "please don't sing again, or
+dance, either."
+
+"It's the _happerness_ in me, Prudy; and that's what dances; it's the
+happerness."
+
+"That's the worst part of Fly Clifford," groaned Dotty; "she won't keep
+still in the morning. Might have known there wouldn't be any peace after
+she got here."
+
+Dotty always came out of sleep by slow stages, and her affections were
+the last part of her to wake up. Just now she did not love Katie
+Clifford one bit, nor her own mother either.
+
+"Won't you light the lamp?" piped Flyaway.
+
+"Please don't, Fly," said Prudy; "don't talk!"
+
+"Won't you light the la-amp?"
+
+"No, we will not," said Dotty, firmly.
+
+"Won't you light the la-amp?"
+
+"Is this what we came to New York for?" moaned Dotty; "to be waked up in
+the middle of the night by folks singing?"
+
+"Won't you light the la-amp?"
+
+"I'll pack my dresses, and go right home! I'll--I'll have Fly Clifford
+sleep out o' this room. Why, I--I--"
+
+"Won't you light the la-amp?"
+
+Prudy sprang out of bed, convulsed with laughter, and lighted the gas;
+whereupon Fly began to dance "Little Zephyrs," on the pillow, and Dotty
+to declare her eyes were put out.
+
+"Little try-patiences, both of them," thought Prudy; "but then they've
+always had their own way, and what can you expect? I'm so glad I wasn't
+born the youngest of the family; it does make children _so_
+disagreeable!"
+
+As soon as Dotty was fairly awake, her love for her friends came back
+again, and her good humor with it. She made Fly bleat like a lamb and
+spin like a top, and applauded her loudly.
+
+"It's gl-orious to have you here, Fly Clifford. I wouldn't let you go in
+any other room to sleep for anything."
+
+Which shows that the same thing looked very different to Dotty after she
+got her eyes open.
+
+When the children went down to breakfast, they found bouquets of
+flowers by their plates.
+
+"I am delighted to see such happy faces." said Aunt Madge. "How would
+you all like to go out by and by, and take the air?"
+
+"We'd like it, auntie; and I'll tell you what would be prime," remarked
+Horace, from his uncle's place at the head of the table; "and that is,
+to take Fly to Stewart's, and have her go up in an elevator."
+
+"Why couldn't I go up, too?" asked Dotty, with the slightest possible
+shade of discontent in her voice. She did not mean to be jealous, but
+she had noticed that Flyaway always came first with Horace, and if there
+was anything hard for Dotty's patience, it was playing the part of
+Number Two.
+
+"We'll all go up," said Aunt Madge. "I've an idea of taking you over
+to Brooklyn; and in that case we shan't come home before night."
+
+"Carry our dinner in a basket?" suggested Dotty.
+
+"O, no; we'll go into a restaurant, somewhere, and order whatever you
+like."
+
+"Will you, auntie? Well, there, I never went to such a place in my life,
+only once; and then Percy Eastman, he just cried 'Fire!' and I broke the
+saucer all to pieces."
+
+"I've been to it a great many times," said Fly, catching part of Dotty's
+meaning; "my mamma bakes 'em in a freezer."
+
+At nine o'clock the party of five started out to see New York. Aunt
+Madge and Horace walked first, with Flyaway between them. "We are going
+out to take our _airs_," said the little one.
+
+"I don't think you need any more," said Horace, looking fondly at his
+pretty sister. "You're so airy now, it's as much as we can do to keep
+your feet on the ground."
+
+Flyaway wore a blue silk bonnet, with white lace around the face, a blue
+dress and cloak, and pretty furs with a squirrel's head on the muff. She
+had never been dressed so well before, and she knew it. She remembered
+hearing "Phibby" say to "Tinka," "Don't that child look like an angel?"
+Fly was sure she did, for big folks like Tinka must know. But here her
+thoughts grew misty. All the angels she had ever heard of were brother
+Harry and "the Charlie boy." How could she look like them?
+
+"Does God dress 'em in a cloak and bonnet, you s'pose?" asked she of her
+own thoughts.
+
+Prudy and Dotty Dimple wore frocks of black and red plaid, white
+cloaks, and black hats with scarlet feathers. Horace was satisfied that
+a finer group of children could not be found in the city.
+
+"Aunt Madge and I have no reason to be ashamed of them, I am sure,"
+thought he, taking out his new watch every few minutes, not because he
+wished to show it, but for fear it was losing time.
+
+"How I wish we had Grace and Susey here! and then I should have all my
+nieces," said Aunt Madge. "Is it possible these are the same children I
+used to see at Willowbrook? Here is my only nephew, that drowned Prudy
+on a log, grown tall enough to offer me his arm. (Why, Horace, your head
+is higher than mine!) Here is Prudy, who tried yesterday--didn't
+she?--to go up to heaven on a ladder, almost a young lady. Why, how old
+it makes me feel!"
+
+"But you don't look old," said Dotty, consolingly; "you don't look
+married any more than Aunt Louise?"
+
+Here they took an omnibus, and the children interested themselves in
+watching the different people who sat near them.
+
+"Aren't you glad to come?" said Dotty. "See that man getting out. What
+is that little thing he's switching himself with?"
+
+"That's a cane," replied Horace.
+
+"A cane? Why, if Flyaway should lean on it, she'd break it in
+two.--Prudy, look at that man in the corner; _his_ cane is funnier than
+the other one."
+
+Horace laughed.
+
+"That is a pipe, Dotty--a meerschaum."
+
+"Well, I don't see much difference," said Miss Dimple; "New York is the
+queerest place. Such long pipes, and such short canes!"
+
+Fly was too happy to talk, and sat looking out of the window until an
+elegantly-dressed lady entered the stage, who attracted everybody's
+attention; and then Flyaway started up, and stood on her tiptoes. The
+lady's face was painted so brightly that even a child could not help
+noticing it. It was haggard and wrinkled, all but the cheeks, and those
+bloomed out like a red, red rose. Flyaway had never seen such a sight
+before, and thought if the lady only knew how she looked, she would go
+right home and wash her face.
+
+"What a chee-arming little girl!" said the painted woman, crowding in
+between Aunt Madge and Flyaway, and patting the child's shoulder with
+her ungloved hand, which was fairly ablaze with jewels; "bee-youtiful!"
+
+Flyaway turned quickly around to Aunt Madge, and said, in one of her
+very loud whispers, "What's the matter with her? She's got sumpin on her
+face."
+
+"Hush," whispered Aunt Madge, pinching the child's hand.
+
+"But there is," spoke up Flyaway, very loud in her earnestness; "O,
+there is sumpin on her face--sumpin red."
+
+There was "sumpin" now on all the other faces in the omnibus, and it was
+a smile. The lady must have blushed away down under the paint. She
+looked at her jewelled fingers, tossed her head proudly, and very soon
+left the stage.
+
+"Topknot, how could you be so rude?" said Horace, severely; "little
+girls should be seen, and not heard."
+
+"But she speaked to me first," said Flyaway. "I wasn't goin' to say
+nuffin, and then she speaked."
+
+A young gentleman and lady opposite seemed very much amused.
+
+"I'm afraid of your bright eyes, little dear. I'll give you some candy
+if you won't tell me how I look," said the young lady, showering
+sweetmeats into Flyaway's lap.
+
+"Why, I wasn't goin' to tell her how she looked," whispered Fly, very
+much surprised, and trying to nestle out of sight behind Horace's
+shoulder.
+
+When they left the omnibus, the children had a discussion about the
+painted lady, and could not decide whether they were glad or sorry that
+Fly had spoken out so plainly.
+
+"Good enough for her," said Dotty.
+
+"But it was such a pity to hurt her feelings!" said Prudy.
+
+"Who hurted 'em?" asked Fly, looking rather sheepish.
+
+"Poh! her feelings can't be worth much," remarked Horace; "a woman
+that'll go and rig herself up in that style."
+
+"She must be near-sighted," said Aunt Madge. "She certainly can't have
+the faintest idea how thick that paint is. She ought to let somebody
+else put it on."
+
+"But, auntie, isn't it wicked to wear paint on your cheeks?"
+
+"No, Dotty, only foolish. That woman was handsome once, but her beauty
+is gone. She thinks she can make herself young again, and then people
+will admire her."
+
+"O, but they won't; they'll only laugh."
+
+"Very true, Dotty; but I dare say she never thought of that till this
+little child told her."
+
+"Fly," said Horace, "You are doing a great deal of good going round
+hurting folks' feelings."
+
+"Poor woman!" said Aunt Madge, with a pitying smile; "she might comfort
+herself by trying to make her soul beautiful."
+
+"That would be altogether the best plan," said Horace, aside to Prudy;
+"she can't do much with her body, that's a fact; it's too dried up."
+
+All this while they were passing elegant shops, and Aunt Madge let the
+children pause as long as they liked before the windows, to admire the
+beautiful things.
+
+"Whose little grampa is that?" cried Fly, pointing to a Santa Claus
+standing on the pavement and holding out his hands with a very pleasant
+smile; "he's all covered with a snow-storm."
+
+"He isn't alive," said Dotty; "and the snow is only painted on his coat
+in little dots."
+
+"Well, I didn't spect he was alive, Dotty Dimple, only but he made
+believe he was. And O, see that hossy! he's dead, too, but he looks as
+if you could ride on him."
+
+"This other window is the handsomest, Fly; don't I wish I had some of
+those beautiful dripping, red ear-rings?"
+
+"Why, little sister," said Prudy, "I'd as soon think of wanting a gold
+nose as those cat-tail ear-rings. What would Grandma Read say?"
+
+"Why, she'd say 'thee' and 'thou,' I s'pose, and ask me if I called 'em
+the ornaments of meek and quiet spirits," said Dotty, with a slight curl
+of the lip. "Auntie, is it wicked to wear jewels, if your grandma's a
+Quaker?"
+
+"I think not; that is, if somebody should give you a pair; but I hope
+somebody never will. It is a mere matter of taste, however. O, children,
+now I think of it, I'll give you each a little pin-money to spend,
+to-day, just as you like. A dollar each to Prudy and Dotty; and, Horace,
+here is fifty cents for Flyaway."
+
+"O, you darling auntie!" cried the little Parlins, in a breath. Dotty
+shut this, the largest bill she had ever owned, into her red
+porte-monnaie, feeling sure she should never want for anything again
+that money can buy.
+
+"There, now, Hollis," said Fly, drawing her mouth down and her eyebrows
+up, "where's my skipt? _my_ skipt?"
+
+"What? A little snip like you mustn't have money," answered Horace,
+carelessly; "auntie gave it to me."
+
+The moment he had spoken the words, he was sorry, for the child was too
+young and sensitive to be trifled with. She never doubted that her great
+cruel brother had robbed her. It was too much. Her "dove's eyes" shot
+fire. Flyaway could be terribly angry, and her anger was "as quick as a
+chain o' lightning." Before any one had time to think twice, she had
+turned on her little heel, and was running away. With one impulse the
+whole party turned and followed.
+
+"Prudy and I haven't breath enough to run," said Aunt Madge. "Here we
+are at Stewart's. You'll find us in the rotunda, Horace. Come back here
+with Fly, as soon as you have caught her."
+
+As soon as he had caught her!
+
+They were on Broadway, which was lined with people, moving to and fro.
+Horace and Dotty had to push their way through the crowd, while little
+Fly seemed to float like a creature of air.
+
+"Stop, Fly! Stop, Fly!" cried Horace; but that only added speed to her
+wings.
+
+"She's like a piece of thistle-down," laughed Horace; "when you get near
+her you blow her away."
+
+"Stop, O, stop," cried Dotty; "Horace was only in fun. Don't run away
+from us, Fly."
+
+But by this time the child was so far off that the words were lost in
+the din.
+
+"Why, where is she? I don't see her," exclaimed Horace, as the little
+blue figure suddenly vanished, like a puff of smoke. "Did she cross the
+street?"
+
+"I don't know, Horace. O, dear, I don't know."
+
+It was the first time a fear had entered either of their minds. Knowing
+very little of the danger of large cities, they had not dreamed that the
+foolish little Fly might get caught in some dreadful spider's web.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+DOTTY HAVING HER OWN WAY.
+
+
+Yes, Fly was out of sight; that was certain. Whether she had turned to
+the right, or to the left, or had merely gone straight on, fallen down,
+and been trampled on, that was the question. How was one to find out?
+People enough to inquire of, but nobody to answer.
+
+Horace had as many thoughts as a drowning man. How had he ever dared
+bring such a will-o'-the-wisp away from home? How had his mother
+consented to let him? His father had charged him, over and over, not to
+let go Fly's hand in the street. That did very well to talk about; but
+what could you do with a child that wasn't made of flesh and blood, but
+the very lightest kind of gas?
+
+"Dotty, turn down this street, and I'll keep on up Broadway. No--no;
+you'd get lost. What shall we do? Go just where I do, as hard as you can
+run, and don't lose sight of me."
+
+Dotty began to pant. She could not keep on at this rate of speed, and
+Horace saw it.
+
+"You'll have to go back to Stewart's."
+
+"Where's Stewart's?" gasped Dotty, still running.
+
+"Why, that stone building on Tenth Street, with blue curtains, where we
+left auntie."
+
+"I don't know anything about Tenth Street or blue curtains."
+
+"But you'll know it when you get there. Just cross over--"
+
+"O, Horace Clifford, I can't cross over! There's horses and carriages
+every minute; and my mother made me almost promise I wouldn't ever cross
+over."
+
+"There are plenty of policemen, Dotty; they'll take you by the
+shoulder--"
+
+"O, Horace Clifford, they shan't take me by the shoulder! S'pose I want
+'em marching me off to the lockup?" screamed Dotty, who believed the
+lockup was the chief end and aim of policemen.
+
+"Well, then, I don't know anything what to do with you," said Horace, in
+despair.
+
+It seemed very hard that he should have the care of this willful little
+cousin, just when he wanted so much to be free to pursue Flyaway.
+
+"If you won't go back to Stewart's, you won't. Will you go into this
+shop, then, and wait till I call for you?"
+
+"You'll forget to call."
+
+"I certainly won't forget."
+
+"Well, then, I'll go in; but I won't promise to stay. I want to help
+hunt for Fly just as much as you do."
+
+"Dotty Dimple, look me right in the eye. I can't stop to coax you. I'm
+frightened to death about Fly. Do you go into this store, and stay in it
+till I call for you, if it's six hours. If you stir, you're lost.
+Do--you--_hear_?"
+
+"Yes, I _hear_.--H'm, he thinks my ears are thick as ears o' corn? No
+holes in 'em to hear with, I s'pose! Horace Clifford hasn't got the
+_say_ o' me, though. I can go all over town for all o' him!"
+
+"What will you have, my little lady?" said a clerk, bowing to Dotty.
+
+"I don't want anything, if you please, sir. There was a boy, and he
+asked me to stay here while he went to find something."
+
+"Very well; sit as long as you please."
+
+"Screwed right down into the floor, this piano stool is," thought Dotty;
+"makes it real hard to sit on, because you can't whirl it. Guess I'll
+walk 'round a while. Why, if here isn't a window right in the floor!
+Strong enough to walk on. There's a man going over it with big boots and
+a cane. I can look right down into the cellar. Only just I can't see any
+thing, though, the glass is so thick."
+
+Dotty watched the clerks measuring off yards of cloth, tapping on the
+counter, and calling out, "Cash." It was rather funny, at first, to see
+the little boys run; but Dotty soon tired of it.
+
+"Horace is gone a long while," thought she, going to the door and
+looking out.
+
+"He has forgotten to call, or he's forgotten where he left me, or else
+he hasn't found Fly. Dear, dear! I can't wait. I'll just go out a few
+steps, and p'rhaps I'll meet 'em."
+
+She walked out a little way, seeing nothing but a multitude of strange
+faces.
+
+"Well, I should think this was queer! I'll go right back to that store,
+and sit down on the piano stool. If Horace Clifford can't be more
+polite! Well, I should think!"
+
+Dotty went back, and entered, as she supposed, the store she had left;
+but a great change had come over it. It had the same counters, and
+stools, and goods on lines, marked "Selling off below cost;" but the men
+looked very different. "I don't see how they could change round so
+quick," thought Dotty; "I haven't been gone _more'n_ a minute."
+
+"What shall I serve you to, mees," said one of them, with a smile that
+was all black eyes and white teeth. Dotty thought he looked very much
+like Lina _Rosenbug's_ brother; and his hair was so shiny and sticky, it
+must have been dipped in molasses.
+
+She answered him with some confusion. "I don't want anything. I was the
+girl, you know, that the boy was going somewhere to find something."
+
+The man smiled wickedly, and said, "Yees, mees." In an instant it
+flashed across Dotty that she had got into the wrong store. Where was
+the glass window she had walked on? They couldn't have taken that out
+while she was gone. The floor was whole, and made of nothing but boards.
+
+"Well, it's very queer stores should be _twins_," thought Dotty.
+
+She entered the next one. It was not a "twin;" it was full of books and
+pictures.
+
+"Why didn't Horace leave me here, in the first place, it was so much
+nicer. And they let people read and handle the pictures. O, they have
+the _goldest_-looking things!"
+
+How shocked Prudy would have been, if she had seen her little sister
+reaching up to the counter, and turning over the leaves of books, side
+by side with grown people! Miss Dimple was never very bashful; and what
+did she care for the people in New York, who never saw her before? She
+soon became absorbed in a fairy story. Seconds, minutes, quarters; it
+was a whole hour before she came to herself enough to remember that
+Horace was to call for her, and she was not where he had left her.
+
+"But he can't scold; for didn't he keep me waiting, too? Now I'll go
+back."
+
+The next place she entered was a cigar store.
+
+"I might have known better than to go in; for there's that wooden Indian
+standing there, a-purpose to keep ladies out!"
+
+"O, here's a 'Sample Room.' Now this _must_ be the place, for it says
+'Push,' on the green door, just as the other one did."
+
+What was Dotty's astonishment, when she found she had rushed into a room
+which held only tables, bottles, and glasses, and men drinking something
+that smelt like hot brandy!
+
+"I shan't go into any more 'Sample Rooms.' I didn't know a 'Sample'
+meant whiskey! But, I do declare, it's funny where _my_ store is gone
+to."
+
+The child was going farther and farther away from it.
+
+"Here is one that looks a little like it Any way, I can see a glass
+window in there, on the floor."
+
+A lady stood at a counter, folding a piece of green velvet ribbon. Dotty
+determined to make friends with her; so she went up to her, and said, in
+a low voice, "Will you please tell me, ma'am, if I'm the same little
+girl that was in here before? No, I don't mean so. I mean, did I go into
+the same store, or is this a different one? Because there's a boy going
+to call for me, and I thought I'd better know."
+
+Of course the lady smiled, and said it might, or might not be the same
+place; but she did not remember to have seen Dotty before.
+
+"What was the number of the store? The boy ought to have known."
+
+"But I don't believe he did," replied Dotty, indignantly; "he never said
+a word to me about numbers. I'm almost afraid I'll get lost!"
+
+"I should be quite afraid of it, child. Where do you live?"
+
+"In Portland, in the State of Maine. Prudy and I came to New York: our
+auntie sent for us--I know the place when I see it; side of a church
+with ivy; but O, dear! I'm afraid the stage don't stop there. She's at
+Mr. Stewart's--she and Prudy."
+
+"Do you mean Stewart's store?"
+
+"O, no'm; it's a man she knows," replied Dotty, confidently; "he lives
+in a blue house."
+
+The lady asked no more questions. If Dotty had said "Stewart's store,"
+and had remembered that the curtains were blue, and not the building,
+Miss Kopper would have thought she knew what to do; she would have sent
+the child straight to Stewart's.
+
+"Poor little thing!" said she, twisting the long curl, which hung down
+the back of her neck like a bell-rope, and looking as if she cared more
+about her hair than she cared for all the children in Portland. "The
+best thing you can do is to go right into the druggist's, next door but
+one, and look in the City Directory. Do you know your aunt's husband's
+name?"
+
+"O, yes'm. Colonel Augustus Allen, _Fiftieth_ Avenue."
+
+"Well, then, there'll be no difficulty. Just go in and ask to look in
+the Directory; they'll tell you what stage to take. Now I must attend to
+these ladies. Hope you'll get home safe."
+
+"A handsome child," said one of the ladies. "Yes, from the country,"
+replied Miss Kopper with a sweet smile; "I have just been showing her
+the way home."
+
+Ah, Miss Kopper, perhaps you thought you were telling the truth; but
+instead of relieving the country child's perplexity, you had confused
+her more than ever. What should Dotty Dimple know about a City
+Directory? She forgot the name of it before she got to the druggist's.
+
+"Please, sir, there's something in here,--may I see it?--that shows
+folks where they live."
+
+"A policeman?"
+
+"No; O, no, sir."
+
+After some time, the gentleman, being rather shrewd, surmised what she
+wanted, and gave her the book.
+
+"Not that, sir," said Dotty, ready to cry.
+
+Perhaps you will be as ready to laugh, when you hear that the child
+really supposed a City Directory was an instrument that drew out and
+shut up like a telescope, and, by peeping through it, she could see the
+distant home of Colonel Allen, on "Fiftieth Avenue."
+
+The apothecary did not laugh at her; but, being a kind man, and,
+moreover, not having curls hanging down his neck which needed attention,
+he gave his whole care to Dotty, found an omnibus for her, told the
+driver just where to let her out, and made her repeat her uncle's street
+and number till he thought there was no danger of a mistake.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+DOTTY REBUKED.
+
+
+One would have thought that now all Dotty's troubles were over; and so
+they would have been, if she had not tried so hard to remember the
+number. She said it over and over so many times, that all of a sudden it
+went out of her mind. It was like rolling a ball on the ground, backward
+and forward, till most unexpectedly it pops into a hole. Very much
+frightened, Dotty bit her lip, twirled her front hair, and pinched her
+left cheek--all in vain; the number wouldn't come.
+
+"O, dear, what'll I do? I'd open that cellar door, where the driver is;
+but he's all done up in a blue cape, and don't know anything only how
+to whip his horses. And there don't anybody know where anybody lives in
+this city; so it's no use to ask. For what do they care? They'd tell you
+to look in the Dictionary. There's nobody in Portland ever told me to
+look in a Dictionary. Here they are, sitting round here, just as happy,
+all but me. They all live in a number, and they know what it is; but
+they keep it to themselves,--they don't tell. It always makes people
+feel better to know where they're going to. When I'm in Portland I know
+how to get to Park Street, and how to get to Munjoy, and how to get to
+Back Cove, with my eyes shut. But they don't make things as they ought
+to in New York. You can't find out what to do."
+
+So the stage rumbled, and Dotty grumbled. Presently a lady in an ermine
+cloak got out, and Dotty did not know of anything better to do than to
+follow. She certainly was on Fifth Avenue, and perhaps, if she walked
+on, she should come to the number.
+
+"There isn't any house along here that looks like auntie's," said she,
+anxiously; "only they all look like it some. I never saw such a place as
+this city, So many same things right over, and over; and then, when you
+go into 'em, its just as different, and not the place you s'posed it
+was."
+
+Here Dotty ran up some steps, and rang a bell. She thought the damask
+curtains looked familiar.
+
+"No, no," cried she, running down again, as fast as the mouse ran down
+the clock; "my auntie don't keep onions in her bay window, I hope!"
+
+It was hyacinth bulbs, in glass vases, which had excited Dotty's
+disgust.
+
+"O, I guess I'm on the wrong side of the street; no wonder I can't find
+the house. There, I see a chamber window open; _our_ chamber window was
+open. I'm going to cross over and get near enough to see if there's a
+little clock on the shelf that ticks like a dog wagging his tail."
+
+No, there was no clock of any sort, and where the shelf ought to be was
+a baby's crib.
+
+"Well, any way, here's that beautiful church, with ivy round it; it's
+ever so near auntie's; so I'll keep walking."
+
+Dotty was right when she said the church was near auntie's--it was
+within three doors; but she was wrong when she kept walking precisely
+the wrong way. She crossed over to Sixth Avenue. Now, where were the
+brown houses? She saw the horse-cars plodding along, and tried to read
+the words on them.
+
+"'Sixth Ave. and Fifty-Ninth Street.' Why, what's an _ave_? I never heard
+of such a thing before; we don't have 'aves' in Portland. There are ever
+so many people getting out of that car. While it stops, I'll peep in,
+and see where it's going to. Perhaps there's a name inside that tells."
+
+And, with her usual rashness, Dotty stepped upon the platform of the
+car, and looked in. What she expected to see she hardly knew,--perhaps
+"Aunt Madge's House," in gold letters; but what she really saw was, "No
+Smoking;" those two words, and nothing more.
+
+"Well, who wants to smoke? I'm sure _I_ don't," thought Dotty,
+disdainfully, and was turning to step off the platform, when Horace
+Clifford seized her by the shoulder.
+
+"Where did you come from, you runaway?" said he, gruffly.
+
+Close beside him were Aunt Madge and Prudy; all three were getting out
+of the car.
+
+"Thank Heaven, one of them is found," cried Aunt Madge, her face very
+pale, her large eyes full of trouble.
+
+Prudy kissed and scolded in the same breath. "O, Dotty Dimple, you'd
+better believe we're glad to see you?--but what a naughty girl! A pretty
+race you've led Horace, and he just wild about Fly!"
+
+"H'm! what'd he go off for, then, and leave me there, sitting on a piano
+stool? S'pose I's going to sit there all day? Didn't I want to go home
+as much as the rest of you."
+
+"And how did you get home? I'd like to know that," said Horace, walking
+on with great strides, and then coming back again to the "ladies;" for
+his anxiety about his little sister would not allow him to behave
+calmly.
+
+"I rode."
+
+"You weren't in the car _we_ came in."
+
+"N-o; I just happened to be peeking in there you know. But I came in an
+_omnibius_."
+
+"It is wonderful," said Aunt Madge, looking puzzled, "that you ever knew
+what omnibus to take."
+
+Dotty looked down to see if her boot was buttoned, and forgot to look up
+again. "Well, _I_ shouldn't have known one _omnibius_, as you call it,
+from another," said Prudy, lost in admiration. "Why, Dotty, how bright
+you are! And there we were, so afraid about you, and spoke to a
+policeman to look you up."
+
+"I wouldn't let a p'liceman catch _me_," said Dotty, tossing her head.
+"But haven't you found Fly yet?"
+
+They were at home by this time, and Horace was ringing the bell.
+
+"No, the dear child is still missing; but the police are on her track,"
+said Aunt Madge, looking at her watch. "It is now one o'clock. Keep a
+good heart, Horace, my boy. John shall go straight to the telegraph
+office, and wait there for a despatch. Don't you leave us, dear; we
+can't spare you, and you can do no good."
+
+Horace made no reply, except to tap the heels of his boots together. He
+looked utterly crushed. A large city was just as strange to him as it
+was to Dotty, and he could only obey his aunt's orders, and try to hope
+for the best. Dotty seemed to be the only one who felt like saying a
+word, and she talked incessantly.
+
+"O, what'd you send the p'lice after her for? To put her in the lockup,
+and make her cry and think she's been naughty? It's the awfulest city
+that ever I saw. Folks might send her home, if they were a mind to, but
+they won't. They don't care what 'comes of you. There's cars and stages
+going to which ways, and nothing but 'No Smoking,' inside. And I went
+and peeped in at a window, and there was _onions_! And how'd I know
+where to go to? There was a girl with a long curl, and she said, 'Go to
+the 'pothecary's;' and what would Fly have known where she meant? And he
+looked in a Dictionary, and put me in a stage,--I was going to tell you
+about that when I got ready,--and asked me if I had ten cents, and I
+had; and then I forgot what the number was, and that was the time I saw
+the onions, or I should have gone right into somebody's else's house.
+And I knew there was a church with ivy round, but Fly don't know; she's
+nothing but a baby. And I should have thought, Horace Clifford, you
+might have given her that money! That was what made her run off; you was
+real cruel, and that's why I wouldn't mind what you said. And--and--"
+
+"Hush," said Aunt Madge, brushing back a spray of fair curls, which the
+wind had tossed over her forehead. "I don't allow a word of scolding in
+my house. If you don't feel pleasant, Dotty, you may go into the back
+yard and scold into a hole."
+
+Dotty stopped suddenly. She knew her aunt was displeased; she felt it in
+the tones of her voice.
+
+"Dotty, the wind has been at play with your hair as well as mine.
+Suppose we both go up stairs a few minutes?"
+
+"There, auntie's going to reason with me," thought Dotty, winding slowly
+up the staircase; "I didn't suppose she was one of that kind."
+
+"No dear, I'm _not_ one of that kind," said Mrs. Allen, roguishly; for
+she saw just what the child was thinking. "'I come not here to talk.'
+All I have to say is this: Disobey again, and I send you home
+immediately."
+
+"Yes'm," said the little culprit, blushing crimson. "Now, brush your
+hair, and let us go down." This was the only allusion Mrs. Allen ever
+made to the subject; but after this, she and Dotty understood each other
+perfectly. Dotty had learned, once for all, that her aunt was not to be
+trifled with.
+
+The child really was ashamed--thoroughly ashamed; but do you suppose
+she admitted it to Horace? Not she. And he, so full of anguish
+concerning the lost Fly, found not a word of fault; scarcely even
+thought of his naughty cousin at all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE LOST FLY.
+
+
+Now we must go back and see what has become of the little one.
+
+At first her heart had swollen with rage. Anger had set her going, just
+as a blow from a battledoor sends off a shuttlecock. And, once being
+started, the poor little shuttlecock couldn't stop.
+
+"Auntie gave me that skipt. Hollis is a very wicked boy; steals skipt
+from little gee-urls. I don't ever want to see Hollis no more."
+
+What she meant to do, or where to go, she had no more idea than the blue
+clouds overhead. She had no doubt her brother was close behind, trying
+to overtake her. Her sole thought was, that she "wouldn't ever see
+Hollis no more." She knew nothing could make him so unhappy as that.
+"I'll lose me, and then how'll he feel?"
+
+"Lose me!" A wild thought, gone in a moment; but meanwhile she was
+already lost.
+
+"I hope auntie won't give Hollis nuffin to eat, 'cause he's took away my
+skipt; nuffin to eat but meat and vertato, athout any pie."
+
+Flyaway shook her head so hard, that the "war-plume" under her bonnet
+would have nodded, if the air could have got at it. "Why, where's
+Hollis?" said she, looking back, and finding, to her surprise, he was
+not to be seen. "I spected he'd come. I thought I heard him walking
+ahind me."
+
+Flyaway's anger had died out by this time. It never lasted longer than
+a Fourth of July torpedo.
+
+"He didn't know I runned off. Guess I'll go back, and he'll give me the
+skipt; and then I'll forgive him all goody."
+
+A very nice plan; only, instead of going back, she turned a corner, and
+tripped along towards University Place. She had twisted her head so much
+in looking for Horace, that it was completely turned round. And,
+besides, a little farther on was a man playing a harp, and a small boy a
+violin. Fly paused and listened, till she no longer remembered Horace or
+the "skipt." She forgot this was New York, and dreamed she had come to
+fairy-land. Her soul was full of music. Happy thoughts about nothing in
+particular made her smile and clap her hands. Birds, flowers, Santa
+Clauses, Flipperties, and "pepnits" seemed to hover near. Something
+beautiful was just going to happen, she didn't know what.
+
+After the man had played for some time without attracting attention from
+any body but Flyaway and a poor old beggar woman, he put his harp in a
+green bag, slung it over his shoulder, and walked off. Flyaway followed
+without knowing it. Down Sixth Avenue went the music-man, and close at
+his heels went she. By and by she saw a little girl, no larger than
+herself, with a great bundle on her shoulders.
+
+"You don't s'pose she's got a music on _her_ back?--No, not a music;
+it's too soft all swelled out in a bunch."
+
+Fly went nearer the little girl, to see what she was carrying; and as
+she did so, some gray coals, mixed with ashes, fell out of the bundle
+upon her nice cloak.
+
+"Why, she's been and carried off her mother's fireplace," thought Fly,
+shaking her cloak in disgust; "what you s'pose she wanted to do that
+for?"
+
+But far from carrying off her mother's fireplace, the ragged little girl
+had only been picking up old coal out of barrels, and was taking it home
+to burn. It had already been burned once, and picked over and burned
+again, and thrown away; but perhaps this poor child's mother could coax
+it into a faint glow, warm enough to fry a few potatoes.
+
+While Flyaway was shaking her cloak, and staring at some old silk
+dresses and bed-quilts, which were hung before a shop-door, the man with
+the harp on his back, and the boy with a violin under his arm, had
+turned a corner, and passed out of sight. Flyaway rubbed her eyes, and
+looked again. They must have gone down through the brick pavement, but
+she couldn't see any hole. Far away in the distance she heard their
+music again, and it did not come from under ground. She ran to overtake
+it, and turned into Bleecker Street. No music-man there, but a good
+supply of oranges and apples.
+
+"Needn't folks put their hands in, and take some out the barrels? Then
+why for did the folks put 'em on' doors?"
+
+While pondering this grave question, she was jostled by a man carrying a
+rocking-chair, and very nearly fell down stairs into an oyster-saloon. A
+minute more and she was back on Broadway, the very street, where Aunt
+Madge and Prudy were waiting for her, but so much lower down that she
+might as well have been in the State of Maine.
+
+"Now, I'll go find my Hollis," said she turning another corner, and
+running the wrong way with all her might. Past candy-stalls, past
+toy-shops, past orange-wagons. Hark, music again! Not the soft strains
+of a harp, but the stirring notes of bugle, fife, and drum. Fly kept
+time with her feet.
+
+"Here we go marchin' on," hummed she. But the crowd "marchin' on" with
+her was a strange one. Carts full of hammers, pincers, and all sorts of
+iron tools, and men in gray shirts, with black caps on their heads. Some
+of the men had banners, with great black words, such as "Equal Rights,"
+or something like them, in German; but of course Fly could not tell one
+letter from another. She only knew it was all very "homebly," in spite
+of the music. She began to think she had better get away as soon as she
+could; so she tried to cross the street, but some one held her back; it
+was a lady, carrying a small dog in her arms, like a baby.
+
+"Don't go there, child; that's a strike, you'll get killed."
+
+Fly knew but one meaning for the word _strike_; and, tearing herself
+from the lady, ran screaming down Broadway, with the thought that every
+man's hand was against her.
+
+On she went, and on went the strike, close behind her. A little while
+ago she had been following music, and now music was following her. But
+the fifes and drums were rather slow, and Flyaway's feet were very
+swift; so it was not long before the gray men, with their white banners
+and clattering carts, were far behind her. No danger now that any of the
+wicked creatures would strike her; so she slackened her pace.
+
+She did begin to wonder why she had not found Horace; still, she was not
+at all alarmed, and there was a dreadful din in the streets, which
+confused her thoughts. It seemed as if people were making it on purpose.
+Once, at Willowbrook, she had heard boys banging tin pans, grinding
+coffee mills, and pounding with mortars. She had liked that,--they
+called it the "Calathumpian Band,"--and she liked this too; it sounded
+about as uproarious.
+
+While she sauntered along, spying wonders, her eye was attracted by some
+balancing-toys, which a man was showing off at one of the corners. What
+a pleasant man he was, to set them spinning just to amuse little girls!
+Fly was delighted with one wee soldier, in a blue coat with brass
+buttons, who kept dancing and bowing with the greatest politeness.
+"Captain Jinks, of the horse-marines," said the toy-man, introducing
+him. "Buy him, miss; he'll make a nice little husband for you; only
+fifteen cents."
+
+Fly felt quite flattered. It was the first time in her life any one had
+ever asked her to buy anything, and she thought she must have grown tall
+since she came from Indiana. She put her fingers in her mouth, then took
+them out, and put them in her pocket.
+
+"Here's my porte-monnaie-ry," said she, dolefully; "but I haven't but
+two cents--no more. Hollis carried it off."
+
+"Well, well, run along, then. Don't you see you're right in the way?"
+
+Fly was surprised and grieved at the change in the man's tone: she had
+expected he would pity her for not having any money.
+
+"Come here, you little lump of love," called out a mellow voice; and
+there, close by, sat a wizened old woman, making flowers into nosegays.
+She had on a quilted hood as soft as her voice, but everything else
+about her was as hard as the door-stone she sat on.
+
+"See my beautiful flowers," said the old crone, pointing to the table
+before her; "who cares for them jumping things over yonder? I don't."
+
+The flowers were tied in bouquets--sweet violets, rosebuds, and
+heliotrope. Fly, whose head just reached the top of the table, smelt
+them, and forgot the "little husband, for fifteen cents."
+
+"He's a cross man, dearie," said the old woman, lowering her voice, "or
+he wouldn't have sent you off so quick, just because you hadn't any
+money. Now, I love little girls, and I'll warrant we can make some kind
+of a trade for one of my posies."
+
+Fly smiled, and quickly seized a bouquet with a clove pink in it.
+
+"Not so fast, child! What you got that you can give me for it? I don't
+mind the money. That old pocket-book will do, though 'tain't wuth much."
+
+It was very surprising to Fly to hear her port-monnaie called old; for
+it was bought last week, and was still as red as the cheeks of the
+painted lady.
+
+"I don't _dass_ to give folks my porte-monnaie-ry," said she, clutching
+it tighter, but holding the flowers to her nose all the while.
+
+"O, fudge! Well, what else you got in your pocket? A handkerchief?"
+
+"No, my hangerfiss is in my muff."
+
+"That? Why, there isn't a speck o' lace on it. Nice little ladies always
+has lace. Here's a letter in the corner; what is it?"
+
+"Hollis says it's K; stands for Flyaway."
+
+"Well, you're such a pretty little pink, I guess I'll take it; but
+'tain't wuth lookin' at," said the crafty old woman, who saw at a glance
+it was pure linen, and quite fine.
+
+"Now run along, baby; your mummer will be waitin' for you."
+
+Fly walked on slowly. Ought she to have parted with her very best
+hangerfiss!
+
+"Nice ole lady, loved little gee-urls; but what you s'pose folks was
+goin' to cry into now?"
+
+Tears started at the thought. One of them dropped into the eye of the
+squirrel, who sat on the muff, peeping up into her face.
+
+"Nice ole lady, I s'pose; but folks never wanted to buy my
+_hangerfisses_ byfore!" thought Fly, much puzzled by the state of
+society in New York. "And I've got some beau-fler flowers to my auntie's
+house. Wake up--wake up!" added she, blowing open a pink rose-bud;
+"you's too little for me."
+
+But the bud did not wish to wake up and be a rose; it curled itself
+together, and went to sleep again.
+
+"I don't see where Hollis stays to all the time," exclaimed the little
+one, beginning to have a faint curiosity about it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+"THE FRECKLED DOG."
+
+
+But just then a gentle-looking blind girl came along led by a dog. The
+sight was so strange that Flyaway stopped to admire; for whatever else
+she might be afraid of, she always loved and trusted a dog.
+
+"Doggie, doggie," cried she, patting the little animal's head.
+
+"O, _what_ a sweet voice," said the blind girl, putting out her hand and
+groping till she touched Fly's shoulder. "I never heard such a voice!"
+
+This was what strangers often said, and Flyaway never doubted the
+sweetness was caused by eating so much candy; but just now she had had
+none for two days.
+
+"What makes you shut your eyes up, right in the street, girl? Is the
+_seeingness_ all gone out of 'em?"
+
+"Yes, you darling. I haven't had any seeingness in my eyes for a year."
+
+"You didn't? Then you's _blind-eyed_," returned Flyaway, with perfect
+coolness.
+
+"And don't you feel sorry for me--not a bit?"
+
+"No, 'cause your dog is freckled so pretty."
+
+"But I can't see his freckles."
+
+"Well, he's got 'em. Little yellow ones, spattered out all over him."
+
+"But if I had eyes like you, I shouldn't need any dog. I could go about
+the streets alone."
+
+"Well, I don't like to go 'bout the streets alone; I want my own
+brother Hollis."
+
+"I hope you haven't got lost, little dear?"
+
+"No," laughed Fly, gayly; "I didn't get lost! But I don't know where
+nobody is! And there don't nobody know where _I_ am!"
+
+The blind girl took Fly's little hand tenderly in hers.
+
+"Come, turn down this street with me, and tell me all about it."
+
+Fly trudged along, prattling merrily, for about a minute: then she drew
+away. "'Tisn't a nice place; I don't want to go there."
+
+A look of pain crossed the blind girl's face.
+
+"No, I dare say you don't. It isn't much of a place for folks with silk
+bonnets on."
+
+"You can't see my bonnet; you can't see anything, you're blind-eyed;
+but," said Fly, glancing sharply around, "it isn't pretty here, at all;
+and there's a dead cat right in the street."
+
+"Yes, I think likely."
+
+"And there's a boy. I spect he frowed the cat out the window; he hasn't
+nuffin on but dirty cloe's."
+
+"Do you see some steps?" said the blind girl, putting her hand out
+cautiously. "Don't fall down."
+
+"I shan't fall down; I'm going home."
+
+"O, don't child; you must come with me. My mother will take care of
+you."
+
+"I don't want nobody's mother to take 'are o' me; I've got a mamma
+myself!"
+
+"How little you know!" said the blind girl, thinking aloud; "how lucky
+it is I found you! and O, dear, how I wish I could see! You'll slip
+away in spite of me."
+
+But Flyaway allowed herself to be drawn along, step by step, partly
+because she liked the "freckled dog," and partly because she had not
+ceased being amused by the droll sight of a person walking with closed
+eyes.
+
+"What's the name of you, girl?"
+
+"Maria."
+
+"Maria? So was my mamma; her name was Maria, when she was a little girl.
+O, look, there's another boy; don't you see him? Up high, in that house.
+Got a big box with a string to it."
+
+A very rough-looking boy was standing at a third-story window, lowering
+a bandbox by a clothes-line. As Fly watched the box slowly coming down,
+the boy called out,--
+
+"Get in, little un, and I'll give you a free ride."
+
+"O, no--O, no; I don't _dass_ to."
+
+"Yes, yes; go in, lemons," said the boy, choking with laughter, as he
+saw the child's horror. "If you don't do it, by cracky, I'll come down
+and fetch you."
+
+At this, Fly was frightened nearly out of her senses, and ran so fast
+that the dog could scarcely have kept up with her, even if he had not
+had a blind mistress pulling him back.
+
+"O, where are you?" exclaimed Maria. "Don't run away from me,--don't!"
+
+"He's a-gon to kill me in two," cried Flyaway, stopping for breath.'
+"he's a-gon to kill me in two-oo!"
+
+"No, he isn't, dear! It's only Izzy Paul He couldn't catch you, if he
+tried. He's lame, and goes on crutches."
+
+"But he said a swear word,--yes he, did," sobbed the child, never
+doubting that a boy who could swear was capable of murder, though he had
+neither hands nor feet.
+
+"Stop, now," said Maria, clutching Fly as if she had been a spinning
+top. "This is my house. Mother, mother, here's a little girl; catch
+her--hold her--keep her!"
+
+"Me? What should I catch a little girl for?" said Mrs. Brooks, a faded
+woman with a tired face, and a nose that moved up and down when she
+talked. She had been standing at the door of their tumbledown tenement,
+looking for her daughter, and was surprised to see her bringing a
+strange child with her. It was not often that well-dressed people
+wandered into that dirty alley.
+
+"The poor little thing has got lost, mother. Perhaps _you_ can find out
+where she came from. I didn't ask her any questions; it was as much as I
+could do to keep up with her."
+
+Maria put her hand on her side. Fast walking always tired her, for she
+was afraid every moment of falling.
+
+They had to go down a flight of stairs to get into the house; and after
+they got there Fly looked around in dismay.
+
+"I don't want to stay in the stable," she murmured. Indeed it was not
+half as nice as the place where her father kept his horse.
+
+"But this is where we have to live," sighed Maria.
+
+"Have things to eat?" asked the little stranger, in a solemn whisper.
+
+There were a few chairs with broken backs, a few shelves with clean
+dishes, a few children with hungry faces. In one corner was a clumsy
+bedstead, and in a tidy bed lay a pale man.
+
+"Who've you got there, Maria?" said he. "Bring her along, and stick her
+up on the bed."
+
+"Don't be afraid," said Mrs. Brooks; "it's only pa; wouldn't the little
+girl like to talk to him? He's sick."
+
+Flyaway was not at all afraid, for the man smiled pleasantly, and did
+not look as if he would hurt anybody. Mrs. Brooks set her on the bed,
+and Maria, afraid of losing her, held her by one foot. The children all
+crowded around to see the little lady in a silk bonnet holding a
+button-hole bouquet to her bosom.
+
+"Ain't she a ducky dilver!" said the oldest boy. "Pa'll be pleased, for
+he don't see things much. Has to keep abed all the time."
+
+Mr. Brooks tried to smile, and Flyaway whispered to Maria, with sudden
+pity,--
+
+"Sorry he's sick. Has he got to stay sick? Can't you find the camphor
+bottle?"
+
+"O, father, she thinks if ycu had some camphor to smell of, 'twould cure
+you."
+
+Then they all laughed, and Fly timidly offered the sick man her flowers.
+
+"What, that pretty posy for me? Bless you, baby, they'll do me a sight
+more good than camfire!"
+
+"There," said Maria, joyfully, "now pa is pleased; I know by the sound
+of his voice. Poor pa! only think, little girl, a stick of timber fell
+on him, and lamed him for life!"
+
+"Yes," said Bennie, "the lower part of him is as limber as a rag."
+
+"She don't sense a word you say," remarked Mrs. Brooks, shaking up a
+pillow, "See what we can get out of her. What's your name, dear?"
+
+"Katie Clifford."
+
+"Where do you live?"
+
+"I _have_ been borned in Nindiana."
+
+Fly spoke with some pride. She considered her birth an honor to the
+state.
+
+"But where did you come from, Katie? That's what we mean."
+
+"I camed from heaven," said the child, with one of her wise looks.
+
+"Beats all, don't she?" cried Mr. Brooks, admiringly. "Looks like an
+angel, I declare for't. Did you just drop down out of the sky?"
+
+"No, sir," answered Flyaway, folding her little hands as if she were
+saying her prayers; "I camed down when I was a baby."
+
+[Illustration: "I CAMED DOWN WHEN I WAS A BABY."]
+
+"That's what makes your hair so _goldy_," said Bennie. "Mother, did you
+ever see such eyes? Say, did you ever? So soft, and kinder shiny, too."
+
+"Children, don't stare at her; it makes her uneasy."
+
+"_I_ can't stare at her," said Maria, bitterly. "I suppose you don't
+mean me, mother."
+
+Mrs. Brooks only answered her poor daughter by a kiss.
+
+"Well, little Katie, after you were born in _Nindiana_, you came to New
+York. When did you come?"
+
+"One of these other days I camed here with Hollis."
+
+"Who's Hollis?"
+
+"He's my own brother. Got a new cap. Had his hair cut."
+
+"Who did you come to New York to see?"  "My auntie."
+
+"Her auntie! A great deal of satisfaction we are likely to get out of
+this child," said Mr. Brooks, laughing. He had not laughed before for a
+week.
+
+"What's your auntie's name?"
+
+"Aunt Madge."
+
+"Is she married?"
+
+"O, yes; and so's Uncle 'Gustus. Married together, and live together,
+just the same."
+
+"Uncle 'Gustus who? Now we'll come at it!"
+
+"Alling," replied Fly, her quick eyes roving about the room, for she was
+tired of these questions.
+
+"Allen, Augustus Allen!" said Mr. Brooks, in surprise; "I wonder if
+there can be two of them. Tell me, child, how does he look?"
+
+"Don't look like you," replied Fly, after a keen survey of Mr. Brooks.
+"Your face is pulled away down long, like that;" (stretching her hand
+out straight) "Uncle 'Gustus's face is squeezed up short" (doubling her
+hand into a ball)
+
+"I'll warrant it is the colonel himself," said Mrs. Brooks, smiling at
+the description.
+
+"Yes, that's the name of him; the 'kernil's' the name of him."
+
+"Is it possible!" said Mr. Brooks, looking very much pleased.
+
+"Uncle 'Gustus has curly hair on his cheeks, on his mouf, all round.
+_Not_ little prickles, sticking out like needles."
+
+"O, you girl!" said Bennie, frowning at Fly. "You mustn't laugh at my
+pa's beard. There's a man comes in, sometimes, and shaves him nice; but
+now the man's gone to Newark."
+
+"Is it possible," repeated Mrs. Brooks, taking the child's hand, "that
+this is Colonel Allen's little niece, and my Maria found her!"
+
+"Your Maria didn't find me," said Fly, decidedly; "I founded Maria."
+
+"So she did, pa. The first thing I knew, I heard somebody calling,
+Doggie, doggie,' in such a sweet voice; and then I looked--no, of course
+I _couldn't_ look."
+
+Here the discouraged look came over Maria's mouth, and she said no more.
+
+"There, there, cheer up, daughter," said Mr. Brooks, with tears in his
+eyes; "I was only going on to say, it is passing strange that any of our
+family should run afoul of one of the colonel's folks."
+
+"It's the Lord's doings; I haven't the slightest doubt of it," said Mrs.
+Brooks, earnestly. "You know what I've been saying to you, pa."
+
+"There, there, ma'am, _don't_," said Mr. Brooks; "don't go to raising
+false hopes. You know I'm too proud to beg of anybody's folks."
+
+"Why, pa, I shouldn't call it begging just to tell Colonel Allen how you
+are situated! Do you suppose, if he knew the facts of the case, he'd be
+willing to let you suffer? Such a faithful man as you used to be to
+work."
+
+"No, I think it's likely he wouldn't. He's got more heart than some rich
+folks; but I hain't no sort of claim on the colonel, if I did help build
+his house. And then, ma'am, you know I've been kind o' hopin'--"
+
+"Guess I'll go now, and find Hollis," said Fly, slipping down from the
+bed, for the talk did not interest her.
+
+"O, but I want to go with you, Katie," said Mrs. Brooks, coaxingly.
+"Bennie, you amuse her, while I change my dress."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+MARIA'S MOTHER.
+
+
+"I know your uncle must feel dreadfully to lose you; but never
+mind--he'll see you soon," said Mr. Brooks.
+
+"O, Uncle 'Gustus isn't there."
+
+"Not there?" said Mrs. Brooks, turning round from the cracked
+looking-glass. "Where then?"
+
+"O, he's gone off."
+
+"Gone off? Why, pa, ain't that too bad? I'm right up and down
+disappointed. But, then, the colonel has a wife; I can go to see her,
+you know; and I'll tell her just how you're situ--"
+
+"My Aunt Madge is gone off, too."
+
+"You don't say so!"
+
+"And my brother Hollis is gone."
+
+"This is a funny piece of work if it's true," said Mr. Brooks, with
+another genuine laugh; "you'd better ask her a few more questions before
+you start out. Who else is gone? Have they shut the house up?"
+
+"Yes, sir; shut it right up tight."
+
+"Nobody in it, at all?"
+
+"No, only the men and women. Prudy's gone, and Dotty Dimple's gone, and
+I'm gone."
+
+"Only the men and women, she says. That must be the servants. So the
+house must be open, pa. At any rate, I shall take her. Say by-bye, my
+pretty, and we'll be starting."
+
+Fly was very glad to go, but Maria clung to her fondly, and Bennie ran
+after her almost to Broadway, where Mrs. Brooks took a Fifth Avenue
+stage. She knew Colonel Allen's house very well, for she had seen it
+more than once, while it was in process of building. That was two or
+three years ago, when her husband was well, and the family lived very
+comfortably on Thirty-third Street. She sighed as she thought how
+different it was now. Mr. Brooks would never be able to work any more;
+they hardly had food enough to eat, and poor Maria had lost her
+eyesight.
+
+"Here we are, little Katie," said she.
+
+But the child did not wait to be helped out; she danced down the steps,
+and would have flown across the street, if Mrs. Brooks had not caught
+her.
+
+"I see it--I see it; my auntie's house. But there isn't nobody to it."
+
+The man who met them at the door was so surprised and delighted to see
+Fly, that he forgot his manners, and did not ask Mrs. Brooks in.
+
+"Bless us, the baby's found!" cried he, and ran to spread the news.
+
+Aunt Madge was walking the parlor floor, and Horace sitting on the sofa,
+as rigid as the marble elf Puck, just over his head. Prudy and Dotty had
+joined hands, and were crying softly on the rug. As the police had been
+notified of Fly's loss, all the family had to do was to wait. A servant
+was at the nearest telegraph office, with a horse and carriage, and at
+the first tidings would drive home and report.
+
+The words "The baby's found" rang through the house like a peal of
+bells. In an instant Flyaway Runaway was clasped in everybody's arms,
+and wet with everybody's tears.
+
+"Thought I'd come back," said the little truant, peeping up at her
+agitated friends' with some surprise; "thought I'd come back and get my
+skipt!"
+
+Then they exclaimed, in chorus,--
+
+"Topknot _shall_ have her skipt! The blessed baby! The darling old Fly!"
+
+And Dotty wound up by saying,--
+
+"Why, you see, we thought you's dead!"
+
+Flyaway, who had at first been very much astonished at the fuss made
+over her, now looked deeply offended.
+
+"Who said I's dead? What--a--drefful--lie!"
+
+"O, nobody said so, Fly; only we thought p'rhaps you was; and _what_
+would we do without you, you know?"
+
+"Why, if I's dead," said Fly, untying her bonnet strings, "then the
+funy-yal would come round and take me; that's all."
+
+"We are most grateful to you," said Aunt Madge, turning to Mrs. Brooks,
+"for bringing home this lost child; but do tell us where you found her."
+
+Then Mrs. Brooks related all she knew of Fly's wanderings, the little
+one putting in her own explanations.
+
+"I didn' be lost," said she sharply. "I feel jus' like frettin', when
+you say I's lost. 'Tis the truly truth; I's walking on the streets, and
+a naughty woman, she's got my hangerfiss--had ashes roses on it."
+
+"Yes, I put some otto of rose on it this morning," said Prudy. "What a
+shame!"
+
+"And I gave my flowers to the sick man. He was on the bed, with a blue
+bed-kilt. A girl name o' Maria, tookened me home. The seeingness is all
+gone out of her eyes, so she can't see."
+
+"How long has your husband been sick?" asked Mrs. Allen of the woman,
+while she was taking lunch in the dining-room. "Did you tell me he knew
+Colonel Allen?"
+
+Mrs. Brooks dropped her knife and fork; but her lips trembled so she
+could not speak. Flyaway, who sat in Horace's lap, eating ginger-snaps,
+exclaimed, "She wants some perjerves, auntie. She don't get no
+perjerves, nor nuffin nice to her house."
+
+"'Sh!" whispered Horace. The woman looked so respectable and well bred,
+that it seemed a great rudeness to allude to her poverty.
+
+But Mrs. Brooks drank some water, and then answered Aunt Madge,
+calmly,--
+
+"I'm not ashamed of being poor, Mrs. Allen; it's no disgrace, for there
+never was an honester man than my husband, nor none that worked harder,
+till a beam fell on him from the roof of a house, two years ago, and he
+lost the use of his limbs.--Yes, ma'am; he did use to know your husband.
+He was one of the workmen that helped build this house. I came and
+looked on when he was setting these very doors."
+
+"What is his name?" asked Aunt Madge, looking very much interested, and
+taking out her note-book and pencil. "What street and number?"
+
+"Cyrus Brooks, Number Blank, Blank Street, ma'am. Before the accident,
+we lived on Thirty-third Street, in very good shape; but, little by
+little, we were obliged to sell off, and finally had to move into pretty
+snug quarters. But we've always got enough to eat, such as it was,"
+added the good woman, trying not to show much she enjoyed her lunch.
+
+"I am very glad Providence has sent you here, Mrs. Brooks," said Aunt
+Madge, warmly. "I know Colonel Allen will seek you out when he comes
+home next week; but I shall not wait for that; I shall write him this
+very night."
+
+Mrs. Brooks' heart was so full that she had to cry into a coarse purple
+handkerchief of Bennie's, which happened to be in her pocket, and felt
+very much ashamed because she could not find her voice again, or any
+words in which to tell her gratitude. It was just as well, though. Mrs.
+Allen knew words were not everything. It gave her pleasure to fill a
+huge basket with nice things--wine and jelly for the sick man, plain
+food for the family, and a pretty woolen dress for Maria, which had been
+intended for Mrs. Fixfax, the housekeeper.
+
+The children looked on delighted, while the basket was filled with
+these articles, then passed over to Nathaniel, who was going home with
+Mrs. Brooks. It was amusing to watch Nathaniel, with the monstrous
+burden in his hands trying to help Mrs. Brooks down the front steps; for
+Aunt Madge was not enough of a fine lady to send the pair around by the
+servants' door.
+
+It was pleasant, too, to watch Mrs. Brooks's happy face, half hidden in
+the hood of her water-proof cloak, which kept puffing out, in the high
+wind, like a sail. She was going home to tell her husband the Lord had
+heard her prayers, and she had found a friend.
+
+"And you may depend I never talked so easy to anybody in my life, pa;"
+this was what she thought she should say. "I didn't _have_ to beg. Mrs.
+Allen is one of the Lord's own; I saw it the minute I clapped my eyes
+on her face."
+
+"I am going to see that woman to-morrow, and ask some questions about
+her blind daughter," said Aunt Madge, turning away from the window.
+
+"Ask 'bout her nose, too."
+
+"Whose nose, Fly?"
+
+"The woman's. It keeps a-moving when she talks."
+
+"There, who else noticed that?" exclaimed Horace, tossing his young
+sister aloft. "It takes Fly, with her little eye, to see things."
+
+"But I didn't ask her nuffin 'bout it, though, Horace Clifford. God made
+her so, with a wire in."
+
+Everybody smiled at the notion of Mrs. Brooks being a wax doll.
+
+"What a queer day it has been!" said Prudy. "Nothing but hide and seek.
+We'll all keep together next time, and lock hands tight."
+
+"Of course," said Dotty, quickly; "but look here; don't you think
+'twould be safer not to let Fly go with us? She was the one that made
+all the fuss."
+
+"Want to know if she was," said Horace, slyly. "Guess there are two
+sides to that story."
+
+"At any rate," struck in Aunt Madge, "Fly was the one that did the most
+business. You went round doing good--didn't you, dear?"
+
+"Little city missionary," said Horace.
+
+Whereupon Miss Fly modestly dropped her head on her brother's shoulder.
+She concluded she had done something wonderful in running after a dog.
+
+"On the whole," continued auntie, "we've all had a very hard time. It's
+only three o'clock; but seems to me the day has been forty hours long.
+Let us rest, now, and have a quiet little evening, and go to bed early."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+FIVE MAKING A CALL.
+
+
+The next morning everybody felt fresh, and ready for new adventures.
+
+"All going but the cat," said Fly, never doubting that her own company
+was most desirable.
+
+"Look up in my eyes, little Topknot with the blue bonnet on. Will you
+run away from brother Hollis again?"
+
+"Not if you don't take my skipt," replied Fly, looking as innocent as a
+spring violet.
+
+"And look up in _my_ eyes, Horace Clifford. Will you run away from
+Cousin Dotty, again?" said Miss Dimple, in a hurry to speak before Aunt
+Madge came up to them, and before Horace had time for a joke.
+
+"I didn't run away from you, young lady, but I ran _after_ you, if I
+remember," said Horace, dryly. "I don't mean to pursue you with my
+attentions to-day. You seem to be able to take care of yourself."
+
+"Look," cried Aunt Madge, coming up to them with Prudy; "did you ever
+before see a span of horses with a dog running between them?"
+
+"Never," said Doty; "what splendid horses! and don't the dog have to
+trot, to keep up? How do you suppose he happened to get in there?"
+
+"O, he has been trained to it; dogs often are. Now, my young friends, it
+seems we have started for Brooklyn again; but on our way to Fulton
+Ferry, I would like to stop and see the Brooks family. We must all go
+together, though. 'United we stand, divided we fall.'"
+
+"That's so," said Horace, as they entered the stage. "But, auntie, do
+you have perfect faith in the story that woman tells? Perhaps her
+hushand is only just lazy, and her daughter shams blindness. You know
+what humbugs some of 'em are. I've read there's something they rub over
+their eyes, that gives 'em the appearance of being as blind as a bat."
+
+Prudy looked up at Horace with admiration and respect. He spoke like a
+person of deep wisdom and wide experience.
+
+"We will see for ourselves what we think of the family," said Aunt
+Madge.
+
+"Now," said she, after they had ridden a mile or two, "we must get out
+here, and walk a few blocks to the house. Fly, hold your brother's hand
+tight."
+
+"There's the chamer where the boy lives that says swear words; and
+there's the boy, ahind the window."
+
+"Have a free ride, little girl?" shouted Izzy Paul, laughing; for he
+remembered faces as well as Fly did, and saw at once that it was the
+same child he had frightened so the day before. But Fly never knew fear
+where Horace was; she clung to him, and peeped out boldly between her
+fingers.
+
+When they went "down cellow," as she called it, into Mr. Brooks's house,
+Aunt Madge was surprised to see how bare it looked. But Dotty Dimple
+need not have held her skirts so tightly about her, and brushed her
+elbow so carefully when it hit against the wall; for the house was as
+clean as hands could make it.
+
+"Mrs. Brooks, I hope you will forgive me for coming down upon you with
+this little army," said Mrs. Allen, with such a cheery smile that the
+sick man on the bed felt as if a flood of pure sunshine had burst into
+the room. He was so tired of lying there, day after day, like a great
+rag baby, and so glad to see anybody, especially the good lady who, his
+wife said, was "so easy to talk to!"
+
+"Auntie, look! see the freckled doggie; and there's my flowers, true's
+you live," cried Flyaway.
+
+"Yes, pa wanted them in a vial, close to his bed; it's the first he's
+seen this winter," said Maria, stroking Fly as if she had been a kitten.
+
+"You may be sure, little lady, it will be as I said; they'll cure me
+full as quick as camphire. And, thank the Lord, I can see as well as
+smell," said Mr. Brooks, with a tender glance at Maria which made
+Horace feel ashamed of himself. The idea of that poor child's rubbing
+anything into her eyes? Why, she looked like a wounded bird that had
+been out in a storm. Her face was really almost beautiful, but so sad
+that you could not see it without a feeling of pity.
+
+"She looks as if she was walking in her sleep," thought Prudy, and
+turned away to hide a tear; for somehow there was a chord in her heart
+that thrilled strangely. That "slow winter" came back to her with a
+rush, and she was sure she knew how Maria felt.
+
+"She is blind, and I was lame; but it is the same kind of a feeling. O,
+how I wish I could help her!"
+
+Dotty was as sorry for Maria as she knew how to be, but she could not be
+as sorry as Prudy was; for she had never had any trouble greater than a
+sore throat.
+
+"I don't see why the tears don't come into my eyes as easy as they do
+into Prudy's," thought she, trying to squeeze out a salt drop; "Mrs.
+Brooks'll think I don't care a speck; but I do care."
+
+As for wee Fly, she took Maria's blindness to heart about as much as she
+did the murder of the Hebrew children off in Judea.
+
+"Pitiful 'bout her seeingness; but I wished I had such a beauful dog!"
+
+Aunt Madge was struck with the exalted expression of Maria's face. The
+child was only thirteen, but suffering had made her look much older.
+
+"My child," said she, putting her arm around the little girl, and
+drawing her towards her, "I know you see a great deal with your mind,
+even though your eyes are shut. Now, do tell me all about your
+misfortune, and how it happened, for I came on purpose to hear."
+
+"Yes, we camed to purpose to hear," said Fly, from the foot-board of the
+bed, where she had perched and prattled every moment since she came in.
+"I founded Maria, and then I went up to her, and says I, 'Doggie,
+doggie!'"
+
+"That was a pretty way to speak to her, I should think," said Dotty;
+"but can't you just please to hush while auntie is talking?"
+
+"As near as I can tell the story," said Mrs. Brooks, rattling the poor
+old coal-stove,--for she always had to be moving something else, as well
+as her nose, when she talked,--"she lost her sight by studying too
+hard, and then getting cold in her eyes."
+
+"She was always a master hand to study," put in Mr. Brooks.
+
+Maria looked as if she wanted to run and hide. She did not like to have
+her father praise her before people.
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Brooks, setting a chair straight; "and by and by the
+_leds_ began to draw together, and she couldn't keep 'em open; and there
+was such a pain in her eyes, too, that I had to be up nights, bathing
+'em in all kinds of messes."
+
+"_Don't_ her nose jiggle?" whispered Fly to Horace.
+
+"Of course you took her to a good physician?"
+
+"Well, yes; we thought he was good. We went to three, off and on, but
+she kept growing worse and worse. It was about the time her father was
+hurt, and we spent an awful sight on her, till we couldn't spend any
+more."
+
+"And it was all a cheat and a swindle," exclaimed Mr. Brooks,
+indignantly. "We'd better have spent the money for a horsewhip, and
+whipped them doctors with it!"
+
+"Don't, pa, don't! You see, Mrs. Allen, he gets so excited about it he
+don't know what he says."
+
+"I wonder you did not take her to the City Hospital, Mrs. Brooks. There
+she could be treated free of expense."
+
+"The fact is, we didn't dare to," replied Mrs. Brooks, taking up an old
+shoe of Bennie's, and beginning to brush it; "there are folks that have
+told us it ain't safe; they try experiments on poor folks."
+
+"O, I don't believe you need fear the City Hospital," said Mrs. Allen;
+"the physicians there are honest men, and among the most skillful in
+the country."
+
+"But that's our feeling on the subject, ma'am, you see," spoke up Mr.
+Brooks, so decidedly, that Aunt Madge saw it was of no use to say any
+more about it. "We don't want her eyes put out; there are times when she
+can just see a little glimmer, and we want to save all there is left."
+
+"There are times when she can see? Then there must be hope, Mr. Brooks!
+Let me take her to Dr. Blank; he can help her if any one can."
+
+"Well, now, I take it you're joking, Mrs. Allen. That is the very doctor
+I wanted her to see in the first place; but they do say he'd ask six
+hundred dollars for looking into her eyes while you'd wink twice."
+
+"You have been misinformed, Mr. Brooks; he never asks anything of
+people who are unable to pay him. But even if he should in Maria's case,
+I promise to take the matter into my own hands, and settle the bill
+myself."
+
+"Mother, do you hear what she says!" cried Mr. Brooks, forgetting
+himself, and trying to sit up in bed.
+
+But his wife had broken down, and was polishing Bennie's shoe with her
+tears.
+
+"O, will you take me? Can I go to that doctor?" cried Maria, forgetting
+her timidity, and turning her sightless eyes towards Mrs. Allen with a
+joyful look, which seemed to glow through the lids.
+
+"Yes, dear child, I will take you with the greatest pleasure in life;
+but remember, I don't promise you can be cured. Come with your mother,
+to-morrow morning, at ten. Will that do, Mrs. Brooks? And now, good by,
+all. Children, we must certainly be going."
+
+"God bless her," murmured the sick man, as the little party passed out.
+
+"Didn't I tell you she was an angel?" said his wife.
+
+"No, mother; it's that little tot that's the 'angel.' The Lord sent her
+on ahead to spy out the land; and afterwards there comes a
+flesh-and-blood woman to see it laid straight."
+
+"Pa thinks that baby is a spirit made out of air," said Maria, laughing
+in high excitement. "And, mother, don't you really believe now the Lord
+did send her, just as much as if she dropped down out of the sky?"
+
+"Yes, I hain't a doubt of it, Maria, but what the Lord had us in his
+mind when he let the child slip off and get lost.--Pa, I'm going to
+give you some of that blackberry cordial now: you look all gone."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+"THE HEN-HOUSES."
+
+
+While the Brooks family were talking so gratefully, and Maria counting
+over the cookies and cups of jelly for the twentieth time, Fly, was
+holding on to Horace's thumb, saying, as she skipped along,--"I hope the
+doctor'll take a knife, and pick Maria's eyes open, so she can see."
+
+"Precious little _you_ care whether she can see or not," said Dotty. "I
+don't think Fly has much feeling,--do you, Prudy?--not like you and I, I
+mean!"
+
+"Pshaw! what do you expect of such a baby?" said Horace, indignantly.
+"You never saw a child so full of pity as this one is, when she knows
+what to be sorry for. But a great deal she understands about blindness!
+And why should she?--Look here, Topknot; which would you rather do? Have
+your eyes put out, and lots of candy to eat, _or_, your eyes all good,
+and not a speck of candy as long as you live?"
+
+"I'd ravver have the candy '_thout_ blind-eyed?"
+
+"But supposing you couldn't have but one?"
+
+Fly reflected seriously for half a minute, and then answered,
+
+"I'd ravver have the candy _with_ blind-eyed!"
+
+"There, girls, what did I tell you?"
+
+"'Cause I could eat the candy athout looking, you know," added Fly,
+shutting her eyes, and putting a sprig of cedar in her mouth, by way of
+experiment.
+
+"You little goosie," said Prudy; "when Aunt Madge was crying so about
+Maria, I did think you were a hard-hearted thing to look up and laugh;
+but now, I don't believe you knew any better."
+
+"Hard-hearted things will soften," said auntie, kissing the baby's
+puzzled face. "Little bits of green apples, how hard they are! but they
+keep growing mellow."
+
+"O, you little green apple," cried Dotty, pinching Fly's cheek.
+
+"I was rather hard-hearted, if I remember, when I was an apple of that
+size," continued Aunt Madge. "I could tell you of a few cruel things I
+said and did."
+
+"Tell them," said Horace; "please 'fess."
+
+"Yes, auntie, naughty things are so interesting. Do begin and tell all
+about it."
+
+"Not on the street, dears. Some time, during the holidays, I may turn
+story-teller, if you wish it; but here we are at the ferry; now look out
+for the mud."
+
+"O, what a place," cried Fly, clinging to Horace, and trying to walk on
+his boots. "Just like where grampa keeps his pig!"
+
+"How true, little sister! but you needn't use my feet for a sidewalk.
+I'll take you up in my arms. It snowed in the night; but that makes it
+all the muddier."
+
+"Yes, it doesn't do snow any good to fall into New York mud," said Aunt
+Madge; "it is like touching pitch."
+
+"I thought it felt like pitch," remarked Dotty; "sticks to your boots
+so."
+
+"But, then, overhead how beautiful it is!" said Prudy. "I should think
+the dirty earth would be ashamed to look up at such a clear sky."
+
+"But the sky don't mind," returned Horace; "it always overlooks dirt."
+
+"How very sharp we are getting!" laughed auntie; "we have begun the day
+brilliantly. Any more remarks from anybody?"
+
+"I should like to know," said Dotty, "what all those great wooden things
+are made for? I never saw such big hen-houses before!"
+
+"Hear her talk!" exclaimed auntie. "Hen-houses, indeed! Why, that is
+Fulton Market. I shall take you through it when we come back. You can
+buy anything in there, from a live eel to a book of poetry."
+
+"'In mud eel is,'" quoted Horace. "Reckon I'll buy one, auntie, and
+carry it home in a piece of brown paper. I believe Dotty is fond of
+eels."
+
+"Fond of eels! Why, Horace Clifford, you know I can't bear 'em, any
+more'n a snake. If you do such a thing, Horace Clifford!"
+
+Here Prudy gave her talkative sister a pinch; for they were surrounded
+by people, and Aunt Madge was giving ferry-tickets to a man who stood in
+a stall, and brushed them towards him into a drawer.
+
+"Does he stay in it all night?" whispered Fly; "he can't lie down, no
+more'n a hossy can."
+
+"Here, child, don't try to get down out of my arms. I must carry you
+into the boat. Do you suppose I'd trust those wee, wee feet to go flying
+over East River?"
+
+"For don't we know she has wings on her heels?" said Aunt Madge.
+
+Fly twisted around one of her little rubbers, and looked at it. She
+understood the joke, but thought it too silly to laugh at. East River
+lay smiling in the sun, white with sails.
+
+"Almost as pretty as our Casco Bay," said Dotty. "'Winona;' is that the
+boat we are going in? But, Horace, you must cross to the other side,
+where it says 'Gentlemen's Cabin.'"
+
+"How kind you are to take care of me! Wish you'd take as good care of
+yourself, Cousin Dimple."
+
+And Horace walked straight into the "Ladies' Cabin." There were more men
+in it, though, than women; so he had the best side of the argument.
+
+"Horace," said Aunt Madge, as they seated themselves, "where is your
+money?"
+
+"Money? O, in the breast pocket of my coat."
+
+"But don't you remember, my boy, I advised you to leave it at home? See
+that placard, right before your eyes."
+
+"'Beware of Pickpockets!'" read Horace. "Well, auntie, I intend to
+beware."
+
+Mrs. Allen did not like his lord-of-creation tone. It was not exactly
+disrespectful. He adored his aunt, and did not mean to snub her. At the
+same time he had paid no attention to her advice, and his cool,
+self-possessed way of setting it one side was very irritating. If Mrs.
+Allen had not been the sweetest of women, she would have enjoyed boxing
+his ears.
+
+"I wish he was two years younger, and then he would have to obey me,"
+thought she; "but I don't like to lay my commands on a boy of fourteen."
+
+The truth was, Horace had a large swelling on the top of his head, known
+by the name of self-esteem; and it had got bruised a little the day
+before, when he was obliged to stand one side, and let his aunt manage
+about finding Flyaway.
+
+"I suppose she thinks I'm a ninny, just because I don't understand this
+bothersome city; but I reckon I know a thing or two, if I don't live in
+New York!"
+
+And the foolish boy really took some satisfaction in slapping his breast
+pockets, and remarking to his friends,--
+
+"'Twould take a smart chap to get his hand in there without my knowing
+it. O, Prudy, where's your wallet? And yours, Dotty? I can carry them as
+well as not. There's no knowing what kind of a muss you may be getting
+into before night."
+
+Prudy gave up hers without a word, but Dotty demurred.
+
+"I guess I've got eyes both sides my head, just the same as Horace has,
+if I am a girl."
+
+She and Cousin Horace usually agreed, but this visit had begun wrong.
+
+"Very well, Dot; if you think 'twould be any consolation to you to have
+somebody come along with a pair of scissors, and snip off your pocket, I
+don't know as it's any of my business."
+
+"See if they do," replied Dotty, clutching her pocket in her right hand.
+
+They had been speaking in loud tones, and perhaps had been overheard;
+for two men, on the same seat, began to talk of the unusual number of
+robberies that had happened within a few days and to wonder "what we
+were coming to next." In consequence of this, Dotty pinned up her
+pocket. When they reached Brooklyn, she gave her left hand to Horace, in
+stepping off the boat, and walked up Fulton Street, with her right hand
+firmly grasping the skirt of her dress.
+
+"Good for you, Dimple!" said Horace, in a low tone; "that's one way of
+letting people know you've got money. Look behind you! There's been a
+man following you for some time."
+
+"Where? O, where?" cried Dotty, whirling round and round in wild alarm;
+"I don't see a man anywhere near."
+
+"And there isn't one to be seen," said Aunt Madge, laughing; "there's
+nobody following you but Horace himself. He had no right to frighten you
+so."
+
+"Horace!" echoed Dotty, with infinite scorn; "I don't call _him_ a man!
+He's nothing but a small boy!"
+
+"A small boy!" She had finished the business now.
+
+"The hateful young monkey!" thought Horace. "I shouldn't care much if
+she did have her pocket picked."
+
+If he had meant a word of this, which he certainly did not, he was well
+paid for it afterwards.
+
+They went to Greenwood Cemetery, which Dotty had to confess was
+handsomer than the one in Portland. Fly thought there were nice places
+to "hide ahind the little white houses," which frightened her brother so
+much, that he carried her in his arms every step of the way. After
+strolling for some time about Greenwood, and taking a peep at Prospect
+Park, they left the "city of churches," and entered a crowded car to go
+back to the ferry.
+
+"Look out for _our_ money," whispered Prudy; "you know auntie says a car
+is the very place to lose it in."
+
+"Yes; I'll look out for your pile, Prue, though I dare say you don't
+feel quite so easy about it as you would if Dot had it."
+
+"Wow, Horace, don't be cross; you know it isn't often I have so much
+money."
+
+Aunt Madge here gave both the children a very expressive glance, as much
+as to say,--
+
+"Don't mention private affairs in such a crowd."
+
+Colonel Allen said if his wife had been born deaf and dumb nobody would
+have mistrusted it, for she could talk with her eyes as well as other
+people with their tongues.
+
+When they were on the New York side once more, Mrs. Allen said,--
+
+"Now I will take you through Dotty's hen-houses. What have we here? O,
+Christmas greens."
+
+A woman stood at one of the stands, tying holly and evergreens together
+into long strips, which she sold by the yard.
+
+"We must adorn the house, children. I will buy some of this, if you will
+help carry it home."
+
+"Load me down," said Horace; "I'll take a mile of it."
+
+"Loaden me down, too; _I'll_ take it a mile," said Fly.
+
+"Give me that beautiful cross to carry, auntie."
+
+"Are you willing to carry crosses, Prudy? Ah, you've learned the lesson
+young!"
+
+"I like the star best," said Dotty; "why can't they make suns and moons,
+too!"
+
+"Will you have a _hanker_, my pretty miss?" said the woman, dropping a
+courtesy.
+
+"I never heard of a _hanker_; it looks some like a kettle-hook. Let's
+buy it; see how nicely it fits on Fly's shoulder."
+
+"It would look better for Fly to sit on the anchor," said Mrs. Allen,
+smiling. "It is droll enough to see such a big thing walking off with a
+little girl under it. Come, children, we have bought all we can carry."
+
+"Thank you kindly, lady," said the evergreen woman, with another
+courtesy.
+
+"I don't see why she need thank you kindly, auntie," said Dotty. "You
+wouldn't have bought her wreaths if you hadn't liked 'em."
+
+They walked through a long space lined with such nice things that the
+children's mouths watered--oranges, figs, grapes, pears, French
+chestnuts larger than oil-nuts, and, as if that were not enough,
+delicious-looking pies, cakes, cold ham, and doughnuts. On little
+charcoal stoves stood coffee-pots; and there was a great clattering of
+plates and cups and saucers, which men were washing in little pans, and
+wiping on rather dark towels.
+
+"It strikes me I should enjoy going into one of those cuddy-holes and
+eating my dinner," said Horace. "I feel about starved."
+
+"You have a right to be hungry. It is two o'clock. How would you like
+some oysters? In here is a large room, with tables; rather more
+comfortable than these 'cuddy-holes,' as you call them."
+
+"Only not nice," said Prudy. "O, Horace, if you should go once to an
+oyster saloon in Boston, you'd see the difference!"
+
+"The probability is, I've been in Boston saloons twice to your once,
+ma'am."
+
+Which was correct. She had been once, and he twice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+"GRANNY."
+
+
+Aunt Madge seated her four guests at a little table.
+
+"Will you have oysters or scallops?"
+
+"What are scallops?"
+
+"They are a sort of fish; taste a little like oysters. They come out of
+those small shells, such as you've seen pin-cushions made of."
+
+The children thought they should prefer oysters; and after the stews
+were ordered, Mrs. Allen went out, and soon returned with a dessert of
+cake, pie, and fruit.
+
+"I thought I would bring it all at once," said she, "just what I know
+you will like; and then sit down and be comfortable. We'll lay the
+wreaths under the table. There are no napkins, girls (this isn't Boston,
+you know); so you'd better tuck your handkerchiefs under your chins."
+
+"But is this the handsomest place they've got in New York, without any
+carpet to it?" whispered Dotty.
+
+"We'll see, one of these days," replied auntie, with a smile that spoke
+volumes.
+
+It was a very jolly dinner, and Mrs. Allen had to send for three plates
+of scallops; for the children found, after tasting hers, that they were
+very nice; all but Fly, who did not relish them, and thought it was
+because she did not like to eat pin-cushions.
+
+"Now, little folks, if you have eaten sufficiently, and are thoroughly
+rested, shall we start for home? I think a journey to Brooklyn is about
+enough for one day--don't you? But you musn't leave without seeing
+Granny."
+
+"Granny?"
+
+"Yes, I call her so, and it pleases her. She has had a little table in
+the market for a long while, and I like to buy some of her goodies just
+to encourage her, for she has such a way of looking on the bright side
+that she wins my respect. Listen, now, while I speak to her."
+
+Auntie's old woman had on a hood and shawl, and was curled up in a
+little heap, half asleep.
+
+"Pleasant day," said Mrs. Allen, going up to the table.
+
+"Yes, mum; nice weather _underful_," returned the old woman, rousing
+herself, and rubbing an apple with her shawl.
+
+"And how do you do, Granny?"
+
+"Why, is that you?" said she, the sun coming out all over her face.
+"And how've you been, mum, since the last time I've seen yer?"
+
+"Very well, Granny; and how do things prosper with you?"
+
+"O, _I'm_ all right! I've had a touch of rheumaty, and this is the fust
+I've stirred for two weeks."
+
+"Sorry to hear it, Granny. Rheumatism can't be very comfortable."
+
+"Well, no; it's bahd for the jints," said the old woman, holding up her
+fingers, which were as shapeless as knobby potatoes.
+
+"Poor Granny! How hard that is!"
+
+"Well, they be hard, and kind o' stiff-like. But bless ye," laughed she,
+"that's nothing. I wouldn't 'a' cared, only I's afeared I'd lose this
+stand. There was a gyurl come and kep' it for me, what time she could
+spare."
+
+"I'm glad you havn't lost the stand, Granny; but I don't see how you can
+laugh at the rheumatism."
+
+"Well, mum, what'd be the use to cry? Why, bless ye, there's wus
+things'n that! As long's I hain't got no husband, I don't feel to
+complain!"
+
+She shook her sides so heartily at this, that Fly laughed aloud.
+
+"So you don't approve of husbands, Granny?"
+
+"No more I don't, mum; they're troublesome craychers, so fur as I've
+seen."
+
+"But don't you get down-hearted, living all alone?"
+
+"O, no, mum; I do suppose I'm the happiest woman in the city o' New
+Yorruk. When I goes to bed, I just gives up all my thrubbles to the
+Lord, and goes to sleep."
+
+"But when you are sick, Granny?"
+
+"O, then, sometimes I feels bahd, not to be airnin' nothin', and gets
+some afeard o' the poorhouse; but, bless ye, I can't help thinking the
+Lord'll keep me out."
+
+"I'm pretty sure He will," said Aunt Madge, resolving on the spot that
+the good old soul never should go to a place she dreaded so much. "Have
+you any butter-scotch to-day, Granny?"
+
+"O, yes, mum; sights of it. Help yourself. I want to tell you
+something'll please you," said the old woman, bending forward, and
+speaking in a low tone, and with sparkling eyes. "I've put some money in
+the bank, mum; enough to bury me! _Ain't_ that good!"
+
+Prudy and Dotty were terribly shocked. She must be crazy to talk about
+her own funeral. As if she was glad of it, too? But Horace thought it a
+capital joke.
+
+"That's a jolly way to use your money," whispered he to Prudy; "much
+good may it do her?" And then aloud, in a patronizing tone, "I'll take a
+few of your apples, Granny. How do you sell 'em?"
+
+"These here, a penny apiece; them there, two pennies; and them, three."
+
+Horace felt in his coat pocket for his purse; and drew out his hand
+quickly, as if a bee had stung it.
+
+"Why, what! What does this mean?"
+
+"What is it, Horace?"
+
+"Nothing, auntie, only my wallet's gone," replied the boy, very white
+about the mouth.
+
+"Gone? Look again. Are you sure?"
+
+"Yes, as sure as I want to be?"
+
+"Mine,--is mine gone too?" cried Prudy.
+
+Horace did not seem willing to answer.
+
+"Where did you have your purse last?"
+
+"Just before we came out of Dorlon's oyster saloon. Just before we came
+here for butter-scotch," replied Horace, glaring fiercely at Granny.
+
+"Are you quite sure?"
+
+"Is mine gone, too?" cried Prudy again. "Did you put mine in the same
+pocket?"
+
+"Yes, Prue; I put yours in the same pocket; and it's gone, too."
+
+"O, Horace!"
+
+"A pretty clean sweep, Prue."
+
+"The _vilyins_!" cried Granny; looking, auntie thought, as if her whole
+soul was stirred with pity for the children; but, as Horace thought, as
+if she were trying to put a bold face on a very black crime.
+
+"Let us go back to Dorlon's, and ask the waiters if you dropped it in
+there," suggested Aunt Madge.
+
+"Yes, but _I know I didn't,"_ said Horace, with another scowl at Granny.
+
+"_My_ money is safe," said self-righteous Dotty, as they walked away;
+"don't you wish you _had_ given yours to me, Prudy?"
+
+"The deceitful old witch!" muttered Horace; meaning Granny, of course.
+
+And lo, there she stood close behind them! She was beckoning Mrs. Allen
+back to her fruit-stand.
+
+"Wait here one minute, children; I'll be right back."
+
+"Nothin', mum," said Granny, looking very much grieved; "nothin' only I
+wants to say, mum, if that youngster thinks as I took his money, I wisht
+you'd sarch me."
+
+"Fie, Granny! Never mind what a boy like that says, when he is excited.
+I know you too well to think you'd steal."
+
+"The Lord bless you, mum," cried the old woman, all smiles again.
+
+"And, Granny, I mean to come here next week, and I'll bring you some
+flannel and liniment for your rheumatism. Where shall I leave them if
+you're sick, and can't be here?"
+
+"O, thank ye, mum; thank ye kindly. The ain't many o' the likes of you,
+mum. And if ye does bring the things for my rheumaty, and I ain't here,
+just ye leave 'em with the gyurl at this stand, if yer will."
+
+"Did she give it back?" cried Horace, the moment his aunt appeared.
+
+"No, my boy; how could she when she hadn't it to give?"
+
+"But, auntie, I'm up and down sure I felt that wallet in my
+breast-pocket, when we came out of Dorlon's," persisted Horace. "I don't
+see how on earth that old woman contrived it; but I can't help
+remembering how she kept leaning forward when she talked; and once she
+hit square against me. And just about that time I was drawing out my
+handkerchief to wipe my nose."
+
+"Yes, he did! He wiped his nose. And the woman tookened the money; I saw
+her do it."
+
+"There, I told you so!"
+
+"You saw her, Miss Policeman Flyaway?" said Aunt Madge. "And pray how
+did she take it?"
+
+"Just so,--right in her hand."
+
+"O, you mean the money for the butter-scotch, you little tease!"
+
+"Yes," replied the child, with a roguish twinkle over the sensation she
+had made.
+
+"Just like little bits o' flies," said Dotty. "Don't care how folks
+feel. And here's her brother ready to cry; heart all broken."
+
+"Needn't be concerned about my heart, Dot; 'tisn't broken yet; only
+cracked. But how anybody could get at my pocket, without my knowing it,
+is a mystery to me, unless Granny is a witch."
+
+"Horace, I pledge you my word Granny is innocent."
+
+"And I'm sure nobody else could take it, auntie. The clerks at Dorlon's
+had no knowledge of the money; neither had any of the apple or pie
+merchants along the market. Things look darker for us, Prue; but I will
+give you the credit of behaving like a lady. And one thing is sure--the
+moment I get home to Indiana I shall send you back your money."
+
+"Horace," said Aunt Madge, "I am very suspicious that you lost your
+purse in one of those cars, on the Brooklyn side."
+
+"But, auntie, I tell you there couldn't anybody get at my pockets
+without my knowing it!"
+
+"Just as Prudy told you you would, you lost it in that car," echoed
+Dotty. "Don't you remember what you said, Prudy?"
+
+"That's right; hit him again," growled Horace.
+
+"Now, Dotty," said Prudy, suppressing a great sob in her effort to
+"behave like a lady," "what's the use? Don't you suppose Horace feels
+bad enough without being scolded at?"
+
+"Auntie don't scold, nor Prudy don't, 'cause he didn't mean to lose
+it," said Fly, frowning at Dotty, and caressing Horace, with her hands
+full of evergreens.
+
+"Besides, he has lost more than I have," continued Prudy.
+
+"Well, a trifle more! Fifty times as much, say. I shouldn't care a
+fig,--speaking figuratively,--only it was all I had to get home with."
+
+"Don't fret about that," said Aunt Madge; "I'll see that you go home
+with as full a purse as you brought to my house."
+
+"O, auntie, how can I thank you? But you know father never would allow
+that!"
+
+"I could tell you how to thank me," thought Mrs. Allen, though she was
+so kind she would _not_ tell; "you could thank me by saying, 'Auntie,
+I've been a naughty boy.'"
+
+But Horace had no idea of making such a confession as that. "The
+money'll come up," said he; "I'm one of the lucky kind. Let's see;
+wouldn't it be best to advertise?"
+
+"Thieves won't answer advertisements," said Mrs. Allen.
+
+"But, I tell you, auntie, I dropped that wallet. I could take my oath of
+it."
+
+"Well, in such a case an advertisement is the proper thing. But, my boy,
+your positiveness on this subject is extraordinary. How could you drop
+the wallet? Do you keep it in the same pocket with your handkerchief?"
+
+"On, no, auntie; right in here."
+
+"And you haven't bought anything?"
+
+"No, auntie; you wouldn't let me pay the car fare, or anything else. But
+still I must have taken out the wallet by mistake. You see I _know_
+nobody's picked my pockets."
+
+"Why, Horace, you just said Granny picked 'em."
+
+"No, Dot, I didn't! I only spoke of the queer way she had of leaning
+forward."
+
+"But you scowled at her sharp enough to take head off."
+
+"If I were you, Dot, I wouldn't be any more disagreeable than I was
+absolutely obliged to.--Now, auntie, how much does it cost to
+advertise?"
+
+"A dollar or so I believe."
+
+"Well, if you'll lend me the money, I want to do it."
+
+"To be plain with you, Horace, I really do not think it will be of the
+slightest use in this case; but I will consent to it if it will be any
+relief to your mind. We shall be obliged to cross the ferry again, for
+the advertisement ought to go into a Brooklyn paper."
+
+"We are tired enough to drop," said Dotty; "and all these stars and
+things, too!"
+
+"Yes, we are all tired; but we will leave you little girls at the
+ferry-house on the other side."
+
+"But, auntie," said Prudy, anxiously, "I shouldn't really dare have the
+care of Fly. You know just how it is."
+
+"Yes, I do know just how it is. Fly must walk, with her tired little
+feet, to the Eagle office, with Horace and me; or else she must make a
+solemn promise not to go out of the ferry-house."
+
+"But I don't want to make a _solomon_ promise, auntie; I want to see the
+eagle."
+
+Mrs. Allen sighed. She began to think she had undertaken a great task
+in inviting these children to visit her. Instead of a pleasure, they had
+proved, thus far, a weariness--always excepting Prudy. She, dear,
+self-forgetting little girl, could not fail to be a comfort wherever she
+went.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE PUMPKIN HOOD.
+
+
+To the "Eagle" office they went--obstinate Horace, patient Annt Madge,
+and between them the "blue-bottle Fly."
+
+"I do feel right sorry, auntie," said Horace, a sudden sense of shame
+coming over him; "but I'm so sure I dropped the money, you know; or I
+wouldn't drag you up this hill when you're so tired."
+
+A sharp answer rose to Mrs. Allen's lips, but she held it back.
+
+"Only a boy! In a fair way to learn a useful lesson, too. Let me keep my
+temper! If I scold, I spoil the whole."
+
+They entered the office, and left with the editor this advertisement:--
+
+"Lost.--Between Prospect Park and Fulton Ferry, a porte-monnaie, marked
+'Horace S. Clifford,' containing thirty-five dollars. The finder will be
+suitably rewarded by leaving the same at No. ----, Cor. Fifth Ave. and
+---- Street."
+
+"It is no matter about advertising Prudy's purse, it was so shabby,"
+said Aunt Madge; and on their way back to the ferry-house she bought her
+another.
+
+"O, thank you, auntie, darling," said Prudy; "and thank you, too,
+Horace, for losing my old one; it wasn't fit to be seen. And here is a
+whole dollar inside! O, Aunt Madge, _are_ you an angel?"
+
+"Prue, you deserve your good luck; you don't come down on a fellow,
+hammer and tongs, because he happens to meet with an accident."
+
+"Horace," said Dotty, meekly, "are you willing to carry my gloves?"
+
+"Yes, to be sure; but you don't want to go home bare-handed--do you?"
+
+"Why, I was thinking how nice 'twould be, Horace, to have you take 'em,
+and lose 'em, and me have a new pair. There's a hole in the thumb."
+
+This little sally amused everybody, and Horace had the grace not to be
+sensitive, though the laugh was against him.
+
+"Another queer day," said he, when they were at last at home again. "I
+don't know what will become of us all, if we keep on like this."
+
+The poor boy was trying his best to brave it out; but Aunt Madge could
+see that his heart was sore.
+
+"Lost every cent I'm worth," mused he, turning his coat-pocket inside
+out, and scowling at it. "Got to be a beggar as long as I stay in New
+York!"
+
+The whole party were tired, and Horace's gloom seemed to fill the parlor
+like a fog, and make even the gas look dim.
+
+"I feel dreffly," said Fly, curling her head under her brother's arm,
+like a chicken under its mother's wing--a way she had when she was
+troubled. "I feel just zif I didn't love nobody in the world, and there
+didn't nobody love me."
+
+This brought Horace around in a minute, and called forth a pickaback
+ride.
+
+"Music! let us have music," said Aunt Madge, flying to the piano. "When
+little folks grow so cold-hearted, in my house, that they don't love
+anybody, it's time to warm their hearts with some happy little songs.
+Come, girls!"
+
+She played a few simple tunes, and the children all sang till the fog
+of gloom had disappeared, and the gas burned brightly once more.
+
+Half an hour afterwards, just as Fly was told she ought to be sleepy,
+because her bye-low hymn had been sung,--"Sleep, little one, like a lamb
+in the fold,"--and she had answered that she "couldn't be sleepy, athout
+auntie would hurry quick to come in with a drink of water," there was a
+strange arrival. Nathaniel, the waiting man, ushered into the parlor a
+droll little old woman, dressed in a short calico gown, with gay figures
+over it as large as cabbages; calf-skin shoes; and a green pumpkin hood,
+with a bow on top.
+
+"Good evening, ma'am," said Horace, rising, and offering her a chair.
+She did not seem to see very well, in spite of her enormous spectacles;
+for she took no notice of the chair, and remained standing in the
+middle of the floor.
+
+[Illustration: THE PUMPKIN HOOD.]
+
+"She stares at me so hard!" thought Horace--"that's the reason she can't
+see anything else."--"Please take a chair, ma'am."
+
+"Can't stop to sit down. Is your name Horace S. Clifford?" said the old
+woman, in a very feeble voice.
+
+Horace looked at her; she had not a tooth in her head.
+
+"Yes, ma'am; my name is Horace Clifford," said he, respectfully. He had
+great reverence for age, and could keep his mouth from twitching; but
+I'm sorry to say Prudy's danced up at the corners, and Dotty's opened
+and showed her back teeth The woman must have had all those clothes made
+when she was young, for nobody wore such things now; but it wasn't
+likely she knew that, poor soul!
+
+"Did you go to the 'Brooklyn Eagle' office, to-day, to ad-_ver_-tise
+some lost money, little boy?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am.--Why, that advertisement can't have been printed _so_
+quick!"
+
+"No, I calculate not. Did you go in with a lady, and a leetle, oneasy,
+springy kind of a leetle girl?"
+
+"Why, that's me," put in Fly.
+
+"Yes, ma'am--yes; were you there? What do you know about it?"
+
+"Don't be in a hurry, little boy. I want to be safe and sure. I expect
+you took notice of a young man in a bottle-green coat,--no, a
+greenish-black coat,--a-sittin' down by the door."
+
+"O, I don't know. Yes, I think I did. Was he the one? Did he find the
+money?"
+
+"Did you walk up Orange Street?" continued the old woman. "No, I mean
+Cranberry Street?"
+
+"O, _dear_, I don't know! Prudy, run, call Aunt Madge. Please tell me,
+ma'am, have you got it with you? Is my name on the inside?"
+
+"Wait till the little girl calls your aunt. Perhaps she'd be willing to
+let me tell the story in my own way. I'd ruther deal with grown folks,"
+said the provoking old lady.
+
+Horace's eyes flashed, but he contrived to keep his temper.
+
+"It is my purse, ma'am, and my aunt knows nothing about it. I can tell
+you just how it looks, and all there is in it."
+
+"Perhaps you are one of the kind that can tell folks a good deal, and
+thinks nobody knows things so well as yourself," returned the
+disagreeable old woman, smiling and showing her toothless gums. "From
+what I can learn, I should judge you talked ruther too loud about your
+money; for there was a pusson heerd you in the ferry-boat, and took
+pains to go in the same car afterwards, and pick your pocket."
+
+"Pick--my--pocket?"
+
+"Yes, your pocket. You wise, wonderful young man!"
+
+"How? When? Where?"
+
+"This is how," said the old woman, quick as a thought putting out her
+hand, and thrusting it into Horace's breast pocket.
+
+"O, it's auntie's rings--it's auntie's rings," cried Fly, jumping up,
+and seizing the pretended old woman by her calico sleeve.
+
+"Why, Aunt Madge, that isn't you!"
+
+"But how'd you take out yer teeth?" said Fly; "your teeth? your teeth?"
+
+"O, I didn't take them out, Miss Bright-eyes. I only put a little spruce
+gum over them."
+
+"Horace, I can't find auntie anywhere in this house," said Prudy,
+appearing at the parlor door. "Do you suppose she's gone off and hid?"
+
+"Yes, she's hid inside that old gown."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"That's auntie, and her teeth's _in_," explained Fly.
+
+"Only I wish she was an old woman, and had really brought me my money,"
+said Horace, in a disappointed tone. "I declare, there was one time I
+thought the old nuisance was coming round to it, and going to give me
+the wallet."
+
+"What a wise, wonderful youth!" said the aged dame, in a cracked voice.
+"Thinks I can give him his wallet, when he's got it himself, right close
+to his heart."
+
+Horace put his hand in his breast pocket.
+
+Wonder of wonders! There was the wallet! And not only his, but Prudy's!
+Had he been asleep all day? Or was he asleep now?
+
+"Money safe? Not a cent gone. Hoo-rah! Hoo-ra-ah!"
+
+And for want of a cap to throw, he threw up Fly.
+
+"Where did it come from? Where did the old woman find it? O, no; the man
+in the green-bottle coat?--O, no; there wasn't any old woman," cried the
+children, hopelessly confused. "But who found the money? Did I drop it
+on Cranberry Street?" "Did he drop it on Quamby Street?" "Who brought
+it?" "Who bringed it?"
+
+Aunt Madge stuffed her fingers into her ears. "They are all talking at
+once; they're enough to craze a body! They forget how old I am! Came all
+the way from the Eagle office, afoot and alone, with only four children
+to--"
+
+"O, auntie, don't play any more! Talk sober! Talk honest! Did Horace
+have his pockets picked?"
+
+"Yes, he did," replied Aunt Madge, speaking in her natural tones, and
+throwing off the pumpkin hood; "if you want the truth, he did."
+
+"Why Aunt Madge Allen! It does not seem possible! Who picked my
+pockets?"
+
+"Some one who heard you talking so loud about your money."
+
+"But how could it be taken out, and I not know it?"
+
+"Quite as easily as it could be put back, and you not know it."
+
+"That's true, Horace Clifford! Auntie put it back, and you never knew
+it."
+
+"So she did," said Horace, looking as bewildered as if he had been
+whirling around with his eyes shut; "so she did--didn't she? But that
+was because I was taken by surprise, seeing her without a tooth in her
+head, you know."
+
+"You have been taken by surprise twice to-day, then," said Aunt Madge,
+demurely. "It is really refreshing, Horace, to find that such a sharp
+young man _can_ be caught napping!"
+
+"Well, I--I--I must have been thinking, of something else, auntie."
+
+"So I conclude. And you must be thinking of something else still, or
+you'd ask me--"
+
+"O, yes, auntie; how did the thief happen to give it up? There, there,
+you needn't say a word! I see it all in your eyes! You took the money
+yourself. O, Aunt Madge!"
+
+"Well, if that wasn't queer doings!" cried Dotty.
+
+"Yes, it is quite contrary to my usual habits. I never robbed anybody
+before. I hadn't the faintest idea I could do it without Horace's
+knowledge."
+
+"Why, auntie, I never was so astonished in my life!" said the youth,
+looking greatly confused.
+
+"I never heard of a person's being robbed that wasn't astonished," said
+Aunt Madge, with a mischievous smile. "Will you be quite as sure of
+yourself another time, think?"
+
+"No, auntie, I shan't; that's a fact."
+
+"That's my good, frank boy," said Aunt Madge, kissing his forehead. "And
+he won't toss his head,--just this way,--like a young lord of creation,
+when meddlesome aunties venture to give him advice."
+
+Horace kissed Mrs. Allen's cheek rather thoughtfully, by way of reply.
+
+"I don't see, Aunt Madge," said Prudy, "why you went back across the
+river to put that piece in the paper, when you were the one that had the
+money all the time."
+
+"I did it to pacify Horace. He _knew_ his pockets hadn't been pieked.
+Besides I felt guilty. It was rather cruel in me--wasn't it?--to let him
+suffer so long."
+
+"Not cruel a bit; good enough for me," cried Horace, with a generous
+outburst. "You're just the jolliest woman, auntie--the jolliest woman!
+There you are; you look so little and sweet! But if folks think they're
+going to get ahead of you, why, just let 'em try it, say I!"
+
+
+DEAR READERS: Horace was scarcely more astonished, when his pocket was
+picked, than I am this minute, to find myself at the end of my book! I
+had very much more to tell; but now it must wait till another time.
+
+Meanwhile the Parlins and Cliffords are "climbing the dream tree." Let
+us hope they are destined to meet with no more misfortunes during the
+rest of their stay in New York.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Folks Astray
+by Sophia May (Rebecca Sophia Clarke)
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11257 ***
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+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of
+    Little Folks Astray,
+    by  Sophie May.
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Folks Astray
+by Sophia May (Rebecca Sophia Clarke)
+
+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: Little Folks Astray
+
+Author: Sophia May (Rebecca Sophia Clarke)
+
+Release Date: February 24, 2004 [EBook #11257]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE FOLKS ASTRAY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and Distributed Proofreading
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h1>LITTLE FOLKS ASTRAY.</h1>
+<h2>BY SOPHIE MAY </h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<center>
+"To give room for wandering is it<br />
+That the world was made so wide."
+</center>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<center>
+1872
+</center>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<center>
+TO<br />
+<i>MY YOUNG FRIEND</i>,<br />
+EMMA ADAMS.<br />
+"JOHNNIE OPTIC."
+</center>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<a name="RULE4_1"><!-- RULE4 1 --></a>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2>
+	TO PARENTS.
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+Here come the Parlins and Cliffords again. They had been sent to bed and
+nicely tucked in, but would not stay asleep. They "wanted to see the
+company down stairs;" so they have dressed themselves, and come back to
+the parlor. I trust you will pardon them, dear friends. Is it not a
+common thing, in this degenerate age, for grown people to frown and
+shake their heads, while little people do exactly as they please?
+</p>
+<p>
+Well, one thing is certain: if these children insist upon sitting up,
+they shall listen to lectures on self-will and disrespect to superiors,
+which will make their ears tingle.
+</p>
+<p>
+Moreover, they shall hear of other people, and not always of themselves.
+Fly Clifford, who expects to be in the middle, will be somewhat
+overwhelmed, like a fly in a cup of milk; for Grandma Read is to talk
+her down with her Quaker speech, and Aunt Madge with her story of the
+summer when she was a child. It is but fair that the elders should have
+a voice. That they may speak words which shall come home to many little
+hearts, and move them for good, is the earnest wish of
+</p>
+<center>
+THE AUTHOR.
+</center>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="TOC"><!-- TOC --></a>
+<h2>
+	CONTENTS.
+</h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH1">CHAPTER I.</a> &mdash; THE LETTER
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH2">CHAPTER II.</a> &mdash; THE UNDERTAKING
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH3">CHAPTER III.</a> &mdash; THE FROLIC
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH4">CHAPTER IV.</a> &mdash; "TAKING OUR AIRS"
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH5">CHAPTER V.</a> &mdash; DOTTY HAVING HER OWN WAY
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH6">CHAPTER VI.</a> &mdash; DOTTY REBUKED
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH7">CHAPTER VII.</a> &mdash; THE LOST FLY
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH8">CHAPTER VIII.</a> &mdash; "THE FRECKLED DOG"
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH9">CHAPTER IX.</a> &mdash; MARIA'S MOTHER
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH10">CHAPTER X.</a> &mdash; FIVE MAKING A CALL
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH11">CHAPTER XI.</a> &mdash; "THE HEN-HOUSES"
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH12">CHAPTER XII.</a> &mdash; "GRANNY"
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH13">CHAPTER XIII.</a> &mdash; THE PUMPKIN HOOD
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2>Illustrations</h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>1. <a href="#image-1">
+'I Camed Down when I Was a Baby.'
+</a></p>
+<p>2. <a href="#image-2">
+The Pumpkin Hood.
+</a></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<a name="RULE4_2"><!-- RULE4 2 --></a>
+<h2>
+	LITTLE FOLKS ASTRAY.
+</h2>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH1"><!-- CH1 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER I.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+THE LETTER.
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+Katie Clifford sat on the floor, in the sun, feeding her white mice. She
+had a tea-spoon and a cup of bread and milk in her hands. If she had
+been their own mother she could not have smiled down on the little
+creatures more sweetly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Cause I spect they's hungry, and that's why I'm goin' to give 'em
+sumpin' to eat. Shut your moufs and open your eyes," said she, waving
+the tea-spoon, and spattering the bread and milk over their backs.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Quee, quee," squeaked the little mice, very well pleased when a drop
+happened to go into their mouths.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What are you doing there, Miss Topknot," said Horace: "O, I see;
+catching rats."
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway frowned fearfully, and the tuft of hair atop of her head danced
+like a war-plume.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I shouldn't think folks would call 'em names, Hollis, when they never
+did a thing to you. Nothing but clean white mouses!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Let's see; now I look at 'em, Topknot, they <i>are</i> white. And what's all
+this paper?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Bed-kilts."
+</p>
+<p>
+"<i>In</i>-deed?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"You knew it by-fore!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"One, two, three; I thought the doctor gave you five. Where are they
+gone?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, there hasn't but two died; the rest'll live," said Fly, swinging
+one of them around by its tail, as if it had been a tame cherry.
+</p>
+<p>
+Just then Grace came and stood in the parlor doorway.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, fie!" said she; "what work! Ma doesn't allow that cage in the
+parlor. You just carry it out, Fly Clifford."
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Thistledown Flyaway looked up at her sister shyly, out of the
+corners of her eyes. Grace was now a beautiful young lady of sixteen,
+and almost as tall as her mother. Flyaway adored her, but there was a
+growing doubt in her mind whether sister Grace had a right to use the
+tone of command.
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Cause I spect she isn't my mamma."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, Fly, you haven't started yet!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I didn't think 'twas best," responded the child, sulkily, fixing her
+eyes on the mice, who were dancing whirligigs round the wheel.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Come here to your best friend, little Topknot," said Horace. "Let's
+take that cage into the green-house, and ask papa to keep it there,
+because the mice look like water-lilies on long stems."
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway brightened at once. She knew water-lilies were lovely. Giving
+Grace a triumphant glance, she danced across the room, and put the cage
+in Horace's hands, with a smile of trusting love that thrilled his
+heart.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hollis laughs at my mouses, but he don't say, 'Put 'em away,' and,
+'<i>Put</i> 'em away;' he says, 'Little gee-urls wants to see things as much
+as anybody else,'" thought she, gratefully.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace," said Grace, with a curling lip, "that child is growing up
+just like you&mdash;fond of worms, and bugs, and all such disgusting things."
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace smiled. No matter for the scorn in Grace's tone; it pleased him
+to be compared in any way with his precious little Flyaway.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Topknot has a spark of sense," said he, leading her along to the
+green-house. "I'll bring her up not to scream at a spider."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now, young lady," said he, setting the cage on the shelf beside a
+camellia, and speaking in a low voice, though they were quite alone,
+"<i>can</i> you keep a secret?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Course I can; What <i>is</i> a <i>secrid</i>?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, it's something you musn't ever tell, Topknot, not to anybody that
+lives."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then I won't, <i>cerdily</i>,&mdash;not to mamma, nor papa, nor Gracie."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Nor anybody else?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No; course not. <i>Whobody</i> else could I? O, 'cept Phibby. There, now,
+what's the name of it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The name of it is&mdash;a secret, and the secret is this&mdash;Sure you won't
+tell any single body, Topknot?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No; I said, <i>whobody</i> could I tell? O, 'cept Tinka! There now!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, the secret is this," said Horace, laying his forefingers
+together, and speaking very slowly, in order to prolong the immense
+delight he felt in watching the little one's eager face. "You know
+you've got an aunt Madge?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; so've you, too."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And she lives in the city of New York."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Does she? When'd she go?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, she has always lived there; ever since she was married."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, yes; and uncle Gustus was married, too; they was both married. Is
+that all?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"And she thinks you and I are 'cute chicks, and wants us to go and see
+her."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, course she does; I knew that before," said Fly, turning away with
+indifference; "I did go with mamma."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, but she means now, Topknot; this very Christmas. She said it in a
+letter."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Does she truly?" said Fly, beginning to look pleased. "But it can't be
+a <i>secrid</i>, though," added she, next moment, sadly, "'cause we can't go,
+Hollis."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But I really think we shall go, Topknot; that is, if you don't spoil
+the whole by telling."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, I cerdily won't tell!" said Fly, fluttering all over with a sense of
+importance, like a kitten with its first mouse.
+</p>
+<p>
+The breakfast bell rang; and, with many a word of warning, Horace led
+his little sister into the dining-room.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Papa," said she, the moment she was established in her high chair, "I
+know sumpin'."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Topknot!" cried Horace.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I know Hollis has got his elbows on the table. There, now, <i>did</i> I
+tell?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hu&mdash;sh, Topknot!"
+</p>
+<p>
+There was a quiet moment while Mr. Clifford said grace.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hollis," whispered Katie immediately afterwards, "will I take my
+mouses?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Sh, Topknot!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"What's going on there between you and Horace?" laughed Grace.
+</p>
+<p>
+"A <i>secrid</i>," said Fly, nipping her little lips together. "You won't get
+me to tell."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace," exclaimed Mrs. Clifford, "you haven't&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, mother, I thought it was all settled, and wouldn't do any harm;
+and it pleases her so!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, my son, you've made a hard day's work for me," said Mrs.
+Clifford, smiling behind her coffee-cup, as eager little Katie swayed
+back and forth in her high chair.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You won't get me to tell, Gracie Clifford. She don't want nobody but
+Hollis and me; she thinks we're very 'cute."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Who? O, Aunt Louise, probably."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, aunt Louise never! It's the auntie that lives to New York."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Sh, Topknot!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I didn't tell, Hollis Clifford!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"So you didn't," said Grace. "But wouldn't it be nice if somebody should
+ask you to go somewhere to spend Christmas?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, <i>there is</i>!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Topknot," cried Horace, in mock distress, "you said you could keep
+a secret."
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway looked frightened.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What'd I do?" cried she; "I didn't tell nuffin 'bout the letter!"
+</p>
+<p>
+This last speech set everybody to laughing; and the little tell-tale
+looked around from one to another with a face full of innocent wonder.
+They couldn't be laughing at <i>her</i>!
+</p>
+<p>
+"I can keep secrids," said she, with dignity. "It was what I was
+a-doin'."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is your brother Horace who cannot be trusted to keep secrets," said
+Mrs. Clifford, taking a letter from her pocket. "Hear, now, what your
+Aunt Madge has written: 'Will you lend me your children for the
+holidays, Maria? I want all three; at any rate, two.'"
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's me," cried Flyaway, tipping over her white coffee; "'<i>tenny
+rate two</i>,' means me."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't interrupt me, dear. 'Brother Edward has promised me Prudy and
+Dotty Dimple. They may have a Santa Claus, or whatever they like. I
+shall devote myself to making them happy, and I am sure there are plenty
+of things in New York to amuse them. Horace must come without fail; for
+the little girl-cousins always depend so much upon him.'"
+</p>
+<p>
+A smile rose to Horace's mouth; but he rubbed it off with his napkin. It
+was his boast that he was above being flattered.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But why not have Grace go, too, to keep them steady?" said Mr.
+Clifford, bluntly.
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace applied himself to his buckwheat cakes in silence, and looked
+rather gloomy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, I suppose, Henry, it would hardly be safe to send Grace, on
+account of her cough."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'm so sorry you asked Dr. De Bruler a word about it, mamma; but I
+suppose I must submit," said Grace, with a face as cloudy as Horace's.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace, my son, do you really feel equal to the task of taking this
+tuft of feathers to New York?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't know why not, father; I'm willing to try."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace has good courage," said Grace, shaking her auburn curls like so
+many exclamation points. "I never could! I never would! I'd as soon have
+the care of a flying squirrel!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hollis never called me a <i>squirl</i>," said Fly, demurely. "I've got two
+brothers, and one of 'em is an angel, and the other isn't; but Hollis
+is <i>'most</i> as good as the one up in the sky."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, my son," remarked Mr. Clifford, after a pause, "if your mother
+gives her consent, I suppose I shall give mine; but it does not look
+clear to me yet. One thing is certain, Horace; if you do undertake this
+journey, you must live on the watch: you must sleep with both eyes open.
+Don't trust the child out of your sight&mdash;not for a moment. Don't even
+let go her hand on the street."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I do believe Horace will be as careful as either you or I, Henry, or I
+certainly wouldn't trust him with our last little darling," said Mrs.
+Clifford.
+</p>
+<p>
+His mother's words dropped like balm upon Horace's wounded spirit. He
+looked up, and felt himself a man again.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH2"><!-- CH2 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER II.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+THE UNDERTAKING.
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+When Flyaway knew she was going to New York, it was about as easy to fit
+her dresses as to clothe a buzzing blue-bottle fly. With spinning head
+and dancing feet, she was set down, at last, in the cars.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Here we are, all by ourselves, darling, starting off for Gotham. Wave
+your handkerchief to mamma. Don't you see her kissing her hand? There,
+you needn't spring out of the window! And I declare, Brown-brimmer, if
+you haven't thrown away your handkerchief! Here, cry into mine!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I didn't want to cry, Hollis; I wanted to laugh," said the child,
+wiping her eyes with her doll's cloak. "When you ride in carriages, you
+don't get anywhere; but when you ride in the cars, you get there right
+off."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; that's so, my dear. You are in the right of it, as you always are.
+Now I am going to turn the seat over, and sit where I can look at
+you&mdash;just so."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, that's just as splendid, Hollis! Now there's only me and Flipperty.
+There, I put her 'pellent cloak on wrong; but see, now, I've
+un-<i>wrong-side-outed</i> it! Don't she sit up like a lady?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Her name was Flipperty Flop. She was a large jointed doll (not a doll
+with large joints,) had seen a great deal of the world, and didn't think
+much of it. She came of a high family, and had such blue blood in her
+veins, that the ground wasn't good enough for her to walk on. She wore
+a "'pellent cloak" and rubber boots, and had a shopping-bag on her arm
+full of "choclid" cakes. She was nearly as large as her mother, and all
+of two years older. A great deal had happened to her before her mother
+was born, and a great deal more since. Sometimes it was dropsy, and she
+had to be tapped, when pints of sawdust would run out. Sometimes it was
+consumption, and she wasted to such a skeleton that she had to be
+revived with cotton. She had lost her head more than once, but it never
+affected her brains: she was all the better with a young head now and
+then on her old shoulders. Her present ailment appeared to be small-pox;
+she was badly pitted with pins and a penknife. "I declare I forgot to
+get a ticket for her," said Horace. "What if the conductor shouldn't
+let her pass?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Hollis, but he must?" cried Fly, springing to her feet; "<i>I</i> shan't
+pass athout my Flipperty! Tell the 'ductor 'bout my white mouses died,
+and I can't go athout sumpin to carry."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pshaw! Dotty Dimple don't carry dolls. She don't like 'em: sensible
+girls never do."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, <i>I</i> like 'em," said Flyaway, nothing daunted. "You knew it
+byfore; 'n if you didn't want Flipperty, you'd ought to not come!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace laughed, as he always did when his little sister tried her power
+over him. The conductor was an old acquaintance, and he told him how it
+stood with Flipperty, how she was needed at New York, and all that;
+whereupon Mr. Van Dusen gave Fly a little green card, and told her to
+keep it to show to all the conductors on the road; for it was a free
+pass, and would take Flipperty all over the United States.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, sir, if you please," said Fly, with a blush and a smile, and put
+the "free pass" in Miss Flop's cloak pocket.
+</p>
+<p>
+After this, she never once failed to show it, whenever Mr. Van Dusen, or
+any other conductor, came near, but always had to hunt for it, and once
+brought up a cookie instead, which fearful mistake mortified her to the
+depths of her soul.
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace was sure all eyes were fixed on his charming little charge, and
+was proud of the honor of showing her off; but he paid for it dearly; it
+cost him more than his Latin, with all the irregular verbs. There was no
+such thing as her being comfortable. She was full of care about him,
+herself, and the baggage. Flipperty lost off a rubber boot, which
+bounced over into the next seat. Horace had to ask a gentleman and his
+sick daughter to move, and, after all, it was in an old lady's lap.
+</p>
+<p>
+Then Fly's feet were cold, and Horace took her to the stove; but that
+made her eyes too hot, and she danced back, to lie with her head on his
+breast and her feet against the window, till she suddenly whirled
+straight about, and planted her tiny boots under his chin.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Topknot, Topknot, I pity that woman with the baby, if she feels as
+lame all over as I do!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Where's the baby, Hollis? O, I see."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What's the matter, now? Why upon earth can't you sit still, child?"
+said Horace, next minute, catching her as she was darting into the
+aisle, dragging Miss Flop by the hair of the head.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Hollis, don't you see there's a dolly over there, with two girls and
+a lady with red clo'es on? 'Haps they'd be willing for her to get
+'quainted with Flipperty?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, Topknot, 'haps they would, but 'haps I wouldn't. I can't have you
+dancing all over the car, in this style."
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaways's lip quivered, and a tear started. Horace was moved. One of
+Fly's tears weighed a pound with him, even when it only wet her
+eyelashes, and wasn't heavy enough to drop.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, there, darling, you just sit still,&mdash;not still enough, though, to
+give you a pain (Fly always said it gave her a pain to sit still),&mdash;and
+I'll bring the girls and dollie over here to you. Will that do?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly thought it would.
+</p>
+<p>
+A dreadful fit of bashfulness came over Horace, when he stood face to
+face with the black-eyed lady and her daughters, and tried to speak.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I've got a little girl travelling with me, ma'am; she's so&mdash;so uneasy,
+that I don't know what to do with her. Will you let me take&mdash;I mean, are
+you willing&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Bring her over here, and we will try to amuse her," said the black-eyed
+lady, pleasantly; but Horace was sure he saw the oldest girl laughing at
+him.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It's no fun to go and make a fool of yourself," thought he, leading Fly
+to the new acquaintances, and standing by as she settled herself shyly
+in the seat.
+</p>
+<p>
+"How do you do, little one? What is your name?&mdash;<i>Flyaway</i>?&mdash;Well, you
+look like it. We saw you were a darling, clear across the aisle. And you
+have a kind brother, I know."
+</p>
+<p>
+At these words Fly, for want of some answer to make, sprang forward and
+kissed Horace on the bridge of the nose.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, you've knocked off my cap."
+</p>
+<p>
+In stooping to pick it up, he awkwardly hit his head against the older
+girl, who already looked so mischievous that he was rather afraid of
+her.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Wish I could get out of the way. She expects me to speak, but I shan't.
+</p>
+<pre>
+  "'Needles and pins, needles and pins,
+    When a man travels his trouble begins.'"
+</pre>
+<p>
+Horace was obliged to stand, very ill at ease, till the black-eyed lady
+had found out where he lived, who his father was, and what was his
+mother's name before she was married.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Tell your father, when you go home, you have seen Mrs. Bonnycastle,
+formerly Ann Jones, and give him my regards. I knew he married a lady
+from Maine."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I know sumpin," struck in Fly; "if ever <i>I</i> marry anybody, I'll marry
+my own brother Hollis. I mean if I don't be a ole maid!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"And what is 'a ole maid,' you little witch?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don' know; some folks is," was the wise reply. Flyaway was about to
+add "Gampa Clifford," but did not feel well enough acquainted to talk of
+family matters.
+</p>
+<p>
+When the Bonnycastles left, at Cleveland, Horace thought that was the
+last of them. Miss Gerty was "decent-looking, looked some like Cassy
+Hallock; but he couldn't bear to see folks giggle; hoped he never should
+set eyes on those people again." Whether he ever did, you shall hear one
+of these days.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Topknot," said he, "your hair looks like a mop. Do you want all
+creation laughing at you? You'll mortify me to death."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You ought to water it. If you don't take better care o' your little
+sister, I won't never ride with you no more, Hollis Clifford!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, see that you don't, you little scarecrow," said the suffering
+boy, out of all patience. "If you are going to act in New York as you
+have on the road, I wish I was well out of this scrape."
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway was really a sight to behold. How she managed to tear her dress
+off the waist, and loose five boot buttons, and last, but not least, the
+very hat she wore on her head, <i>would</i> have been a mystery if you hadn't
+seen her run.
+</p>
+<p>
+When they reached the city, Horace put the soft, flying locks in as
+good order as he could, and tied them up in his handkerchief.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I wisht I hadn't come," whined Fly; "I don't want to wear a hangerfiss;
+'tisn't speckerble!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hush right up! I'm not going to have you get cold!&mdash;My sorrows! Shan't
+I be thankful when I get where there's a woman to take care of her?"
+</p>
+<p>
+On the platform at the depot, aunt Madge, Prudy, and Dotty Dimple, were
+waiting for them. A hearty laugh went the rounds, which Fly thought was
+decidedly silly. Aunt Madge took the young travellers right into her
+arms, and hugged them in her own cordial style, as if her heart had been
+hungry for them for many a day.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We're so glad!&mdash;for it did seem as if you'd never come," exclaimed
+Dotty Dimple.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And I'd like to know," said Horace, "how you happened to get here
+first."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, we came by express&mdash;came yesterday."
+</p>
+<p>
+"By 'spress?" cried Flyaway, pulling away from aunt Madge, who was
+trying to pin her frock together; "<i>we</i> came by a 'ductor.&mdash;Why, where's
+Flipperty's ticket?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace seized Prudy with one hand, and Dotty Dimple with the other,
+turning them round and round.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't see anything of the express mark, 'Handle with care.' What has
+become of it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, we were done up in brown paper," said Prudy, laughing, "and the
+express mark was on that; but aunt Madge took it off as soon as she got
+the packages home."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, what a story, Prudy Parlin! We didn't have a speck of brown paper
+round us. Just cloaks and hats with feathers in!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Dotty spoke with some irritation. She had all along been rather
+sensitive about being sent by express, and could not bear any allusion
+to the subject.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, that's Miss Dimple herself. Let me shake hands with your
+Dimpleship! Didn't come to New York to take a joke,&mdash;did you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, her Dimpleship came to New York to get warm," said Peacemaker
+Prudy; "and so did I, too. You don't know how cold it is in Maine."
+</p>
+<p>
+By this time they were rattling over the stones in their aunt's elegant
+carriage. It was dusk; the lamps were lighted, the streets crowded with
+people, the shops blazing with gay colors.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I didn't come here to get warm, either," said Dotty, determined to
+have the last word: "I was warm enough in Portland. I s'pose we've got a
+furnace,&mdash;haven't we?&mdash;and a coal grate, too."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I do hope Horace hasnt't got her started in a contrary fit," thought
+Prudy; "I brought her all the way from home without her saying a cross
+word."
+</p>
+<p>
+But aunt Madge had a witch's broom, to sweep cobwebs out of the sky.
+Putting her arm around Dotty, she said,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"You all came to bring sunshine into my house; bless your happy hearts."
+</p>
+<p>
+That cleared Dotty's sky, and she put up her lips for a kiss; while
+Flyaway, with her "hangerfiss" on, danced about the carriage like a fly
+in a bottle, kissing everybody, and Horace twice over.
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Cause I spect we've got there. But, Hollis," said she, with the
+comical shade of care which so often flitted across her little face,
+"you never put the trunk in here. Now that 'ductor has gone and carried
+off my nightie."
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH3"><!-- CH3 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER III.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+THE FROLIC.
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+If Aunt Madge had dressed in linsey woolsey, with a checked apron on,
+she would still have been lovely. A white rose is lovely even in a
+cracked tea-cup. But Colonel Augustus Allen was a rich man, and his wife
+could afford to dress elegantly. Horace followed her to-night with
+admiring eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+"They say she isn't as handsome as Aunt Louise, but I know better; you
+needn't tell me! Her eyes have got the real good twinkle, and that's
+enough said."
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace was like most boys; he mistook loveliness for beauty. Mrs.
+Allen's small figure, gentle gray eyes, and fair curls made her seem
+almost insignificant beside the splendid Louise; but Horace knew better;
+you needn't tell <i>him</i>!
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace," said Aunt Madge, "your Uncle Augustus is gone, and that is one
+reason, you know, why I begged for company during the holidays. You will
+be the only gentleman in the house, and we ladies herewith put ourselves
+under your protection. Will you accept the charge?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"He needn't <i>pertect</i> ME," spoke up Miss Dimple, from the depths of an
+easy-chair; "I can pertect myself."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't mind going to the Museum alone, I suppose, and crossing ferries,
+and riding in the Park, and being out after dark?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No; I'm not afraid of things," replied the strong-minded young lady;
+"ask Prudy if I am. And my father lets me go in the horse-cars all over
+Portland. That's since I travelled out west."
+</p>
+<p>
+Here the bell sounded, and the only gentleman of the house gave his arm
+to Mrs. Allen, to lead her out to what he supposed was supper, though he
+soon found it went by the name of dinner. Neither he nor his young
+cousins were accustomed to seeing so much silver and so many servants;
+but they tried to appear as unconcerned as if it were an every-day
+affair. Dotty afterwards said to Prudy and Horace, "I was 'stonished
+when that man came to the back of my chair with the butter; but I said,
+'<i>If</i> you please, sir,' just as if I 'spected it. <i>He</i> don't know but my
+father's rich."
+</p>
+<p>
+After dinner Fly's eyes drew together, and Prudy said,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, darling, you don't know what's going to happen. Auntie said you
+might sleep with Dotty and me to-night, right in the middle."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, dear!" drawled Flyaway; "when there's two abed, I sleep; but when
+there's three abed, I open out my eyes, and can't."
+</p>
+<p>
+"So you don't like to sleep with your cousins," said Dotty, "your dear
+cousins, that came all the way from Portland to see you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I do," said Fly, quickly; "my eyes'll open out; but that's no
+matter, 'cause I don't want to go to sleep; I'd ravver not."
+</p>
+<p>
+They went up stairs, into a beautiful room, which aunt Madge had
+arranged for them with two beds, to suit a whim of Dotty's.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now isn't this just splendid?" said Miss Dimple; "the carpet so soft
+your boots go in like feathers; and then such pictures! Look, Fly! here
+are two little girls out in a snow-storm, with an umbrella over 'em.
+Aren't you glad it isn't you? And here are some squirrels, just as
+natural as if they were eating grandpa's oilnuts. And see that pretty
+lady with the kid, or the dog. Any way she is kissing him; and it was
+all she had left out of the whole family, and she wanted to kiss
+somebody."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," said aunt Madge.
+</p>
+<pre>
+  "'Her sole companion in a dearth
+  Of love upon a hopeless earth.'
+</pre>
+<p>
+"If that makes you look so sober, children, I'm going to take it down.
+Here, on this bracket, is the head of our blessed Saviour."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, I'm glad," said Fly. "He'll be right there, a-looking on, when we
+say our prayers."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hear that creature talk!" whispered Dotty.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And these things a-shinin' down over the bed: who's these?" said
+Flyaway, dancing about the room, with "opened-out" eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't you know? That's Christ blessing little children," said Dotty,
+gently. "I always know Him by the rainbow round His head."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Aureole," corrected Aunt Madge.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But wasn't it just <i>like</i> a rainbow&mdash;red, blue and green?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, no; our Saviour did not really have any such crown of light, Dotty.
+He looked just like other men, only purer and holier. Artists have tried
+in vain to make his expression heavenly enough; so they paint him with
+an aureole."
+</p>
+<p>
+Prudy said nothing; but as she looked at the picture, a happy feeling
+came over her. She remembered how Christ "called little children like
+lambs to his fold," and it seemed as if He was very near to-night, and
+the room was full of peace. Aunt Madge had done well to place such
+paintings before her young guests; good pictures bring good thoughts.
+</p>
+<p>
+"All, everywhere, it's so spl-endid!" said Fly; "what's that thing with
+a glass house over it!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"A clock."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What a funny clock! It looks like a little dog wagging its tail."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's the <i>penderlum</i>," explained Dotty; "it beats the time. Every
+clock has a penderlum. Generally hangs down before though, and this
+hangs behind. I declare, Prudy, it does look like a dog wagging its
+tail."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hark! it strikes eight," said Aunt Madge. "Time little girls were in
+bed, getting rested for a happy day to-morrow."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't spect that thing knows what time it is," said Fly, gazing at
+the clock doubtfully, "and my eyes are all opened out; but if you want
+me to, auntie, I will!"
+</p>
+<p>
+So Flyaway slipped off her clothes in a twinkling.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We're going to lie, all three, in this big bed, Fly, just for one
+night," said Dotty; "and after that we must take turns which shall sleep
+with you. There, child, you're all undressed, and I haven't got my boots
+off yet. You're quicker'n a chain o' lightning, and always was."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, how did that kitty get in here?" said auntie, as a loud mewing
+was heard. "I certainly shut her out before we came up stairs."
+</p>
+<p>
+Dotty ran round the room, with one boot on, and Prudy in her stockings,
+helping their aunt in the search. The kitten was not under the bed, or
+in either of the closets, or inside the curtains.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Look ahind the <i>pendlum</i>," said Fly, laughing and skipping about in
+high glee; "look ahind the pendlum; look atween the pillow-case."
+</p>
+<p>
+Still the mewing went on.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, here is the kitty&mdash;I've found her," said auntie, suddenly seizing
+Fly by the shoulders, and stopping her mocking-bird mouth. "Poor pussy,
+she has turned white&mdash;white all over!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"You don't mean to say that was Fly Clifford?" cried Prudy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Shut her up, auntie," said Dotty Dimple; "she's a kitty. I always knew
+her name was Kitty."
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly ran and courtesied before the mirror in her nightie.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Kitty Clifford, Kitty Clifford," she cried, "when'll you be a cat?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pretty soon, if you can catch mice as well as you can mew," laughed
+auntie; "but look you, my dear; are you going to bed to-night? or shall
+I shut you down cellar?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't shut me down <i>cellow</i>, auntie," cried the mocking-bird, crowing
+like a chicken; "shut me in the barn with the banties."
+</p>
+<p>
+Next moment it occurred to the child that this style of behavior was not
+very "speckerful;" so she hastily dropped on her knees before her
+auntie, and began to say her prayers. The change was so sudden, from
+the shrill crow of a chicken to the gentle voice of a little girl
+praying, that no one could keep a sober face. Prudy ran into the closet,
+and Dotty laughed into her handkerchief.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, now, that's done," said Flyaway, jumping up as suddenly as she
+had knelt down. "Now I must pray Flipperty."
+</p>
+<p>
+And before any one could think what the child meant to do, she had
+dragged out her dolly, and knelt it on the rug, face downward, over her
+own lap.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, the wicked creature!" whispered Dotty. But Aunt Madge said nothing.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pray," said the little one, in a tone of command. Then, in a fine,
+squeaking voice, Fly repeated a prayer. It was intended to be
+Flipperty's voice, and Flipperty was too young to talk plain.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, that will do," said Aunt Madge, her large gray eyes trying not
+to twinkle; "did she ever say her prayers before?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, um; she's a goody girl&mdash;when I 'member to pray her!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, dear, I wouldn't 'pray her' any more. It makes us laugh to see
+such a droll sight, and nobody wishes to laugh when you are talking to
+your Father in heaven."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No'm," replied Flyaway, winking her eyes solemnly.
+</p>
+<p>
+But when the "three abed" had been tucked in and kissed, Fly called her
+auntie back to ask, "How can Flipperty grow up a goody girl <i>athout</i> she
+says her prayers?"
+</p>
+<p>
+There was such a mixture of play and earnestness in the child's eyes,
+that auntie had to turn away her face before she could answer seriously.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, little girls can think and feel you know; but with dollies it is
+different. Now, good night, pet; you won't have beautiful dreams, if you
+talk any more."
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH4"><!-- CH4 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER IV.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+"TAKING OUR AIRS."
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway awoke singing, and sprang up in bed, saying,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, I thought I's a car, and that's why I whissiled."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But you are not a car," yawned Prudy; "please don't sing again, or
+dance, either."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It's the <i>happerness</i> in me, Prudy; and that's what dances; it's the
+happerness."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's the worst part of Fly Clifford," groaned Dotty; "she won't keep
+still in the morning. Might have known there wouldn't be any peace after
+she got here."
+</p>
+<p>
+Dotty always came out of sleep by slow stages, and her affections were
+the last part of her to wake up. Just now she did not love Katie
+Clifford one bit, nor her own mother either.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Won't you light the lamp?" piped Flyaway.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Please don't, Fly," said Prudy; "don't talk!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Won't you light the la-amp?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, we will not," said Dotty, firmly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Won't you light the la-amp?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is this what we came to New York for?" moaned Dotty; "to be waked up in
+the middle of the night by folks singing?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Won't you light the la-amp?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'll pack my dresses, and go right home! I'll&mdash;I'll have Fly Clifford
+sleep out o' this room. Why, I&mdash;I&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Won't you light the la-amp?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Prudy sprang out of bed, convulsed with laughter, and lighted the gas;
+whereupon Fly began to dance "Little Zephyrs," on the pillow, and Dotty
+to declare her eyes were put out.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Little try-patiences, both of them," thought Prudy; "but then they've
+always had their own way, and what can you expect? I'm so glad I wasn't
+born the youngest of the family; it does make children <i>so</i>
+disagreeable!"
+</p>
+<p>
+As soon as Dotty was fairly awake, her love for her friends came back
+again, and her good humor with it. She made Fly bleat like a lamb and
+spin like a top, and applauded her loudly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It's gl-orious to have you here, Fly Clifford. I wouldn't let you go in
+any other room to sleep for anything."
+</p>
+<p>
+Which shows that the same thing looked very different to Dotty after she
+got her eyes open.
+</p>
+<p>
+When the children went down to breakfast, they found bouquets of
+flowers by their plates.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am delighted to see such happy faces." said Aunt Madge. "How would
+you all like to go out by and by, and take the air?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"We'd like it, auntie; and I'll tell you what would be prime," remarked
+Horace, from his uncle's place at the head of the table; "and that is,
+to take Fly to Stewart's, and have her go up in an elevator."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why couldn't I go up, too?" asked Dotty, with the slightest possible
+shade of discontent in her voice. She did not mean to be jealous, but
+she had noticed that Flyaway always came first with Horace, and if there
+was anything hard for Dotty's patience, it was playing the part of
+Number Two.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We'll all go up," said Aunt Madge. "I've an idea of taking you over
+to Brooklyn; and in that case we shan't come home before night."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Carry our dinner in a basket?" suggested Dotty.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, no; we'll go into a restaurant, somewhere, and order whatever you
+like."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Will you, auntie? Well, there, I never went to such a place in my life,
+only once; and then Percy Eastman, he just cried 'Fire!' and I broke the
+saucer all to pieces."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I've been to it a great many times," said Fly, catching part of Dotty's
+meaning; "my mamma bakes 'em in a freezer."
+</p>
+<p>
+At nine o'clock the party of five started out to see New York. Aunt
+Madge and Horace walked first, with Flyaway between them. "We are going
+out to take our <i>airs</i>," said the little one.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't think you need any more," said Horace, looking fondly at his
+pretty sister. "You're so airy now, it's as much as we can do to keep
+your feet on the ground."
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway wore a blue silk bonnet, with white lace around the face, a blue
+dress and cloak, and pretty furs with a squirrel's head on the muff. She
+had never been dressed so well before, and she knew it. She remembered
+hearing "Phibby" say to "Tinka," "Don't that child look like an angel?"
+Fly was sure she did, for big folks like Tinka must know. But here her
+thoughts grew misty. All the angels she had ever heard of were brother
+Harry and "the Charlie boy." How could she look like them?
+</p>
+<p>
+"Does God dress 'em in a cloak and bonnet, you s'pose?" asked she of her
+own thoughts.
+</p>
+<p>
+Prudy and Dotty Dimple wore frocks of black and red plaid, white
+cloaks, and black hats with scarlet feathers. Horace was satisfied that
+a finer group of children could not be found in the city.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Aunt Madge and I have no reason to be ashamed of them, I am sure,"
+thought he, taking out his new watch every few minutes, not because he
+wished to show it, but for fear it was losing time.
+</p>
+<p>
+"How I wish we had Grace and Susey here! and then I should have all my
+nieces," said Aunt Madge. "Is it possible these are the same children I
+used to see at Willowbrook? Here is my only nephew, that drowned Prudy
+on a log, grown tall enough to offer me his arm. (Why, Horace, your head
+is higher than mine!) Here is Prudy, who tried yesterday&mdash;didn't
+she?&mdash;to go up to heaven on a ladder, almost a young lady. Why, how old
+it makes me feel!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"But you don't look old," said Dotty, consolingly; "you don't look
+married any more than Aunt Louise?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Here they took an omnibus, and the children interested themselves in
+watching the different people who sat near them.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Aren't you glad to come?" said Dotty. "See that man getting out. What
+is that little thing he's switching himself with?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's a cane," replied Horace.
+</p>
+<p>
+"A cane? Why, if Flyaway should lean on it, she'd break it in
+two.&mdash;Prudy, look at that man in the corner; <i>his</i> cane is funnier than
+the other one."
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace laughed.
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is a pipe, Dotty&mdash;a meerschaum."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I don't see much difference," said Miss Dimple; "New York is the
+queerest place. Such long pipes, and such short canes!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly was too happy to talk, and sat looking out of the window until an
+elegantly-dressed lady entered the stage, who attracted everybody's
+attention; and then Flyaway started up, and stood on her tiptoes. The
+lady's face was painted so brightly that even a child could not help
+noticing it. It was haggard and wrinkled, all but the cheeks, and those
+bloomed out like a red, red rose. Flyaway had never seen such a sight
+before, and thought if the lady only knew how she looked, she would go
+right home and wash her face.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What a chee-arming little girl!" said the painted woman, crowding in
+between Aunt Madge and Flyaway, and patting the child's shoulder with
+her ungloved hand, which was fairly ablaze with jewels; "bee-youtiful!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway turned quickly around to Aunt Madge, and said, in one of her
+very loud whispers, "What's the matter with her? She's got sumpin on her
+face."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hush," whispered Aunt Madge, pinching the child's hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But there is," spoke up Flyaway, very loud in her earnestness; "O,
+there is sumpin on her face&mdash;sumpin red."
+</p>
+<p>
+There was "sumpin" now on all the other faces in the omnibus, and it was
+a smile. The lady must have blushed away down under the paint. She
+looked at her jewelled fingers, tossed her head proudly, and very soon
+left the stage.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Topknot, how could you be so rude?" said Horace, severely; "little
+girls should be seen, and not heard."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But she speaked to me first," said Flyaway. "I wasn't goin' to say
+nuffin, and then she speaked."
+</p>
+<p>
+A young gentleman and lady opposite seemed very much amused.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'm afraid of your bright eyes, little dear. I'll give you some candy
+if you won't tell me how I look," said the young lady, showering
+sweetmeats into Flyaway's lap.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, I wasn't goin' to tell her how she looked," whispered Fly, very
+much surprised, and trying to nestle out of sight behind Horace's
+shoulder.
+</p>
+<p>
+When they left the omnibus, the children had a discussion about the
+painted lady, and could not decide whether they were glad or sorry that
+Fly had spoken out so plainly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Good enough for her," said Dotty.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But it was such a pity to hurt her feelings!" said Prudy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Who hurted 'em?" asked Fly, looking rather sheepish.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Poh! her feelings can't be worth much," remarked Horace; "a woman
+that'll go and rig herself up in that style."
+</p>
+<p>
+"She must be near-sighted," said Aunt Madge. "She certainly can't have
+the faintest idea how thick that paint is. She ought to let somebody
+else put it on."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But, auntie, isn't it wicked to wear paint on your cheeks?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, Dotty, only foolish. That woman was handsome once, but her beauty
+is gone. She thinks she can make herself young again, and then people
+will admire her."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, but they won't; they'll only laugh."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very true, Dotty; but I dare say she never thought of that till this
+little child told her."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Fly," said Horace, "You are doing a great deal of good going round
+hurting folks' feelings."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Poor woman!" said Aunt Madge, with a pitying smile; "she might comfort
+herself by trying to make her soul beautiful."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That would be altogether the best plan," said Horace, aside to Prudy;
+"she can't do much with her body, that's a fact; it's too dried up."
+</p>
+<p>
+All this while they were passing elegant shops, and Aunt Madge let the
+children pause as long as they liked before the windows, to admire the
+beautiful things.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Whose little grampa is that?" cried Fly, pointing to a Santa Claus
+standing on the pavement and holding out his hands with a very pleasant
+smile; "he's all covered with a snow-storm."
+</p>
+<p>
+"He isn't alive," said Dotty; "and the snow is only painted on his coat
+in little dots."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I didn't spect he was alive, Dotty Dimple, only but he made
+believe he was. And O, see that hossy! he's dead, too, but he looks as
+if you could ride on him."
+</p>
+<p>
+"This other window is the handsomest, Fly; don't I wish I had some of
+those beautiful dripping, red ear-rings?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, little sister," said Prudy, "I'd as soon think of wanting a gold
+nose as those cat-tail ear-rings. What would Grandma Read say?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, she'd say 'thee' and 'thou,' I s'pose, and ask me if I called 'em
+the ornaments of meek and quiet spirits," said Dotty, with a slight curl
+of the lip. "Auntie, is it wicked to wear jewels, if your grandma's a
+Quaker?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I think not; that is, if somebody should give you a pair; but I hope
+somebody never will. It is a mere matter of taste, however. O, children,
+now I think of it, I'll give you each a little pin-money to spend,
+to-day, just as you like. A dollar each to Prudy and Dotty; and, Horace,
+here is fifty cents for Flyaway."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, you darling auntie!" cried the little Parlins, in a breath. Dotty
+shut this, the largest bill she had ever owned, into her red
+porte-monnaie, feeling sure she should never want for anything again
+that money can buy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, now, Hollis," said Fly, drawing her mouth down and her eyebrows
+up, "where's my skipt? <i>my</i> skipt?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"What? A little snip like you mustn't have money," answered Horace,
+carelessly; "auntie gave it to me."
+</p>
+<p>
+The moment he had spoken the words, he was sorry, for the child was too
+young and sensitive to be trifled with. She never doubted that her great
+cruel brother had robbed her. It was too much. Her "dove's eyes" shot
+fire. Flyaway could be terribly angry, and her anger was "as quick as a
+chain o' lightning." Before any one had time to think twice, she had
+turned on her little heel, and was running away. With one impulse the
+whole party turned and followed.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Prudy and I haven't breath enough to run," said Aunt Madge. "Here we
+are at Stewart's. You'll find us in the rotunda, Horace. Come back here
+with Fly, as soon as you have caught her."
+</p>
+<p>
+As soon as he had caught her!
+</p>
+<p>
+They were on Broadway, which was lined with people, moving to and fro.
+Horace and Dotty had to push their way through the crowd, while little
+Fly seemed to float like a creature of air.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Stop, Fly! Stop, Fly!" cried Horace; but that only added speed to her
+wings.
+</p>
+<p>
+"She's like a piece of thistle-down," laughed Horace; "when you get near
+her you blow her away."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Stop, O, stop," cried Dotty; "Horace was only in fun. Don't run away
+from us, Fly."
+</p>
+<p>
+But by this time the child was so far off that the words were lost in
+the din.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, where is she? I don't see her," exclaimed Horace, as the little
+blue figure suddenly vanished, like a puff of smoke. "Did she cross the
+street?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't know, Horace. O, dear, I don't know."
+</p>
+<p>
+It was the first time a fear had entered either of their minds. Knowing
+very little of the danger of large cities, they had not dreamed that the
+foolish little Fly might get caught in some dreadful spider's web.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH5"><!-- CH5 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER V.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+DOTTY HAVING HER OWN WAY.
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+Yes, Fly was out of sight; that was certain. Whether she had turned to
+the right, or to the left, or had merely gone straight on, fallen down,
+and been trampled on, that was the question. How was one to find out?
+People enough to inquire of, but nobody to answer.
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace had as many thoughts as a drowning man. How had he ever dared
+bring such a will-o'-the-wisp away from home? How had his mother
+consented to let him? His father had charged him, over and over, not to
+let go Fly's hand in the street. That did very well to talk about; but
+what could you do with a child that wasn't made of flesh and blood, but
+the very lightest kind of gas?
+</p>
+<p>
+"Dotty, turn down this street, and I'll keep on up Broadway. No&mdash;no;
+you'd get lost. What shall we do? Go just where I do, as hard as you can
+run, and don't lose sight of me."
+</p>
+<p>
+Dotty began to pant. She could not keep on at this rate of speed, and
+Horace saw it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You'll have to go back to Stewart's."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Where's Stewart's?" gasped Dotty, still running.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, that stone building on Tenth Street, with blue curtains, where we
+left auntie."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't know anything about Tenth Street or blue curtains."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But you'll know it when you get there. Just cross over&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Horace Clifford, I can't cross over! There's horses and carriages
+every minute; and my mother made me almost promise I wouldn't ever cross
+over."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There are plenty of policemen, Dotty; they'll take you by the
+shoulder&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Horace Clifford, they shan't take me by the shoulder! S'pose I want
+'em marching me off to the lockup?" screamed Dotty, who believed the
+lockup was the chief end and aim of policemen.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, then, I don't know anything what to do with you," said Horace, in
+despair.
+</p>
+<p>
+It seemed very hard that he should have the care of this willful little
+cousin, just when he wanted so much to be free to pursue Flyaway.
+</p>
+<p>
+"If you won't go back to Stewart's, you won't. Will you go into this
+shop, then, and wait till I call for you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"You'll forget to call."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I certainly won't forget."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, then, I'll go in; but I won't promise to stay. I want to help
+hunt for Fly just as much as you do."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Dotty Dimple, look me right in the eye. I can't stop to coax you. I'm
+frightened to death about Fly. Do you go into this store, and stay in it
+till I call for you, if it's six hours. If you stir, you're lost.
+Do&mdash;you&mdash;<i>hear</i>?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I <i>hear</i>.&mdash;H'm, he thinks my ears are thick as ears o' corn? No
+holes in 'em to hear with, I s'pose! Horace Clifford hasn't got the
+<i>say</i> o' me, though. I can go all over town for all o' him!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"What will you have, my little lady?" said a clerk, bowing to Dotty.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't want anything, if you please, sir. There was a boy, and he
+asked me to stay here while he went to find something."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very well; sit as long as you please."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Screwed right down into the floor, this piano stool is," thought Dotty;
+"makes it real hard to sit on, because you can't whirl it. Guess I'll
+walk 'round a while. Why, if here isn't a window right in the floor!
+Strong enough to walk on. There's a man going over it with big boots and
+a cane. I can look right down into the cellar. Only just I can't see any
+thing, though, the glass is so thick."
+</p>
+<p>
+Dotty watched the clerks measuring off yards of cloth, tapping on the
+counter, and calling out, "Cash." It was rather funny, at first, to see
+the little boys run; but Dotty soon tired of it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace is gone a long while," thought she, going to the door and
+looking out.
+</p>
+<p>
+"He has forgotten to call, or he's forgotten where he left me, or else
+he hasn't found Fly. Dear, dear! I can't wait. I'll just go out a few
+steps, and p'rhaps I'll meet 'em."
+</p>
+<p>
+She walked out a little way, seeing nothing but a multitude of strange
+faces.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I should think this was queer! I'll go right back to that store,
+and sit down on the piano stool. If Horace Clifford can't be more
+polite! Well, I should think!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Dotty went back, and entered, as she supposed, the store she had left;
+but a great change had come over it. It had the same counters, and
+stools, and goods on lines, marked "Selling off below cost;" but the men
+looked very different. "I don't see how they could change round so
+quick," thought Dotty; "I haven't been gone <i>more'n</i> a minute."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What shall I serve you to, mees," said one of them, with a smile that
+was all black eyes and white teeth. Dotty thought he looked very much
+like Lina <i>Rosenbug's</i> brother; and his hair was so shiny and sticky, it
+must have been dipped in molasses.
+</p>
+<p>
+She answered him with some confusion. "I don't want anything. I was the
+girl, you know, that the boy was going somewhere to find something."
+</p>
+<p>
+The man smiled wickedly, and said, "Yees, mees." In an instant it
+flashed across Dotty that she had got into the wrong store. Where was
+the glass window she had walked on? They couldn't have taken that out
+while she was gone. The floor was whole, and made of nothing but boards.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, it's very queer stores should be <i>twins</i>," thought Dotty.
+</p>
+<p>
+She entered the next one. It was not a "twin;" it was full of books and
+pictures.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why didn't Horace leave me here, in the first place, it was so much
+nicer. And they let people read and handle the pictures. O, they have
+the <i>goldest</i>-looking things!"
+</p>
+<p>
+How shocked Prudy would have been, if she had seen her little sister
+reaching up to the counter, and turning over the leaves of books, side
+by side with grown people! Miss Dimple was never very bashful; and what
+did she care for the people in New York, who never saw her before? She
+soon became absorbed in a fairy story. Seconds, minutes, quarters; it
+was a whole hour before she came to herself enough to remember that
+Horace was to call for her, and she was not where he had left her.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But he can't scold; for didn't he keep me waiting, too? Now I'll go
+back."
+</p>
+<p>
+The next place she entered was a cigar store.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I might have known better than to go in; for there's that wooden Indian
+standing there, a-purpose to keep ladies out!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, here's a 'Sample Room.' Now this <i>must</i> be the place, for it says
+'Push,' on the green door, just as the other one did."
+</p>
+<p>
+What was Dotty's astonishment, when she found she had rushed into a room
+which held only tables, bottles, and glasses, and men drinking something
+that smelt like hot brandy!
+</p>
+<p>
+"I shan't go into any more 'Sample Rooms.' I didn't know a 'Sample'
+meant whiskey! But, I do declare, it's funny where <i>my</i> store is gone
+to."
+</p>
+<p>
+The child was going farther and farther away from it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Here is one that looks a little like it Any way, I can see a glass
+window in there, on the floor."
+</p>
+<p>
+A lady stood at a counter, folding a piece of green velvet ribbon. Dotty
+determined to make friends with her; so she went up to her, and said, in
+a low voice, "Will you please tell me, ma'am, if I'm the same little
+girl that was in here before? No, I don't mean so. I mean, did I go into
+the same store, or is this a different one? Because there's a boy going
+to call for me, and I thought I'd better know."
+</p>
+<p>
+Of course the lady smiled, and said it might, or might not be the same
+place; but she did not remember to have seen Dotty before.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What was the number of the store? The boy ought to have known."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But I don't believe he did," replied Dotty, indignantly; "he never said
+a word to me about numbers. I'm almost afraid I'll get lost!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I should be quite afraid of it, child. Where do you live?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"In Portland, in the State of Maine. Prudy and I came to New York: our
+auntie sent for us&mdash;I know the place when I see it; side of a church
+with ivy; but O, dear! I'm afraid the stage don't stop there. She's at
+Mr. Stewart's&mdash;she and Prudy."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you mean Stewart's store?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, no'm; it's a man she knows," replied Dotty, confidently; "he lives
+in a blue house."
+</p>
+<p>
+The lady asked no more questions. If Dotty had said "Stewart's store,"
+and had remembered that the curtains were blue, and not the building,
+Miss Kopper would have thought she knew what to do; she would have sent
+the child straight to Stewart's.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Poor little thing!" said she, twisting the long curl, which hung down
+the back of her neck like a bell-rope, and looking as if she cared more
+about her hair than she cared for all the children in Portland. "The
+best thing you can do is to go right into the druggist's, next door but
+one, and look in the City Directory. Do you know your aunt's husband's
+name?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, yes'm. Colonel Augustus Allen, <i>Fiftieth</i> Avenue."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, then, there'll be no difficulty. Just go in and ask to look in
+the Directory; they'll tell you what stage to take. Now I must attend to
+these ladies. Hope you'll get home safe."
+</p>
+<p>
+"A handsome child," said one of the ladies. "Yes, from the country,"
+replied Miss Kopper with a sweet smile; "I have just been showing her
+the way home."
+</p>
+<p>
+Ah, Miss Kopper, perhaps you thought you were telling the truth; but
+instead of relieving the country child's perplexity, you had confused
+her more than ever. What should Dotty Dimple know about a City
+Directory? She forgot the name of it before she got to the druggist's.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Please, sir, there's something in here,&mdash;may I see it?&mdash;that shows
+folks where they live."
+</p>
+<p>
+"A policeman?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No; O, no, sir."
+</p>
+<p>
+After some time, the gentleman, being rather shrewd, surmised what she
+wanted, and gave her the book.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not that, sir," said Dotty, ready to cry.
+</p>
+<p>
+Perhaps you will be as ready to laugh, when you hear that the child
+really supposed a City Directory was an instrument that drew out and
+shut up like a telescope, and, by peeping through it, she could see the
+distant home of Colonel Allen, on "Fiftieth Avenue."
+</p>
+<p>
+The apothecary did not laugh at her; but, being a kind man, and,
+moreover, not having curls hanging down his neck which needed attention,
+he gave his whole care to Dotty, found an omnibus for her, told the
+driver just where to let her out, and made her repeat her uncle's street
+and number till he thought there was no danger of a mistake.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH6"><!-- CH6 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER VI.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+DOTTY REBUKED.
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+One would have thought that now all Dotty's troubles were over; and so
+they would have been, if she had not tried so hard to remember the
+number. She said it over and over so many times, that all of a sudden it
+went out of her mind. It was like rolling a ball on the ground, backward
+and forward, till most unexpectedly it pops into a hole. Very much
+frightened, Dotty bit her lip, twirled her front hair, and pinched her
+left cheek&mdash;all in vain; the number wouldn't come.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, dear, what'll I do? I'd open that cellar door, where the driver is;
+but he's all done up in a blue cape, and don't know anything only how
+to whip his horses. And there don't anybody know where anybody lives in
+this city; so it's no use to ask. For what do they care? They'd tell you
+to look in the Dictionary. There's nobody in Portland ever told me to
+look in a Dictionary. Here they are, sitting round here, just as happy,
+all but me. They all live in a number, and they know what it is; but
+they keep it to themselves,&mdash;they don't tell. It always makes people
+feel better to know where they're going to. When I'm in Portland I know
+how to get to Park Street, and how to get to Munjoy, and how to get to
+Back Cove, with my eyes shut. But they don't make things as they ought
+to in New York. You can't find out what to do."
+</p>
+<p>
+So the stage rumbled, and Dotty grumbled. Presently a lady in an ermine
+cloak got out, and Dotty did not know of anything better to do than to
+follow. She certainly was on Fifth Avenue, and perhaps, if she walked
+on, she should come to the number.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There isn't any house along here that looks like auntie's," said she,
+anxiously; "only they all look like it some. I never saw such a place as
+this city, So many same things right over, and over; and then, when you
+go into 'em, its just as different, and not the place you s'posed it
+was."
+</p>
+<p>
+Here Dotty ran up some steps, and rang a bell. She thought the damask
+curtains looked familiar.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, no," cried she, running down again, as fast as the mouse ran down
+the clock; "my auntie don't keep onions in her bay window, I hope!"
+</p>
+<p>
+It was hyacinth bulbs, in glass vases, which had excited Dotty's
+disgust.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, I guess I'm on the wrong side of the street; no wonder I can't find
+the house. There, I see a chamber window open; <i>our</i> chamber window was
+open. I'm going to cross over and get near enough to see if there's a
+little clock on the shelf that ticks like a dog wagging his tail."
+</p>
+<p>
+No, there was no clock of any sort, and where the shelf ought to be was
+a baby's crib.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, any way, here's that beautiful church, with ivy round it; it's
+ever so near auntie's; so I'll keep walking."
+</p>
+<p>
+Dotty was right when she said the church was near auntie's&mdash;it was
+within three doors; but she was wrong when she kept walking precisely
+the wrong way. She crossed over to Sixth Avenue. Now, where were the
+brown houses? She saw the horse-cars plodding along, and tried to read
+the words on them.
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Sixth Ave. and Fifty-Ninth Street.' Why, what's an <i>ave</i>? I never heard
+of such a thing before; we don't have 'aves' in Portland. There are ever
+so many people getting out of that car. While it stops, I'll peep in,
+and see where it's going to. Perhaps there's a name inside that tells."
+</p>
+<p>
+And, with her usual rashness, Dotty stepped upon the platform of the
+car, and looked in. What she expected to see she hardly knew,&mdash;perhaps
+"Aunt Madge's House," in gold letters; but what she really saw was, "No
+Smoking;" those two words, and nothing more.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, who wants to smoke? I'm sure <i>I</i> don't," thought Dotty,
+disdainfully, and was turning to step off the platform, when Horace
+Clifford seized her by the shoulder.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Where did you come from, you runaway?" said he, gruffly.
+</p>
+<p>
+Close beside him were Aunt Madge and Prudy; all three were getting out
+of the car.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thank Heaven, one of them is found," cried Aunt Madge, her face very
+pale, her large eyes full of trouble.
+</p>
+<p>
+Prudy kissed and scolded in the same breath. "O, Dotty Dimple, you'd
+better believe we're glad to see you?&mdash;but what a naughty girl! A pretty
+race you've led Horace, and he just wild about Fly!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"H'm! what'd he go off for, then, and leave me there, sitting on a piano
+stool? S'pose I's going to sit there all day? Didn't I want to go home
+as much as the rest of you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And how did you get home? I'd like to know that," said Horace, walking
+on with great strides, and then coming back again to the "ladies;" for
+his anxiety about his little sister would not allow him to behave
+calmly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I rode."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You weren't in the car <i>we</i> came in."
+</p>
+<p>
+"N-o; I just happened to be peeking in there you know. But I came in an
+<i>omnibius</i>."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is wonderful," said Aunt Madge, looking puzzled, "that you ever knew
+what omnibus to take."
+</p>
+<p>
+Dotty looked down to see if her boot was buttoned, and forgot to look up
+again. "Well, <i>I</i> shouldn't have known one <i>omnibius</i>, as you call it,
+from another," said Prudy, lost in admiration. "Why, Dotty, how bright
+you are! And there we were, so afraid about you, and spoke to a
+policeman to look you up."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I wouldn't let a p'liceman catch <i>me</i>," said Dotty, tossing her head.
+"But haven't you found Fly yet?"
+</p>
+<p>
+They were at home by this time, and Horace was ringing the bell.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, the dear child is still missing; but the police are on her track,"
+said Aunt Madge, looking at her watch. "It is now one o'clock. Keep a
+good heart, Horace, my boy. John shall go straight to the telegraph
+office, and wait there for a despatch. Don't you leave us, dear; we
+can't spare you, and you can do no good."
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace made no reply, except to tap the heels of his boots together. He
+looked utterly crushed. A large city was just as strange to him as it
+was to Dotty, and he could only obey his aunt's orders, and try to hope
+for the best. Dotty seemed to be the only one who felt like saying a
+word, and she talked incessantly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, what'd you send the p'lice after her for? To put her in the lockup,
+and make her cry and think she's been naughty? It's the awfulest city
+that ever I saw. Folks might send her home, if they were a mind to, but
+they won't. They don't care what 'comes of you. There's cars and stages
+going to which ways, and nothing but 'No Smoking,' inside. And I went
+and peeped in at a window, and there was <i>onions</i>! And how'd I know
+where to go to? There was a girl with a long curl, and she said, 'Go to
+the 'pothecary's;' and what would Fly have known where she meant? And he
+looked in a Dictionary, and put me in a stage,&mdash;I was going to tell you
+about that when I got ready,&mdash;and asked me if I had ten cents, and I
+had; and then I forgot what the number was, and that was the time I saw
+the onions, or I should have gone right into somebody's else's house.
+And I knew there was a church with ivy round, but Fly don't know; she's
+nothing but a baby. And I should have thought, Horace Clifford, you
+might have given her that money! That was what made her run off; you was
+real cruel, and that's why I wouldn't mind what you said. And&mdash;and&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hush," said Aunt Madge, brushing back a spray of fair curls, which the
+wind had tossed over her forehead. "I don't allow a word of scolding in
+my house. If you don't feel pleasant, Dotty, you may go into the back
+yard and scold into a hole."
+</p>
+<p>
+Dotty stopped suddenly. She knew her aunt was displeased; she felt it in
+the tones of her voice.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Dotty, the wind has been at play with your hair as well as mine.
+Suppose we both go up stairs a few minutes?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, auntie's going to reason with me," thought Dotty, winding slowly
+up the staircase; "I didn't suppose she was one of that kind."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No dear, I'm <i>not</i> one of that kind," said Mrs. Allen, roguishly; for
+she saw just what the child was thinking. "'I come not here to talk.'
+All I have to say is this: Disobey again, and I send you home
+immediately."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes'm," said the little culprit, blushing crimson. "Now, brush your
+hair, and let us go down." This was the only allusion Mrs. Allen ever
+made to the subject; but after this, she and Dotty understood each other
+perfectly. Dotty had learned, once for all, that her aunt was not to be
+trifled with.
+</p>
+<p>
+The child really was ashamed&mdash;thoroughly ashamed; but do you suppose
+she admitted it to Horace? Not she. And he, so full of anguish
+concerning the lost Fly, found not a word of fault; scarcely even
+thought of his naughty cousin at all.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH7"><!-- CH7 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER VII.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+THE LOST FLY.
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+Now we must go back and see what has become of the little one.
+</p>
+<p>
+At first her heart had swollen with rage. Anger had set her going, just
+as a blow from a battledoor sends off a shuttlecock. And, once being
+started, the poor little shuttlecock couldn't stop.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Auntie gave me that skipt. Hollis is a very wicked boy; steals skipt
+from little gee-urls. I don't ever want to see Hollis no more."
+</p>
+<p>
+What she meant to do, or where to go, she had no more idea than the blue
+clouds overhead. She had no doubt her brother was close behind, trying
+to overtake her. Her sole thought was, that she "wouldn't ever see
+Hollis no more." She knew nothing could make him so unhappy as that.
+"I'll lose me, and then how'll he feel?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Lose me!" A wild thought, gone in a moment; but meanwhile she was
+already lost.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I hope auntie won't give Hollis nuffin to eat, 'cause he's took away my
+skipt; nuffin to eat but meat and vertato, athout any pie."
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway shook her head so hard, that the "war-plume" under her bonnet
+would have nodded, if the air could have got at it. "Why, where's
+Hollis?" said she, looking back, and finding, to her surprise, he was
+not to be seen. "I spected he'd come. I thought I heard him walking
+ahind me."
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway's anger had died out by this time. It never lasted longer than
+a Fourth of July torpedo.
+</p>
+<p>
+"He didn't know I runned off. Guess I'll go back, and he'll give me the
+skipt; and then I'll forgive him all goody."
+</p>
+<p>
+A very nice plan; only, instead of going back, she turned a corner, and
+tripped along towards University Place. She had twisted her head so much
+in looking for Horace, that it was completely turned round. And,
+besides, a little farther on was a man playing a harp, and a small boy a
+violin. Fly paused and listened, till she no longer remembered Horace or
+the "skipt." She forgot this was New York, and dreamed she had come to
+fairy-land. Her soul was full of music. Happy thoughts about nothing in
+particular made her smile and clap her hands. Birds, flowers, Santa
+Clauses, Flipperties, and "pepnits" seemed to hover near. Something
+beautiful was just going to happen, she didn't know what.
+</p>
+<p>
+After the man had played for some time without attracting attention from
+any body but Flyaway and a poor old beggar woman, he put his harp in a
+green bag, slung it over his shoulder, and walked off. Flyaway followed
+without knowing it. Down Sixth Avenue went the music-man, and close at
+his heels went she. By and by she saw a little girl, no larger than
+herself, with a great bundle on her shoulders.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You don't s'pose she's got a music on <i>her</i> back?&mdash;No, not a music;
+it's too soft all swelled out in a bunch."
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly went nearer the little girl, to see what she was carrying; and as
+she did so, some gray coals, mixed with ashes, fell out of the bundle
+upon her nice cloak.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, she's been and carried off her mother's fireplace," thought Fly,
+shaking her cloak in disgust; "what you s'pose she wanted to do that
+for?"
+</p>
+<p>
+But far from carrying off her mother's fireplace, the ragged little girl
+had only been picking up old coal out of barrels, and was taking it home
+to burn. It had already been burned once, and picked over and burned
+again, and thrown away; but perhaps this poor child's mother could coax
+it into a faint glow, warm enough to fry a few potatoes.
+</p>
+<p>
+While Flyaway was shaking her cloak, and staring at some old silk
+dresses and bed-quilts, which were hung before a shop-door, the man with
+the harp on his back, and the boy with a violin under his arm, had
+turned a corner, and passed out of sight. Flyaway rubbed her eyes, and
+looked again. They must have gone down through the brick pavement, but
+she couldn't see any hole. Far away in the distance she heard their
+music again, and it did not come from under ground. She ran to overtake
+it, and turned into Bleecker Street. No music-man there, but a good
+supply of oranges and apples.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Needn't folks put their hands in, and take some out the barrels? Then
+why for did the folks put 'em on' doors?"
+</p>
+<p>
+While pondering this grave question, she was jostled by a man carrying a
+rocking-chair, and very nearly fell down stairs into an oyster-saloon. A
+minute more and she was back on Broadway, the very street, where Aunt
+Madge and Prudy were waiting for her, but so much lower down that she
+might as well have been in the State of Maine.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now, I'll go find my Hollis," said she turning another corner, and
+running the wrong way with all her might. Past candy-stalls, past
+toy-shops, past orange-wagons. Hark, music again! Not the soft strains
+of a harp, but the stirring notes of bugle, fife, and drum. Fly kept
+time with her feet.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Here we go marchin' on," hummed she. But the crowd "marchin' on" with
+her was a strange one. Carts full of hammers, pincers, and all sorts of
+iron tools, and men in gray shirts, with black caps on their heads. Some
+of the men had banners, with great black words, such as "Equal Rights,"
+or something like them, in German; but of course Fly could not tell one
+letter from another. She only knew it was all very "homebly," in spite
+of the music. She began to think she had better get away as soon as she
+could; so she tried to cross the street, but some one held her back; it
+was a lady, carrying a small dog in her arms, like a baby.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't go there, child; that's a strike, you'll get killed."
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly knew but one meaning for the word <i>strike</i>; and, tearing herself
+from the lady, ran screaming down Broadway, with the thought that every
+man's hand was against her.
+</p>
+<p>
+On she went, and on went the strike, close behind her. A little while
+ago she had been following music, and now music was following her. But
+the fifes and drums were rather slow, and Flyaway's feet were very
+swift; so it was not long before the gray men, with their white banners
+and clattering carts, were far behind her. No danger now that any of the
+wicked creatures would strike her; so she slackened her pace.
+</p>
+<p>
+She did begin to wonder why she had not found Horace; still, she was not
+at all alarmed, and there was a dreadful din in the streets, which
+confused her thoughts. It seemed as if people were making it on purpose.
+Once, at Willowbrook, she had heard boys banging tin pans, grinding
+coffee mills, and pounding with mortars. She had liked that,&mdash;they
+called it the "Calathumpian Band,"&mdash;and she liked this too; it sounded
+about as uproarious.
+</p>
+<p>
+While she sauntered along, spying wonders, her eye was attracted by some
+balancing-toys, which a man was showing off at one of the corners. What
+a pleasant man he was, to set them spinning just to amuse little girls!
+Fly was delighted with one wee soldier, in a blue coat with brass
+buttons, who kept dancing and bowing with the greatest politeness.
+"Captain Jinks, of the horse-marines," said the toy-man, introducing
+him. "Buy him, miss; he'll make a nice little husband for you; only
+fifteen cents."
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly felt quite flattered. It was the first time in her life any one had
+ever asked her to buy anything, and she thought she must have grown tall
+since she came from Indiana. She put her fingers in her mouth, then took
+them out, and put them in her pocket.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Here's my porte-monnaie-ry," said she, dolefully; "but I haven't but
+two cents&mdash;no more. Hollis carried it off."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, well, run along, then. Don't you see you're right in the way?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly was surprised and grieved at the change in the man's tone: she had
+expected he would pity her for not having any money.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Come here, you little lump of love," called out a mellow voice; and
+there, close by, sat a wizened old woman, making flowers into nosegays.
+She had on a quilted hood as soft as her voice, but everything else
+about her was as hard as the door-stone she sat on.
+</p>
+<p>
+"See my beautiful flowers," said the old crone, pointing to the table
+before her; "who cares for them jumping things over yonder? I don't."
+</p>
+<p>
+The flowers were tied in bouquets&mdash;sweet violets, rosebuds, and
+heliotrope. Fly, whose head just reached the top of the table, smelt
+them, and forgot the "little husband, for fifteen cents."
+</p>
+<p>
+"He's a cross man, dearie," said the old woman, lowering her voice, "or
+he wouldn't have sent you off so quick, just because you hadn't any
+money. Now, I love little girls, and I'll warrant we can make some kind
+of a trade for one of my posies."
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly smiled, and quickly seized a bouquet with a clove pink in it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not so fast, child! What you got that you can give me for it? I don't
+mind the money. That old pocket-book will do, though 'tain't wuth much."
+</p>
+<p>
+It was very surprising to Fly to hear her port-monnaie called old; for
+it was bought last week, and was still as red as the cheeks of the
+painted lady.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't <i>dass</i> to give folks my porte-monnaie-ry," said she, clutching
+it tighter, but holding the flowers to her nose all the while.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, fudge! Well, what else you got in your pocket? A handkerchief?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, my hangerfiss is in my muff."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That? Why, there isn't a speck o' lace on it. Nice little ladies always
+has lace. Here's a letter in the corner; what is it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hollis says it's K; stands for Flyaway."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, you're such a pretty little pink, I guess I'll take it; but
+'tain't wuth lookin' at," said the crafty old woman, who saw at a glance
+it was pure linen, and quite fine.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now run along, baby; your mummer will be waitin' for you."
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly walked on slowly. Ought she to have parted with her very best
+hangerfiss!
+</p>
+<p>
+"Nice ole lady, loved little gee-urls; but what you s'pose folks was
+goin' to cry into now?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Tears started at the thought. One of them dropped into the eye of the
+squirrel, who sat on the muff, peeping up into her face.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Nice ole lady, I s'pose; but folks never wanted to buy my
+<i>hangerfisses</i> byfore!" thought Fly, much puzzled by the state of
+society in New York. "And I've got some beau-fler flowers to my auntie's
+house. Wake up&mdash;wake up!" added she, blowing open a pink rose-bud;
+"you's too little for me."
+</p>
+<p>
+But the bud did not wish to wake up and be a rose; it curled itself
+together, and went to sleep again.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't see where Hollis stays to all the time," exclaimed the little
+one, beginning to have a faint curiosity about it.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH8"><!-- CH8 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER VIII.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+"THE FRECKLED DOG."
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+But just then a gentle-looking blind girl came along led by a dog. The
+sight was so strange that Flyaway stopped to admire; for whatever else
+she might be afraid of, she always loved and trusted a dog.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Doggie, doggie," cried she, patting the little animal's head.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, <i>what</i> a sweet voice," said the blind girl, putting out her hand and
+groping till she touched Fly's shoulder. "I never heard such a voice!"
+</p>
+<p>
+This was what strangers often said, and Flyaway never doubted the
+sweetness was caused by eating so much candy; but just now she had had
+none for two days.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What makes you shut your eyes up, right in the street, girl? Is the
+<i>seeingness</i> all gone out of 'em?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, you darling. I haven't had any seeingness in my eyes for a year."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You didn't? Then you's <i>blind-eyed</i>," returned Flyaway, with perfect
+coolness.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And don't you feel sorry for me&mdash;not a bit?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, 'cause your dog is freckled so pretty."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But I can't see his freckles."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, he's got 'em. Little yellow ones, spattered out all over him."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But if I had eyes like you, I shouldn't need any dog. I could go about
+the streets alone."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I don't like to go 'bout the streets alone; I want my own
+brother Hollis."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I hope you haven't got lost, little dear?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No," laughed Fly, gayly; "I didn't get lost! But I don't know where
+nobody is! And there don't nobody know where <i>I</i> am!"
+</p>
+<p>
+The blind girl took Fly's little hand tenderly in hers.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Come, turn down this street with me, and tell me all about it."
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly trudged along, prattling merrily, for about a minute: then she drew
+away. "'Tisn't a nice place; I don't want to go there."
+</p>
+<p>
+A look of pain crossed the blind girl's face.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, I dare say you don't. It isn't much of a place for folks with silk
+bonnets on."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You can't see my bonnet; you can't see anything, you're blind-eyed;
+but," said Fly, glancing sharply around, "it isn't pretty here, at all;
+and there's a dead cat right in the street."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I think likely."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And there's a boy. I spect he frowed the cat out the window; he hasn't
+nuffin on but dirty cloe's."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you see some steps?" said the blind girl, putting her hand out
+cautiously. "Don't fall down."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I shan't fall down; I'm going home."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, don't child; you must come with me. My mother will take care of
+you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't want nobody's mother to take 'are o' me; I've got a mamma
+myself!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"How little you know!" said the blind girl, thinking aloud; "how lucky
+it is I found you! and O, dear, how I wish I could see! You'll slip
+away in spite of me."
+</p>
+<p>
+But Flyaway allowed herself to be drawn along, step by step, partly
+because she liked the "freckled dog," and partly because she had not
+ceased being amused by the droll sight of a person walking with closed
+eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What's the name of you, girl?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Maria."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Maria? So was my mamma; her name was Maria, when she was a little girl.
+O, look, there's another boy; don't you see him? Up high, in that house.
+Got a big box with a string to it."
+</p>
+<p>
+A very rough-looking boy was standing at a third-story window, lowering
+a bandbox by a clothes-line. As Fly watched the box slowly coming down,
+the boy called out,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"Get in, little un, and I'll give you a free ride."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, no&mdash;O, no; I don't <i>dass</i> to."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, yes; go in, lemons," said the boy, choking with laughter, as he
+saw the child's horror. "If you don't do it, by cracky, I'll come down
+and fetch you."
+</p>
+<p>
+At this, Fly was frightened nearly out of her senses, and ran so fast
+that the dog could scarcely have kept up with her, even if he had not
+had a blind mistress pulling him back.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, where are you?" exclaimed Maria. "Don't run away from me,&mdash;don't!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"He's a-gon to kill me in two," cried Flyaway, stopping for breath.'
+"he's a-gon to kill me in two-oo!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, he isn't, dear! It's only Izzy Paul He couldn't catch you, if he
+tried. He's lame, and goes on crutches."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But he said a swear word,&mdash;yes he, did," sobbed the child, never
+doubting that a boy who could swear was capable of murder, though he had
+neither hands nor feet.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Stop, now," said Maria, clutching Fly as if she had been a spinning
+top. "This is my house. Mother, mother, here's a little girl; catch
+her&mdash;hold her&mdash;keep her!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Me? What should I catch a little girl for?" said Mrs. Brooks, a faded
+woman with a tired face, and a nose that moved up and down when she
+talked. She had been standing at the door of their tumbledown tenement,
+looking for her daughter, and was surprised to see her bringing a
+strange child with her. It was not often that well-dressed people
+wandered into that dirty alley.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The poor little thing has got lost, mother. Perhaps <i>you</i> can find out
+where she came from. I didn't ask her any questions; it was as much as I
+could do to keep up with her."
+</p>
+<p>
+Maria put her hand on her side. Fast walking always tired her, for she
+was afraid every moment of falling.
+</p>
+<p>
+They had to go down a flight of stairs to get into the house; and after
+they got there Fly looked around in dismay.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't want to stay in the stable," she murmured. Indeed it was not
+half as nice as the place where her father kept his horse.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But this is where we have to live," sighed Maria.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Have things to eat?" asked the little stranger, in a solemn whisper.
+</p>
+<p>
+There were a few chairs with broken backs, a few shelves with clean
+dishes, a few children with hungry faces. In one corner was a clumsy
+bedstead, and in a tidy bed lay a pale man.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Who've you got there, Maria?" said he. "Bring her along, and stick her
+up on the bed."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't be afraid," said Mrs. Brooks; "it's only pa; wouldn't the little
+girl like to talk to him? He's sick."
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway was not at all afraid, for the man smiled pleasantly, and did
+not look as if he would hurt anybody. Mrs. Brooks set her on the bed,
+and Maria, afraid of losing her, held her by one foot. The children all
+crowded around to see the little lady in a silk bonnet holding a
+button-hole bouquet to her bosom.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ain't she a ducky dilver!" said the oldest boy. "Pa'll be pleased, for
+he don't see things much. Has to keep abed all the time."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Brooks tried to smile, and Flyaway whispered to Maria, with sudden
+pity,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"Sorry he's sick. Has he got to stay sick? Can't you find the camphor
+bottle?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, father, she thinks if ycu had some camphor to smell of, 'twould cure
+you."
+</p>
+<p>
+Then they all laughed, and Fly timidly offered the sick man her flowers.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What, that pretty posy for me? Bless you, baby, they'll do me a sight
+more good than camfire!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"There," said Maria, joyfully, "now pa is pleased; I know by the sound
+of his voice. Poor pa! only think, little girl, a stick of timber fell
+on him, and lamed him for life!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," said Bennie, "the lower part of him is as limber as a rag."
+</p>
+<p>
+"She don't sense a word you say," remarked Mrs. Brooks, shaking up a
+pillow, "See what we can get out of her. What's your name, dear?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Katie Clifford."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Where do you live?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I <i>have</i> been borned in Nindiana."
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly spoke with some pride. She considered her birth an honor to the
+state.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But where did you come from, Katie? That's what we mean."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I camed from heaven," said the child, with one of her wise looks.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Beats all, don't she?" cried Mr. Brooks, admiringly. "Looks like an
+angel, I declare for't. Did you just drop down out of the sky?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, sir," answered Flyaway, folding her little hands as if she were
+saying her prayers; "I camed down when I was a baby."
+</p>
+
+<a name="image-1"><!-- Image 1 --></a>
+<p class="figure">
+<img src="angel.jpg" width="80%"
+alt="'I Camed Down when I Was a Baby.'"><br />
+<b>'I Camed Down when I Was a Baby.'</b></p>
+
+<p>
+"That's what makes your hair so <i>goldy</i>," said Bennie. "Mother, did you
+ever see such eyes? Say, did you ever? So soft, and kinder shiny, too."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Children, don't stare at her; it makes her uneasy."
+</p>
+<p>
+"<i>I</i> can't stare at her," said Maria, bitterly. "I suppose you don't
+mean me, mother."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brooks only answered her poor daughter by a kiss.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, little Katie, after you were born in <i>Nindiana</i>, you came to New
+York. When did you come?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"One of these other days I camed here with Hollis."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Who's Hollis?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"He's my own brother. Got a new cap. Had his hair cut."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Who did you come to New York to see?"  "My auntie."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Her auntie! A great deal of satisfaction we are likely to get out of
+this child," said Mr. Brooks, laughing. He had not laughed before for a
+week.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What's your auntie's name?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Aunt Madge."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is she married?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, yes; and so's Uncle 'Gustus. Married together, and live together,
+just the same."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Uncle 'Gustus who? Now we'll come at it!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Alling," replied Fly, her quick eyes roving about the room, for she was
+tired of these questions.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Allen, Augustus Allen!" said Mr. Brooks, in surprise; "I wonder if
+there can be two of them. Tell me, child, how does he look?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't look like you," replied Fly, after a keen survey of Mr. Brooks.
+"Your face is pulled away down long, like that;" (stretching her hand
+out straight) "Uncle 'Gustus's face is squeezed up short" (doubling her
+hand into a ball)
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'll warrant it is the colonel himself," said Mrs. Brooks, smiling at
+the description.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, that's the name of him; the 'kernil's' the name of him."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is it possible!" said Mr. Brooks, looking very much pleased.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Uncle 'Gustus has curly hair on his cheeks, on his mouf, all round.
+<i>Not</i> little prickles, sticking out like needles."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, you girl!" said Bennie, frowning at Fly. "You mustn't laugh at my
+pa's beard. There's a man comes in, sometimes, and shaves him nice; but
+now the man's gone to Newark."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is it possible," repeated Mrs. Brooks, taking the child's hand, "that
+this is Colonel Allen's little niece, and my Maria found her!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Your Maria didn't find me," said Fly, decidedly; "I founded Maria."
+</p>
+<p>
+"So she did, pa. The first thing I knew, I heard somebody calling,
+Doggie, doggie,' in such a sweet voice; and then I looked&mdash;no, of course
+I <i>couldn't</i> look."
+</p>
+<p>
+Here the discouraged look came over Maria's mouth, and she said no more.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, there, cheer up, daughter," said Mr. Brooks, with tears in his
+eyes; "I was only going on to say, it is passing strange that any of our
+family should run afoul of one of the colonel's folks."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It's the Lord's doings; I haven't the slightest doubt of it," said Mrs.
+Brooks, earnestly. "You know what I've been saying to you, pa."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, there, ma'am, <i>don't</i>," said Mr. Brooks; "don't go to raising
+false hopes. You know I'm too proud to beg of anybody's folks."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, pa, I shouldn't call it begging just to tell Colonel Allen how you
+are situated! Do you suppose, if he knew the facts of the case, he'd be
+willing to let you suffer? Such a faithful man as you used to be to
+work."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, I think it's likely he wouldn't. He's got more heart than some rich
+folks; but I hain't no sort of claim on the colonel, if I did help build
+his house. And then, ma'am, you know I've been kind o' hopin'&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Guess I'll go now, and find Hollis," said Fly, slipping down from the
+bed, for the talk did not interest her.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, but I want to go with you, Katie," said Mrs. Brooks, coaxingly.
+"Bennie, you amuse her, while I change my dress."
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH9"><!-- CH9 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER IX.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+MARIA'S MOTHER.
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+"I know your uncle must feel dreadfully to lose you; but never
+mind&mdash;he'll see you soon," said Mr. Brooks.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Uncle 'Gustus isn't there."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not there?" said Mrs. Brooks, turning round from the cracked
+looking-glass. "Where then?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, he's gone off."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Gone off? Why, pa, ain't that too bad? I'm right up and down
+disappointed. But, then, the colonel has a wife; I can go to see her,
+you know; and I'll tell her just how you're situ&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"My Aunt Madge is gone off, too."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You don't say so!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"And my brother Hollis is gone."
+</p>
+<p>
+"This is a funny piece of work if it's true," said Mr. Brooks, with
+another genuine laugh; "you'd better ask her a few more questions before
+you start out. Who else is gone? Have they shut the house up?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, sir; shut it right up tight."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Nobody in it, at all?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, only the men and women. Prudy's gone, and Dotty Dimple's gone, and
+I'm gone."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Only the men and women, she says. That must be the servants. So the
+house must be open, pa. At any rate, I shall take her. Say by-bye, my
+pretty, and we'll be starting."
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly was very glad to go, but Maria clung to her fondly, and Bennie ran
+after her almost to Broadway, where Mrs. Brooks took a Fifth Avenue
+stage. She knew Colonel Allen's house very well, for she had seen it
+more than once, while it was in process of building. That was two or
+three years ago, when her husband was well, and the family lived very
+comfortably on Thirty-third Street. She sighed as she thought how
+different it was now. Mr. Brooks would never be able to work any more;
+they hardly had food enough to eat, and poor Maria had lost her
+eyesight.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Here we are, little Katie," said she.
+</p>
+<p>
+But the child did not wait to be helped out; she danced down the steps,
+and would have flown across the street, if Mrs. Brooks had not caught
+her.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I see it&mdash;I see it; my auntie's house. But there isn't nobody to it."
+</p>
+<p>
+The man who met them at the door was so surprised and delighted to see
+Fly, that he forgot his manners, and did not ask Mrs. Brooks in.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Bless us, the baby's found!" cried he, and ran to spread the news.
+</p>
+<p>
+Aunt Madge was walking the parlor floor, and Horace sitting on the sofa,
+as rigid as the marble elf Puck, just over his head. Prudy and Dotty had
+joined hands, and were crying softly on the rug. As the police had been
+notified of Fly's loss, all the family had to do was to wait. A servant
+was at the nearest telegraph office, with a horse and carriage, and at
+the first tidings would drive home and report.
+</p>
+<p>
+The words "The baby's found" rang through the house like a peal of
+bells. In an instant Flyaway Runaway was clasped in everybody's arms,
+and wet with everybody's tears.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thought I'd come back," said the little truant, peeping up at her
+agitated friends' with some surprise; "thought I'd come back and get my
+skipt!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Then they exclaimed, in chorus,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"Topknot <i>shall</i> have her skipt! The blessed baby! The darling old Fly!"
+</p>
+<p>
+And Dotty wound up by saying,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, you see, we thought you's dead!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway, who had at first been very much astonished at the fuss made
+over her, now looked deeply offended.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Who said I's dead? What&mdash;a&mdash;drefful&mdash;lie!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, nobody said so, Fly; only we thought p'rhaps you was; and <i>what</i>
+would we do without you, you know?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, if I's dead," said Fly, untying her bonnet strings, "then the
+funy-yal would come round and take me; that's all."
+</p>
+<p>
+"We are most grateful to you," said Aunt Madge, turning to Mrs. Brooks,
+"for bringing home this lost child; but do tell us where you found her."
+</p>
+<p>
+Then Mrs. Brooks related all she knew of Fly's wanderings, the little
+one putting in her own explanations.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I didn' be lost," said she sharply. "I feel jus' like frettin', when
+you say I's lost. 'Tis the truly truth; I's walking on the streets, and
+a naughty woman, she's got my hangerfiss&mdash;had ashes roses on it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I put some otto of rose on it this morning," said Prudy. "What a
+shame!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"And I gave my flowers to the sick man. He was on the bed, with a blue
+bed-kilt. A girl name o' Maria, tookened me home. The seeingness is all
+gone out of her eyes, so she can't see."
+</p>
+<p>
+"How long has your husband been sick?" asked Mrs. Allen of the woman,
+while she was taking lunch in the dining-room. "Did you tell me he knew
+Colonel Allen?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brooks dropped her knife and fork; but her lips trembled so she
+could not speak. Flyaway, who sat in Horace's lap, eating ginger-snaps,
+exclaimed, "She wants some perjerves, auntie. She don't get no
+perjerves, nor nuffin nice to her house."
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Sh!" whispered Horace. The woman looked so respectable and well bred,
+that it seemed a great rudeness to allude to her poverty.
+</p>
+<p>
+But Mrs. Brooks drank some water, and then answered Aunt Madge,
+calmly,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'm not ashamed of being poor, Mrs. Allen; it's no disgrace, for there
+never was an honester man than my husband, nor none that worked harder,
+till a beam fell on him from the roof of a house, two years ago, and he
+lost the use of his limbs.&mdash;Yes, ma'am; he did use to know your husband.
+He was one of the workmen that helped build this house. I came and
+looked on when he was setting these very doors."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What is his name?" asked Aunt Madge, looking very much interested, and
+taking out her note-book and pencil. "What street and number?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Cyrus Brooks, Number Blank, Blank Street, ma'am. Before the accident,
+we lived on Thirty-third Street, in very good shape; but, little by
+little, we were obliged to sell off, and finally had to move into pretty
+snug quarters. But we've always got enough to eat, such as it was,"
+added the good woman, trying not to show much she enjoyed her lunch.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am very glad Providence has sent you here, Mrs. Brooks," said Aunt
+Madge, warmly. "I know Colonel Allen will seek you out when he comes
+home next week; but I shall not wait for that; I shall write him this
+very night."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brooks' heart was so full that she had to cry into a coarse purple
+handkerchief of Bennie's, which happened to be in her pocket, and felt
+very much ashamed because she could not find her voice again, or any
+words in which to tell her gratitude. It was just as well, though. Mrs.
+Allen knew words were not everything. It gave her pleasure to fill a
+huge basket with nice things&mdash;wine and jelly for the sick man, plain
+food for the family, and a pretty woolen dress for Maria, which had been
+intended for Mrs. Fixfax, the housekeeper.
+</p>
+<p>
+The children looked on delighted, while the basket was filled with
+these articles, then passed over to Nathaniel, who was going home with
+Mrs. Brooks. It was amusing to watch Nathaniel, with the monstrous
+burden in his hands trying to help Mrs. Brooks down the front steps; for
+Aunt Madge was not enough of a fine lady to send the pair around by the
+servants' door.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was pleasant, too, to watch Mrs. Brooks's happy face, half hidden in
+the hood of her water-proof cloak, which kept puffing out, in the high
+wind, like a sail. She was going home to tell her husband the Lord had
+heard her prayers, and she had found a friend.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And you may depend I never talked so easy to anybody in my life, pa;"
+this was what she thought she should say. "I didn't <i>have</i> to beg. Mrs.
+Allen is one of the Lord's own; I saw it the minute I clapped my eyes
+on her face."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am going to see that woman to-morrow, and ask some questions about
+her blind daughter," said Aunt Madge, turning away from the window.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ask 'bout her nose, too."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Whose nose, Fly?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"The woman's. It keeps a-moving when she talks."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, who else noticed that?" exclaimed Horace, tossing his young
+sister aloft. "It takes Fly, with her little eye, to see things."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But I didn't ask her nuffin 'bout it, though, Horace Clifford. God made
+her so, with a wire in."
+</p>
+<p>
+Everybody smiled at the notion of Mrs. Brooks being a wax doll.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What a queer day it has been!" said Prudy. "Nothing but hide and seek.
+We'll all keep together next time, and lock hands tight."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Of course," said Dotty, quickly; "but look here; don't you think
+'twould be safer not to let Fly go with us? She was the one that made
+all the fuss."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Want to know if she was," said Horace, slyly. "Guess there are two
+sides to that story."
+</p>
+<p>
+"At any rate," struck in Aunt Madge, "Fly was the one that did the most
+business. You went round doing good&mdash;didn't you, dear?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Little city missionary," said Horace.
+</p>
+<p>
+Whereupon Miss Fly modestly dropped her head on her brother's shoulder.
+She concluded she had done something wonderful in running after a dog.
+</p>
+<p>
+"On the whole," continued auntie, "we've all had a very hard time. It's
+only three o'clock; but seems to me the day has been forty hours long.
+Let us rest, now, and have a quiet little evening, and go to bed early."
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH10"><!-- CH10 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER X.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+FIVE MAKING A CALL.
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+The next morning everybody felt fresh, and ready for new adventures.
+</p>
+<p>
+"All going but the cat," said Fly, never doubting that her own company
+was most desirable.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Look up in my eyes, little Topknot with the blue bonnet on. Will you
+run away from brother Hollis again?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not if you don't take my skipt," replied Fly, looking as innocent as a
+spring violet.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And look up in <i>my</i> eyes, Horace Clifford. Will you run away from
+Cousin Dotty, again?" said Miss Dimple, in a hurry to speak before Aunt
+Madge came up to them, and before Horace had time for a joke.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I didn't run away from you, young lady, but I ran <i>after</i> you, if I
+remember," said Horace, dryly. "I don't mean to pursue you with my
+attentions to-day. You seem to be able to take care of yourself."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Look," cried Aunt Madge, coming up to them with Prudy; "did you ever
+before see a span of horses with a dog running between them?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Never," said Doty; "what splendid horses! and don't the dog have to
+trot, to keep up? How do you suppose he happened to get in there?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, he has been trained to it; dogs often are. Now, my young friends, it
+seems we have started for Brooklyn again; but on our way to Fulton
+Ferry, I would like to stop and see the Brooks family. We must all go
+together, though. 'United we stand, divided we fall.'"
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's so," said Horace, as they entered the stage. "But, auntie, do
+you have perfect faith in the story that woman tells? Perhaps her
+hushand is only just lazy, and her daughter shams blindness. You know
+what humbugs some of 'em are. I've read there's something they rub over
+their eyes, that gives 'em the appearance of being as blind as a bat."
+</p>
+<p>
+Prudy looked up at Horace with admiration and respect. He spoke like a
+person of deep wisdom and wide experience.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We will see for ourselves what we think of the family," said Aunt
+Madge.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now," said she, after they had ridden a mile or two, "we must get out
+here, and walk a few blocks to the house. Fly, hold your brother's hand
+tight."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There's the chamer where the boy lives that says swear words; and
+there's the boy, ahind the window."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Have a free ride, little girl?" shouted Izzy Paul, laughing; for he
+remembered faces as well as Fly did, and saw at once that it was the
+same child he had frightened so the day before. But Fly never knew fear
+where Horace was; she clung to him, and peeped out boldly between her
+fingers.
+</p>
+<p>
+When they went "down cellow," as she called it, into Mr. Brooks's house,
+Aunt Madge was surprised to see how bare it looked. But Dotty Dimple
+need not have held her skirts so tightly about her, and brushed her
+elbow so carefully when it hit against the wall; for the house was as
+clean as hands could make it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Mrs. Brooks, I hope you will forgive me for coming down upon you with
+this little army," said Mrs. Allen, with such a cheery smile that the
+sick man on the bed felt as if a flood of pure sunshine had burst into
+the room. He was so tired of lying there, day after day, like a great
+rag baby, and so glad to see anybody, especially the good lady who, his
+wife said, was "so easy to talk to!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Auntie, look! see the freckled doggie; and there's my flowers, true's
+you live," cried Flyaway.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, pa wanted them in a vial, close to his bed; it's the first he's
+seen this winter," said Maria, stroking Fly as if she had been a kitten.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You may be sure, little lady, it will be as I said; they'll cure me
+full as quick as camphire. And, thank the Lord, I can see as well as
+smell," said Mr. Brooks, with a tender glance at Maria which made
+Horace feel ashamed of himself. The idea of that poor child's rubbing
+anything into her eyes? Why, she looked like a wounded bird that had
+been out in a storm. Her face was really almost beautiful, but so sad
+that you could not see it without a feeling of pity.
+</p>
+<p>
+"She looks as if she was walking in her sleep," thought Prudy, and
+turned away to hide a tear; for somehow there was a chord in her heart
+that thrilled strangely. That "slow winter" came back to her with a
+rush, and she was sure she knew how Maria felt.
+</p>
+<p>
+"She is blind, and I was lame; but it is the same kind of a feeling. O,
+how I wish I could help her!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Dotty was as sorry for Maria as she knew how to be, but she could not be
+as sorry as Prudy was; for she had never had any trouble greater than a
+sore throat.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't see why the tears don't come into my eyes as easy as they do
+into Prudy's," thought she, trying to squeeze out a salt drop; "Mrs.
+Brooks'll think I don't care a speck; but I do care."
+</p>
+<p>
+As for wee Fly, she took Maria's blindness to heart about as much as she
+did the murder of the Hebrew children off in Judea.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pitiful 'bout her seeingness; but I wished I had such a beauful dog!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Aunt Madge was struck with the exalted expression of Maria's face. The
+child was only thirteen, but suffering had made her look much older.
+</p>
+<p>
+"My child," said she, putting her arm around the little girl, and
+drawing her towards her, "I know you see a great deal with your mind,
+even though your eyes are shut. Now, do tell me all about your
+misfortune, and how it happened, for I came on purpose to hear."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, we camed to purpose to hear," said Fly, from the foot-board of the
+bed, where she had perched and prattled every moment since she came in.
+"I founded Maria, and then I went up to her, and says I, 'Doggie,
+doggie!'"
+</p>
+<p>
+"That was a pretty way to speak to her, I should think," said Dotty;
+"but can't you just please to hush while auntie is talking?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"As near as I can tell the story," said Mrs. Brooks, rattling the poor
+old coal-stove,&mdash;for she always had to be moving something else, as well
+as her nose, when she talked,&mdash;"she lost her sight by studying too
+hard, and then getting cold in her eyes."
+</p>
+<p>
+"She was always a master hand to study," put in Mr. Brooks.
+</p>
+<p>
+Maria looked as if she wanted to run and hide. She did not like to have
+her father praise her before people.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," said Mrs. Brooks, setting a chair straight; "and by and by the
+<i>leds</i> began to draw together, and she couldn't keep 'em open; and there
+was such a pain in her eyes, too, that I had to be up nights, bathing
+'em in all kinds of messes."
+</p>
+<p>
+"<i>Don't</i> her nose jiggle?" whispered Fly to Horace.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Of course you took her to a good physician?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, yes; we thought he was good. We went to three, off and on, but
+she kept growing worse and worse. It was about the time her father was
+hurt, and we spent an awful sight on her, till we couldn't spend any
+more."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And it was all a cheat and a swindle," exclaimed Mr. Brooks,
+indignantly. "We'd better have spent the money for a horsewhip, and
+whipped them doctors with it!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't, pa, don't! You see, Mrs. Allen, he gets so excited about it he
+don't know what he says."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I wonder you did not take her to the City Hospital, Mrs. Brooks. There
+she could be treated free of expense."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The fact is, we didn't dare to," replied Mrs. Brooks, taking up an old
+shoe of Bennie's, and beginning to brush it; "there are folks that have
+told us it ain't safe; they try experiments on poor folks."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, I don't believe you need fear the City Hospital," said Mrs. Allen;
+"the physicians there are honest men, and among the most skillful in
+the country."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But that's our feeling on the subject, ma'am, you see," spoke up Mr.
+Brooks, so decidedly, that Aunt Madge saw it was of no use to say any
+more about it. "We don't want her eyes put out; there are times when she
+can just see a little glimmer, and we want to save all there is left."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There are times when she can see? Then there must be hope, Mr. Brooks!
+Let me take her to Dr. Blank; he can help her if any one can."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, now, I take it you're joking, Mrs. Allen. That is the very doctor
+I wanted her to see in the first place; but they do say he'd ask six
+hundred dollars for looking into her eyes while you'd wink twice."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You have been misinformed, Mr. Brooks; he never asks anything of
+people who are unable to pay him. But even if he should in Maria's case,
+I promise to take the matter into my own hands, and settle the bill
+myself."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Mother, do you hear what she says!" cried Mr. Brooks, forgetting
+himself, and trying to sit up in bed.
+</p>
+<p>
+But his wife had broken down, and was polishing Bennie's shoe with her
+tears.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, will you take me? Can I go to that doctor?" cried Maria, forgetting
+her timidity, and turning her sightless eyes towards Mrs. Allen with a
+joyful look, which seemed to glow through the lids.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, dear child, I will take you with the greatest pleasure in life;
+but remember, I don't promise you can be cured. Come with your mother,
+to-morrow morning, at ten. Will that do, Mrs. Brooks? And now, good by,
+all. Children, we must certainly be going."
+</p>
+<p>
+"God bless her," murmured the sick man, as the little party passed out.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Didn't I tell you she was an angel?" said his wife.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, mother; it's that little tot that's the 'angel.' The Lord sent her
+on ahead to spy out the land; and afterwards there comes a
+flesh-and-blood woman to see it laid straight."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pa thinks that baby is a spirit made out of air," said Maria, laughing
+in high excitement. "And, mother, don't you really believe now the Lord
+did send her, just as much as if she dropped down out of the sky?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I hain't a doubt of it, Maria, but what the Lord had us in his
+mind when he let the child slip off and get lost.&mdash;Pa, I'm going to
+give you some of that blackberry cordial now: you look all gone."
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH11"><!-- CH11 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER XI.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+"THE HEN-HOUSES."
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+While the Brooks family were talking so gratefully, and Maria counting
+over the cookies and cups of jelly for the twentieth time, Fly, was
+holding on to Horace's thumb, saying, as she skipped along,&mdash;"I hope the
+doctor'll take a knife, and pick Maria's eyes open, so she can see."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Precious little <i>you</i> care whether she can see or not," said Dotty. "I
+don't think Fly has much feeling,&mdash;do you, Prudy?&mdash;not like you and I, I
+mean!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pshaw! what do you expect of such a baby?" said Horace, indignantly.
+"You never saw a child so full of pity as this one is, when she knows
+what to be sorry for. But a great deal she understands about blindness!
+And why should she?&mdash;Look here, Topknot; which would you rather do? Have
+your eyes put out, and lots of candy to eat, <i>or</i>, your eyes all good,
+and not a speck of candy as long as you live?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'd ravver have the candy '<i>thout</i> blind-eyed?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"But supposing you couldn't have but one?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly reflected seriously for half a minute, and then answered,
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'd ravver have the candy <i>with</i> blind-eyed!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, girls, what did I tell you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Cause I could eat the candy athout looking, you know," added Fly,
+shutting her eyes, and putting a sprig of cedar in her mouth, by way of
+experiment.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You little goosie," said Prudy; "when Aunt Madge was crying so about
+Maria, I did think you were a hard-hearted thing to look up and laugh;
+but now, I don't believe you knew any better."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hard-hearted things will soften," said auntie, kissing the baby's
+puzzled face. "Little bits of green apples, how hard they are! but they
+keep growing mellow."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, you little green apple," cried Dotty, pinching Fly's cheek.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I was rather hard-hearted, if I remember, when I was an apple of that
+size," continued Aunt Madge. "I could tell you of a few cruel things I
+said and did."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Tell them," said Horace; "please 'fess."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, auntie, naughty things are so interesting. Do begin and tell all
+about it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not on the street, dears. Some time, during the holidays, I may turn
+story-teller, if you wish it; but here we are at the ferry; now look out
+for the mud."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, what a place," cried Fly, clinging to Horace, and trying to walk on
+his boots. "Just like where grampa keeps his pig!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"How true, little sister! but you needn't use my feet for a sidewalk.
+I'll take you up in my arms. It snowed in the night; but that makes it
+all the muddier."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, it doesn't do snow any good to fall into New York mud," said Aunt
+Madge; "it is like touching pitch."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I thought it felt like pitch," remarked Dotty; "sticks to your boots
+so."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But, then, overhead how beautiful it is!" said Prudy. "I should think
+the dirty earth would be ashamed to look up at such a clear sky."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But the sky don't mind," returned Horace; "it always overlooks dirt."
+</p>
+<p>
+"How very sharp we are getting!" laughed auntie; "we have begun the day
+brilliantly. Any more remarks from anybody?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I should like to know," said Dotty, "what all those great wooden things
+are made for? I never saw such big hen-houses before!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hear her talk!" exclaimed auntie. "Hen-houses, indeed! Why, that is
+Fulton Market. I shall take you through it when we come back. You can
+buy anything in there, from a live eel to a book of poetry."
+</p>
+<p>
+"'In mud eel is,'" quoted Horace. "Reckon I'll buy one, auntie, and
+carry it home in a piece of brown paper. I believe Dotty is fond of
+eels."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Fond of eels! Why, Horace Clifford, you know I can't bear 'em, any
+more'n a snake. If you do such a thing, Horace Clifford!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Here Prudy gave her talkative sister a pinch; for they were surrounded
+by people, and Aunt Madge was giving ferry-tickets to a man who stood in
+a stall, and brushed them towards him into a drawer.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Does he stay in it all night?" whispered Fly; "he can't lie down, no
+more'n a hossy can."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Here, child, don't try to get down out of my arms. I must carry you
+into the boat. Do you suppose I'd trust those wee, wee feet to go flying
+over East River?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"For don't we know she has wings on her heels?" said Aunt Madge.
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly twisted around one of her little rubbers, and looked at it. She
+understood the joke, but thought it too silly to laugh at. East River
+lay smiling in the sun, white with sails.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Almost as pretty as our Casco Bay," said Dotty. "'Winona;' is that the
+boat we are going in? But, Horace, you must cross to the other side,
+where it says 'Gentlemen's Cabin.'"
+</p>
+<p>
+"How kind you are to take care of me! Wish you'd take as good care of
+yourself, Cousin Dimple."
+</p>
+<p>
+And Horace walked straight into the "Ladies' Cabin." There were more men
+in it, though, than women; so he had the best side of the argument.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace," said Aunt Madge, as they seated themselves, "where is your
+money?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Money? O, in the breast pocket of my coat."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But don't you remember, my boy, I advised you to leave it at home? See
+that placard, right before your eyes."
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Beware of Pickpockets!'" read Horace. "Well, auntie, I intend to
+beware."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Allen did not like his lord-of-creation tone. It was not exactly
+disrespectful. He adored his aunt, and did not mean to snub her. At the
+same time he had paid no attention to her advice, and his cool,
+self-possessed way of setting it one side was very irritating. If Mrs.
+Allen had not been the sweetest of women, she would have enjoyed boxing
+his ears.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I wish he was two years younger, and then he would have to obey me,"
+thought she; "but I don't like to lay my commands on a boy of fourteen."
+</p>
+<p>
+The truth was, Horace had a large swelling on the top of his head, known
+by the name of self-esteem; and it had got bruised a little the day
+before, when he was obliged to stand one side, and let his aunt manage
+about finding Flyaway.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I suppose she thinks I'm a ninny, just because I don't understand this
+bothersome city; but I reckon I know a thing or two, if I don't live in
+New York!"
+</p>
+<p>
+And the foolish boy really took some satisfaction in slapping his breast
+pockets, and remarking to his friends,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Twould take a smart chap to get his hand in there without my knowing
+it. O, Prudy, where's your wallet? And yours, Dotty? I can carry them as
+well as not. There's no knowing what kind of a muss you may be getting
+into before night."
+</p>
+<p>
+Prudy gave up hers without a word, but Dotty demurred.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I guess I've got eyes both sides my head, just the same as Horace has,
+if I am a girl."
+</p>
+<p>
+She and Cousin Horace usually agreed, but this visit had begun wrong.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very well, Dot; if you think 'twould be any consolation to you to have
+somebody come along with a pair of scissors, and snip off your pocket, I
+don't know as it's any of my business."
+</p>
+<p>
+"See if they do," replied Dotty, clutching her pocket in her right hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+They had been speaking in loud tones, and perhaps had been overheard;
+for two men, on the same seat, began to talk of the unusual number of
+robberies that had happened within a few days and to wonder "what we
+were coming to next." In consequence of this, Dotty pinned up her
+pocket. When they reached Brooklyn, she gave her left hand to Horace, in
+stepping off the boat, and walked up Fulton Street, with her right hand
+firmly grasping the skirt of her dress.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Good for you, Dimple!" said Horace, in a low tone; "that's one way of
+letting people know you've got money. Look behind you! There's been a
+man following you for some time."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Where? O, where?" cried Dotty, whirling round and round in wild alarm;
+"I don't see a man anywhere near."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And there isn't one to be seen," said Aunt Madge, laughing; "there's
+nobody following you but Horace himself. He had no right to frighten you
+so."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace!" echoed Dotty, with infinite scorn; "I don't call <i>him</i> a man!
+He's nothing but a small boy!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"A small boy!" She had finished the business now.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The hateful young monkey!" thought Horace. "I shouldn't care much if
+she did have her pocket picked."
+</p>
+<p>
+If he had meant a word of this, which he certainly did not, he was well
+paid for it afterwards.
+</p>
+<p>
+They went to Greenwood Cemetery, which Dotty had to confess was
+handsomer than the one in Portland. Fly thought there were nice places
+to "hide ahind the little white houses," which frightened her brother so
+much, that he carried her in his arms every step of the way. After
+strolling for some time about Greenwood, and taking a peep at Prospect
+Park, they left the "city of churches," and entered a crowded car to go
+back to the ferry.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Look out for <i>our</i> money," whispered Prudy; "you know auntie says a car
+is the very place to lose it in."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; I'll look out for your pile, Prue, though I dare say you don't
+feel quite so easy about it as you would if Dot had it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Wow, Horace, don't be cross; you know it isn't often I have so much
+money."
+</p>
+<p>
+Aunt Madge here gave both the children a very expressive glance, as much
+as to say,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't mention private affairs in such a crowd."
+</p>
+<p>
+Colonel Allen said if his wife had been born deaf and dumb nobody would
+have mistrusted it, for she could talk with her eyes as well as other
+people with their tongues.
+</p>
+<p>
+When they were on the New York side once more, Mrs. Allen said,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now I will take you through Dotty's hen-houses. What have we here? O,
+Christmas greens."
+</p>
+<p>
+A woman stood at one of the stands, tying holly and evergreens together
+into long strips, which she sold by the yard.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We must adorn the house, children. I will buy some of this, if you will
+help carry it home."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Load me down," said Horace; "I'll take a mile of it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Loaden me down, too; <i>I'll</i> take it a mile," said Fly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Give me that beautiful cross to carry, auntie."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Are you willing to carry crosses, Prudy? Ah, you've learned the lesson
+young!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I like the star best," said Dotty; "why can't they make suns and moons,
+too!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Will you have a <i>hanker</i>, my pretty miss?" said the woman, dropping a
+courtesy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I never heard of a <i>hanker</i>; it looks some like a kettle-hook. Let's
+buy it; see how nicely it fits on Fly's shoulder."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It would look better for Fly to sit on the anchor," said Mrs. Allen,
+smiling. "It is droll enough to see such a big thing walking off with a
+little girl under it. Come, children, we have bought all we can carry."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thank you kindly, lady," said the evergreen woman, with another
+courtesy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't see why she need thank you kindly, auntie," said Dotty. "You
+wouldn't have bought her wreaths if you hadn't liked 'em."
+</p>
+<p>
+They walked through a long space lined with such nice things that the
+children's mouths watered&mdash;oranges, figs, grapes, pears, French
+chestnuts larger than oil-nuts, and, as if that were not enough,
+delicious-looking pies, cakes, cold ham, and doughnuts. On little
+charcoal stoves stood coffee-pots; and there was a great clattering of
+plates and cups and saucers, which men were washing in little pans, and
+wiping on rather dark towels.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It strikes me I should enjoy going into one of those cuddy-holes and
+eating my dinner," said Horace. "I feel about starved."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You have a right to be hungry. It is two o'clock. How would you like
+some oysters? In here is a large room, with tables; rather more
+comfortable than these 'cuddy-holes,' as you call them."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Only not nice," said Prudy. "O, Horace, if you should go once to an
+oyster saloon in Boston, you'd see the difference!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"The probability is, I've been in Boston saloons twice to your once,
+ma'am."
+</p>
+<p>
+Which was correct. She had been once, and he twice.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH12"><!-- CH12 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER XII.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+"GRANNY."
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+Aunt Madge seated her four guests at a little table.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Will you have oysters or scallops?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"What are scallops?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"They are a sort of fish; taste a little like oysters. They come out of
+those small shells, such as you've seen pin-cushions made of."
+</p>
+<p>
+The children thought they should prefer oysters; and after the stews
+were ordered, Mrs. Allen went out, and soon returned with a dessert of
+cake, pie, and fruit.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I thought I would bring it all at once," said she, "just what I know
+you will like; and then sit down and be comfortable. We'll lay the
+wreaths under the table. There are no napkins, girls (this isn't Boston,
+you know); so you'd better tuck your handkerchiefs under your chins."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But is this the handsomest place they've got in New York, without any
+carpet to it?" whispered Dotty.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We'll see, one of these days," replied auntie, with a smile that spoke
+volumes.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was a very jolly dinner, and Mrs. Allen had to send for three plates
+of scallops; for the children found, after tasting hers, that they were
+very nice; all but Fly, who did not relish them, and thought it was
+because she did not like to eat pin-cushions.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now, little folks, if you have eaten sufficiently, and are thoroughly
+rested, shall we start for home? I think a journey to Brooklyn is about
+enough for one day&mdash;don't you? But you musn't leave without seeing
+Granny."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Granny?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I call her so, and it pleases her. She has had a little table in
+the market for a long while, and I like to buy some of her goodies just
+to encourage her, for she has such a way of looking on the bright side
+that she wins my respect. Listen, now, while I speak to her."
+</p>
+<p>
+Auntie's old woman had on a hood and shawl, and was curled up in a
+little heap, half asleep.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pleasant day," said Mrs. Allen, going up to the table.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, mum; nice weather <i>underful</i>," returned the old woman, rousing
+herself, and rubbing an apple with her shawl.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And how do you do, Granny?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, is that you?" said she, the sun coming out all over her face.
+"And how've you been, mum, since the last time I've seen yer?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very well, Granny; and how do things prosper with you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, <i>I'm</i> all right! I've had a touch of rheumaty, and this is the fust
+I've stirred for two weeks."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Sorry to hear it, Granny. Rheumatism can't be very comfortable."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, no; it's bahd for the jints," said the old woman, holding up her
+fingers, which were as shapeless as knobby potatoes.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Poor Granny! How hard that is!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, they be hard, and kind o' stiff-like. But bless ye," laughed she,
+"that's nothing. I wouldn't 'a' cared, only I's afeared I'd lose this
+stand. There was a gyurl come and kep' it for me, what time she could
+spare."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'm glad you havn't lost the stand, Granny; but I don't see how you can
+laugh at the rheumatism."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, mum, what'd be the use to cry? Why, bless ye, there's wus
+things'n that! As long's I hain't got no husband, I don't feel to
+complain!"
+</p>
+<p>
+She shook her sides so heartily at this, that Fly laughed aloud.
+</p>
+<p>
+"So you don't approve of husbands, Granny?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No more I don't, mum; they're troublesome craychers, so fur as I've
+seen."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But don't you get down-hearted, living all alone?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, no, mum; I do suppose I'm the happiest woman in the city o' New
+Yorruk. When I goes to bed, I just gives up all my thrubbles to the
+Lord, and goes to sleep."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But when you are sick, Granny?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, then, sometimes I feels bahd, not to be airnin' nothin', and gets
+some afeard o' the poorhouse; but, bless ye, I can't help thinking the
+Lord'll keep me out."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'm pretty sure He will," said Aunt Madge, resolving on the spot that
+the good old soul never should go to a place she dreaded so much. "Have
+you any butter-scotch to-day, Granny?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, yes, mum; sights of it. Help yourself. I want to tell you
+something'll please you," said the old woman, bending forward, and
+speaking in a low tone, and with sparkling eyes. "I've put some money in
+the bank, mum; enough to bury me! <i>Ain't</i> that good!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Prudy and Dotty were terribly shocked. She must be crazy to talk about
+her own funeral. As if she was glad of it, too? But Horace thought it a
+capital joke.
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's a jolly way to use your money," whispered he to Prudy; "much
+good may it do her?" And then aloud, in a patronizing tone, "I'll take a
+few of your apples, Granny. How do you sell 'em?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"These here, a penny apiece; them there, two pennies; and them, three."
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace felt in his coat pocket for his purse; and drew out his hand
+quickly, as if a bee had stung it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, what! What does this mean?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"What is it, Horace?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Nothing, auntie, only my wallet's gone," replied the boy, very white
+about the mouth.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Gone? Look again. Are you sure?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, as sure as I want to be?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Mine,&mdash;is mine gone too?" cried Prudy.
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace did not seem willing to answer.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Where did you have your purse last?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Just before we came out of Dorlon's oyster saloon. Just before we came
+here for butter-scotch," replied Horace, glaring fiercely at Granny.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Are you quite sure?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is mine gone, too?" cried Prudy again. "Did you put mine in the same
+pocket?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, Prue; I put yours in the same pocket; and it's gone, too."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Horace!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"A pretty clean sweep, Prue."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The <i>vilyins</i>!" cried Granny; looking, auntie thought, as if her whole
+soul was stirred with pity for the children; but, as Horace thought, as
+if she were trying to put a bold face on a very black crime.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Let us go back to Dorlon's, and ask the waiters if you dropped it in
+there," suggested Aunt Madge.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, but <i>I know I didn't,"</i> said Horace, with another scowl at Granny.
+</p>
+<p>
+"<i>My</i> money is safe," said self-righteous Dotty, as they walked away;
+"don't you wish you <i>had</i> given yours to me, Prudy?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"The deceitful old witch!" muttered Horace; meaning Granny, of course.
+</p>
+<p>
+And lo, there she stood close behind them! She was beckoning Mrs. Allen
+back to her fruit-stand.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Wait here one minute, children; I'll be right back."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Nothin', mum," said Granny, looking very much grieved; "nothin' only I
+wants to say, mum, if that youngster thinks as I took his money, I wisht
+you'd sarch me."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Fie, Granny! Never mind what a boy like that says, when he is excited.
+I know you too well to think you'd steal."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The Lord bless you, mum," cried the old woman, all smiles again.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And, Granny, I mean to come here next week, and I'll bring you some
+flannel and liniment for your rheumatism. Where shall I leave them if
+you're sick, and can't be here?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, thank ye, mum; thank ye kindly. The ain't many o' the likes of you,
+mum. And if ye does bring the things for my rheumaty, and I ain't here,
+just ye leave 'em with the gyurl at this stand, if yer will."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did she give it back?" cried Horace, the moment his aunt appeared.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, my boy; how could she when she hadn't it to give?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"But, auntie, I'm up and down sure I felt that wallet in my
+breast-pocket, when we came out of Dorlon's," persisted Horace. "I don't
+see how on earth that old woman contrived it; but I can't help
+remembering how she kept leaning forward when she talked; and once she
+hit square against me. And just about that time I was drawing out my
+handkerchief to wipe my nose."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, he did! He wiped his nose. And the woman tookened the money; I saw
+her do it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, I told you so!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"You saw her, Miss Policeman Flyaway?" said Aunt Madge. "And pray how
+did she take it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Just so,&mdash;right in her hand."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, you mean the money for the butter-scotch, you little tease!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," replied the child, with a roguish twinkle over the sensation she
+had made.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Just like little bits o' flies," said Dotty. "Don't care how folks
+feel. And here's her brother ready to cry; heart all broken."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Needn't be concerned about my heart, Dot; 'tisn't broken yet; only
+cracked. But how anybody could get at my pocket, without my knowing it,
+is a mystery to me, unless Granny is a witch."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace, I pledge you my word Granny is innocent."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And I'm sure nobody else could take it, auntie. The clerks at Dorlon's
+had no knowledge of the money; neither had any of the apple or pie
+merchants along the market. Things look darker for us, Prue; but I will
+give you the credit of behaving like a lady. And one thing is sure&mdash;the
+moment I get home to Indiana I shall send you back your money."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace," said Aunt Madge, "I am very suspicious that you lost your
+purse in one of those cars, on the Brooklyn side."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But, auntie, I tell you there couldn't anybody get at my pockets
+without my knowing it!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Just as Prudy told you you would, you lost it in that car," echoed
+Dotty. "Don't you remember what you said, Prudy?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's right; hit him again," growled Horace.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now, Dotty," said Prudy, suppressing a great sob in her effort to
+"behave like a lady," "what's the use? Don't you suppose Horace feels
+bad enough without being scolded at?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Auntie don't scold, nor Prudy don't, 'cause he didn't mean to lose
+it," said Fly, frowning at Dotty, and caressing Horace, with her hands
+full of evergreens.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Besides, he has lost more than I have," continued Prudy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, a trifle more! Fifty times as much, say. I shouldn't care a
+fig,&mdash;speaking figuratively,&mdash;only it was all I had to get home with."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't fret about that," said Aunt Madge; "I'll see that you go home
+with as full a purse as you brought to my house."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, auntie, how can I thank you? But you know father never would allow
+that!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I could tell you how to thank me," thought Mrs. Allen, though she was
+so kind she would <i>not</i> tell; "you could thank me by saying, 'Auntie,
+I've been a naughty boy.'"
+</p>
+<p>
+But Horace had no idea of making such a confession as that. "The
+money'll come up," said he; "I'm one of the lucky kind. Let's see;
+wouldn't it be best to advertise?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thieves won't answer advertisements," said Mrs. Allen.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But, I tell you, auntie, I dropped that wallet. I could take my oath of
+it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, in such a case an advertisement is the proper thing. But, my boy,
+your positiveness on this subject is extraordinary. How could you drop
+the wallet? Do you keep it in the same pocket with your handkerchief?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"On, no, auntie; right in here."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And you haven't bought anything?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, auntie; you wouldn't let me pay the car fare, or anything else. But
+still I must have taken out the wallet by mistake. You see I <i>know</i>
+nobody's picked my pockets."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, Horace, you just said Granny picked 'em."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, Dot, I didn't! I only spoke of the queer way she had of leaning
+forward."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But you scowled at her sharp enough to take head off."
+</p>
+<p>
+"If I were you, Dot, I wouldn't be any more disagreeable than I was
+absolutely obliged to.&mdash;Now, auntie, how much does it cost to
+advertise?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"A dollar or so I believe."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, if you'll lend me the money, I want to do it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"To be plain with you, Horace, I really do not think it will be of the
+slightest use in this case; but I will consent to it if it will be any
+relief to your mind. We shall be obliged to cross the ferry again, for
+the advertisement ought to go into a Brooklyn paper."
+</p>
+<p>
+"We are tired enough to drop," said Dotty; "and all these stars and
+things, too!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, we are all tired; but we will leave you little girls at the
+ferry-house on the other side."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But, auntie," said Prudy, anxiously, "I shouldn't really dare have the
+care of Fly. You know just how it is."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I do know just how it is. Fly must walk, with her tired little
+feet, to the Eagle office, with Horace and me; or else she must make a
+solemn promise not to go out of the ferry-house."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But I don't want to make a <i>solomon</i> promise, auntie; I want to see the
+eagle."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Allen sighed. She began to think she had undertaken a great task
+in inviting these children to visit her. Instead of a pleasure, they had
+proved, thus far, a weariness&mdash;always excepting Prudy. She, dear,
+self-forgetting little girl, could not fail to be a comfort wherever she
+went.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH13"><!-- CH13 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER XIII.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+THE PUMPKIN HOOD.
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+To the "Eagle" office they went&mdash;obstinate Horace, patient Annt Madge,
+and between them the "blue-bottle Fly."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I do feel right sorry, auntie," said Horace, a sudden sense of shame
+coming over him; "but I'm so sure I dropped the money, you know; or I
+wouldn't drag you up this hill when you're so tired."
+</p>
+<p>
+A sharp answer rose to Mrs. Allen's lips, but she held it back.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Only a boy! In a fair way to learn a useful lesson, too. Let me keep my
+temper! If I scold, I spoil the whole."
+</p>
+<p>
+They entered the office, and left with the editor this advertisement:&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"Lost.&mdash;Between Prospect Park and Fulton Ferry, a porte-monnaie, marked
+'Horace S. Clifford,' containing thirty-five dollars. The finder will be
+suitably rewarded by leaving the same at No. &mdash;&mdash;, Cor. Fifth Ave. and
+&mdash;&mdash; Street."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is no matter about advertising Prudy's purse, it was so shabby,"
+said Aunt Madge; and on their way back to the ferry-house she bought her
+another.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, thank you, auntie, darling," said Prudy; "and thank you, too,
+Horace, for losing my old one; it wasn't fit to be seen. And here is a
+whole dollar inside! O, Aunt Madge, <i>are</i> you an angel?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Prue, you deserve your good luck; you don't come down on a fellow,
+hammer and tongs, because he happens to meet with an accident."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace," said Dotty, meekly, "are you willing to carry my gloves?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, to be sure; but you don't want to go home bare-handed&mdash;do you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, I was thinking how nice 'twould be, Horace, to have you take 'em,
+and lose 'em, and me have a new pair. There's a hole in the thumb."
+</p>
+<p>
+This little sally amused everybody, and Horace had the grace not to be
+sensitive, though the laugh was against him.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Another queer day," said he, when they were at last at home again. "I
+don't know what will become of us all, if we keep on like this."
+</p>
+<p>
+The poor boy was trying his best to brave it out; but Aunt Madge could
+see that his heart was sore.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Lost every cent I'm worth," mused he, turning his coat-pocket inside
+out, and scowling at it. "Got to be a beggar as long as I stay in New
+York!"
+</p>
+<p>
+The whole party were tired, and Horace's gloom seemed to fill the parlor
+like a fog, and make even the gas look dim.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I feel dreffly," said Fly, curling her head under her brother's arm,
+like a chicken under its mother's wing&mdash;a way she had when she was
+troubled. "I feel just zif I didn't love nobody in the world, and there
+didn't nobody love me."
+</p>
+<p>
+This brought Horace around in a minute, and called forth a pickaback
+ride.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Music! let us have music," said Aunt Madge, flying to the piano. "When
+little folks grow so cold-hearted, in my house, that they don't love
+anybody, it's time to warm their hearts with some happy little songs.
+Come, girls!"
+</p>
+<p>
+She played a few simple tunes, and the children all sang till the fog
+of gloom had disappeared, and the gas burned brightly once more.
+</p>
+<p>
+Half an hour afterwards, just as Fly was told she ought to be sleepy,
+because her bye-low hymn had been sung,&mdash;"Sleep, little one, like a lamb
+in the fold,"&mdash;and she had answered that she "couldn't be sleepy, athout
+auntie would hurry quick to come in with a drink of water," there was a
+strange arrival. Nathaniel, the waiting man, ushered into the parlor a
+droll little old woman, dressed in a short calico gown, with gay figures
+over it as large as cabbages; calf-skin shoes; and a green pumpkin hood,
+with a bow on top.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Good evening, ma'am," said Horace, rising, and offering her a chair.
+She did not seem to see very well, in spite of her enormous spectacles;
+for she took no notice of the chair, and remained standing in the
+middle of the floor.
+</p>
+
+<a name="image-2"><!-- Image 2 --></a>
+<p class="figure">
+<img src="pumpkin.jpg" width="40%"
+alt="The Pumpkin Hood."><br />
+<b>The Pumpkin Hood</b></p>
+
+<p>
+"She stares at me so hard!" thought Horace&mdash;"that's the reason she can't
+see anything else."&mdash;"Please take a chair, ma'am."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Can't stop to sit down. Is your name Horace S. Clifford?" said the old
+woman, in a very feeble voice.
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace looked at her; she had not a tooth in her head.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, ma'am; my name is Horace Clifford," said he, respectfully. He had
+great reverence for age, and could keep his mouth from twitching; but
+I'm sorry to say Prudy's danced up at the corners, and Dotty's opened
+and showed her back teeth The woman must have had all those clothes made
+when she was young, for nobody wore such things now; but it wasn't
+likely she knew that, poor soul!
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did you go to the 'Brooklyn Eagle' office, to-day, to ad-<i>ver</i>-tise
+some lost money, little boy?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, ma'am.&mdash;Why, that advertisement can't have been printed <i>so</i>
+quick!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, I calculate not. Did you go in with a lady, and a leetle, oneasy,
+springy kind of a leetle girl?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, that's me," put in Fly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, ma'am&mdash;yes; were you there? What do you know about it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't be in a hurry, little boy. I want to be safe and sure. I expect
+you took notice of a young man in a bottle-green coat,&mdash;no, a
+greenish-black coat,&mdash;a-sittin' down by the door."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, I don't know. Yes, I think I did. Was he the one? Did he find the
+money?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did you walk up Orange Street?" continued the old woman. "No, I mean
+Cranberry Street?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, <i>dear</i>, I don't know! Prudy, run, call Aunt Madge. Please tell me,
+ma'am, have you got it with you? Is my name on the inside?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Wait till the little girl calls your aunt. Perhaps she'd be willing to
+let me tell the story in my own way. I'd ruther deal with grown folks,"
+said the provoking old lady.
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace's eyes flashed, but he contrived to keep his temper.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is my purse, ma'am, and my aunt knows nothing about it. I can tell
+you just how it looks, and all there is in it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Perhaps you are one of the kind that can tell folks a good deal, and
+thinks nobody knows things so well as yourself," returned the
+disagreeable old woman, smiling and showing her toothless gums. "From
+what I can learn, I should judge you talked ruther too loud about your
+money; for there was a pusson heerd you in the ferry-boat, and took
+pains to go in the same car afterwards, and pick your pocket."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pick&mdash;my&mdash;pocket?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, your pocket. You wise, wonderful young man!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"How? When? Where?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"This is how," said the old woman, quick as a thought putting out her
+hand, and thrusting it into Horace's breast pocket.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, it's auntie's rings&mdash;it's auntie's rings," cried Fly, jumping up,
+and seizing the pretended old woman by her calico sleeve.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, Aunt Madge, that isn't you!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"But how'd you take out yer teeth?" said Fly; "your teeth? your teeth?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, I didn't take them out, Miss Bright-eyes. I only put a little spruce
+gum over them."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace, I can't find auntie anywhere in this house," said Prudy,
+appearing at the parlor door. "Do you suppose she's gone off and hid?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, she's hid inside that old gown."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What do you mean?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's auntie, and her teeth's <i>in</i>," explained Fly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Only I wish she was an old woman, and had really brought me my money,"
+said Horace, in a disappointed tone. "I declare, there was one time I
+thought the old nuisance was coming round to it, and going to give me
+the wallet."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What a wise, wonderful youth!" said the aged dame, in a cracked voice.
+"Thinks I can give him his wallet, when he's got it himself, right close
+to his heart."
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace put his hand in his breast pocket.
+</p>
+<p>
+Wonder of wonders! There was the wallet! And not only his, but Prudy's!
+Had he been asleep all day? Or was he asleep now?
+</p>
+<p>
+"Money safe? Not a cent gone. Hoo-rah! Hoo-ra-ah!"
+</p>
+<p>
+And for want of a cap to throw, he threw up Fly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Where did it come from? Where did the old woman find it? O, no; the man
+in the green-bottle coat?&mdash;O, no; there wasn't any old woman," cried the
+children, hopelessly confused. "But who found the money? Did I drop it
+on Cranberry Street?" "Did he drop it on Quamby Street?" "Who brought
+it?" "Who bringed it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Aunt Madge stuffed her fingers into her ears. "They are all talking at
+once; they're enough to craze a body! They forget how old I am! Came all
+the way from the Eagle office, afoot and alone, with only four children
+to&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, auntie, don't play any more! Talk sober! Talk honest! Did Horace
+have his pockets picked?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, he did," replied Aunt Madge, speaking in her natural tones, and
+throwing off the pumpkin hood; "if you want the truth, he did."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why Aunt Madge Allen! It does not seem possible! Who picked my
+pockets?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Some one who heard you talking so loud about your money."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But how could it be taken out, and I not know it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Quite as easily as it could be put back, and you not know it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's true, Horace Clifford! Auntie put it back, and you never knew
+it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"So she did," said Horace, looking as bewildered as if he had been
+whirling around with his eyes shut; "so she did&mdash;didn't she? But that
+was because I was taken by surprise, seeing her without a tooth in her
+head, you know."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You have been taken by surprise twice to-day, then," said Aunt Madge,
+demurely. "It is really refreshing, Horace, to find that such a sharp
+young man <i>can</i> be caught napping!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I&mdash;I&mdash;I must have been thinking, of something else, auntie."
+</p>
+<p>
+"So I conclude. And you must be thinking of something else still, or
+you'd ask me&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, yes, auntie; how did the thief happen to give it up? There, there,
+you needn't say a word! I see it all in your eyes! You took the money
+yourself. O, Aunt Madge!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, if that wasn't queer doings!" cried Dotty.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, it is quite contrary to my usual habits. I never robbed anybody
+before. I hadn't the faintest idea I could do it without Horace's
+knowledge."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, auntie, I never was so astonished in my life!" said the youth,
+looking greatly confused.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I never heard of a person's being robbed that wasn't astonished," said
+Aunt Madge, with a mischievous smile. "Will you be quite as sure of
+yourself another time, think?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, auntie, I shan't; that's a fact."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's my good, frank boy," said Aunt Madge, kissing his forehead. "And
+he won't toss his head,&mdash;just this way,&mdash;like a young lord of creation,
+when meddlesome aunties venture to give him advice."
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace kissed Mrs. Allen's cheek rather thoughtfully, by way of reply.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't see, Aunt Madge," said Prudy, "why you went back across the
+river to put that piece in the paper, when you were the one that had the
+money all the time."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I did it to pacify Horace. He <i>knew</i> his pockets hadn't been pieked.
+Besides I felt guilty. It was rather cruel in me&mdash;wasn't it?&mdash;to let him
+suffer so long."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not cruel a bit; good enough for me," cried Horace, with a generous
+outburst. "You're just the jolliest woman, auntie&mdash;the jolliest woman!
+There you are; you look so little and sweet! But if folks think they're
+going to get ahead of you, why, just let 'em try it, say I!"
+</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+DEAR READERS: Horace was scarcely more astonished, when his pocket was
+picked, than I am this minute, to find myself at the end of my book! I
+had very much more to tell; but now it must wait till another time.
+</p>
+<p>
+Meanwhile the Parlins and Cliffords are "climbing the dream tree." Let
+us hope they are destined to meet with no more misfortunes during the
+rest of their stay in New York.
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Folks Astray
+by Sophia May (Rebecca Sophia Clarke)
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Folks Astray
+by Sophia May (Rebecca Sophia Clarke)
+
+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: Little Folks Astray
+
+Author: Sophia May (Rebecca Sophia Clarke)
+
+Release Date: February 24, 2004 [EBook #11257]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE FOLKS ASTRAY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and Distributed Proofreading
+
+
+
+
+
+LITTLE FOLKS ASTRAY.
+
+BY SOPHIE MAY
+
+
+"To give room for wandering is it
+That the world was made so wide."
+
+1872
+
+
+
+TO
+
+MY YOUNG FRIEND,
+
+EMMA ADAMS.
+
+"JOHNNIE OPTIC."
+
+
+
+
+TO PARENTS.
+
+Here come the Parlins and Cliffords again. They had been sent to bed and
+nicely tucked in, but would not stay asleep. They "wanted to see the
+company down stairs;" so they have dressed themselves, and come back to
+the parlor. I trust you will pardon them, dear friends. Is it not a
+common thing, in this degenerate age, for grown people to frown and
+shake their heads, while little people do exactly as they please?
+
+Well, one thing is certain: if these children insist upon sitting up,
+they shall listen to lectures on self-will and disrespect to superiors,
+which will make their ears tingle.
+
+Moreover, they shall hear of other people, and not always of themselves.
+Fly Clifford, who expects to be in the middle, will be somewhat
+overwhelmed, like a fly in a cup of milk; for Grandma Read is to talk
+her down with her Quaker speech, and Aunt Madge with her story of the
+summer when she was a child. It is but fair that the elders should have
+a voice. That they may speak words which shall come home to many little
+hearts, and move them for good, is the earnest wish of
+
+THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+
+I. THE LETTER
+
+II. THE UNDERTAKING
+
+III. THE FROLIC
+
+IV. "TAKING OUR AIRS"
+
+V. DOTTY HAVING HER OWN WAY
+
+VI. DOTTY REBUKED
+
+VII. THE LOST FLY
+
+VIII. "THE FRECKLED DOG"
+
+IX. MARIA'S MOTHER
+
+X. FIVE MAKING A CALL
+
+XI. "THE HEN-HOUSES"
+
+XII. "GRANNY"
+
+XIII. THE PUMPKIN HOOD
+
+
+
+
+LITTLE FOLKS ASTRAY.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE LETTER.
+
+
+Katie Clifford sat on the floor, in the sun, feeding her white mice. She
+had a tea-spoon and a cup of bread and milk in her hands. If she had
+been their own mother she could not have smiled down on the little
+creatures more sweetly.
+
+"'Cause I spect they's hungry, and that's why I'm goin' to give 'em
+sumpin' to eat. Shut your moufs and open your eyes," said she, waving
+the tea-spoon, and spattering the bread and milk over their backs.
+
+"Quee, quee," squeaked the little mice, very well pleased when a drop
+happened to go into their mouths.
+
+"What are you doing there, Miss Topknot," said Horace: "O, I see;
+catching rats."
+
+Flyaway frowned fearfully, and the tuft of hair atop of her head danced
+like a war-plume.
+
+"I shouldn't think folks would call 'em names, Hollis, when they never
+did a thing to you. Nothing but clean white mouses!"
+
+"Let's see; now I look at 'em, Topknot, they _are_ white. And what's all
+this paper?"
+
+"Bed-kilts."
+
+"_In_-deed?"
+
+"You knew it by-fore!"
+
+"One, two, three; I thought the doctor gave you five. Where are they
+gone?"
+
+"Well, there hasn't but two died; the rest'll live," said Fly, swinging
+one of them around by its tail, as if it had been a tame cherry.
+
+Just then Grace came and stood in the parlor doorway.
+
+"O, fie!" said she; "what work! Ma doesn't allow that cage in the
+parlor. You just carry it out, Fly Clifford."
+
+Miss Thistledown Flyaway looked up at her sister shyly, out of the
+corners of her eyes. Grace was now a beautiful young lady of sixteen,
+and almost as tall as her mother. Flyaway adored her, but there was a
+growing doubt in her mind whether sister Grace had a right to use the
+tone of command.
+
+"'Cause I spect she isn't my mamma."
+
+"Why, Fly, you haven't started yet!"
+
+"I didn't think 'twas best," responded the child, sulkily, fixing her
+eyes on the mice, who were dancing whirligigs round the wheel.
+
+"Come here to your best friend, little Topknot," said Horace. "Let's
+take that cage into the green-house, and ask papa to keep it there,
+because the mice look like water-lilies on long stems."
+
+Flyaway brightened at once. She knew water-lilies were lovely. Giving
+Grace a triumphant glance, she danced across the room, and put the cage
+in Horace's hands, with a smile of trusting love that thrilled his
+heart.
+
+"Hollis laughs at my mouses, but he don't say, 'Put 'em away,' and,
+'_Put_ 'em away;' he says, 'Little gee-urls wants to see things as much
+as anybody else,'" thought she, gratefully.
+
+"Horace," said Grace, with a curling lip, "that child is growing up
+just like you--fond of worms, and bugs, and all such disgusting things."
+
+Horace smiled. No matter for the scorn in Grace's tone; it pleased him
+to be compared in any way with his precious little Flyaway.
+
+"Topknot has a spark of sense," said he, leading her along to the
+green-house. "I'll bring her up not to scream at a spider."
+
+"Now, young lady," said he, setting the cage on the shelf beside a
+camellia, and speaking in a low voice, though they were quite alone,
+"_can_ you keep a secret?"
+
+"Course I can; What _is_ a _secrid_?"
+
+"Why, it's something you musn't ever tell, Topknot, not to anybody that
+lives."
+
+"Then I won't, _cerdily_,--not to mamma, nor papa, nor Gracie."
+
+"Nor anybody else?"
+
+"No; course not. _Whobody_ else could I? O, 'cept Phibby. There, now,
+what's the name of it."
+
+"The name of it is--a secret, and the secret is this--Sure you won't
+tell any single body, Topknot?"
+
+"No; I said, _whobody_ could I tell? O, 'cept Tinka! There now!"
+
+"Well, the secret is this," said Horace, laying his forefingers
+together, and speaking very slowly, in order to prolong the immense
+delight he felt in watching the little one's eager face. "You know
+you've got an aunt Madge?"
+
+"Yes; so've you, too."
+
+"And she lives in the city of New York."
+
+"Does she? When'd she go?"
+
+"Why, she has always lived there; ever since she was married."
+
+"O, yes; and uncle Gustus was married, too; they was both married. Is
+that all?"
+
+"And she thinks you and I are 'cute chicks, and wants us to go and see
+her."
+
+"Well, course she does; I knew that before," said Fly, turning away with
+indifference; "I did go with mamma."
+
+"O, but she means now, Topknot; this very Christmas. She said it in a
+letter."
+
+"Does she truly?" said Fly, beginning to look pleased. "But it can't be
+a _secrid_, though," added she, next moment, sadly, "'cause we can't go,
+Hollis."
+
+"But I really think we shall go, Topknot; that is, if you don't spoil
+the whole by telling."
+
+"O, I cerdily won't tell!" said Fly, fluttering all over with a sense of
+importance, like a kitten with its first mouse.
+
+The breakfast bell rang; and, with many a word of warning, Horace led
+his little sister into the dining-room.
+
+"Papa," said she, the moment she was established in her high chair, "I
+know sumpin'."
+
+"O, Topknot!" cried Horace.
+
+"I know Hollis has got his elbows on the table. There, now, _did_ I
+tell?"
+
+"Hu--sh, Topknot!"
+
+There was a quiet moment while Mr. Clifford said grace.
+
+"Hollis," whispered Katie immediately afterwards, "will I take my
+mouses?"
+
+"'Sh, Topknot!"
+
+"What's going on there between you and Horace?" laughed Grace.
+
+"A _secrid_," said Fly, nipping her little lips together. "You won't get
+me to tell."
+
+"Horace," exclaimed Mrs. Clifford, "you haven't--"
+
+"Why, mother, I thought it was all settled, and wouldn't do any harm;
+and it pleases her so!"
+
+"Well, my son, you've made a hard day's work for me," said Mrs.
+Clifford, smiling behind her coffee-cup, as eager little Katie swayed
+back and forth in her high chair.
+
+"You won't get me to tell, Gracie Clifford. She don't want nobody but
+Hollis and me; she thinks we're very 'cute."
+
+"Who? O, Aunt Louise, probably."
+
+"No, aunt Louise never! It's the auntie that lives to New York."
+
+"Sh, Topknot!"
+
+"Well, I didn't tell, Hollis Clifford!"
+
+"So you didn't," said Grace. "But wouldn't it be nice if somebody should
+ask you to go somewhere to spend Christmas?"
+
+"Well, _there is_!"
+
+"O, Topknot," cried Horace, in mock distress, "you said you could keep
+a secret."
+
+Flyaway looked frightened.
+
+"What'd I do?" cried she; "I didn't tell nuffin 'bout the letter!"
+
+This last speech set everybody to laughing; and the little tell-tale
+looked around from one to another with a face full of innocent wonder.
+They couldn't be laughing at _her_!
+
+"I can keep secrids," said she, with dignity. "It was what I was
+a-doin'."
+
+"It is your brother Horace who cannot be trusted to keep secrets," said
+Mrs. Clifford, taking a letter from her pocket. "Hear, now, what your
+Aunt Madge has written: 'Will you lend me your children for the
+holidays, Maria? I want all three; at any rate, two.'"
+
+"That's me," cried Flyaway, tipping over her white coffee; "'_tenny
+rate two_,' means me."
+
+"Don't interrupt me, dear. 'Brother Edward has promised me Prudy and
+Dotty Dimple. They may have a Santa Claus, or whatever they like. I
+shall devote myself to making them happy, and I am sure there are plenty
+of things in New York to amuse them. Horace must come without fail; for
+the little girl-cousins always depend so much upon him.'"
+
+A smile rose to Horace's mouth; but he rubbed it off with his napkin. It
+was his boast that he was above being flattered.
+
+"But why not have Grace go, too, to keep them steady?" said Mr.
+Clifford, bluntly.
+
+Horace applied himself to his buckwheat cakes in silence, and looked
+rather gloomy.
+
+"Why, I suppose, Henry, it would hardly be safe to send Grace, on
+account of her cough."
+
+"I'm so sorry you asked Dr. De Bruler a word about it, mamma; but I
+suppose I must submit," said Grace, with a face as cloudy as Horace's.
+
+"Horace, my son, do you really feel equal to the task of taking this
+tuft of feathers to New York?"
+
+"I don't know why not, father; I'm willing to try."
+
+"Horace has good courage," said Grace, shaking her auburn curls like so
+many exclamation points. "I never could! I never would! I'd as soon have
+the care of a flying squirrel!"
+
+"Hollis never called me a _squirl_," said Fly, demurely. "I've got two
+brothers, and one of 'em is an angel, and the other isn't; but Hollis
+is _'most_ as good as the one up in the sky."
+
+"Well, my son," remarked Mr. Clifford, after a pause, "if your mother
+gives her consent, I suppose I shall give mine; but it does not look
+clear to me yet. One thing is certain, Horace; if you do undertake this
+journey, you must live on the watch: you must sleep with both eyes open.
+Don't trust the child out of your sight--not for a moment. Don't even
+let go her hand on the street."
+
+"I do believe Horace will be as careful as either you or I, Henry, or I
+certainly wouldn't trust him with our last little darling," said Mrs.
+Clifford.
+
+His mother's words dropped like balm upon Horace's wounded spirit. He
+looked up, and felt himself a man again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE UNDERTAKING.
+
+
+When Flyaway knew she was going to New York, it was about as easy to fit
+her dresses as to clothe a buzzing blue-bottle fly. With spinning head
+and dancing feet, she was set down, at last, in the cars.
+
+"Here we are, all by ourselves, darling, starting off for Gotham. Wave
+your handkerchief to mamma. Don't you see her kissing her hand? There,
+you needn't spring out of the window! And I declare, Brown-brimmer, if
+you haven't thrown away your handkerchief! Here, cry into mine!"
+
+"I didn't want to cry, Hollis; I wanted to laugh," said the child,
+wiping her eyes with her doll's cloak. "When you ride in carriages, you
+don't get anywhere; but when you ride in the cars, you get there right
+off."
+
+"Yes; that's so, my dear. You are in the right of it, as you always are.
+Now I am going to turn the seat over, and sit where I can look at
+you--just so."
+
+"O, that's just as splendid, Hollis! Now there's only me and Flipperty.
+There, I put her 'pellent cloak on wrong; but see, now, I've
+un-_wrong-side-outed_ it! Don't she sit up like a lady?"
+
+Her name was Flipperty Flop. She was a large jointed doll (not a doll
+with large joints,) had seen a great deal of the world, and didn't think
+much of it. She came of a high family, and had such blue blood in her
+veins, that the ground wasn't good enough for her to walk on. She wore
+a "'pellent cloak" and rubber boots, and had a shopping-bag on her arm
+full of "choclid" cakes. She was nearly as large as her mother, and all
+of two years older. A great deal had happened to her before her mother
+was born, and a great deal more since. Sometimes it was dropsy, and she
+had to be tapped, when pints of sawdust would run out. Sometimes it was
+consumption, and she wasted to such a skeleton that she had to be
+revived with cotton. She had lost her head more than once, but it never
+affected her brains: she was all the better with a young head now and
+then on her old shoulders. Her present ailment appeared to be small-pox;
+she was badly pitted with pins and a penknife. "I declare I forgot to
+get a ticket for her," said Horace. "What if the conductor shouldn't
+let her pass?"
+
+"O, Hollis, but he must?" cried Fly, springing to her feet; "_I_ shan't
+pass athout my Flipperty! Tell the 'ductor 'bout my white mouses died,
+and I can't go athout sumpin to carry."
+
+"Pshaw! Dotty Dimple don't carry dolls. She don't like 'em: sensible
+girls never do."
+
+"Well, _I_ like 'em," said Flyaway, nothing daunted. "You knew it
+byfore; 'n if you didn't want Flipperty, you'd ought to not come!"
+
+Horace laughed, as he always did when his little sister tried her power
+over him. The conductor was an old acquaintance, and he told him how it
+stood with Flipperty, how she was needed at New York, and all that;
+whereupon Mr. Van Dusen gave Fly a little green card, and told her to
+keep it to show to all the conductors on the road; for it was a free
+pass, and would take Flipperty all over the United States.
+
+"Yes, sir, if you please," said Fly, with a blush and a smile, and put
+the "free pass" in Miss Flop's cloak pocket.
+
+After this, she never once failed to show it, whenever Mr. Van Dusen, or
+any other conductor, came near, but always had to hunt for it, and once
+brought up a cookie instead, which fearful mistake mortified her to the
+depths of her soul.
+
+Horace was sure all eyes were fixed on his charming little charge, and
+was proud of the honor of showing her off; but he paid for it dearly; it
+cost him more than his Latin, with all the irregular verbs. There was no
+such thing as her being comfortable. She was full of care about him,
+herself, and the baggage. Flipperty lost off a rubber boot, which
+bounced over into the next seat. Horace had to ask a gentleman and his
+sick daughter to move, and, after all, it was in an old lady's lap.
+
+Then Fly's feet were cold, and Horace took her to the stove; but that
+made her eyes too hot, and she danced back, to lie with her head on his
+breast and her feet against the window, till she suddenly whirled
+straight about, and planted her tiny boots under his chin.
+
+"O, Topknot, Topknot, I pity that woman with the baby, if she feels as
+lame all over as I do!"
+
+"Where's the baby, Hollis? O, I see."
+
+"What's the matter, now? Why upon earth can't you sit still, child?"
+said Horace, next minute, catching her as she was darting into the
+aisle, dragging Miss Flop by the hair of the head.
+
+"O, Hollis, don't you see there's a dolly over there, with two girls and
+a lady with red clo'es on? 'Haps they'd be willing for her to get
+'quainted with Flipperty?"
+
+"Well, Topknot, 'haps they would, but 'haps I wouldn't. I can't have you
+dancing all over the car, in this style."
+
+Flyaways's lip quivered, and a tear started. Horace was moved. One of
+Fly's tears weighed a pound with him, even when it only wet her
+eyelashes, and wasn't heavy enough to drop.
+
+"Well, there, darling, you just sit still,--not still enough, though, to
+give you a pain (Fly always said it gave her a pain to sit still),--and
+I'll bring the girls and dollie over here to you. Will that do?"
+
+Fly thought it would.
+
+A dreadful fit of bashfulness came over Horace, when he stood face to
+face with the black-eyed lady and her daughters, and tried to speak.
+
+"I've got a little girl travelling with me, ma'am; she's so--so uneasy,
+that I don't know what to do with her. Will you let me take--I mean, are
+you willing--"
+
+"Bring her over here, and we will try to amuse her," said the black-eyed
+lady, pleasantly; but Horace was sure he saw the oldest girl laughing at
+him.
+
+"It's no fun to go and make a fool of yourself," thought he, leading Fly
+to the new acquaintances, and standing by as she settled herself shyly
+in the seat.
+
+"How do you do, little one? What is your name?--_Flyaway_?--Well, you
+look like it. We saw you were a darling, clear across the aisle. And you
+have a kind brother, I know."
+
+At these words Fly, for want of some answer to make, sprang forward and
+kissed Horace on the bridge of the nose.
+
+"There, you've knocked off my cap."
+
+In stooping to pick it up, he awkwardly hit his head against the older
+girl, who already looked so mischievous that he was rather afraid of
+her.
+
+"Wish I could get out of the way. She expects me to speak, but I shan't.
+
+  "'Needles and pins, needles and pins,
+    When a man travels his trouble begins.'"
+
+Horace was obliged to stand, very ill at ease, till the black-eyed lady
+had found out where he lived, who his father was, and what was his
+mother's name before she was married.
+
+"Tell your father, when you go home, you have seen Mrs. Bonnycastle,
+formerly Ann Jones, and give him my regards. I knew he married a lady
+from Maine."
+
+"I know sumpin," struck in Fly; "if ever _I_ marry anybody, I'll marry
+my own brother Hollis. I mean if I don't be a ole maid!"
+
+"And what is 'a ole maid,' you little witch?"
+
+"I don' know; some folks is," was the wise reply. Flyaway was about to
+add "Gampa Clifford," but did not feel well enough acquainted to talk of
+family matters.
+
+When the Bonnycastles left, at Cleveland, Horace thought that was the
+last of them. Miss Gerty was "decent-looking, looked some like Cassy
+Hallock; but he couldn't bear to see folks giggle; hoped he never should
+set eyes on those people again." Whether he ever did, you shall hear one
+of these days.
+
+"O, Topknot," said he, "your hair looks like a mop. Do you want all
+creation laughing at you? You'll mortify me to death."
+
+"You ought to water it. If you don't take better care o' your little
+sister, I won't never ride with you no more, Hollis Clifford!"
+
+"Well, see that you don't, you little scarecrow," said the suffering
+boy, out of all patience. "If you are going to act in New York as you
+have on the road, I wish I was well out of this scrape."
+
+Flyaway was really a sight to behold. How she managed to tear her dress
+off the waist, and loose five boot buttons, and last, but not least, the
+very hat she wore on her head, _would_ have been a mystery if you hadn't
+seen her run.
+
+When they reached the city, Horace put the soft, flying locks in as
+good order as he could, and tied them up in his handkerchief.
+
+"I wisht I hadn't come," whined Fly; "I don't want to wear a hangerfiss;
+'tisn't speckerble!"
+
+"Hush right up! I'm not going to have you get cold!--My sorrows! Shan't
+I be thankful when I get where there's a woman to take care of her?"
+
+On the platform at the depot, aunt Madge, Prudy, and Dotty Dimple, were
+waiting for them. A hearty laugh went the rounds, which Fly thought was
+decidedly silly. Aunt Madge took the young travellers right into her
+arms, and hugged them in her own cordial style, as if her heart had been
+hungry for them for many a day.
+
+"We're so glad!--for it did seem as if you'd never come," exclaimed
+Dotty Dimple.
+
+"And I'd like to know," said Horace, "how you happened to get here
+first."
+
+"O, we came by express--came yesterday."
+
+"By 'spress?" cried Flyaway, pulling away from aunt Madge, who was
+trying to pin her frock together; "_we_ came by a 'ductor.--Why, where's
+Flipperty's ticket?"
+
+Horace seized Prudy with one hand, and Dotty Dimple with the other,
+turning them round and round.
+
+"I don't see anything of the express mark, 'Handle with care.' What has
+become of it?"
+
+"O, we were done up in brown paper," said Prudy, laughing, "and the
+express mark was on that; but aunt Madge took it off as soon as she got
+the packages home."
+
+"Why, what a story, Prudy Parlin! We didn't have a speck of brown paper
+round us. Just cloaks and hats with feathers in!"
+
+Dotty spoke with some irritation. She had all along been rather
+sensitive about being sent by express, and could not bear any allusion
+to the subject.
+
+"There, that's Miss Dimple herself. Let me shake hands with your
+Dimpleship! Didn't come to New York to take a joke,--did you?"
+
+"No, her Dimpleship came to New York to get warm," said Peacemaker
+Prudy; "and so did I, too. You don't know how cold it is in Maine."
+
+By this time they were rattling over the stones in their aunt's elegant
+carriage. It was dusk; the lamps were lighted, the streets crowded with
+people, the shops blazing with gay colors.
+
+"I didn't come here to get warm, either," said Dotty, determined to
+have the last word: "I was warm enough in Portland. I s'pose we've got a
+furnace,--haven't we?--and a coal grate, too."
+
+"I do hope Horace hasnt't got her started in a contrary fit," thought
+Prudy; "I brought her all the way from home without her saying a cross
+word."
+
+But aunt Madge had a witch's broom, to sweep cobwebs out of the sky.
+Putting her arm around Dotty, she said,--
+
+"You all came to bring sunshine into my house; bless your happy hearts."
+
+That cleared Dotty's sky, and she put up her lips for a kiss; while
+Flyaway, with her "hangerfiss" on, danced about the carriage like a fly
+in a bottle, kissing everybody, and Horace twice over.
+
+"'Cause I spect we've got there. But, Hollis," said she, with the
+comical shade of care which so often flitted across her little face,
+"you never put the trunk in here. Now that 'ductor has gone and carried
+off my nightie."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE FROLIC.
+
+
+If Aunt Madge had dressed in linsey woolsey, with a checked apron on,
+she would still have been lovely. A white rose is lovely even in a
+cracked tea-cup. But Colonel Augustus Allen was a rich man, and his wife
+could afford to dress elegantly. Horace followed her to-night with
+admiring eyes.
+
+"They say she isn't as handsome as Aunt Louise, but I know better; you
+needn't tell me! Her eyes have got the real good twinkle, and that's
+enough said."
+
+Horace was like most boys; he mistook loveliness for beauty. Mrs.
+Allen's small figure, gentle gray eyes, and fair curls made her seem
+almost insignificant beside the splendid Louise; but Horace knew better;
+you needn't tell _him_!
+
+"Horace," said Aunt Madge, "your Uncle Augustus is gone, and that is one
+reason, you know, why I begged for company during the holidays. You will
+be the only gentleman in the house, and we ladies herewith put ourselves
+under your protection. Will you accept the charge?"
+
+"He needn't _pertect_ ME," spoke up Miss Dimple, from the depths of an
+easy-chair; "I can pertect myself."
+
+"Don't mind going to the Museum alone, I suppose, and crossing ferries,
+and riding in the Park, and being out after dark?"
+
+"No; I'm not afraid of things," replied the strong-minded young lady;
+"ask Prudy if I am. And my father lets me go in the horse-cars all over
+Portland. That's since I travelled out west."
+
+Here the bell sounded, and the only gentleman of the house gave his arm
+to Mrs. Allen, to lead her out to what he supposed was supper, though he
+soon found it went by the name of dinner. Neither he nor his young
+cousins were accustomed to seeing so much silver and so many servants;
+but they tried to appear as unconcerned as if it were an every-day
+affair. Dotty afterwards said to Prudy and Horace, "I was 'stonished
+when that man came to the back of my chair with the butter; but I said,
+'_If_ you please, sir,' just as if I 'spected it. _He_ don't know but my
+father's rich."
+
+After dinner Fly's eyes drew together, and Prudy said,--
+
+"O, darling, you don't know what's going to happen. Auntie said you
+might sleep with Dotty and me to-night, right in the middle."
+
+"O, dear!" drawled Flyaway; "when there's two abed, I sleep; but when
+there's three abed, I open out my eyes, and can't."
+
+"So you don't like to sleep with your cousins," said Dotty, "your dear
+cousins, that came all the way from Portland to see you."
+
+"Yes, I do," said Fly, quickly; "my eyes'll open out; but that's no
+matter, 'cause I don't want to go to sleep; I'd ravver not."
+
+They went up stairs, into a beautiful room, which aunt Madge had
+arranged for them with two beds, to suit a whim of Dotty's.
+
+"Now isn't this just splendid?" said Miss Dimple; "the carpet so soft
+your boots go in like feathers; and then such pictures! Look, Fly! here
+are two little girls out in a snow-storm, with an umbrella over 'em.
+Aren't you glad it isn't you? And here are some squirrels, just as
+natural as if they were eating grandpa's oilnuts. And see that pretty
+lady with the kid, or the dog. Any way she is kissing him; and it was
+all she had left out of the whole family, and she wanted to kiss
+somebody."
+
+"Yes," said aunt Madge.
+
+  "'Her sole companion in a dearth
+  Of love upon a hopeless earth.'
+
+"If that makes you look so sober, children, I'm going to take it down.
+Here, on this bracket, is the head of our blessed Saviour."
+
+"O, I'm glad," said Fly. "He'll be right there, a-looking on, when we
+say our prayers."
+
+"Hear that creature talk!" whispered Dotty.
+
+"And these things a-shinin' down over the bed: who's these?" said
+Flyaway, dancing about the room, with "opened-out" eyes.
+
+"Don't you know? That's Christ blessing little children," said Dotty,
+gently. "I always know Him by the rainbow round His head."
+
+"Aureole," corrected Aunt Madge.
+
+"But wasn't it just _like_ a rainbow--red, blue and green?"
+
+"O, no; our Saviour did not really have any such crown of light, Dotty.
+He looked just like other men, only purer and holier. Artists have tried
+in vain to make his expression heavenly enough; so they paint him with
+an aureole."
+
+Prudy said nothing; but as she looked at the picture, a happy feeling
+came over her. She remembered how Christ "called little children like
+lambs to his fold," and it seemed as if He was very near to-night, and
+the room was full of peace. Aunt Madge had done well to place such
+paintings before her young guests; good pictures bring good thoughts.
+
+"All, everywhere, it's so spl-endid!" said Fly; "what's that thing with
+a glass house over it!"
+
+"A clock."
+
+"What a funny clock! It looks like a little dog wagging its tail."
+
+"That's the _penderlum_," explained Dotty; "it beats the time. Every
+clock has a penderlum. Generally hangs down before though, and this
+hangs behind. I declare, Prudy, it does look like a dog wagging its
+tail."
+
+"Hark! it strikes eight," said Aunt Madge. "Time little girls were in
+bed, getting rested for a happy day to-morrow."
+
+"I don't spect that thing knows what time it is," said Fly, gazing at
+the clock doubtfully, "and my eyes are all opened out; but if you want
+me to, auntie, I will!"
+
+So Flyaway slipped off her clothes in a twinkling.
+
+"We're going to lie, all three, in this big bed, Fly, just for one
+night," said Dotty; "and after that we must take turns which shall sleep
+with you. There, child, you're all undressed, and I haven't got my boots
+off yet. You're quicker'n a chain o' lightning, and always was."
+
+"Why, how did that kitty get in here?" said auntie, as a loud mewing
+was heard. "I certainly shut her out before we came up stairs."
+
+Dotty ran round the room, with one boot on, and Prudy in her stockings,
+helping their aunt in the search. The kitten was not under the bed, or
+in either of the closets, or inside the curtains.
+
+"Look ahind the _pendlum_," said Fly, laughing and skipping about in
+high glee; "look ahind the pendlum; look atween the pillow-case."
+
+Still the mewing went on.
+
+"O, here is the kitty--I've found her," said auntie, suddenly seizing
+Fly by the shoulders, and stopping her mocking-bird mouth. "Poor pussy,
+she has turned white--white all over!"
+
+"You don't mean to say that was Fly Clifford?" cried Prudy.
+
+"Shut her up, auntie," said Dotty Dimple; "she's a kitty. I always knew
+her name was Kitty."
+
+Fly ran and courtesied before the mirror in her nightie.
+
+"O, Kitty Clifford, Kitty Clifford," she cried, "when'll you be a cat?"
+
+"Pretty soon, if you can catch mice as well as you can mew," laughed
+auntie; "but look you, my dear; are you going to bed to-night? or shall
+I shut you down cellar?"
+
+"Don't shut me down _cellow_, auntie," cried the mocking-bird, crowing
+like a chicken; "shut me in the barn with the banties."
+
+Next moment it occurred to the child that this style of behavior was not
+very "speckerful;" so she hastily dropped on her knees before her
+auntie, and began to say her prayers. The change was so sudden, from
+the shrill crow of a chicken to the gentle voice of a little girl
+praying, that no one could keep a sober face. Prudy ran into the closet,
+and Dotty laughed into her handkerchief.
+
+"There, now, that's done," said Flyaway, jumping up as suddenly as she
+had knelt down. "Now I must pray Flipperty."
+
+And before any one could think what the child meant to do, she had
+dragged out her dolly, and knelt it on the rug, face downward, over her
+own lap.
+
+"O, the wicked creature!" whispered Dotty. But Aunt Madge said nothing.
+
+"Pray," said the little one, in a tone of command. Then, in a fine,
+squeaking voice, Fly repeated a prayer. It was intended to be
+Flipperty's voice, and Flipperty was too young to talk plain.
+
+"There, that will do," said Aunt Madge, her large gray eyes trying not
+to twinkle; "did she ever say her prayers before?"
+
+"Yes, um; she's a goody girl--when I 'member to pray her!"
+
+"Well, dear, I wouldn't 'pray her' any more. It makes us laugh to see
+such a droll sight, and nobody wishes to laugh when you are talking to
+your Father in heaven."
+
+"No'm," replied Flyaway, winking her eyes solemnly.
+
+But when the "three abed" had been tucked in and kissed, Fly called her
+auntie back to ask, "How can Flipperty grow up a goody girl _athout_ she
+says her prayers?"
+
+There was such a mixture of play and earnestness in the child's eyes,
+that auntie had to turn away her face before she could answer seriously.
+
+"Why, little girls can think and feel you know; but with dollies it is
+different. Now, good night, pet; you won't have beautiful dreams, if you
+talk any more."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+"TAKING OUR AIRS."
+
+
+Flyaway awoke singing, and sprang up in bed, saying,--
+
+"Why, I thought I's a car, and that's why I whissiled."
+
+"But you are not a car," yawned Prudy; "please don't sing again, or
+dance, either."
+
+"It's the _happerness_ in me, Prudy; and that's what dances; it's the
+happerness."
+
+"That's the worst part of Fly Clifford," groaned Dotty; "she won't keep
+still in the morning. Might have known there wouldn't be any peace after
+she got here."
+
+Dotty always came out of sleep by slow stages, and her affections were
+the last part of her to wake up. Just now she did not love Katie
+Clifford one bit, nor her own mother either.
+
+"Won't you light the lamp?" piped Flyaway.
+
+"Please don't, Fly," said Prudy; "don't talk!"
+
+"Won't you light the la-amp?"
+
+"No, we will not," said Dotty, firmly.
+
+"Won't you light the la-amp?"
+
+"Is this what we came to New York for?" moaned Dotty; "to be waked up in
+the middle of the night by folks singing?"
+
+"Won't you light the la-amp?"
+
+"I'll pack my dresses, and go right home! I'll--I'll have Fly Clifford
+sleep out o' this room. Why, I--I--"
+
+"Won't you light the la-amp?"
+
+Prudy sprang out of bed, convulsed with laughter, and lighted the gas;
+whereupon Fly began to dance "Little Zephyrs," on the pillow, and Dotty
+to declare her eyes were put out.
+
+"Little try-patiences, both of them," thought Prudy; "but then they've
+always had their own way, and what can you expect? I'm so glad I wasn't
+born the youngest of the family; it does make children _so_
+disagreeable!"
+
+As soon as Dotty was fairly awake, her love for her friends came back
+again, and her good humor with it. She made Fly bleat like a lamb and
+spin like a top, and applauded her loudly.
+
+"It's gl-orious to have you here, Fly Clifford. I wouldn't let you go in
+any other room to sleep for anything."
+
+Which shows that the same thing looked very different to Dotty after she
+got her eyes open.
+
+When the children went down to breakfast, they found bouquets of
+flowers by their plates.
+
+"I am delighted to see such happy faces." said Aunt Madge. "How would
+you all like to go out by and by, and take the air?"
+
+"We'd like it, auntie; and I'll tell you what would be prime," remarked
+Horace, from his uncle's place at the head of the table; "and that is,
+to take Fly to Stewart's, and have her go up in an elevator."
+
+"Why couldn't I go up, too?" asked Dotty, with the slightest possible
+shade of discontent in her voice. She did not mean to be jealous, but
+she had noticed that Flyaway always came first with Horace, and if there
+was anything hard for Dotty's patience, it was playing the part of
+Number Two.
+
+"We'll all go up," said Aunt Madge. "I've an idea of taking you over
+to Brooklyn; and in that case we shan't come home before night."
+
+"Carry our dinner in a basket?" suggested Dotty.
+
+"O, no; we'll go into a restaurant, somewhere, and order whatever you
+like."
+
+"Will you, auntie? Well, there, I never went to such a place in my life,
+only once; and then Percy Eastman, he just cried 'Fire!' and I broke the
+saucer all to pieces."
+
+"I've been to it a great many times," said Fly, catching part of Dotty's
+meaning; "my mamma bakes 'em in a freezer."
+
+At nine o'clock the party of five started out to see New York. Aunt
+Madge and Horace walked first, with Flyaway between them. "We are going
+out to take our _airs_," said the little one.
+
+"I don't think you need any more," said Horace, looking fondly at his
+pretty sister. "You're so airy now, it's as much as we can do to keep
+your feet on the ground."
+
+Flyaway wore a blue silk bonnet, with white lace around the face, a blue
+dress and cloak, and pretty furs with a squirrel's head on the muff. She
+had never been dressed so well before, and she knew it. She remembered
+hearing "Phibby" say to "Tinka," "Don't that child look like an angel?"
+Fly was sure she did, for big folks like Tinka must know. But here her
+thoughts grew misty. All the angels she had ever heard of were brother
+Harry and "the Charlie boy." How could she look like them?
+
+"Does God dress 'em in a cloak and bonnet, you s'pose?" asked she of her
+own thoughts.
+
+Prudy and Dotty Dimple wore frocks of black and red plaid, white
+cloaks, and black hats with scarlet feathers. Horace was satisfied that
+a finer group of children could not be found in the city.
+
+"Aunt Madge and I have no reason to be ashamed of them, I am sure,"
+thought he, taking out his new watch every few minutes, not because he
+wished to show it, but for fear it was losing time.
+
+"How I wish we had Grace and Susey here! and then I should have all my
+nieces," said Aunt Madge. "Is it possible these are the same children I
+used to see at Willowbrook? Here is my only nephew, that drowned Prudy
+on a log, grown tall enough to offer me his arm. (Why, Horace, your head
+is higher than mine!) Here is Prudy, who tried yesterday--didn't
+she?--to go up to heaven on a ladder, almost a young lady. Why, how old
+it makes me feel!"
+
+"But you don't look old," said Dotty, consolingly; "you don't look
+married any more than Aunt Louise?"
+
+Here they took an omnibus, and the children interested themselves in
+watching the different people who sat near them.
+
+"Aren't you glad to come?" said Dotty. "See that man getting out. What
+is that little thing he's switching himself with?"
+
+"That's a cane," replied Horace.
+
+"A cane? Why, if Flyaway should lean on it, she'd break it in
+two.--Prudy, look at that man in the corner; _his_ cane is funnier than
+the other one."
+
+Horace laughed.
+
+"That is a pipe, Dotty--a meerschaum."
+
+"Well, I don't see much difference," said Miss Dimple; "New York is the
+queerest place. Such long pipes, and such short canes!"
+
+Fly was too happy to talk, and sat looking out of the window until an
+elegantly-dressed lady entered the stage, who attracted everybody's
+attention; and then Flyaway started up, and stood on her tiptoes. The
+lady's face was painted so brightly that even a child could not help
+noticing it. It was haggard and wrinkled, all but the cheeks, and those
+bloomed out like a red, red rose. Flyaway had never seen such a sight
+before, and thought if the lady only knew how she looked, she would go
+right home and wash her face.
+
+"What a chee-arming little girl!" said the painted woman, crowding in
+between Aunt Madge and Flyaway, and patting the child's shoulder with
+her ungloved hand, which was fairly ablaze with jewels; "bee-youtiful!"
+
+Flyaway turned quickly around to Aunt Madge, and said, in one of her
+very loud whispers, "What's the matter with her? She's got sumpin on her
+face."
+
+"Hush," whispered Aunt Madge, pinching the child's hand.
+
+"But there is," spoke up Flyaway, very loud in her earnestness; "O,
+there is sumpin on her face--sumpin red."
+
+There was "sumpin" now on all the other faces in the omnibus, and it was
+a smile. The lady must have blushed away down under the paint. She
+looked at her jewelled fingers, tossed her head proudly, and very soon
+left the stage.
+
+"Topknot, how could you be so rude?" said Horace, severely; "little
+girls should be seen, and not heard."
+
+"But she speaked to me first," said Flyaway. "I wasn't goin' to say
+nuffin, and then she speaked."
+
+A young gentleman and lady opposite seemed very much amused.
+
+"I'm afraid of your bright eyes, little dear. I'll give you some candy
+if you won't tell me how I look," said the young lady, showering
+sweetmeats into Flyaway's lap.
+
+"Why, I wasn't goin' to tell her how she looked," whispered Fly, very
+much surprised, and trying to nestle out of sight behind Horace's
+shoulder.
+
+When they left the omnibus, the children had a discussion about the
+painted lady, and could not decide whether they were glad or sorry that
+Fly had spoken out so plainly.
+
+"Good enough for her," said Dotty.
+
+"But it was such a pity to hurt her feelings!" said Prudy.
+
+"Who hurted 'em?" asked Fly, looking rather sheepish.
+
+"Poh! her feelings can't be worth much," remarked Horace; "a woman
+that'll go and rig herself up in that style."
+
+"She must be near-sighted," said Aunt Madge. "She certainly can't have
+the faintest idea how thick that paint is. She ought to let somebody
+else put it on."
+
+"But, auntie, isn't it wicked to wear paint on your cheeks?"
+
+"No, Dotty, only foolish. That woman was handsome once, but her beauty
+is gone. She thinks she can make herself young again, and then people
+will admire her."
+
+"O, but they won't; they'll only laugh."
+
+"Very true, Dotty; but I dare say she never thought of that till this
+little child told her."
+
+"Fly," said Horace, "You are doing a great deal of good going round
+hurting folks' feelings."
+
+"Poor woman!" said Aunt Madge, with a pitying smile; "she might comfort
+herself by trying to make her soul beautiful."
+
+"That would be altogether the best plan," said Horace, aside to Prudy;
+"she can't do much with her body, that's a fact; it's too dried up."
+
+All this while they were passing elegant shops, and Aunt Madge let the
+children pause as long as they liked before the windows, to admire the
+beautiful things.
+
+"Whose little grampa is that?" cried Fly, pointing to a Santa Claus
+standing on the pavement and holding out his hands with a very pleasant
+smile; "he's all covered with a snow-storm."
+
+"He isn't alive," said Dotty; "and the snow is only painted on his coat
+in little dots."
+
+"Well, I didn't spect he was alive, Dotty Dimple, only but he made
+believe he was. And O, see that hossy! he's dead, too, but he looks as
+if you could ride on him."
+
+"This other window is the handsomest, Fly; don't I wish I had some of
+those beautiful dripping, red ear-rings?"
+
+"Why, little sister," said Prudy, "I'd as soon think of wanting a gold
+nose as those cat-tail ear-rings. What would Grandma Read say?"
+
+"Why, she'd say 'thee' and 'thou,' I s'pose, and ask me if I called 'em
+the ornaments of meek and quiet spirits," said Dotty, with a slight curl
+of the lip. "Auntie, is it wicked to wear jewels, if your grandma's a
+Quaker?"
+
+"I think not; that is, if somebody should give you a pair; but I hope
+somebody never will. It is a mere matter of taste, however. O, children,
+now I think of it, I'll give you each a little pin-money to spend,
+to-day, just as you like. A dollar each to Prudy and Dotty; and, Horace,
+here is fifty cents for Flyaway."
+
+"O, you darling auntie!" cried the little Parlins, in a breath. Dotty
+shut this, the largest bill she had ever owned, into her red
+porte-monnaie, feeling sure she should never want for anything again
+that money can buy.
+
+"There, now, Hollis," said Fly, drawing her mouth down and her eyebrows
+up, "where's my skipt? _my_ skipt?"
+
+"What? A little snip like you mustn't have money," answered Horace,
+carelessly; "auntie gave it to me."
+
+The moment he had spoken the words, he was sorry, for the child was too
+young and sensitive to be trifled with. She never doubted that her great
+cruel brother had robbed her. It was too much. Her "dove's eyes" shot
+fire. Flyaway could be terribly angry, and her anger was "as quick as a
+chain o' lightning." Before any one had time to think twice, she had
+turned on her little heel, and was running away. With one impulse the
+whole party turned and followed.
+
+"Prudy and I haven't breath enough to run," said Aunt Madge. "Here we
+are at Stewart's. You'll find us in the rotunda, Horace. Come back here
+with Fly, as soon as you have caught her."
+
+As soon as he had caught her!
+
+They were on Broadway, which was lined with people, moving to and fro.
+Horace and Dotty had to push their way through the crowd, while little
+Fly seemed to float like a creature of air.
+
+"Stop, Fly! Stop, Fly!" cried Horace; but that only added speed to her
+wings.
+
+"She's like a piece of thistle-down," laughed Horace; "when you get near
+her you blow her away."
+
+"Stop, O, stop," cried Dotty; "Horace was only in fun. Don't run away
+from us, Fly."
+
+But by this time the child was so far off that the words were lost in
+the din.
+
+"Why, where is she? I don't see her," exclaimed Horace, as the little
+blue figure suddenly vanished, like a puff of smoke. "Did she cross the
+street?"
+
+"I don't know, Horace. O, dear, I don't know."
+
+It was the first time a fear had entered either of their minds. Knowing
+very little of the danger of large cities, they had not dreamed that the
+foolish little Fly might get caught in some dreadful spider's web.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+DOTTY HAVING HER OWN WAY.
+
+
+Yes, Fly was out of sight; that was certain. Whether she had turned to
+the right, or to the left, or had merely gone straight on, fallen down,
+and been trampled on, that was the question. How was one to find out?
+People enough to inquire of, but nobody to answer.
+
+Horace had as many thoughts as a drowning man. How had he ever dared
+bring such a will-o'-the-wisp away from home? How had his mother
+consented to let him? His father had charged him, over and over, not to
+let go Fly's hand in the street. That did very well to talk about; but
+what could you do with a child that wasn't made of flesh and blood, but
+the very lightest kind of gas?
+
+"Dotty, turn down this street, and I'll keep on up Broadway. No--no;
+you'd get lost. What shall we do? Go just where I do, as hard as you can
+run, and don't lose sight of me."
+
+Dotty began to pant. She could not keep on at this rate of speed, and
+Horace saw it.
+
+"You'll have to go back to Stewart's."
+
+"Where's Stewart's?" gasped Dotty, still running.
+
+"Why, that stone building on Tenth Street, with blue curtains, where we
+left auntie."
+
+"I don't know anything about Tenth Street or blue curtains."
+
+"But you'll know it when you get there. Just cross over--"
+
+"O, Horace Clifford, I can't cross over! There's horses and carriages
+every minute; and my mother made me almost promise I wouldn't ever cross
+over."
+
+"There are plenty of policemen, Dotty; they'll take you by the
+shoulder--"
+
+"O, Horace Clifford, they shan't take me by the shoulder! S'pose I want
+'em marching me off to the lockup?" screamed Dotty, who believed the
+lockup was the chief end and aim of policemen.
+
+"Well, then, I don't know anything what to do with you," said Horace, in
+despair.
+
+It seemed very hard that he should have the care of this willful little
+cousin, just when he wanted so much to be free to pursue Flyaway.
+
+"If you won't go back to Stewart's, you won't. Will you go into this
+shop, then, and wait till I call for you?"
+
+"You'll forget to call."
+
+"I certainly won't forget."
+
+"Well, then, I'll go in; but I won't promise to stay. I want to help
+hunt for Fly just as much as you do."
+
+"Dotty Dimple, look me right in the eye. I can't stop to coax you. I'm
+frightened to death about Fly. Do you go into this store, and stay in it
+till I call for you, if it's six hours. If you stir, you're lost.
+Do--you--_hear_?"
+
+"Yes, I _hear_.--H'm, he thinks my ears are thick as ears o' corn? No
+holes in 'em to hear with, I s'pose! Horace Clifford hasn't got the
+_say_ o' me, though. I can go all over town for all o' him!"
+
+"What will you have, my little lady?" said a clerk, bowing to Dotty.
+
+"I don't want anything, if you please, sir. There was a boy, and he
+asked me to stay here while he went to find something."
+
+"Very well; sit as long as you please."
+
+"Screwed right down into the floor, this piano stool is," thought Dotty;
+"makes it real hard to sit on, because you can't whirl it. Guess I'll
+walk 'round a while. Why, if here isn't a window right in the floor!
+Strong enough to walk on. There's a man going over it with big boots and
+a cane. I can look right down into the cellar. Only just I can't see any
+thing, though, the glass is so thick."
+
+Dotty watched the clerks measuring off yards of cloth, tapping on the
+counter, and calling out, "Cash." It was rather funny, at first, to see
+the little boys run; but Dotty soon tired of it.
+
+"Horace is gone a long while," thought she, going to the door and
+looking out.
+
+"He has forgotten to call, or he's forgotten where he left me, or else
+he hasn't found Fly. Dear, dear! I can't wait. I'll just go out a few
+steps, and p'rhaps I'll meet 'em."
+
+She walked out a little way, seeing nothing but a multitude of strange
+faces.
+
+"Well, I should think this was queer! I'll go right back to that store,
+and sit down on the piano stool. If Horace Clifford can't be more
+polite! Well, I should think!"
+
+Dotty went back, and entered, as she supposed, the store she had left;
+but a great change had come over it. It had the same counters, and
+stools, and goods on lines, marked "Selling off below cost;" but the men
+looked very different. "I don't see how they could change round so
+quick," thought Dotty; "I haven't been gone _more'n_ a minute."
+
+"What shall I serve you to, mees," said one of them, with a smile that
+was all black eyes and white teeth. Dotty thought he looked very much
+like Lina _Rosenbug's_ brother; and his hair was so shiny and sticky, it
+must have been dipped in molasses.
+
+She answered him with some confusion. "I don't want anything. I was the
+girl, you know, that the boy was going somewhere to find something."
+
+The man smiled wickedly, and said, "Yees, mees." In an instant it
+flashed across Dotty that she had got into the wrong store. Where was
+the glass window she had walked on? They couldn't have taken that out
+while she was gone. The floor was whole, and made of nothing but boards.
+
+"Well, it's very queer stores should be _twins_," thought Dotty.
+
+She entered the next one. It was not a "twin;" it was full of books and
+pictures.
+
+"Why didn't Horace leave me here, in the first place, it was so much
+nicer. And they let people read and handle the pictures. O, they have
+the _goldest_-looking things!"
+
+How shocked Prudy would have been, if she had seen her little sister
+reaching up to the counter, and turning over the leaves of books, side
+by side with grown people! Miss Dimple was never very bashful; and what
+did she care for the people in New York, who never saw her before? She
+soon became absorbed in a fairy story. Seconds, minutes, quarters; it
+was a whole hour before she came to herself enough to remember that
+Horace was to call for her, and she was not where he had left her.
+
+"But he can't scold; for didn't he keep me waiting, too? Now I'll go
+back."
+
+The next place she entered was a cigar store.
+
+"I might have known better than to go in; for there's that wooden Indian
+standing there, a-purpose to keep ladies out!"
+
+"O, here's a 'Sample Room.' Now this _must_ be the place, for it says
+'Push,' on the green door, just as the other one did."
+
+What was Dotty's astonishment, when she found she had rushed into a room
+which held only tables, bottles, and glasses, and men drinking something
+that smelt like hot brandy!
+
+"I shan't go into any more 'Sample Rooms.' I didn't know a 'Sample'
+meant whiskey! But, I do declare, it's funny where _my_ store is gone
+to."
+
+The child was going farther and farther away from it.
+
+"Here is one that looks a little like it Any way, I can see a glass
+window in there, on the floor."
+
+A lady stood at a counter, folding a piece of green velvet ribbon. Dotty
+determined to make friends with her; so she went up to her, and said, in
+a low voice, "Will you please tell me, ma'am, if I'm the same little
+girl that was in here before? No, I don't mean so. I mean, did I go into
+the same store, or is this a different one? Because there's a boy going
+to call for me, and I thought I'd better know."
+
+Of course the lady smiled, and said it might, or might not be the same
+place; but she did not remember to have seen Dotty before.
+
+"What was the number of the store? The boy ought to have known."
+
+"But I don't believe he did," replied Dotty, indignantly; "he never said
+a word to me about numbers. I'm almost afraid I'll get lost!"
+
+"I should be quite afraid of it, child. Where do you live?"
+
+"In Portland, in the State of Maine. Prudy and I came to New York: our
+auntie sent for us--I know the place when I see it; side of a church
+with ivy; but O, dear! I'm afraid the stage don't stop there. She's at
+Mr. Stewart's--she and Prudy."
+
+"Do you mean Stewart's store?"
+
+"O, no'm; it's a man she knows," replied Dotty, confidently; "he lives
+in a blue house."
+
+The lady asked no more questions. If Dotty had said "Stewart's store,"
+and had remembered that the curtains were blue, and not the building,
+Miss Kopper would have thought she knew what to do; she would have sent
+the child straight to Stewart's.
+
+"Poor little thing!" said she, twisting the long curl, which hung down
+the back of her neck like a bell-rope, and looking as if she cared more
+about her hair than she cared for all the children in Portland. "The
+best thing you can do is to go right into the druggist's, next door but
+one, and look in the City Directory. Do you know your aunt's husband's
+name?"
+
+"O, yes'm. Colonel Augustus Allen, _Fiftieth_ Avenue."
+
+"Well, then, there'll be no difficulty. Just go in and ask to look in
+the Directory; they'll tell you what stage to take. Now I must attend to
+these ladies. Hope you'll get home safe."
+
+"A handsome child," said one of the ladies. "Yes, from the country,"
+replied Miss Kopper with a sweet smile; "I have just been showing her
+the way home."
+
+Ah, Miss Kopper, perhaps you thought you were telling the truth; but
+instead of relieving the country child's perplexity, you had confused
+her more than ever. What should Dotty Dimple know about a City
+Directory? She forgot the name of it before she got to the druggist's.
+
+"Please, sir, there's something in here,--may I see it?--that shows
+folks where they live."
+
+"A policeman?"
+
+"No; O, no, sir."
+
+After some time, the gentleman, being rather shrewd, surmised what she
+wanted, and gave her the book.
+
+"Not that, sir," said Dotty, ready to cry.
+
+Perhaps you will be as ready to laugh, when you hear that the child
+really supposed a City Directory was an instrument that drew out and
+shut up like a telescope, and, by peeping through it, she could see the
+distant home of Colonel Allen, on "Fiftieth Avenue."
+
+The apothecary did not laugh at her; but, being a kind man, and,
+moreover, not having curls hanging down his neck which needed attention,
+he gave his whole care to Dotty, found an omnibus for her, told the
+driver just where to let her out, and made her repeat her uncle's street
+and number till he thought there was no danger of a mistake.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+DOTTY REBUKED.
+
+
+One would have thought that now all Dotty's troubles were over; and so
+they would have been, if she had not tried so hard to remember the
+number. She said it over and over so many times, that all of a sudden it
+went out of her mind. It was like rolling a ball on the ground, backward
+and forward, till most unexpectedly it pops into a hole. Very much
+frightened, Dotty bit her lip, twirled her front hair, and pinched her
+left cheek--all in vain; the number wouldn't come.
+
+"O, dear, what'll I do? I'd open that cellar door, where the driver is;
+but he's all done up in a blue cape, and don't know anything only how
+to whip his horses. And there don't anybody know where anybody lives in
+this city; so it's no use to ask. For what do they care? They'd tell you
+to look in the Dictionary. There's nobody in Portland ever told me to
+look in a Dictionary. Here they are, sitting round here, just as happy,
+all but me. They all live in a number, and they know what it is; but
+they keep it to themselves,--they don't tell. It always makes people
+feel better to know where they're going to. When I'm in Portland I know
+how to get to Park Street, and how to get to Munjoy, and how to get to
+Back Cove, with my eyes shut. But they don't make things as they ought
+to in New York. You can't find out what to do."
+
+So the stage rumbled, and Dotty grumbled. Presently a lady in an ermine
+cloak got out, and Dotty did not know of anything better to do than to
+follow. She certainly was on Fifth Avenue, and perhaps, if she walked
+on, she should come to the number.
+
+"There isn't any house along here that looks like auntie's," said she,
+anxiously; "only they all look like it some. I never saw such a place as
+this city, So many same things right over, and over; and then, when you
+go into 'em, its just as different, and not the place you s'posed it
+was."
+
+Here Dotty ran up some steps, and rang a bell. She thought the damask
+curtains looked familiar.
+
+"No, no," cried she, running down again, as fast as the mouse ran down
+the clock; "my auntie don't keep onions in her bay window, I hope!"
+
+It was hyacinth bulbs, in glass vases, which had excited Dotty's
+disgust.
+
+"O, I guess I'm on the wrong side of the street; no wonder I can't find
+the house. There, I see a chamber window open; _our_ chamber window was
+open. I'm going to cross over and get near enough to see if there's a
+little clock on the shelf that ticks like a dog wagging his tail."
+
+No, there was no clock of any sort, and where the shelf ought to be was
+a baby's crib.
+
+"Well, any way, here's that beautiful church, with ivy round it; it's
+ever so near auntie's; so I'll keep walking."
+
+Dotty was right when she said the church was near auntie's--it was
+within three doors; but she was wrong when she kept walking precisely
+the wrong way. She crossed over to Sixth Avenue. Now, where were the
+brown houses? She saw the horse-cars plodding along, and tried to read
+the words on them.
+
+"'Sixth Ave. and Fifty-Ninth Street.' Why, what's an _ave_? I never heard
+of such a thing before; we don't have 'aves' in Portland. There are ever
+so many people getting out of that car. While it stops, I'll peep in,
+and see where it's going to. Perhaps there's a name inside that tells."
+
+And, with her usual rashness, Dotty stepped upon the platform of the
+car, and looked in. What she expected to see she hardly knew,--perhaps
+"Aunt Madge's House," in gold letters; but what she really saw was, "No
+Smoking;" those two words, and nothing more.
+
+"Well, who wants to smoke? I'm sure _I_ don't," thought Dotty,
+disdainfully, and was turning to step off the platform, when Horace
+Clifford seized her by the shoulder.
+
+"Where did you come from, you runaway?" said he, gruffly.
+
+Close beside him were Aunt Madge and Prudy; all three were getting out
+of the car.
+
+"Thank Heaven, one of them is found," cried Aunt Madge, her face very
+pale, her large eyes full of trouble.
+
+Prudy kissed and scolded in the same breath. "O, Dotty Dimple, you'd
+better believe we're glad to see you?--but what a naughty girl! A pretty
+race you've led Horace, and he just wild about Fly!"
+
+"H'm! what'd he go off for, then, and leave me there, sitting on a piano
+stool? S'pose I's going to sit there all day? Didn't I want to go home
+as much as the rest of you."
+
+"And how did you get home? I'd like to know that," said Horace, walking
+on with great strides, and then coming back again to the "ladies;" for
+his anxiety about his little sister would not allow him to behave
+calmly.
+
+"I rode."
+
+"You weren't in the car _we_ came in."
+
+"N-o; I just happened to be peeking in there you know. But I came in an
+_omnibius_."
+
+"It is wonderful," said Aunt Madge, looking puzzled, "that you ever knew
+what omnibus to take."
+
+Dotty looked down to see if her boot was buttoned, and forgot to look up
+again. "Well, _I_ shouldn't have known one _omnibius_, as you call it,
+from another," said Prudy, lost in admiration. "Why, Dotty, how bright
+you are! And there we were, so afraid about you, and spoke to a
+policeman to look you up."
+
+"I wouldn't let a p'liceman catch _me_," said Dotty, tossing her head.
+"But haven't you found Fly yet?"
+
+They were at home by this time, and Horace was ringing the bell.
+
+"No, the dear child is still missing; but the police are on her track,"
+said Aunt Madge, looking at her watch. "It is now one o'clock. Keep a
+good heart, Horace, my boy. John shall go straight to the telegraph
+office, and wait there for a despatch. Don't you leave us, dear; we
+can't spare you, and you can do no good."
+
+Horace made no reply, except to tap the heels of his boots together. He
+looked utterly crushed. A large city was just as strange to him as it
+was to Dotty, and he could only obey his aunt's orders, and try to hope
+for the best. Dotty seemed to be the only one who felt like saying a
+word, and she talked incessantly.
+
+"O, what'd you send the p'lice after her for? To put her in the lockup,
+and make her cry and think she's been naughty? It's the awfulest city
+that ever I saw. Folks might send her home, if they were a mind to, but
+they won't. They don't care what 'comes of you. There's cars and stages
+going to which ways, and nothing but 'No Smoking,' inside. And I went
+and peeped in at a window, and there was _onions_! And how'd I know
+where to go to? There was a girl with a long curl, and she said, 'Go to
+the 'pothecary's;' and what would Fly have known where she meant? And he
+looked in a Dictionary, and put me in a stage,--I was going to tell you
+about that when I got ready,--and asked me if I had ten cents, and I
+had; and then I forgot what the number was, and that was the time I saw
+the onions, or I should have gone right into somebody's else's house.
+And I knew there was a church with ivy round, but Fly don't know; she's
+nothing but a baby. And I should have thought, Horace Clifford, you
+might have given her that money! That was what made her run off; you was
+real cruel, and that's why I wouldn't mind what you said. And--and--"
+
+"Hush," said Aunt Madge, brushing back a spray of fair curls, which the
+wind had tossed over her forehead. "I don't allow a word of scolding in
+my house. If you don't feel pleasant, Dotty, you may go into the back
+yard and scold into a hole."
+
+Dotty stopped suddenly. She knew her aunt was displeased; she felt it in
+the tones of her voice.
+
+"Dotty, the wind has been at play with your hair as well as mine.
+Suppose we both go up stairs a few minutes?"
+
+"There, auntie's going to reason with me," thought Dotty, winding slowly
+up the staircase; "I didn't suppose she was one of that kind."
+
+"No dear, I'm _not_ one of that kind," said Mrs. Allen, roguishly; for
+she saw just what the child was thinking. "'I come not here to talk.'
+All I have to say is this: Disobey again, and I send you home
+immediately."
+
+"Yes'm," said the little culprit, blushing crimson. "Now, brush your
+hair, and let us go down." This was the only allusion Mrs. Allen ever
+made to the subject; but after this, she and Dotty understood each other
+perfectly. Dotty had learned, once for all, that her aunt was not to be
+trifled with.
+
+The child really was ashamed--thoroughly ashamed; but do you suppose
+she admitted it to Horace? Not she. And he, so full of anguish
+concerning the lost Fly, found not a word of fault; scarcely even
+thought of his naughty cousin at all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE LOST FLY.
+
+
+Now we must go back and see what has become of the little one.
+
+At first her heart had swollen with rage. Anger had set her going, just
+as a blow from a battledoor sends off a shuttlecock. And, once being
+started, the poor little shuttlecock couldn't stop.
+
+"Auntie gave me that skipt. Hollis is a very wicked boy; steals skipt
+from little gee-urls. I don't ever want to see Hollis no more."
+
+What she meant to do, or where to go, she had no more idea than the blue
+clouds overhead. She had no doubt her brother was close behind, trying
+to overtake her. Her sole thought was, that she "wouldn't ever see
+Hollis no more." She knew nothing could make him so unhappy as that.
+"I'll lose me, and then how'll he feel?"
+
+"Lose me!" A wild thought, gone in a moment; but meanwhile she was
+already lost.
+
+"I hope auntie won't give Hollis nuffin to eat, 'cause he's took away my
+skipt; nuffin to eat but meat and vertato, athout any pie."
+
+Flyaway shook her head so hard, that the "war-plume" under her bonnet
+would have nodded, if the air could have got at it. "Why, where's
+Hollis?" said she, looking back, and finding, to her surprise, he was
+not to be seen. "I spected he'd come. I thought I heard him walking
+ahind me."
+
+Flyaway's anger had died out by this time. It never lasted longer than
+a Fourth of July torpedo.
+
+"He didn't know I runned off. Guess I'll go back, and he'll give me the
+skipt; and then I'll forgive him all goody."
+
+A very nice plan; only, instead of going back, she turned a corner, and
+tripped along towards University Place. She had twisted her head so much
+in looking for Horace, that it was completely turned round. And,
+besides, a little farther on was a man playing a harp, and a small boy a
+violin. Fly paused and listened, till she no longer remembered Horace or
+the "skipt." She forgot this was New York, and dreamed she had come to
+fairy-land. Her soul was full of music. Happy thoughts about nothing in
+particular made her smile and clap her hands. Birds, flowers, Santa
+Clauses, Flipperties, and "pepnits" seemed to hover near. Something
+beautiful was just going to happen, she didn't know what.
+
+After the man had played for some time without attracting attention from
+any body but Flyaway and a poor old beggar woman, he put his harp in a
+green bag, slung it over his shoulder, and walked off. Flyaway followed
+without knowing it. Down Sixth Avenue went the music-man, and close at
+his heels went she. By and by she saw a little girl, no larger than
+herself, with a great bundle on her shoulders.
+
+"You don't s'pose she's got a music on _her_ back?--No, not a music;
+it's too soft all swelled out in a bunch."
+
+Fly went nearer the little girl, to see what she was carrying; and as
+she did so, some gray coals, mixed with ashes, fell out of the bundle
+upon her nice cloak.
+
+"Why, she's been and carried off her mother's fireplace," thought Fly,
+shaking her cloak in disgust; "what you s'pose she wanted to do that
+for?"
+
+But far from carrying off her mother's fireplace, the ragged little girl
+had only been picking up old coal out of barrels, and was taking it home
+to burn. It had already been burned once, and picked over and burned
+again, and thrown away; but perhaps this poor child's mother could coax
+it into a faint glow, warm enough to fry a few potatoes.
+
+While Flyaway was shaking her cloak, and staring at some old silk
+dresses and bed-quilts, which were hung before a shop-door, the man with
+the harp on his back, and the boy with a violin under his arm, had
+turned a corner, and passed out of sight. Flyaway rubbed her eyes, and
+looked again. They must have gone down through the brick pavement, but
+she couldn't see any hole. Far away in the distance she heard their
+music again, and it did not come from under ground. She ran to overtake
+it, and turned into Bleecker Street. No music-man there, but a good
+supply of oranges and apples.
+
+"Needn't folks put their hands in, and take some out the barrels? Then
+why for did the folks put 'em on' doors?"
+
+While pondering this grave question, she was jostled by a man carrying a
+rocking-chair, and very nearly fell down stairs into an oyster-saloon. A
+minute more and she was back on Broadway, the very street, where Aunt
+Madge and Prudy were waiting for her, but so much lower down that she
+might as well have been in the State of Maine.
+
+"Now, I'll go find my Hollis," said she turning another corner, and
+running the wrong way with all her might. Past candy-stalls, past
+toy-shops, past orange-wagons. Hark, music again! Not the soft strains
+of a harp, but the stirring notes of bugle, fife, and drum. Fly kept
+time with her feet.
+
+"Here we go marchin' on," hummed she. But the crowd "marchin' on" with
+her was a strange one. Carts full of hammers, pincers, and all sorts of
+iron tools, and men in gray shirts, with black caps on their heads. Some
+of the men had banners, with great black words, such as "Equal Rights,"
+or something like them, in German; but of course Fly could not tell one
+letter from another. She only knew it was all very "homebly," in spite
+of the music. She began to think she had better get away as soon as she
+could; so she tried to cross the street, but some one held her back; it
+was a lady, carrying a small dog in her arms, like a baby.
+
+"Don't go there, child; that's a strike, you'll get killed."
+
+Fly knew but one meaning for the word _strike_; and, tearing herself
+from the lady, ran screaming down Broadway, with the thought that every
+man's hand was against her.
+
+On she went, and on went the strike, close behind her. A little while
+ago she had been following music, and now music was following her. But
+the fifes and drums were rather slow, and Flyaway's feet were very
+swift; so it was not long before the gray men, with their white banners
+and clattering carts, were far behind her. No danger now that any of the
+wicked creatures would strike her; so she slackened her pace.
+
+She did begin to wonder why she had not found Horace; still, she was not
+at all alarmed, and there was a dreadful din in the streets, which
+confused her thoughts. It seemed as if people were making it on purpose.
+Once, at Willowbrook, she had heard boys banging tin pans, grinding
+coffee mills, and pounding with mortars. She had liked that,--they
+called it the "Calathumpian Band,"--and she liked this too; it sounded
+about as uproarious.
+
+While she sauntered along, spying wonders, her eye was attracted by some
+balancing-toys, which a man was showing off at one of the corners. What
+a pleasant man he was, to set them spinning just to amuse little girls!
+Fly was delighted with one wee soldier, in a blue coat with brass
+buttons, who kept dancing and bowing with the greatest politeness.
+"Captain Jinks, of the horse-marines," said the toy-man, introducing
+him. "Buy him, miss; he'll make a nice little husband for you; only
+fifteen cents."
+
+Fly felt quite flattered. It was the first time in her life any one had
+ever asked her to buy anything, and she thought she must have grown tall
+since she came from Indiana. She put her fingers in her mouth, then took
+them out, and put them in her pocket.
+
+"Here's my porte-monnaie-ry," said she, dolefully; "but I haven't but
+two cents--no more. Hollis carried it off."
+
+"Well, well, run along, then. Don't you see you're right in the way?"
+
+Fly was surprised and grieved at the change in the man's tone: she had
+expected he would pity her for not having any money.
+
+"Come here, you little lump of love," called out a mellow voice; and
+there, close by, sat a wizened old woman, making flowers into nosegays.
+She had on a quilted hood as soft as her voice, but everything else
+about her was as hard as the door-stone she sat on.
+
+"See my beautiful flowers," said the old crone, pointing to the table
+before her; "who cares for them jumping things over yonder? I don't."
+
+The flowers were tied in bouquets--sweet violets, rosebuds, and
+heliotrope. Fly, whose head just reached the top of the table, smelt
+them, and forgot the "little husband, for fifteen cents."
+
+"He's a cross man, dearie," said the old woman, lowering her voice, "or
+he wouldn't have sent you off so quick, just because you hadn't any
+money. Now, I love little girls, and I'll warrant we can make some kind
+of a trade for one of my posies."
+
+Fly smiled, and quickly seized a bouquet with a clove pink in it.
+
+"Not so fast, child! What you got that you can give me for it? I don't
+mind the money. That old pocket-book will do, though 'tain't wuth much."
+
+It was very surprising to Fly to hear her port-monnaie called old; for
+it was bought last week, and was still as red as the cheeks of the
+painted lady.
+
+"I don't _dass_ to give folks my porte-monnaie-ry," said she, clutching
+it tighter, but holding the flowers to her nose all the while.
+
+"O, fudge! Well, what else you got in your pocket? A handkerchief?"
+
+"No, my hangerfiss is in my muff."
+
+"That? Why, there isn't a speck o' lace on it. Nice little ladies always
+has lace. Here's a letter in the corner; what is it?"
+
+"Hollis says it's K; stands for Flyaway."
+
+"Well, you're such a pretty little pink, I guess I'll take it; but
+'tain't wuth lookin' at," said the crafty old woman, who saw at a glance
+it was pure linen, and quite fine.
+
+"Now run along, baby; your mummer will be waitin' for you."
+
+Fly walked on slowly. Ought she to have parted with her very best
+hangerfiss!
+
+"Nice ole lady, loved little gee-urls; but what you s'pose folks was
+goin' to cry into now?"
+
+Tears started at the thought. One of them dropped into the eye of the
+squirrel, who sat on the muff, peeping up into her face.
+
+"Nice ole lady, I s'pose; but folks never wanted to buy my
+_hangerfisses_ byfore!" thought Fly, much puzzled by the state of
+society in New York. "And I've got some beau-fler flowers to my auntie's
+house. Wake up--wake up!" added she, blowing open a pink rose-bud;
+"you's too little for me."
+
+But the bud did not wish to wake up and be a rose; it curled itself
+together, and went to sleep again.
+
+"I don't see where Hollis stays to all the time," exclaimed the little
+one, beginning to have a faint curiosity about it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+"THE FRECKLED DOG."
+
+
+But just then a gentle-looking blind girl came along led by a dog. The
+sight was so strange that Flyaway stopped to admire; for whatever else
+she might be afraid of, she always loved and trusted a dog.
+
+"Doggie, doggie," cried she, patting the little animal's head.
+
+"O, _what_ a sweet voice," said the blind girl, putting out her hand and
+groping till she touched Fly's shoulder. "I never heard such a voice!"
+
+This was what strangers often said, and Flyaway never doubted the
+sweetness was caused by eating so much candy; but just now she had had
+none for two days.
+
+"What makes you shut your eyes up, right in the street, girl? Is the
+_seeingness_ all gone out of 'em?"
+
+"Yes, you darling. I haven't had any seeingness in my eyes for a year."
+
+"You didn't? Then you's _blind-eyed_," returned Flyaway, with perfect
+coolness.
+
+"And don't you feel sorry for me--not a bit?"
+
+"No, 'cause your dog is freckled so pretty."
+
+"But I can't see his freckles."
+
+"Well, he's got 'em. Little yellow ones, spattered out all over him."
+
+"But if I had eyes like you, I shouldn't need any dog. I could go about
+the streets alone."
+
+"Well, I don't like to go 'bout the streets alone; I want my own
+brother Hollis."
+
+"I hope you haven't got lost, little dear?"
+
+"No," laughed Fly, gayly; "I didn't get lost! But I don't know where
+nobody is! And there don't nobody know where _I_ am!"
+
+The blind girl took Fly's little hand tenderly in hers.
+
+"Come, turn down this street with me, and tell me all about it."
+
+Fly trudged along, prattling merrily, for about a minute: then she drew
+away. "'Tisn't a nice place; I don't want to go there."
+
+A look of pain crossed the blind girl's face.
+
+"No, I dare say you don't. It isn't much of a place for folks with silk
+bonnets on."
+
+"You can't see my bonnet; you can't see anything, you're blind-eyed;
+but," said Fly, glancing sharply around, "it isn't pretty here, at all;
+and there's a dead cat right in the street."
+
+"Yes, I think likely."
+
+"And there's a boy. I spect he frowed the cat out the window; he hasn't
+nuffin on but dirty cloe's."
+
+"Do you see some steps?" said the blind girl, putting her hand out
+cautiously. "Don't fall down."
+
+"I shan't fall down; I'm going home."
+
+"O, don't child; you must come with me. My mother will take care of
+you."
+
+"I don't want nobody's mother to take 'are o' me; I've got a mamma
+myself!"
+
+"How little you know!" said the blind girl, thinking aloud; "how lucky
+it is I found you! and O, dear, how I wish I could see! You'll slip
+away in spite of me."
+
+But Flyaway allowed herself to be drawn along, step by step, partly
+because she liked the "freckled dog," and partly because she had not
+ceased being amused by the droll sight of a person walking with closed
+eyes.
+
+"What's the name of you, girl?"
+
+"Maria."
+
+"Maria? So was my mamma; her name was Maria, when she was a little girl.
+O, look, there's another boy; don't you see him? Up high, in that house.
+Got a big box with a string to it."
+
+A very rough-looking boy was standing at a third-story window, lowering
+a bandbox by a clothes-line. As Fly watched the box slowly coming down,
+the boy called out,--
+
+"Get in, little un, and I'll give you a free ride."
+
+"O, no--O, no; I don't _dass_ to."
+
+"Yes, yes; go in, lemons," said the boy, choking with laughter, as he
+saw the child's horror. "If you don't do it, by cracky, I'll come down
+and fetch you."
+
+At this, Fly was frightened nearly out of her senses, and ran so fast
+that the dog could scarcely have kept up with her, even if he had not
+had a blind mistress pulling him back.
+
+"O, where are you?" exclaimed Maria. "Don't run away from me,--don't!"
+
+"He's a-gon to kill me in two," cried Flyaway, stopping for breath.'
+"he's a-gon to kill me in two-oo!"
+
+"No, he isn't, dear! It's only Izzy Paul He couldn't catch you, if he
+tried. He's lame, and goes on crutches."
+
+"But he said a swear word,--yes he, did," sobbed the child, never
+doubting that a boy who could swear was capable of murder, though he had
+neither hands nor feet.
+
+"Stop, now," said Maria, clutching Fly as if she had been a spinning
+top. "This is my house. Mother, mother, here's a little girl; catch
+her--hold her--keep her!"
+
+"Me? What should I catch a little girl for?" said Mrs. Brooks, a faded
+woman with a tired face, and a nose that moved up and down when she
+talked. She had been standing at the door of their tumbledown tenement,
+looking for her daughter, and was surprised to see her bringing a
+strange child with her. It was not often that well-dressed people
+wandered into that dirty alley.
+
+"The poor little thing has got lost, mother. Perhaps _you_ can find out
+where she came from. I didn't ask her any questions; it was as much as I
+could do to keep up with her."
+
+Maria put her hand on her side. Fast walking always tired her, for she
+was afraid every moment of falling.
+
+They had to go down a flight of stairs to get into the house; and after
+they got there Fly looked around in dismay.
+
+"I don't want to stay in the stable," she murmured. Indeed it was not
+half as nice as the place where her father kept his horse.
+
+"But this is where we have to live," sighed Maria.
+
+"Have things to eat?" asked the little stranger, in a solemn whisper.
+
+There were a few chairs with broken backs, a few shelves with clean
+dishes, a few children with hungry faces. In one corner was a clumsy
+bedstead, and in a tidy bed lay a pale man.
+
+"Who've you got there, Maria?" said he. "Bring her along, and stick her
+up on the bed."
+
+"Don't be afraid," said Mrs. Brooks; "it's only pa; wouldn't the little
+girl like to talk to him? He's sick."
+
+Flyaway was not at all afraid, for the man smiled pleasantly, and did
+not look as if he would hurt anybody. Mrs. Brooks set her on the bed,
+and Maria, afraid of losing her, held her by one foot. The children all
+crowded around to see the little lady in a silk bonnet holding a
+button-hole bouquet to her bosom.
+
+"Ain't she a ducky dilver!" said the oldest boy. "Pa'll be pleased, for
+he don't see things much. Has to keep abed all the time."
+
+Mr. Brooks tried to smile, and Flyaway whispered to Maria, with sudden
+pity,--
+
+"Sorry he's sick. Has he got to stay sick? Can't you find the camphor
+bottle?"
+
+"O, father, she thinks if ycu had some camphor to smell of, 'twould cure
+you."
+
+Then they all laughed, and Fly timidly offered the sick man her flowers.
+
+"What, that pretty posy for me? Bless you, baby, they'll do me a sight
+more good than camfire!"
+
+"There," said Maria, joyfully, "now pa is pleased; I know by the sound
+of his voice. Poor pa! only think, little girl, a stick of timber fell
+on him, and lamed him for life!"
+
+"Yes," said Bennie, "the lower part of him is as limber as a rag."
+
+"She don't sense a word you say," remarked Mrs. Brooks, shaking up a
+pillow, "See what we can get out of her. What's your name, dear?"
+
+"Katie Clifford."
+
+"Where do you live?"
+
+"I _have_ been borned in Nindiana."
+
+Fly spoke with some pride. She considered her birth an honor to the
+state.
+
+"But where did you come from, Katie? That's what we mean."
+
+"I camed from heaven," said the child, with one of her wise looks.
+
+"Beats all, don't she?" cried Mr. Brooks, admiringly. "Looks like an
+angel, I declare for't. Did you just drop down out of the sky?"
+
+"No, sir," answered Flyaway, folding her little hands as if she were
+saying her prayers; "I camed down when I was a baby."
+
+[Illustration: "I CAMED DOWN WHEN I WAS A BABY."]
+
+"That's what makes your hair so _goldy_," said Bennie. "Mother, did you
+ever see such eyes? Say, did you ever? So soft, and kinder shiny, too."
+
+"Children, don't stare at her; it makes her uneasy."
+
+"_I_ can't stare at her," said Maria, bitterly. "I suppose you don't
+mean me, mother."
+
+Mrs. Brooks only answered her poor daughter by a kiss.
+
+"Well, little Katie, after you were born in _Nindiana_, you came to New
+York. When did you come?"
+
+"One of these other days I camed here with Hollis."
+
+"Who's Hollis?"
+
+"He's my own brother. Got a new cap. Had his hair cut."
+
+"Who did you come to New York to see?"  "My auntie."
+
+"Her auntie! A great deal of satisfaction we are likely to get out of
+this child," said Mr. Brooks, laughing. He had not laughed before for a
+week.
+
+"What's your auntie's name?"
+
+"Aunt Madge."
+
+"Is she married?"
+
+"O, yes; and so's Uncle 'Gustus. Married together, and live together,
+just the same."
+
+"Uncle 'Gustus who? Now we'll come at it!"
+
+"Alling," replied Fly, her quick eyes roving about the room, for she was
+tired of these questions.
+
+"Allen, Augustus Allen!" said Mr. Brooks, in surprise; "I wonder if
+there can be two of them. Tell me, child, how does he look?"
+
+"Don't look like you," replied Fly, after a keen survey of Mr. Brooks.
+"Your face is pulled away down long, like that;" (stretching her hand
+out straight) "Uncle 'Gustus's face is squeezed up short" (doubling her
+hand into a ball)
+
+"I'll warrant it is the colonel himself," said Mrs. Brooks, smiling at
+the description.
+
+"Yes, that's the name of him; the 'kernil's' the name of him."
+
+"Is it possible!" said Mr. Brooks, looking very much pleased.
+
+"Uncle 'Gustus has curly hair on his cheeks, on his mouf, all round.
+_Not_ little prickles, sticking out like needles."
+
+"O, you girl!" said Bennie, frowning at Fly. "You mustn't laugh at my
+pa's beard. There's a man comes in, sometimes, and shaves him nice; but
+now the man's gone to Newark."
+
+"Is it possible," repeated Mrs. Brooks, taking the child's hand, "that
+this is Colonel Allen's little niece, and my Maria found her!"
+
+"Your Maria didn't find me," said Fly, decidedly; "I founded Maria."
+
+"So she did, pa. The first thing I knew, I heard somebody calling,
+Doggie, doggie,' in such a sweet voice; and then I looked--no, of course
+I _couldn't_ look."
+
+Here the discouraged look came over Maria's mouth, and she said no more.
+
+"There, there, cheer up, daughter," said Mr. Brooks, with tears in his
+eyes; "I was only going on to say, it is passing strange that any of our
+family should run afoul of one of the colonel's folks."
+
+"It's the Lord's doings; I haven't the slightest doubt of it," said Mrs.
+Brooks, earnestly. "You know what I've been saying to you, pa."
+
+"There, there, ma'am, _don't_," said Mr. Brooks; "don't go to raising
+false hopes. You know I'm too proud to beg of anybody's folks."
+
+"Why, pa, I shouldn't call it begging just to tell Colonel Allen how you
+are situated! Do you suppose, if he knew the facts of the case, he'd be
+willing to let you suffer? Such a faithful man as you used to be to
+work."
+
+"No, I think it's likely he wouldn't. He's got more heart than some rich
+folks; but I hain't no sort of claim on the colonel, if I did help build
+his house. And then, ma'am, you know I've been kind o' hopin'--"
+
+"Guess I'll go now, and find Hollis," said Fly, slipping down from the
+bed, for the talk did not interest her.
+
+"O, but I want to go with you, Katie," said Mrs. Brooks, coaxingly.
+"Bennie, you amuse her, while I change my dress."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+MARIA'S MOTHER.
+
+
+"I know your uncle must feel dreadfully to lose you; but never
+mind--he'll see you soon," said Mr. Brooks.
+
+"O, Uncle 'Gustus isn't there."
+
+"Not there?" said Mrs. Brooks, turning round from the cracked
+looking-glass. "Where then?"
+
+"O, he's gone off."
+
+"Gone off? Why, pa, ain't that too bad? I'm right up and down
+disappointed. But, then, the colonel has a wife; I can go to see her,
+you know; and I'll tell her just how you're situ--"
+
+"My Aunt Madge is gone off, too."
+
+"You don't say so!"
+
+"And my brother Hollis is gone."
+
+"This is a funny piece of work if it's true," said Mr. Brooks, with
+another genuine laugh; "you'd better ask her a few more questions before
+you start out. Who else is gone? Have they shut the house up?"
+
+"Yes, sir; shut it right up tight."
+
+"Nobody in it, at all?"
+
+"No, only the men and women. Prudy's gone, and Dotty Dimple's gone, and
+I'm gone."
+
+"Only the men and women, she says. That must be the servants. So the
+house must be open, pa. At any rate, I shall take her. Say by-bye, my
+pretty, and we'll be starting."
+
+Fly was very glad to go, but Maria clung to her fondly, and Bennie ran
+after her almost to Broadway, where Mrs. Brooks took a Fifth Avenue
+stage. She knew Colonel Allen's house very well, for she had seen it
+more than once, while it was in process of building. That was two or
+three years ago, when her husband was well, and the family lived very
+comfortably on Thirty-third Street. She sighed as she thought how
+different it was now. Mr. Brooks would never be able to work any more;
+they hardly had food enough to eat, and poor Maria had lost her
+eyesight.
+
+"Here we are, little Katie," said she.
+
+But the child did not wait to be helped out; she danced down the steps,
+and would have flown across the street, if Mrs. Brooks had not caught
+her.
+
+"I see it--I see it; my auntie's house. But there isn't nobody to it."
+
+The man who met them at the door was so surprised and delighted to see
+Fly, that he forgot his manners, and did not ask Mrs. Brooks in.
+
+"Bless us, the baby's found!" cried he, and ran to spread the news.
+
+Aunt Madge was walking the parlor floor, and Horace sitting on the sofa,
+as rigid as the marble elf Puck, just over his head. Prudy and Dotty had
+joined hands, and were crying softly on the rug. As the police had been
+notified of Fly's loss, all the family had to do was to wait. A servant
+was at the nearest telegraph office, with a horse and carriage, and at
+the first tidings would drive home and report.
+
+The words "The baby's found" rang through the house like a peal of
+bells. In an instant Flyaway Runaway was clasped in everybody's arms,
+and wet with everybody's tears.
+
+"Thought I'd come back," said the little truant, peeping up at her
+agitated friends' with some surprise; "thought I'd come back and get my
+skipt!"
+
+Then they exclaimed, in chorus,--
+
+"Topknot _shall_ have her skipt! The blessed baby! The darling old Fly!"
+
+And Dotty wound up by saying,--
+
+"Why, you see, we thought you's dead!"
+
+Flyaway, who had at first been very much astonished at the fuss made
+over her, now looked deeply offended.
+
+"Who said I's dead? What--a--drefful--lie!"
+
+"O, nobody said so, Fly; only we thought p'rhaps you was; and _what_
+would we do without you, you know?"
+
+"Why, if I's dead," said Fly, untying her bonnet strings, "then the
+funy-yal would come round and take me; that's all."
+
+"We are most grateful to you," said Aunt Madge, turning to Mrs. Brooks,
+"for bringing home this lost child; but do tell us where you found her."
+
+Then Mrs. Brooks related all she knew of Fly's wanderings, the little
+one putting in her own explanations.
+
+"I didn' be lost," said she sharply. "I feel jus' like frettin', when
+you say I's lost. 'Tis the truly truth; I's walking on the streets, and
+a naughty woman, she's got my hangerfiss--had ashes roses on it."
+
+"Yes, I put some otto of rose on it this morning," said Prudy. "What a
+shame!"
+
+"And I gave my flowers to the sick man. He was on the bed, with a blue
+bed-kilt. A girl name o' Maria, tookened me home. The seeingness is all
+gone out of her eyes, so she can't see."
+
+"How long has your husband been sick?" asked Mrs. Allen of the woman,
+while she was taking lunch in the dining-room. "Did you tell me he knew
+Colonel Allen?"
+
+Mrs. Brooks dropped her knife and fork; but her lips trembled so she
+could not speak. Flyaway, who sat in Horace's lap, eating ginger-snaps,
+exclaimed, "She wants some perjerves, auntie. She don't get no
+perjerves, nor nuffin nice to her house."
+
+"'Sh!" whispered Horace. The woman looked so respectable and well bred,
+that it seemed a great rudeness to allude to her poverty.
+
+But Mrs. Brooks drank some water, and then answered Aunt Madge,
+calmly,--
+
+"I'm not ashamed of being poor, Mrs. Allen; it's no disgrace, for there
+never was an honester man than my husband, nor none that worked harder,
+till a beam fell on him from the roof of a house, two years ago, and he
+lost the use of his limbs.--Yes, ma'am; he did use to know your husband.
+He was one of the workmen that helped build this house. I came and
+looked on when he was setting these very doors."
+
+"What is his name?" asked Aunt Madge, looking very much interested, and
+taking out her note-book and pencil. "What street and number?"
+
+"Cyrus Brooks, Number Blank, Blank Street, ma'am. Before the accident,
+we lived on Thirty-third Street, in very good shape; but, little by
+little, we were obliged to sell off, and finally had to move into pretty
+snug quarters. But we've always got enough to eat, such as it was,"
+added the good woman, trying not to show much she enjoyed her lunch.
+
+"I am very glad Providence has sent you here, Mrs. Brooks," said Aunt
+Madge, warmly. "I know Colonel Allen will seek you out when he comes
+home next week; but I shall not wait for that; I shall write him this
+very night."
+
+Mrs. Brooks' heart was so full that she had to cry into a coarse purple
+handkerchief of Bennie's, which happened to be in her pocket, and felt
+very much ashamed because she could not find her voice again, or any
+words in which to tell her gratitude. It was just as well, though. Mrs.
+Allen knew words were not everything. It gave her pleasure to fill a
+huge basket with nice things--wine and jelly for the sick man, plain
+food for the family, and a pretty woolen dress for Maria, which had been
+intended for Mrs. Fixfax, the housekeeper.
+
+The children looked on delighted, while the basket was filled with
+these articles, then passed over to Nathaniel, who was going home with
+Mrs. Brooks. It was amusing to watch Nathaniel, with the monstrous
+burden in his hands trying to help Mrs. Brooks down the front steps; for
+Aunt Madge was not enough of a fine lady to send the pair around by the
+servants' door.
+
+It was pleasant, too, to watch Mrs. Brooks's happy face, half hidden in
+the hood of her water-proof cloak, which kept puffing out, in the high
+wind, like a sail. She was going home to tell her husband the Lord had
+heard her prayers, and she had found a friend.
+
+"And you may depend I never talked so easy to anybody in my life, pa;"
+this was what she thought she should say. "I didn't _have_ to beg. Mrs.
+Allen is one of the Lord's own; I saw it the minute I clapped my eyes
+on her face."
+
+"I am going to see that woman to-morrow, and ask some questions about
+her blind daughter," said Aunt Madge, turning away from the window.
+
+"Ask 'bout her nose, too."
+
+"Whose nose, Fly?"
+
+"The woman's. It keeps a-moving when she talks."
+
+"There, who else noticed that?" exclaimed Horace, tossing his young
+sister aloft. "It takes Fly, with her little eye, to see things."
+
+"But I didn't ask her nuffin 'bout it, though, Horace Clifford. God made
+her so, with a wire in."
+
+Everybody smiled at the notion of Mrs. Brooks being a wax doll.
+
+"What a queer day it has been!" said Prudy. "Nothing but hide and seek.
+We'll all keep together next time, and lock hands tight."
+
+"Of course," said Dotty, quickly; "but look here; don't you think
+'twould be safer not to let Fly go with us? She was the one that made
+all the fuss."
+
+"Want to know if she was," said Horace, slyly. "Guess there are two
+sides to that story."
+
+"At any rate," struck in Aunt Madge, "Fly was the one that did the most
+business. You went round doing good--didn't you, dear?"
+
+"Little city missionary," said Horace.
+
+Whereupon Miss Fly modestly dropped her head on her brother's shoulder.
+She concluded she had done something wonderful in running after a dog.
+
+"On the whole," continued auntie, "we've all had a very hard time. It's
+only three o'clock; but seems to me the day has been forty hours long.
+Let us rest, now, and have a quiet little evening, and go to bed early."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+FIVE MAKING A CALL.
+
+
+The next morning everybody felt fresh, and ready for new adventures.
+
+"All going but the cat," said Fly, never doubting that her own company
+was most desirable.
+
+"Look up in my eyes, little Topknot with the blue bonnet on. Will you
+run away from brother Hollis again?"
+
+"Not if you don't take my skipt," replied Fly, looking as innocent as a
+spring violet.
+
+"And look up in _my_ eyes, Horace Clifford. Will you run away from
+Cousin Dotty, again?" said Miss Dimple, in a hurry to speak before Aunt
+Madge came up to them, and before Horace had time for a joke.
+
+"I didn't run away from you, young lady, but I ran _after_ you, if I
+remember," said Horace, dryly. "I don't mean to pursue you with my
+attentions to-day. You seem to be able to take care of yourself."
+
+"Look," cried Aunt Madge, coming up to them with Prudy; "did you ever
+before see a span of horses with a dog running between them?"
+
+"Never," said Doty; "what splendid horses! and don't the dog have to
+trot, to keep up? How do you suppose he happened to get in there?"
+
+"O, he has been trained to it; dogs often are. Now, my young friends, it
+seems we have started for Brooklyn again; but on our way to Fulton
+Ferry, I would like to stop and see the Brooks family. We must all go
+together, though. 'United we stand, divided we fall.'"
+
+"That's so," said Horace, as they entered the stage. "But, auntie, do
+you have perfect faith in the story that woman tells? Perhaps her
+hushand is only just lazy, and her daughter shams blindness. You know
+what humbugs some of 'em are. I've read there's something they rub over
+their eyes, that gives 'em the appearance of being as blind as a bat."
+
+Prudy looked up at Horace with admiration and respect. He spoke like a
+person of deep wisdom and wide experience.
+
+"We will see for ourselves what we think of the family," said Aunt
+Madge.
+
+"Now," said she, after they had ridden a mile or two, "we must get out
+here, and walk a few blocks to the house. Fly, hold your brother's hand
+tight."
+
+"There's the chamer where the boy lives that says swear words; and
+there's the boy, ahind the window."
+
+"Have a free ride, little girl?" shouted Izzy Paul, laughing; for he
+remembered faces as well as Fly did, and saw at once that it was the
+same child he had frightened so the day before. But Fly never knew fear
+where Horace was; she clung to him, and peeped out boldly between her
+fingers.
+
+When they went "down cellow," as she called it, into Mr. Brooks's house,
+Aunt Madge was surprised to see how bare it looked. But Dotty Dimple
+need not have held her skirts so tightly about her, and brushed her
+elbow so carefully when it hit against the wall; for the house was as
+clean as hands could make it.
+
+"Mrs. Brooks, I hope you will forgive me for coming down upon you with
+this little army," said Mrs. Allen, with such a cheery smile that the
+sick man on the bed felt as if a flood of pure sunshine had burst into
+the room. He was so tired of lying there, day after day, like a great
+rag baby, and so glad to see anybody, especially the good lady who, his
+wife said, was "so easy to talk to!"
+
+"Auntie, look! see the freckled doggie; and there's my flowers, true's
+you live," cried Flyaway.
+
+"Yes, pa wanted them in a vial, close to his bed; it's the first he's
+seen this winter," said Maria, stroking Fly as if she had been a kitten.
+
+"You may be sure, little lady, it will be as I said; they'll cure me
+full as quick as camphire. And, thank the Lord, I can see as well as
+smell," said Mr. Brooks, with a tender glance at Maria which made
+Horace feel ashamed of himself. The idea of that poor child's rubbing
+anything into her eyes? Why, she looked like a wounded bird that had
+been out in a storm. Her face was really almost beautiful, but so sad
+that you could not see it without a feeling of pity.
+
+"She looks as if she was walking in her sleep," thought Prudy, and
+turned away to hide a tear; for somehow there was a chord in her heart
+that thrilled strangely. That "slow winter" came back to her with a
+rush, and she was sure she knew how Maria felt.
+
+"She is blind, and I was lame; but it is the same kind of a feeling. O,
+how I wish I could help her!"
+
+Dotty was as sorry for Maria as she knew how to be, but she could not be
+as sorry as Prudy was; for she had never had any trouble greater than a
+sore throat.
+
+"I don't see why the tears don't come into my eyes as easy as they do
+into Prudy's," thought she, trying to squeeze out a salt drop; "Mrs.
+Brooks'll think I don't care a speck; but I do care."
+
+As for wee Fly, she took Maria's blindness to heart about as much as she
+did the murder of the Hebrew children off in Judea.
+
+"Pitiful 'bout her seeingness; but I wished I had such a beauful dog!"
+
+Aunt Madge was struck with the exalted expression of Maria's face. The
+child was only thirteen, but suffering had made her look much older.
+
+"My child," said she, putting her arm around the little girl, and
+drawing her towards her, "I know you see a great deal with your mind,
+even though your eyes are shut. Now, do tell me all about your
+misfortune, and how it happened, for I came on purpose to hear."
+
+"Yes, we camed to purpose to hear," said Fly, from the foot-board of the
+bed, where she had perched and prattled every moment since she came in.
+"I founded Maria, and then I went up to her, and says I, 'Doggie,
+doggie!'"
+
+"That was a pretty way to speak to her, I should think," said Dotty;
+"but can't you just please to hush while auntie is talking?"
+
+"As near as I can tell the story," said Mrs. Brooks, rattling the poor
+old coal-stove,--for she always had to be moving something else, as well
+as her nose, when she talked,--"she lost her sight by studying too
+hard, and then getting cold in her eyes."
+
+"She was always a master hand to study," put in Mr. Brooks.
+
+Maria looked as if she wanted to run and hide. She did not like to have
+her father praise her before people.
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Brooks, setting a chair straight; "and by and by the
+_leds_ began to draw together, and she couldn't keep 'em open; and there
+was such a pain in her eyes, too, that I had to be up nights, bathing
+'em in all kinds of messes."
+
+"_Don't_ her nose jiggle?" whispered Fly to Horace.
+
+"Of course you took her to a good physician?"
+
+"Well, yes; we thought he was good. We went to three, off and on, but
+she kept growing worse and worse. It was about the time her father was
+hurt, and we spent an awful sight on her, till we couldn't spend any
+more."
+
+"And it was all a cheat and a swindle," exclaimed Mr. Brooks,
+indignantly. "We'd better have spent the money for a horsewhip, and
+whipped them doctors with it!"
+
+"Don't, pa, don't! You see, Mrs. Allen, he gets so excited about it he
+don't know what he says."
+
+"I wonder you did not take her to the City Hospital, Mrs. Brooks. There
+she could be treated free of expense."
+
+"The fact is, we didn't dare to," replied Mrs. Brooks, taking up an old
+shoe of Bennie's, and beginning to brush it; "there are folks that have
+told us it ain't safe; they try experiments on poor folks."
+
+"O, I don't believe you need fear the City Hospital," said Mrs. Allen;
+"the physicians there are honest men, and among the most skillful in
+the country."
+
+"But that's our feeling on the subject, ma'am, you see," spoke up Mr.
+Brooks, so decidedly, that Aunt Madge saw it was of no use to say any
+more about it. "We don't want her eyes put out; there are times when she
+can just see a little glimmer, and we want to save all there is left."
+
+"There are times when she can see? Then there must be hope, Mr. Brooks!
+Let me take her to Dr. Blank; he can help her if any one can."
+
+"Well, now, I take it you're joking, Mrs. Allen. That is the very doctor
+I wanted her to see in the first place; but they do say he'd ask six
+hundred dollars for looking into her eyes while you'd wink twice."
+
+"You have been misinformed, Mr. Brooks; he never asks anything of
+people who are unable to pay him. But even if he should in Maria's case,
+I promise to take the matter into my own hands, and settle the bill
+myself."
+
+"Mother, do you hear what she says!" cried Mr. Brooks, forgetting
+himself, and trying to sit up in bed.
+
+But his wife had broken down, and was polishing Bennie's shoe with her
+tears.
+
+"O, will you take me? Can I go to that doctor?" cried Maria, forgetting
+her timidity, and turning her sightless eyes towards Mrs. Allen with a
+joyful look, which seemed to glow through the lids.
+
+"Yes, dear child, I will take you with the greatest pleasure in life;
+but remember, I don't promise you can be cured. Come with your mother,
+to-morrow morning, at ten. Will that do, Mrs. Brooks? And now, good by,
+all. Children, we must certainly be going."
+
+"God bless her," murmured the sick man, as the little party passed out.
+
+"Didn't I tell you she was an angel?" said his wife.
+
+"No, mother; it's that little tot that's the 'angel.' The Lord sent her
+on ahead to spy out the land; and afterwards there comes a
+flesh-and-blood woman to see it laid straight."
+
+"Pa thinks that baby is a spirit made out of air," said Maria, laughing
+in high excitement. "And, mother, don't you really believe now the Lord
+did send her, just as much as if she dropped down out of the sky?"
+
+"Yes, I hain't a doubt of it, Maria, but what the Lord had us in his
+mind when he let the child slip off and get lost.--Pa, I'm going to
+give you some of that blackberry cordial now: you look all gone."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+"THE HEN-HOUSES."
+
+
+While the Brooks family were talking so gratefully, and Maria counting
+over the cookies and cups of jelly for the twentieth time, Fly, was
+holding on to Horace's thumb, saying, as she skipped along,--"I hope the
+doctor'll take a knife, and pick Maria's eyes open, so she can see."
+
+"Precious little _you_ care whether she can see or not," said Dotty. "I
+don't think Fly has much feeling,--do you, Prudy?--not like you and I, I
+mean!"
+
+"Pshaw! what do you expect of such a baby?" said Horace, indignantly.
+"You never saw a child so full of pity as this one is, when she knows
+what to be sorry for. But a great deal she understands about blindness!
+And why should she?--Look here, Topknot; which would you rather do? Have
+your eyes put out, and lots of candy to eat, _or_, your eyes all good,
+and not a speck of candy as long as you live?"
+
+"I'd ravver have the candy '_thout_ blind-eyed?"
+
+"But supposing you couldn't have but one?"
+
+Fly reflected seriously for half a minute, and then answered,
+
+"I'd ravver have the candy _with_ blind-eyed!"
+
+"There, girls, what did I tell you?"
+
+"'Cause I could eat the candy athout looking, you know," added Fly,
+shutting her eyes, and putting a sprig of cedar in her mouth, by way of
+experiment.
+
+"You little goosie," said Prudy; "when Aunt Madge was crying so about
+Maria, I did think you were a hard-hearted thing to look up and laugh;
+but now, I don't believe you knew any better."
+
+"Hard-hearted things will soften," said auntie, kissing the baby's
+puzzled face. "Little bits of green apples, how hard they are! but they
+keep growing mellow."
+
+"O, you little green apple," cried Dotty, pinching Fly's cheek.
+
+"I was rather hard-hearted, if I remember, when I was an apple of that
+size," continued Aunt Madge. "I could tell you of a few cruel things I
+said and did."
+
+"Tell them," said Horace; "please 'fess."
+
+"Yes, auntie, naughty things are so interesting. Do begin and tell all
+about it."
+
+"Not on the street, dears. Some time, during the holidays, I may turn
+story-teller, if you wish it; but here we are at the ferry; now look out
+for the mud."
+
+"O, what a place," cried Fly, clinging to Horace, and trying to walk on
+his boots. "Just like where grampa keeps his pig!"
+
+"How true, little sister! but you needn't use my feet for a sidewalk.
+I'll take you up in my arms. It snowed in the night; but that makes it
+all the muddier."
+
+"Yes, it doesn't do snow any good to fall into New York mud," said Aunt
+Madge; "it is like touching pitch."
+
+"I thought it felt like pitch," remarked Dotty; "sticks to your boots
+so."
+
+"But, then, overhead how beautiful it is!" said Prudy. "I should think
+the dirty earth would be ashamed to look up at such a clear sky."
+
+"But the sky don't mind," returned Horace; "it always overlooks dirt."
+
+"How very sharp we are getting!" laughed auntie; "we have begun the day
+brilliantly. Any more remarks from anybody?"
+
+"I should like to know," said Dotty, "what all those great wooden things
+are made for? I never saw such big hen-houses before!"
+
+"Hear her talk!" exclaimed auntie. "Hen-houses, indeed! Why, that is
+Fulton Market. I shall take you through it when we come back. You can
+buy anything in there, from a live eel to a book of poetry."
+
+"'In mud eel is,'" quoted Horace. "Reckon I'll buy one, auntie, and
+carry it home in a piece of brown paper. I believe Dotty is fond of
+eels."
+
+"Fond of eels! Why, Horace Clifford, you know I can't bear 'em, any
+more'n a snake. If you do such a thing, Horace Clifford!"
+
+Here Prudy gave her talkative sister a pinch; for they were surrounded
+by people, and Aunt Madge was giving ferry-tickets to a man who stood in
+a stall, and brushed them towards him into a drawer.
+
+"Does he stay in it all night?" whispered Fly; "he can't lie down, no
+more'n a hossy can."
+
+"Here, child, don't try to get down out of my arms. I must carry you
+into the boat. Do you suppose I'd trust those wee, wee feet to go flying
+over East River?"
+
+"For don't we know she has wings on her heels?" said Aunt Madge.
+
+Fly twisted around one of her little rubbers, and looked at it. She
+understood the joke, but thought it too silly to laugh at. East River
+lay smiling in the sun, white with sails.
+
+"Almost as pretty as our Casco Bay," said Dotty. "'Winona;' is that the
+boat we are going in? But, Horace, you must cross to the other side,
+where it says 'Gentlemen's Cabin.'"
+
+"How kind you are to take care of me! Wish you'd take as good care of
+yourself, Cousin Dimple."
+
+And Horace walked straight into the "Ladies' Cabin." There were more men
+in it, though, than women; so he had the best side of the argument.
+
+"Horace," said Aunt Madge, as they seated themselves, "where is your
+money?"
+
+"Money? O, in the breast pocket of my coat."
+
+"But don't you remember, my boy, I advised you to leave it at home? See
+that placard, right before your eyes."
+
+"'Beware of Pickpockets!'" read Horace. "Well, auntie, I intend to
+beware."
+
+Mrs. Allen did not like his lord-of-creation tone. It was not exactly
+disrespectful. He adored his aunt, and did not mean to snub her. At the
+same time he had paid no attention to her advice, and his cool,
+self-possessed way of setting it one side was very irritating. If Mrs.
+Allen had not been the sweetest of women, she would have enjoyed boxing
+his ears.
+
+"I wish he was two years younger, and then he would have to obey me,"
+thought she; "but I don't like to lay my commands on a boy of fourteen."
+
+The truth was, Horace had a large swelling on the top of his head, known
+by the name of self-esteem; and it had got bruised a little the day
+before, when he was obliged to stand one side, and let his aunt manage
+about finding Flyaway.
+
+"I suppose she thinks I'm a ninny, just because I don't understand this
+bothersome city; but I reckon I know a thing or two, if I don't live in
+New York!"
+
+And the foolish boy really took some satisfaction in slapping his breast
+pockets, and remarking to his friends,--
+
+"'Twould take a smart chap to get his hand in there without my knowing
+it. O, Prudy, where's your wallet? And yours, Dotty? I can carry them as
+well as not. There's no knowing what kind of a muss you may be getting
+into before night."
+
+Prudy gave up hers without a word, but Dotty demurred.
+
+"I guess I've got eyes both sides my head, just the same as Horace has,
+if I am a girl."
+
+She and Cousin Horace usually agreed, but this visit had begun wrong.
+
+"Very well, Dot; if you think 'twould be any consolation to you to have
+somebody come along with a pair of scissors, and snip off your pocket, I
+don't know as it's any of my business."
+
+"See if they do," replied Dotty, clutching her pocket in her right hand.
+
+They had been speaking in loud tones, and perhaps had been overheard;
+for two men, on the same seat, began to talk of the unusual number of
+robberies that had happened within a few days and to wonder "what we
+were coming to next." In consequence of this, Dotty pinned up her
+pocket. When they reached Brooklyn, she gave her left hand to Horace, in
+stepping off the boat, and walked up Fulton Street, with her right hand
+firmly grasping the skirt of her dress.
+
+"Good for you, Dimple!" said Horace, in a low tone; "that's one way of
+letting people know you've got money. Look behind you! There's been a
+man following you for some time."
+
+"Where? O, where?" cried Dotty, whirling round and round in wild alarm;
+"I don't see a man anywhere near."
+
+"And there isn't one to be seen," said Aunt Madge, laughing; "there's
+nobody following you but Horace himself. He had no right to frighten you
+so."
+
+"Horace!" echoed Dotty, with infinite scorn; "I don't call _him_ a man!
+He's nothing but a small boy!"
+
+"A small boy!" She had finished the business now.
+
+"The hateful young monkey!" thought Horace. "I shouldn't care much if
+she did have her pocket picked."
+
+If he had meant a word of this, which he certainly did not, he was well
+paid for it afterwards.
+
+They went to Greenwood Cemetery, which Dotty had to confess was
+handsomer than the one in Portland. Fly thought there were nice places
+to "hide ahind the little white houses," which frightened her brother so
+much, that he carried her in his arms every step of the way. After
+strolling for some time about Greenwood, and taking a peep at Prospect
+Park, they left the "city of churches," and entered a crowded car to go
+back to the ferry.
+
+"Look out for _our_ money," whispered Prudy; "you know auntie says a car
+is the very place to lose it in."
+
+"Yes; I'll look out for your pile, Prue, though I dare say you don't
+feel quite so easy about it as you would if Dot had it."
+
+"Wow, Horace, don't be cross; you know it isn't often I have so much
+money."
+
+Aunt Madge here gave both the children a very expressive glance, as much
+as to say,--
+
+"Don't mention private affairs in such a crowd."
+
+Colonel Allen said if his wife had been born deaf and dumb nobody would
+have mistrusted it, for she could talk with her eyes as well as other
+people with their tongues.
+
+When they were on the New York side once more, Mrs. Allen said,--
+
+"Now I will take you through Dotty's hen-houses. What have we here? O,
+Christmas greens."
+
+A woman stood at one of the stands, tying holly and evergreens together
+into long strips, which she sold by the yard.
+
+"We must adorn the house, children. I will buy some of this, if you will
+help carry it home."
+
+"Load me down," said Horace; "I'll take a mile of it."
+
+"Loaden me down, too; _I'll_ take it a mile," said Fly.
+
+"Give me that beautiful cross to carry, auntie."
+
+"Are you willing to carry crosses, Prudy? Ah, you've learned the lesson
+young!"
+
+"I like the star best," said Dotty; "why can't they make suns and moons,
+too!"
+
+"Will you have a _hanker_, my pretty miss?" said the woman, dropping a
+courtesy.
+
+"I never heard of a _hanker_; it looks some like a kettle-hook. Let's
+buy it; see how nicely it fits on Fly's shoulder."
+
+"It would look better for Fly to sit on the anchor," said Mrs. Allen,
+smiling. "It is droll enough to see such a big thing walking off with a
+little girl under it. Come, children, we have bought all we can carry."
+
+"Thank you kindly, lady," said the evergreen woman, with another
+courtesy.
+
+"I don't see why she need thank you kindly, auntie," said Dotty. "You
+wouldn't have bought her wreaths if you hadn't liked 'em."
+
+They walked through a long space lined with such nice things that the
+children's mouths watered--oranges, figs, grapes, pears, French
+chestnuts larger than oil-nuts, and, as if that were not enough,
+delicious-looking pies, cakes, cold ham, and doughnuts. On little
+charcoal stoves stood coffee-pots; and there was a great clattering of
+plates and cups and saucers, which men were washing in little pans, and
+wiping on rather dark towels.
+
+"It strikes me I should enjoy going into one of those cuddy-holes and
+eating my dinner," said Horace. "I feel about starved."
+
+"You have a right to be hungry. It is two o'clock. How would you like
+some oysters? In here is a large room, with tables; rather more
+comfortable than these 'cuddy-holes,' as you call them."
+
+"Only not nice," said Prudy. "O, Horace, if you should go once to an
+oyster saloon in Boston, you'd see the difference!"
+
+"The probability is, I've been in Boston saloons twice to your once,
+ma'am."
+
+Which was correct. She had been once, and he twice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+"GRANNY."
+
+
+Aunt Madge seated her four guests at a little table.
+
+"Will you have oysters or scallops?"
+
+"What are scallops?"
+
+"They are a sort of fish; taste a little like oysters. They come out of
+those small shells, such as you've seen pin-cushions made of."
+
+The children thought they should prefer oysters; and after the stews
+were ordered, Mrs. Allen went out, and soon returned with a dessert of
+cake, pie, and fruit.
+
+"I thought I would bring it all at once," said she, "just what I know
+you will like; and then sit down and be comfortable. We'll lay the
+wreaths under the table. There are no napkins, girls (this isn't Boston,
+you know); so you'd better tuck your handkerchiefs under your chins."
+
+"But is this the handsomest place they've got in New York, without any
+carpet to it?" whispered Dotty.
+
+"We'll see, one of these days," replied auntie, with a smile that spoke
+volumes.
+
+It was a very jolly dinner, and Mrs. Allen had to send for three plates
+of scallops; for the children found, after tasting hers, that they were
+very nice; all but Fly, who did not relish them, and thought it was
+because she did not like to eat pin-cushions.
+
+"Now, little folks, if you have eaten sufficiently, and are thoroughly
+rested, shall we start for home? I think a journey to Brooklyn is about
+enough for one day--don't you? But you musn't leave without seeing
+Granny."
+
+"Granny?"
+
+"Yes, I call her so, and it pleases her. She has had a little table in
+the market for a long while, and I like to buy some of her goodies just
+to encourage her, for she has such a way of looking on the bright side
+that she wins my respect. Listen, now, while I speak to her."
+
+Auntie's old woman had on a hood and shawl, and was curled up in a
+little heap, half asleep.
+
+"Pleasant day," said Mrs. Allen, going up to the table.
+
+"Yes, mum; nice weather _underful_," returned the old woman, rousing
+herself, and rubbing an apple with her shawl.
+
+"And how do you do, Granny?"
+
+"Why, is that you?" said she, the sun coming out all over her face.
+"And how've you been, mum, since the last time I've seen yer?"
+
+"Very well, Granny; and how do things prosper with you?"
+
+"O, _I'm_ all right! I've had a touch of rheumaty, and this is the fust
+I've stirred for two weeks."
+
+"Sorry to hear it, Granny. Rheumatism can't be very comfortable."
+
+"Well, no; it's bahd for the jints," said the old woman, holding up her
+fingers, which were as shapeless as knobby potatoes.
+
+"Poor Granny! How hard that is!"
+
+"Well, they be hard, and kind o' stiff-like. But bless ye," laughed she,
+"that's nothing. I wouldn't 'a' cared, only I's afeared I'd lose this
+stand. There was a gyurl come and kep' it for me, what time she could
+spare."
+
+"I'm glad you havn't lost the stand, Granny; but I don't see how you can
+laugh at the rheumatism."
+
+"Well, mum, what'd be the use to cry? Why, bless ye, there's wus
+things'n that! As long's I hain't got no husband, I don't feel to
+complain!"
+
+She shook her sides so heartily at this, that Fly laughed aloud.
+
+"So you don't approve of husbands, Granny?"
+
+"No more I don't, mum; they're troublesome craychers, so fur as I've
+seen."
+
+"But don't you get down-hearted, living all alone?"
+
+"O, no, mum; I do suppose I'm the happiest woman in the city o' New
+Yorruk. When I goes to bed, I just gives up all my thrubbles to the
+Lord, and goes to sleep."
+
+"But when you are sick, Granny?"
+
+"O, then, sometimes I feels bahd, not to be airnin' nothin', and gets
+some afeard o' the poorhouse; but, bless ye, I can't help thinking the
+Lord'll keep me out."
+
+"I'm pretty sure He will," said Aunt Madge, resolving on the spot that
+the good old soul never should go to a place she dreaded so much. "Have
+you any butter-scotch to-day, Granny?"
+
+"O, yes, mum; sights of it. Help yourself. I want to tell you
+something'll please you," said the old woman, bending forward, and
+speaking in a low tone, and with sparkling eyes. "I've put some money in
+the bank, mum; enough to bury me! _Ain't_ that good!"
+
+Prudy and Dotty were terribly shocked. She must be crazy to talk about
+her own funeral. As if she was glad of it, too? But Horace thought it a
+capital joke.
+
+"That's a jolly way to use your money," whispered he to Prudy; "much
+good may it do her?" And then aloud, in a patronizing tone, "I'll take a
+few of your apples, Granny. How do you sell 'em?"
+
+"These here, a penny apiece; them there, two pennies; and them, three."
+
+Horace felt in his coat pocket for his purse; and drew out his hand
+quickly, as if a bee had stung it.
+
+"Why, what! What does this mean?"
+
+"What is it, Horace?"
+
+"Nothing, auntie, only my wallet's gone," replied the boy, very white
+about the mouth.
+
+"Gone? Look again. Are you sure?"
+
+"Yes, as sure as I want to be?"
+
+"Mine,--is mine gone too?" cried Prudy.
+
+Horace did not seem willing to answer.
+
+"Where did you have your purse last?"
+
+"Just before we came out of Dorlon's oyster saloon. Just before we came
+here for butter-scotch," replied Horace, glaring fiercely at Granny.
+
+"Are you quite sure?"
+
+"Is mine gone, too?" cried Prudy again. "Did you put mine in the same
+pocket?"
+
+"Yes, Prue; I put yours in the same pocket; and it's gone, too."
+
+"O, Horace!"
+
+"A pretty clean sweep, Prue."
+
+"The _vilyins_!" cried Granny; looking, auntie thought, as if her whole
+soul was stirred with pity for the children; but, as Horace thought, as
+if she were trying to put a bold face on a very black crime.
+
+"Let us go back to Dorlon's, and ask the waiters if you dropped it in
+there," suggested Aunt Madge.
+
+"Yes, but _I know I didn't,"_ said Horace, with another scowl at Granny.
+
+"_My_ money is safe," said self-righteous Dotty, as they walked away;
+"don't you wish you _had_ given yours to me, Prudy?"
+
+"The deceitful old witch!" muttered Horace; meaning Granny, of course.
+
+And lo, there she stood close behind them! She was beckoning Mrs. Allen
+back to her fruit-stand.
+
+"Wait here one minute, children; I'll be right back."
+
+"Nothin', mum," said Granny, looking very much grieved; "nothin' only I
+wants to say, mum, if that youngster thinks as I took his money, I wisht
+you'd sarch me."
+
+"Fie, Granny! Never mind what a boy like that says, when he is excited.
+I know you too well to think you'd steal."
+
+"The Lord bless you, mum," cried the old woman, all smiles again.
+
+"And, Granny, I mean to come here next week, and I'll bring you some
+flannel and liniment for your rheumatism. Where shall I leave them if
+you're sick, and can't be here?"
+
+"O, thank ye, mum; thank ye kindly. The ain't many o' the likes of you,
+mum. And if ye does bring the things for my rheumaty, and I ain't here,
+just ye leave 'em with the gyurl at this stand, if yer will."
+
+"Did she give it back?" cried Horace, the moment his aunt appeared.
+
+"No, my boy; how could she when she hadn't it to give?"
+
+"But, auntie, I'm up and down sure I felt that wallet in my
+breast-pocket, when we came out of Dorlon's," persisted Horace. "I don't
+see how on earth that old woman contrived it; but I can't help
+remembering how she kept leaning forward when she talked; and once she
+hit square against me. And just about that time I was drawing out my
+handkerchief to wipe my nose."
+
+"Yes, he did! He wiped his nose. And the woman tookened the money; I saw
+her do it."
+
+"There, I told you so!"
+
+"You saw her, Miss Policeman Flyaway?" said Aunt Madge. "And pray how
+did she take it?"
+
+"Just so,--right in her hand."
+
+"O, you mean the money for the butter-scotch, you little tease!"
+
+"Yes," replied the child, with a roguish twinkle over the sensation she
+had made.
+
+"Just like little bits o' flies," said Dotty. "Don't care how folks
+feel. And here's her brother ready to cry; heart all broken."
+
+"Needn't be concerned about my heart, Dot; 'tisn't broken yet; only
+cracked. But how anybody could get at my pocket, without my knowing it,
+is a mystery to me, unless Granny is a witch."
+
+"Horace, I pledge you my word Granny is innocent."
+
+"And I'm sure nobody else could take it, auntie. The clerks at Dorlon's
+had no knowledge of the money; neither had any of the apple or pie
+merchants along the market. Things look darker for us, Prue; but I will
+give you the credit of behaving like a lady. And one thing is sure--the
+moment I get home to Indiana I shall send you back your money."
+
+"Horace," said Aunt Madge, "I am very suspicious that you lost your
+purse in one of those cars, on the Brooklyn side."
+
+"But, auntie, I tell you there couldn't anybody get at my pockets
+without my knowing it!"
+
+"Just as Prudy told you you would, you lost it in that car," echoed
+Dotty. "Don't you remember what you said, Prudy?"
+
+"That's right; hit him again," growled Horace.
+
+"Now, Dotty," said Prudy, suppressing a great sob in her effort to
+"behave like a lady," "what's the use? Don't you suppose Horace feels
+bad enough without being scolded at?"
+
+"Auntie don't scold, nor Prudy don't, 'cause he didn't mean to lose
+it," said Fly, frowning at Dotty, and caressing Horace, with her hands
+full of evergreens.
+
+"Besides, he has lost more than I have," continued Prudy.
+
+"Well, a trifle more! Fifty times as much, say. I shouldn't care a
+fig,--speaking figuratively,--only it was all I had to get home with."
+
+"Don't fret about that," said Aunt Madge; "I'll see that you go home
+with as full a purse as you brought to my house."
+
+"O, auntie, how can I thank you? But you know father never would allow
+that!"
+
+"I could tell you how to thank me," thought Mrs. Allen, though she was
+so kind she would _not_ tell; "you could thank me by saying, 'Auntie,
+I've been a naughty boy.'"
+
+But Horace had no idea of making such a confession as that. "The
+money'll come up," said he; "I'm one of the lucky kind. Let's see;
+wouldn't it be best to advertise?"
+
+"Thieves won't answer advertisements," said Mrs. Allen.
+
+"But, I tell you, auntie, I dropped that wallet. I could take my oath of
+it."
+
+"Well, in such a case an advertisement is the proper thing. But, my boy,
+your positiveness on this subject is extraordinary. How could you drop
+the wallet? Do you keep it in the same pocket with your handkerchief?"
+
+"On, no, auntie; right in here."
+
+"And you haven't bought anything?"
+
+"No, auntie; you wouldn't let me pay the car fare, or anything else. But
+still I must have taken out the wallet by mistake. You see I _know_
+nobody's picked my pockets."
+
+"Why, Horace, you just said Granny picked 'em."
+
+"No, Dot, I didn't! I only spoke of the queer way she had of leaning
+forward."
+
+"But you scowled at her sharp enough to take head off."
+
+"If I were you, Dot, I wouldn't be any more disagreeable than I was
+absolutely obliged to.--Now, auntie, how much does it cost to
+advertise?"
+
+"A dollar or so I believe."
+
+"Well, if you'll lend me the money, I want to do it."
+
+"To be plain with you, Horace, I really do not think it will be of the
+slightest use in this case; but I will consent to it if it will be any
+relief to your mind. We shall be obliged to cross the ferry again, for
+the advertisement ought to go into a Brooklyn paper."
+
+"We are tired enough to drop," said Dotty; "and all these stars and
+things, too!"
+
+"Yes, we are all tired; but we will leave you little girls at the
+ferry-house on the other side."
+
+"But, auntie," said Prudy, anxiously, "I shouldn't really dare have the
+care of Fly. You know just how it is."
+
+"Yes, I do know just how it is. Fly must walk, with her tired little
+feet, to the Eagle office, with Horace and me; or else she must make a
+solemn promise not to go out of the ferry-house."
+
+"But I don't want to make a _solomon_ promise, auntie; I want to see the
+eagle."
+
+Mrs. Allen sighed. She began to think she had undertaken a great task
+in inviting these children to visit her. Instead of a pleasure, they had
+proved, thus far, a weariness--always excepting Prudy. She, dear,
+self-forgetting little girl, could not fail to be a comfort wherever she
+went.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE PUMPKIN HOOD.
+
+
+To the "Eagle" office they went--obstinate Horace, patient Annt Madge,
+and between them the "blue-bottle Fly."
+
+"I do feel right sorry, auntie," said Horace, a sudden sense of shame
+coming over him; "but I'm so sure I dropped the money, you know; or I
+wouldn't drag you up this hill when you're so tired."
+
+A sharp answer rose to Mrs. Allen's lips, but she held it back.
+
+"Only a boy! In a fair way to learn a useful lesson, too. Let me keep my
+temper! If I scold, I spoil the whole."
+
+They entered the office, and left with the editor this advertisement:--
+
+"Lost.--Between Prospect Park and Fulton Ferry, a porte-monnaie, marked
+'Horace S. Clifford,' containing thirty-five dollars. The finder will be
+suitably rewarded by leaving the same at No. ----, Cor. Fifth Ave. and
+---- Street."
+
+"It is no matter about advertising Prudy's purse, it was so shabby,"
+said Aunt Madge; and on their way back to the ferry-house she bought her
+another.
+
+"O, thank you, auntie, darling," said Prudy; "and thank you, too,
+Horace, for losing my old one; it wasn't fit to be seen. And here is a
+whole dollar inside! O, Aunt Madge, _are_ you an angel?"
+
+"Prue, you deserve your good luck; you don't come down on a fellow,
+hammer and tongs, because he happens to meet with an accident."
+
+"Horace," said Dotty, meekly, "are you willing to carry my gloves?"
+
+"Yes, to be sure; but you don't want to go home bare-handed--do you?"
+
+"Why, I was thinking how nice 'twould be, Horace, to have you take 'em,
+and lose 'em, and me have a new pair. There's a hole in the thumb."
+
+This little sally amused everybody, and Horace had the grace not to be
+sensitive, though the laugh was against him.
+
+"Another queer day," said he, when they were at last at home again. "I
+don't know what will become of us all, if we keep on like this."
+
+The poor boy was trying his best to brave it out; but Aunt Madge could
+see that his heart was sore.
+
+"Lost every cent I'm worth," mused he, turning his coat-pocket inside
+out, and scowling at it. "Got to be a beggar as long as I stay in New
+York!"
+
+The whole party were tired, and Horace's gloom seemed to fill the parlor
+like a fog, and make even the gas look dim.
+
+"I feel dreffly," said Fly, curling her head under her brother's arm,
+like a chicken under its mother's wing--a way she had when she was
+troubled. "I feel just zif I didn't love nobody in the world, and there
+didn't nobody love me."
+
+This brought Horace around in a minute, and called forth a pickaback
+ride.
+
+"Music! let us have music," said Aunt Madge, flying to the piano. "When
+little folks grow so cold-hearted, in my house, that they don't love
+anybody, it's time to warm their hearts with some happy little songs.
+Come, girls!"
+
+She played a few simple tunes, and the children all sang till the fog
+of gloom had disappeared, and the gas burned brightly once more.
+
+Half an hour afterwards, just as Fly was told she ought to be sleepy,
+because her bye-low hymn had been sung,--"Sleep, little one, like a lamb
+in the fold,"--and she had answered that she "couldn't be sleepy, athout
+auntie would hurry quick to come in with a drink of water," there was a
+strange arrival. Nathaniel, the waiting man, ushered into the parlor a
+droll little old woman, dressed in a short calico gown, with gay figures
+over it as large as cabbages; calf-skin shoes; and a green pumpkin hood,
+with a bow on top.
+
+"Good evening, ma'am," said Horace, rising, and offering her a chair.
+She did not seem to see very well, in spite of her enormous spectacles;
+for she took no notice of the chair, and remained standing in the
+middle of the floor.
+
+[Illustration: THE PUMPKIN HOOD.]
+
+"She stares at me so hard!" thought Horace--"that's the reason she can't
+see anything else."--"Please take a chair, ma'am."
+
+"Can't stop to sit down. Is your name Horace S. Clifford?" said the old
+woman, in a very feeble voice.
+
+Horace looked at her; she had not a tooth in her head.
+
+"Yes, ma'am; my name is Horace Clifford," said he, respectfully. He had
+great reverence for age, and could keep his mouth from twitching; but
+I'm sorry to say Prudy's danced up at the corners, and Dotty's opened
+and showed her back teeth The woman must have had all those clothes made
+when she was young, for nobody wore such things now; but it wasn't
+likely she knew that, poor soul!
+
+"Did you go to the 'Brooklyn Eagle' office, to-day, to ad-_ver_-tise
+some lost money, little boy?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am.--Why, that advertisement can't have been printed _so_
+quick!"
+
+"No, I calculate not. Did you go in with a lady, and a leetle, oneasy,
+springy kind of a leetle girl?"
+
+"Why, that's me," put in Fly.
+
+"Yes, ma'am--yes; were you there? What do you know about it?"
+
+"Don't be in a hurry, little boy. I want to be safe and sure. I expect
+you took notice of a young man in a bottle-green coat,--no, a
+greenish-black coat,--a-sittin' down by the door."
+
+"O, I don't know. Yes, I think I did. Was he the one? Did he find the
+money?"
+
+"Did you walk up Orange Street?" continued the old woman. "No, I mean
+Cranberry Street?"
+
+"O, _dear_, I don't know! Prudy, run, call Aunt Madge. Please tell me,
+ma'am, have you got it with you? Is my name on the inside?"
+
+"Wait till the little girl calls your aunt. Perhaps she'd be willing to
+let me tell the story in my own way. I'd ruther deal with grown folks,"
+said the provoking old lady.
+
+Horace's eyes flashed, but he contrived to keep his temper.
+
+"It is my purse, ma'am, and my aunt knows nothing about it. I can tell
+you just how it looks, and all there is in it."
+
+"Perhaps you are one of the kind that can tell folks a good deal, and
+thinks nobody knows things so well as yourself," returned the
+disagreeable old woman, smiling and showing her toothless gums. "From
+what I can learn, I should judge you talked ruther too loud about your
+money; for there was a pusson heerd you in the ferry-boat, and took
+pains to go in the same car afterwards, and pick your pocket."
+
+"Pick--my--pocket?"
+
+"Yes, your pocket. You wise, wonderful young man!"
+
+"How? When? Where?"
+
+"This is how," said the old woman, quick as a thought putting out her
+hand, and thrusting it into Horace's breast pocket.
+
+"O, it's auntie's rings--it's auntie's rings," cried Fly, jumping up,
+and seizing the pretended old woman by her calico sleeve.
+
+"Why, Aunt Madge, that isn't you!"
+
+"But how'd you take out yer teeth?" said Fly; "your teeth? your teeth?"
+
+"O, I didn't take them out, Miss Bright-eyes. I only put a little spruce
+gum over them."
+
+"Horace, I can't find auntie anywhere in this house," said Prudy,
+appearing at the parlor door. "Do you suppose she's gone off and hid?"
+
+"Yes, she's hid inside that old gown."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"That's auntie, and her teeth's _in_," explained Fly.
+
+"Only I wish she was an old woman, and had really brought me my money,"
+said Horace, in a disappointed tone. "I declare, there was one time I
+thought the old nuisance was coming round to it, and going to give me
+the wallet."
+
+"What a wise, wonderful youth!" said the aged dame, in a cracked voice.
+"Thinks I can give him his wallet, when he's got it himself, right close
+to his heart."
+
+Horace put his hand in his breast pocket.
+
+Wonder of wonders! There was the wallet! And not only his, but Prudy's!
+Had he been asleep all day? Or was he asleep now?
+
+"Money safe? Not a cent gone. Hoo-rah! Hoo-ra-ah!"
+
+And for want of a cap to throw, he threw up Fly.
+
+"Where did it come from? Where did the old woman find it? O, no; the man
+in the green-bottle coat?--O, no; there wasn't any old woman," cried the
+children, hopelessly confused. "But who found the money? Did I drop it
+on Cranberry Street?" "Did he drop it on Quamby Street?" "Who brought
+it?" "Who bringed it?"
+
+Aunt Madge stuffed her fingers into her ears. "They are all talking at
+once; they're enough to craze a body! They forget how old I am! Came all
+the way from the Eagle office, afoot and alone, with only four children
+to--"
+
+"O, auntie, don't play any more! Talk sober! Talk honest! Did Horace
+have his pockets picked?"
+
+"Yes, he did," replied Aunt Madge, speaking in her natural tones, and
+throwing off the pumpkin hood; "if you want the truth, he did."
+
+"Why Aunt Madge Allen! It does not seem possible! Who picked my
+pockets?"
+
+"Some one who heard you talking so loud about your money."
+
+"But how could it be taken out, and I not know it?"
+
+"Quite as easily as it could be put back, and you not know it."
+
+"That's true, Horace Clifford! Auntie put it back, and you never knew
+it."
+
+"So she did," said Horace, looking as bewildered as if he had been
+whirling around with his eyes shut; "so she did--didn't she? But that
+was because I was taken by surprise, seeing her without a tooth in her
+head, you know."
+
+"You have been taken by surprise twice to-day, then," said Aunt Madge,
+demurely. "It is really refreshing, Horace, to find that such a sharp
+young man _can_ be caught napping!"
+
+"Well, I--I--I must have been thinking, of something else, auntie."
+
+"So I conclude. And you must be thinking of something else still, or
+you'd ask me--"
+
+"O, yes, auntie; how did the thief happen to give it up? There, there,
+you needn't say a word! I see it all in your eyes! You took the money
+yourself. O, Aunt Madge!"
+
+"Well, if that wasn't queer doings!" cried Dotty.
+
+"Yes, it is quite contrary to my usual habits. I never robbed anybody
+before. I hadn't the faintest idea I could do it without Horace's
+knowledge."
+
+"Why, auntie, I never was so astonished in my life!" said the youth,
+looking greatly confused.
+
+"I never heard of a person's being robbed that wasn't astonished," said
+Aunt Madge, with a mischievous smile. "Will you be quite as sure of
+yourself another time, think?"
+
+"No, auntie, I shan't; that's a fact."
+
+"That's my good, frank boy," said Aunt Madge, kissing his forehead. "And
+he won't toss his head,--just this way,--like a young lord of creation,
+when meddlesome aunties venture to give him advice."
+
+Horace kissed Mrs. Allen's cheek rather thoughtfully, by way of reply.
+
+"I don't see, Aunt Madge," said Prudy, "why you went back across the
+river to put that piece in the paper, when you were the one that had the
+money all the time."
+
+"I did it to pacify Horace. He _knew_ his pockets hadn't been pieked.
+Besides I felt guilty. It was rather cruel in me--wasn't it?--to let him
+suffer so long."
+
+"Not cruel a bit; good enough for me," cried Horace, with a generous
+outburst. "You're just the jolliest woman, auntie--the jolliest woman!
+There you are; you look so little and sweet! But if folks think they're
+going to get ahead of you, why, just let 'em try it, say I!"
+
+
+DEAR READERS: Horace was scarcely more astonished, when his pocket was
+picked, than I am this minute, to find myself at the end of my book! I
+had very much more to tell; but now it must wait till another time.
+
+Meanwhile the Parlins and Cliffords are "climbing the dream tree." Let
+us hope they are destined to meet with no more misfortunes during the
+rest of their stay in New York.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Folks Astray
+by Sophia May (Rebecca Sophia Clarke)
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE FOLKS ASTRAY ***
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+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of
+    Little Folks Astray,
+    by  Sophie May.
+</title>
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Folks Astray
+by Sophia May (Rebecca Sophia Clarke)
+
+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: Little Folks Astray
+
+Author: Sophia May (Rebecca Sophia Clarke)
+
+Release Date: February 24, 2004 [EBook #11257]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE FOLKS ASTRAY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and Distributed Proofreading
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h1>LITTLE FOLKS ASTRAY.</h1>
+<h2>BY SOPHIE MAY </h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<center>
+"To give room for wandering is it<br />
+That the world was made so wide."
+</center>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<center>
+1872
+</center>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<center>
+TO<br />
+<i>MY YOUNG FRIEND</i>,<br />
+EMMA ADAMS.<br />
+"JOHNNIE OPTIC."
+</center>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<a name="RULE4_1"><!-- RULE4 1 --></a>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2>
+	TO PARENTS.
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+Here come the Parlins and Cliffords again. They had been sent to bed and
+nicely tucked in, but would not stay asleep. They "wanted to see the
+company down stairs;" so they have dressed themselves, and come back to
+the parlor. I trust you will pardon them, dear friends. Is it not a
+common thing, in this degenerate age, for grown people to frown and
+shake their heads, while little people do exactly as they please?
+</p>
+<p>
+Well, one thing is certain: if these children insist upon sitting up,
+they shall listen to lectures on self-will and disrespect to superiors,
+which will make their ears tingle.
+</p>
+<p>
+Moreover, they shall hear of other people, and not always of themselves.
+Fly Clifford, who expects to be in the middle, will be somewhat
+overwhelmed, like a fly in a cup of milk; for Grandma Read is to talk
+her down with her Quaker speech, and Aunt Madge with her story of the
+summer when she was a child. It is but fair that the elders should have
+a voice. That they may speak words which shall come home to many little
+hearts, and move them for good, is the earnest wish of
+</p>
+<center>
+THE AUTHOR.
+</center>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="TOC"><!-- TOC --></a>
+<h2>
+	CONTENTS.
+</h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH1">CHAPTER I.</a> &mdash; THE LETTER
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH2">CHAPTER II.</a> &mdash; THE UNDERTAKING
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH3">CHAPTER III.</a> &mdash; THE FROLIC
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH4">CHAPTER IV.</a> &mdash; "TAKING OUR AIRS"
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH5">CHAPTER V.</a> &mdash; DOTTY HAVING HER OWN WAY
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH6">CHAPTER VI.</a> &mdash; DOTTY REBUKED
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH7">CHAPTER VII.</a> &mdash; THE LOST FLY
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH8">CHAPTER VIII.</a> &mdash; "THE FRECKLED DOG"
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH9">CHAPTER IX.</a> &mdash; MARIA'S MOTHER
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH10">CHAPTER X.</a> &mdash; FIVE MAKING A CALL
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH11">CHAPTER XI.</a> &mdash; "THE HEN-HOUSES"
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH12">CHAPTER XII.</a> &mdash; "GRANNY"
+</p>
+<p>
+<a href="#CH13">CHAPTER XIII.</a> &mdash; THE PUMPKIN HOOD
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2>Illustrations</h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>1. <a href="#image-1">
+'I Camed Down when I Was a Baby.'
+</a></p>
+<p>2. <a href="#image-2">
+The Pumpkin Hood.
+</a></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<a name="RULE4_2"><!-- RULE4 2 --></a>
+<h2>
+	LITTLE FOLKS ASTRAY.
+</h2>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH1"><!-- CH1 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER I.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+THE LETTER.
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+Katie Clifford sat on the floor, in the sun, feeding her white mice. She
+had a tea-spoon and a cup of bread and milk in her hands. If she had
+been their own mother she could not have smiled down on the little
+creatures more sweetly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Cause I spect they's hungry, and that's why I'm goin' to give 'em
+sumpin' to eat. Shut your moufs and open your eyes," said she, waving
+the tea-spoon, and spattering the bread and milk over their backs.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Quee, quee," squeaked the little mice, very well pleased when a drop
+happened to go into their mouths.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What are you doing there, Miss Topknot," said Horace: "O, I see;
+catching rats."
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway frowned fearfully, and the tuft of hair atop of her head danced
+like a war-plume.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I shouldn't think folks would call 'em names, Hollis, when they never
+did a thing to you. Nothing but clean white mouses!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Let's see; now I look at 'em, Topknot, they <i>are</i> white. And what's all
+this paper?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Bed-kilts."
+</p>
+<p>
+"<i>In</i>-deed?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"You knew it by-fore!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"One, two, three; I thought the doctor gave you five. Where are they
+gone?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, there hasn't but two died; the rest'll live," said Fly, swinging
+one of them around by its tail, as if it had been a tame cherry.
+</p>
+<p>
+Just then Grace came and stood in the parlor doorway.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, fie!" said she; "what work! Ma doesn't allow that cage in the
+parlor. You just carry it out, Fly Clifford."
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Thistledown Flyaway looked up at her sister shyly, out of the
+corners of her eyes. Grace was now a beautiful young lady of sixteen,
+and almost as tall as her mother. Flyaway adored her, but there was a
+growing doubt in her mind whether sister Grace had a right to use the
+tone of command.
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Cause I spect she isn't my mamma."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, Fly, you haven't started yet!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I didn't think 'twas best," responded the child, sulkily, fixing her
+eyes on the mice, who were dancing whirligigs round the wheel.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Come here to your best friend, little Topknot," said Horace. "Let's
+take that cage into the green-house, and ask papa to keep it there,
+because the mice look like water-lilies on long stems."
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway brightened at once. She knew water-lilies were lovely. Giving
+Grace a triumphant glance, she danced across the room, and put the cage
+in Horace's hands, with a smile of trusting love that thrilled his
+heart.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hollis laughs at my mouses, but he don't say, 'Put 'em away,' and,
+'<i>Put</i> 'em away;' he says, 'Little gee-urls wants to see things as much
+as anybody else,'" thought she, gratefully.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace," said Grace, with a curling lip, "that child is growing up
+just like you&mdash;fond of worms, and bugs, and all such disgusting things."
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace smiled. No matter for the scorn in Grace's tone; it pleased him
+to be compared in any way with his precious little Flyaway.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Topknot has a spark of sense," said he, leading her along to the
+green-house. "I'll bring her up not to scream at a spider."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now, young lady," said he, setting the cage on the shelf beside a
+camellia, and speaking in a low voice, though they were quite alone,
+"<i>can</i> you keep a secret?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Course I can; What <i>is</i> a <i>secrid</i>?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, it's something you musn't ever tell, Topknot, not to anybody that
+lives."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Then I won't, <i>cerdily</i>,&mdash;not to mamma, nor papa, nor Gracie."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Nor anybody else?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No; course not. <i>Whobody</i> else could I? O, 'cept Phibby. There, now,
+what's the name of it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The name of it is&mdash;a secret, and the secret is this&mdash;Sure you won't
+tell any single body, Topknot?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No; I said, <i>whobody</i> could I tell? O, 'cept Tinka! There now!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, the secret is this," said Horace, laying his forefingers
+together, and speaking very slowly, in order to prolong the immense
+delight he felt in watching the little one's eager face. "You know
+you've got an aunt Madge?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; so've you, too."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And she lives in the city of New York."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Does she? When'd she go?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, she has always lived there; ever since she was married."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, yes; and uncle Gustus was married, too; they was both married. Is
+that all?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"And she thinks you and I are 'cute chicks, and wants us to go and see
+her."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, course she does; I knew that before," said Fly, turning away with
+indifference; "I did go with mamma."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, but she means now, Topknot; this very Christmas. She said it in a
+letter."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Does she truly?" said Fly, beginning to look pleased. "But it can't be
+a <i>secrid</i>, though," added she, next moment, sadly, "'cause we can't go,
+Hollis."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But I really think we shall go, Topknot; that is, if you don't spoil
+the whole by telling."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, I cerdily won't tell!" said Fly, fluttering all over with a sense of
+importance, like a kitten with its first mouse.
+</p>
+<p>
+The breakfast bell rang; and, with many a word of warning, Horace led
+his little sister into the dining-room.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Papa," said she, the moment she was established in her high chair, "I
+know sumpin'."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Topknot!" cried Horace.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I know Hollis has got his elbows on the table. There, now, <i>did</i> I
+tell?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hu&mdash;sh, Topknot!"
+</p>
+<p>
+There was a quiet moment while Mr. Clifford said grace.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hollis," whispered Katie immediately afterwards, "will I take my
+mouses?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Sh, Topknot!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"What's going on there between you and Horace?" laughed Grace.
+</p>
+<p>
+"A <i>secrid</i>," said Fly, nipping her little lips together. "You won't get
+me to tell."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace," exclaimed Mrs. Clifford, "you haven't&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, mother, I thought it was all settled, and wouldn't do any harm;
+and it pleases her so!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, my son, you've made a hard day's work for me," said Mrs.
+Clifford, smiling behind her coffee-cup, as eager little Katie swayed
+back and forth in her high chair.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You won't get me to tell, Gracie Clifford. She don't want nobody but
+Hollis and me; she thinks we're very 'cute."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Who? O, Aunt Louise, probably."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, aunt Louise never! It's the auntie that lives to New York."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Sh, Topknot!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I didn't tell, Hollis Clifford!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"So you didn't," said Grace. "But wouldn't it be nice if somebody should
+ask you to go somewhere to spend Christmas?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, <i>there is</i>!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Topknot," cried Horace, in mock distress, "you said you could keep
+a secret."
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway looked frightened.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What'd I do?" cried she; "I didn't tell nuffin 'bout the letter!"
+</p>
+<p>
+This last speech set everybody to laughing; and the little tell-tale
+looked around from one to another with a face full of innocent wonder.
+They couldn't be laughing at <i>her</i>!
+</p>
+<p>
+"I can keep secrids," said she, with dignity. "It was what I was
+a-doin'."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is your brother Horace who cannot be trusted to keep secrets," said
+Mrs. Clifford, taking a letter from her pocket. "Hear, now, what your
+Aunt Madge has written: 'Will you lend me your children for the
+holidays, Maria? I want all three; at any rate, two.'"
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's me," cried Flyaway, tipping over her white coffee; "'<i>tenny
+rate two</i>,' means me."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't interrupt me, dear. 'Brother Edward has promised me Prudy and
+Dotty Dimple. They may have a Santa Claus, or whatever they like. I
+shall devote myself to making them happy, and I am sure there are plenty
+of things in New York to amuse them. Horace must come without fail; for
+the little girl-cousins always depend so much upon him.'"
+</p>
+<p>
+A smile rose to Horace's mouth; but he rubbed it off with his napkin. It
+was his boast that he was above being flattered.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But why not have Grace go, too, to keep them steady?" said Mr.
+Clifford, bluntly.
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace applied himself to his buckwheat cakes in silence, and looked
+rather gloomy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, I suppose, Henry, it would hardly be safe to send Grace, on
+account of her cough."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'm so sorry you asked Dr. De Bruler a word about it, mamma; but I
+suppose I must submit," said Grace, with a face as cloudy as Horace's.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace, my son, do you really feel equal to the task of taking this
+tuft of feathers to New York?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't know why not, father; I'm willing to try."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace has good courage," said Grace, shaking her auburn curls like so
+many exclamation points. "I never could! I never would! I'd as soon have
+the care of a flying squirrel!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hollis never called me a <i>squirl</i>," said Fly, demurely. "I've got two
+brothers, and one of 'em is an angel, and the other isn't; but Hollis
+is <i>'most</i> as good as the one up in the sky."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, my son," remarked Mr. Clifford, after a pause, "if your mother
+gives her consent, I suppose I shall give mine; but it does not look
+clear to me yet. One thing is certain, Horace; if you do undertake this
+journey, you must live on the watch: you must sleep with both eyes open.
+Don't trust the child out of your sight&mdash;not for a moment. Don't even
+let go her hand on the street."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I do believe Horace will be as careful as either you or I, Henry, or I
+certainly wouldn't trust him with our last little darling," said Mrs.
+Clifford.
+</p>
+<p>
+His mother's words dropped like balm upon Horace's wounded spirit. He
+looked up, and felt himself a man again.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH2"><!-- CH2 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER II.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+THE UNDERTAKING.
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+When Flyaway knew she was going to New York, it was about as easy to fit
+her dresses as to clothe a buzzing blue-bottle fly. With spinning head
+and dancing feet, she was set down, at last, in the cars.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Here we are, all by ourselves, darling, starting off for Gotham. Wave
+your handkerchief to mamma. Don't you see her kissing her hand? There,
+you needn't spring out of the window! And I declare, Brown-brimmer, if
+you haven't thrown away your handkerchief! Here, cry into mine!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I didn't want to cry, Hollis; I wanted to laugh," said the child,
+wiping her eyes with her doll's cloak. "When you ride in carriages, you
+don't get anywhere; but when you ride in the cars, you get there right
+off."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; that's so, my dear. You are in the right of it, as you always are.
+Now I am going to turn the seat over, and sit where I can look at
+you&mdash;just so."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, that's just as splendid, Hollis! Now there's only me and Flipperty.
+There, I put her 'pellent cloak on wrong; but see, now, I've
+un-<i>wrong-side-outed</i> it! Don't she sit up like a lady?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Her name was Flipperty Flop. She was a large jointed doll (not a doll
+with large joints,) had seen a great deal of the world, and didn't think
+much of it. She came of a high family, and had such blue blood in her
+veins, that the ground wasn't good enough for her to walk on. She wore
+a "'pellent cloak" and rubber boots, and had a shopping-bag on her arm
+full of "choclid" cakes. She was nearly as large as her mother, and all
+of two years older. A great deal had happened to her before her mother
+was born, and a great deal more since. Sometimes it was dropsy, and she
+had to be tapped, when pints of sawdust would run out. Sometimes it was
+consumption, and she wasted to such a skeleton that she had to be
+revived with cotton. She had lost her head more than once, but it never
+affected her brains: she was all the better with a young head now and
+then on her old shoulders. Her present ailment appeared to be small-pox;
+she was badly pitted with pins and a penknife. "I declare I forgot to
+get a ticket for her," said Horace. "What if the conductor shouldn't
+let her pass?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Hollis, but he must?" cried Fly, springing to her feet; "<i>I</i> shan't
+pass athout my Flipperty! Tell the 'ductor 'bout my white mouses died,
+and I can't go athout sumpin to carry."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pshaw! Dotty Dimple don't carry dolls. She don't like 'em: sensible
+girls never do."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, <i>I</i> like 'em," said Flyaway, nothing daunted. "You knew it
+byfore; 'n if you didn't want Flipperty, you'd ought to not come!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace laughed, as he always did when his little sister tried her power
+over him. The conductor was an old acquaintance, and he told him how it
+stood with Flipperty, how she was needed at New York, and all that;
+whereupon Mr. Van Dusen gave Fly a little green card, and told her to
+keep it to show to all the conductors on the road; for it was a free
+pass, and would take Flipperty all over the United States.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, sir, if you please," said Fly, with a blush and a smile, and put
+the "free pass" in Miss Flop's cloak pocket.
+</p>
+<p>
+After this, she never once failed to show it, whenever Mr. Van Dusen, or
+any other conductor, came near, but always had to hunt for it, and once
+brought up a cookie instead, which fearful mistake mortified her to the
+depths of her soul.
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace was sure all eyes were fixed on his charming little charge, and
+was proud of the honor of showing her off; but he paid for it dearly; it
+cost him more than his Latin, with all the irregular verbs. There was no
+such thing as her being comfortable. She was full of care about him,
+herself, and the baggage. Flipperty lost off a rubber boot, which
+bounced over into the next seat. Horace had to ask a gentleman and his
+sick daughter to move, and, after all, it was in an old lady's lap.
+</p>
+<p>
+Then Fly's feet were cold, and Horace took her to the stove; but that
+made her eyes too hot, and she danced back, to lie with her head on his
+breast and her feet against the window, till she suddenly whirled
+straight about, and planted her tiny boots under his chin.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Topknot, Topknot, I pity that woman with the baby, if she feels as
+lame all over as I do!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Where's the baby, Hollis? O, I see."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What's the matter, now? Why upon earth can't you sit still, child?"
+said Horace, next minute, catching her as she was darting into the
+aisle, dragging Miss Flop by the hair of the head.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Hollis, don't you see there's a dolly over there, with two girls and
+a lady with red clo'es on? 'Haps they'd be willing for her to get
+'quainted with Flipperty?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, Topknot, 'haps they would, but 'haps I wouldn't. I can't have you
+dancing all over the car, in this style."
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaways's lip quivered, and a tear started. Horace was moved. One of
+Fly's tears weighed a pound with him, even when it only wet her
+eyelashes, and wasn't heavy enough to drop.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, there, darling, you just sit still,&mdash;not still enough, though, to
+give you a pain (Fly always said it gave her a pain to sit still),&mdash;and
+I'll bring the girls and dollie over here to you. Will that do?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly thought it would.
+</p>
+<p>
+A dreadful fit of bashfulness came over Horace, when he stood face to
+face with the black-eyed lady and her daughters, and tried to speak.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I've got a little girl travelling with me, ma'am; she's so&mdash;so uneasy,
+that I don't know what to do with her. Will you let me take&mdash;I mean, are
+you willing&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Bring her over here, and we will try to amuse her," said the black-eyed
+lady, pleasantly; but Horace was sure he saw the oldest girl laughing at
+him.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It's no fun to go and make a fool of yourself," thought he, leading Fly
+to the new acquaintances, and standing by as she settled herself shyly
+in the seat.
+</p>
+<p>
+"How do you do, little one? What is your name?&mdash;<i>Flyaway</i>?&mdash;Well, you
+look like it. We saw you were a darling, clear across the aisle. And you
+have a kind brother, I know."
+</p>
+<p>
+At these words Fly, for want of some answer to make, sprang forward and
+kissed Horace on the bridge of the nose.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, you've knocked off my cap."
+</p>
+<p>
+In stooping to pick it up, he awkwardly hit his head against the older
+girl, who already looked so mischievous that he was rather afraid of
+her.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Wish I could get out of the way. She expects me to speak, but I shan't.
+</p>
+<pre>
+  "'Needles and pins, needles and pins,
+    When a man travels his trouble begins.'"
+</pre>
+<p>
+Horace was obliged to stand, very ill at ease, till the black-eyed lady
+had found out where he lived, who his father was, and what was his
+mother's name before she was married.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Tell your father, when you go home, you have seen Mrs. Bonnycastle,
+formerly Ann Jones, and give him my regards. I knew he married a lady
+from Maine."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I know sumpin," struck in Fly; "if ever <i>I</i> marry anybody, I'll marry
+my own brother Hollis. I mean if I don't be a ole maid!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"And what is 'a ole maid,' you little witch?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don' know; some folks is," was the wise reply. Flyaway was about to
+add "Gampa Clifford," but did not feel well enough acquainted to talk of
+family matters.
+</p>
+<p>
+When the Bonnycastles left, at Cleveland, Horace thought that was the
+last of them. Miss Gerty was "decent-looking, looked some like Cassy
+Hallock; but he couldn't bear to see folks giggle; hoped he never should
+set eyes on those people again." Whether he ever did, you shall hear one
+of these days.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Topknot," said he, "your hair looks like a mop. Do you want all
+creation laughing at you? You'll mortify me to death."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You ought to water it. If you don't take better care o' your little
+sister, I won't never ride with you no more, Hollis Clifford!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, see that you don't, you little scarecrow," said the suffering
+boy, out of all patience. "If you are going to act in New York as you
+have on the road, I wish I was well out of this scrape."
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway was really a sight to behold. How she managed to tear her dress
+off the waist, and loose five boot buttons, and last, but not least, the
+very hat she wore on her head, <i>would</i> have been a mystery if you hadn't
+seen her run.
+</p>
+<p>
+When they reached the city, Horace put the soft, flying locks in as
+good order as he could, and tied them up in his handkerchief.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I wisht I hadn't come," whined Fly; "I don't want to wear a hangerfiss;
+'tisn't speckerble!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hush right up! I'm not going to have you get cold!&mdash;My sorrows! Shan't
+I be thankful when I get where there's a woman to take care of her?"
+</p>
+<p>
+On the platform at the depot, aunt Madge, Prudy, and Dotty Dimple, were
+waiting for them. A hearty laugh went the rounds, which Fly thought was
+decidedly silly. Aunt Madge took the young travellers right into her
+arms, and hugged them in her own cordial style, as if her heart had been
+hungry for them for many a day.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We're so glad!&mdash;for it did seem as if you'd never come," exclaimed
+Dotty Dimple.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And I'd like to know," said Horace, "how you happened to get here
+first."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, we came by express&mdash;came yesterday."
+</p>
+<p>
+"By 'spress?" cried Flyaway, pulling away from aunt Madge, who was
+trying to pin her frock together; "<i>we</i> came by a 'ductor.&mdash;Why, where's
+Flipperty's ticket?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace seized Prudy with one hand, and Dotty Dimple with the other,
+turning them round and round.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't see anything of the express mark, 'Handle with care.' What has
+become of it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, we were done up in brown paper," said Prudy, laughing, "and the
+express mark was on that; but aunt Madge took it off as soon as she got
+the packages home."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, what a story, Prudy Parlin! We didn't have a speck of brown paper
+round us. Just cloaks and hats with feathers in!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Dotty spoke with some irritation. She had all along been rather
+sensitive about being sent by express, and could not bear any allusion
+to the subject.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, that's Miss Dimple herself. Let me shake hands with your
+Dimpleship! Didn't come to New York to take a joke,&mdash;did you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, her Dimpleship came to New York to get warm," said Peacemaker
+Prudy; "and so did I, too. You don't know how cold it is in Maine."
+</p>
+<p>
+By this time they were rattling over the stones in their aunt's elegant
+carriage. It was dusk; the lamps were lighted, the streets crowded with
+people, the shops blazing with gay colors.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I didn't come here to get warm, either," said Dotty, determined to
+have the last word: "I was warm enough in Portland. I s'pose we've got a
+furnace,&mdash;haven't we?&mdash;and a coal grate, too."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I do hope Horace hasnt't got her started in a contrary fit," thought
+Prudy; "I brought her all the way from home without her saying a cross
+word."
+</p>
+<p>
+But aunt Madge had a witch's broom, to sweep cobwebs out of the sky.
+Putting her arm around Dotty, she said,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"You all came to bring sunshine into my house; bless your happy hearts."
+</p>
+<p>
+That cleared Dotty's sky, and she put up her lips for a kiss; while
+Flyaway, with her "hangerfiss" on, danced about the carriage like a fly
+in a bottle, kissing everybody, and Horace twice over.
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Cause I spect we've got there. But, Hollis," said she, with the
+comical shade of care which so often flitted across her little face,
+"you never put the trunk in here. Now that 'ductor has gone and carried
+off my nightie."
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH3"><!-- CH3 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER III.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+THE FROLIC.
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+If Aunt Madge had dressed in linsey woolsey, with a checked apron on,
+she would still have been lovely. A white rose is lovely even in a
+cracked tea-cup. But Colonel Augustus Allen was a rich man, and his wife
+could afford to dress elegantly. Horace followed her to-night with
+admiring eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+"They say she isn't as handsome as Aunt Louise, but I know better; you
+needn't tell me! Her eyes have got the real good twinkle, and that's
+enough said."
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace was like most boys; he mistook loveliness for beauty. Mrs.
+Allen's small figure, gentle gray eyes, and fair curls made her seem
+almost insignificant beside the splendid Louise; but Horace knew better;
+you needn't tell <i>him</i>!
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace," said Aunt Madge, "your Uncle Augustus is gone, and that is one
+reason, you know, why I begged for company during the holidays. You will
+be the only gentleman in the house, and we ladies herewith put ourselves
+under your protection. Will you accept the charge?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"He needn't <i>pertect</i> ME," spoke up Miss Dimple, from the depths of an
+easy-chair; "I can pertect myself."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't mind going to the Museum alone, I suppose, and crossing ferries,
+and riding in the Park, and being out after dark?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No; I'm not afraid of things," replied the strong-minded young lady;
+"ask Prudy if I am. And my father lets me go in the horse-cars all over
+Portland. That's since I travelled out west."
+</p>
+<p>
+Here the bell sounded, and the only gentleman of the house gave his arm
+to Mrs. Allen, to lead her out to what he supposed was supper, though he
+soon found it went by the name of dinner. Neither he nor his young
+cousins were accustomed to seeing so much silver and so many servants;
+but they tried to appear as unconcerned as if it were an every-day
+affair. Dotty afterwards said to Prudy and Horace, "I was 'stonished
+when that man came to the back of my chair with the butter; but I said,
+'<i>If</i> you please, sir,' just as if I 'spected it. <i>He</i> don't know but my
+father's rich."
+</p>
+<p>
+After dinner Fly's eyes drew together, and Prudy said,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, darling, you don't know what's going to happen. Auntie said you
+might sleep with Dotty and me to-night, right in the middle."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, dear!" drawled Flyaway; "when there's two abed, I sleep; but when
+there's three abed, I open out my eyes, and can't."
+</p>
+<p>
+"So you don't like to sleep with your cousins," said Dotty, "your dear
+cousins, that came all the way from Portland to see you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I do," said Fly, quickly; "my eyes'll open out; but that's no
+matter, 'cause I don't want to go to sleep; I'd ravver not."
+</p>
+<p>
+They went up stairs, into a beautiful room, which aunt Madge had
+arranged for them with two beds, to suit a whim of Dotty's.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now isn't this just splendid?" said Miss Dimple; "the carpet so soft
+your boots go in like feathers; and then such pictures! Look, Fly! here
+are two little girls out in a snow-storm, with an umbrella over 'em.
+Aren't you glad it isn't you? And here are some squirrels, just as
+natural as if they were eating grandpa's oilnuts. And see that pretty
+lady with the kid, or the dog. Any way she is kissing him; and it was
+all she had left out of the whole family, and she wanted to kiss
+somebody."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," said aunt Madge.
+</p>
+<pre>
+  "'Her sole companion in a dearth
+  Of love upon a hopeless earth.'
+</pre>
+<p>
+"If that makes you look so sober, children, I'm going to take it down.
+Here, on this bracket, is the head of our blessed Saviour."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, I'm glad," said Fly. "He'll be right there, a-looking on, when we
+say our prayers."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hear that creature talk!" whispered Dotty.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And these things a-shinin' down over the bed: who's these?" said
+Flyaway, dancing about the room, with "opened-out" eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't you know? That's Christ blessing little children," said Dotty,
+gently. "I always know Him by the rainbow round His head."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Aureole," corrected Aunt Madge.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But wasn't it just <i>like</i> a rainbow&mdash;red, blue and green?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, no; our Saviour did not really have any such crown of light, Dotty.
+He looked just like other men, only purer and holier. Artists have tried
+in vain to make his expression heavenly enough; so they paint him with
+an aureole."
+</p>
+<p>
+Prudy said nothing; but as she looked at the picture, a happy feeling
+came over her. She remembered how Christ "called little children like
+lambs to his fold," and it seemed as if He was very near to-night, and
+the room was full of peace. Aunt Madge had done well to place such
+paintings before her young guests; good pictures bring good thoughts.
+</p>
+<p>
+"All, everywhere, it's so spl-endid!" said Fly; "what's that thing with
+a glass house over it!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"A clock."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What a funny clock! It looks like a little dog wagging its tail."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's the <i>penderlum</i>," explained Dotty; "it beats the time. Every
+clock has a penderlum. Generally hangs down before though, and this
+hangs behind. I declare, Prudy, it does look like a dog wagging its
+tail."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hark! it strikes eight," said Aunt Madge. "Time little girls were in
+bed, getting rested for a happy day to-morrow."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't spect that thing knows what time it is," said Fly, gazing at
+the clock doubtfully, "and my eyes are all opened out; but if you want
+me to, auntie, I will!"
+</p>
+<p>
+So Flyaway slipped off her clothes in a twinkling.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We're going to lie, all three, in this big bed, Fly, just for one
+night," said Dotty; "and after that we must take turns which shall sleep
+with you. There, child, you're all undressed, and I haven't got my boots
+off yet. You're quicker'n a chain o' lightning, and always was."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, how did that kitty get in here?" said auntie, as a loud mewing
+was heard. "I certainly shut her out before we came up stairs."
+</p>
+<p>
+Dotty ran round the room, with one boot on, and Prudy in her stockings,
+helping their aunt in the search. The kitten was not under the bed, or
+in either of the closets, or inside the curtains.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Look ahind the <i>pendlum</i>," said Fly, laughing and skipping about in
+high glee; "look ahind the pendlum; look atween the pillow-case."
+</p>
+<p>
+Still the mewing went on.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, here is the kitty&mdash;I've found her," said auntie, suddenly seizing
+Fly by the shoulders, and stopping her mocking-bird mouth. "Poor pussy,
+she has turned white&mdash;white all over!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"You don't mean to say that was Fly Clifford?" cried Prudy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Shut her up, auntie," said Dotty Dimple; "she's a kitty. I always knew
+her name was Kitty."
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly ran and courtesied before the mirror in her nightie.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Kitty Clifford, Kitty Clifford," she cried, "when'll you be a cat?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pretty soon, if you can catch mice as well as you can mew," laughed
+auntie; "but look you, my dear; are you going to bed to-night? or shall
+I shut you down cellar?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't shut me down <i>cellow</i>, auntie," cried the mocking-bird, crowing
+like a chicken; "shut me in the barn with the banties."
+</p>
+<p>
+Next moment it occurred to the child that this style of behavior was not
+very "speckerful;" so she hastily dropped on her knees before her
+auntie, and began to say her prayers. The change was so sudden, from
+the shrill crow of a chicken to the gentle voice of a little girl
+praying, that no one could keep a sober face. Prudy ran into the closet,
+and Dotty laughed into her handkerchief.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, now, that's done," said Flyaway, jumping up as suddenly as she
+had knelt down. "Now I must pray Flipperty."
+</p>
+<p>
+And before any one could think what the child meant to do, she had
+dragged out her dolly, and knelt it on the rug, face downward, over her
+own lap.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, the wicked creature!" whispered Dotty. But Aunt Madge said nothing.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pray," said the little one, in a tone of command. Then, in a fine,
+squeaking voice, Fly repeated a prayer. It was intended to be
+Flipperty's voice, and Flipperty was too young to talk plain.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, that will do," said Aunt Madge, her large gray eyes trying not
+to twinkle; "did she ever say her prayers before?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, um; she's a goody girl&mdash;when I 'member to pray her!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, dear, I wouldn't 'pray her' any more. It makes us laugh to see
+such a droll sight, and nobody wishes to laugh when you are talking to
+your Father in heaven."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No'm," replied Flyaway, winking her eyes solemnly.
+</p>
+<p>
+But when the "three abed" had been tucked in and kissed, Fly called her
+auntie back to ask, "How can Flipperty grow up a goody girl <i>athout</i> she
+says her prayers?"
+</p>
+<p>
+There was such a mixture of play and earnestness in the child's eyes,
+that auntie had to turn away her face before she could answer seriously.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, little girls can think and feel you know; but with dollies it is
+different. Now, good night, pet; you won't have beautiful dreams, if you
+talk any more."
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH4"><!-- CH4 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER IV.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+"TAKING OUR AIRS."
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway awoke singing, and sprang up in bed, saying,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, I thought I's a car, and that's why I whissiled."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But you are not a car," yawned Prudy; "please don't sing again, or
+dance, either."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It's the <i>happerness</i> in me, Prudy; and that's what dances; it's the
+happerness."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's the worst part of Fly Clifford," groaned Dotty; "she won't keep
+still in the morning. Might have known there wouldn't be any peace after
+she got here."
+</p>
+<p>
+Dotty always came out of sleep by slow stages, and her affections were
+the last part of her to wake up. Just now she did not love Katie
+Clifford one bit, nor her own mother either.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Won't you light the lamp?" piped Flyaway.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Please don't, Fly," said Prudy; "don't talk!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Won't you light the la-amp?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, we will not," said Dotty, firmly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Won't you light the la-amp?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is this what we came to New York for?" moaned Dotty; "to be waked up in
+the middle of the night by folks singing?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Won't you light the la-amp?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'll pack my dresses, and go right home! I'll&mdash;I'll have Fly Clifford
+sleep out o' this room. Why, I&mdash;I&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Won't you light the la-amp?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Prudy sprang out of bed, convulsed with laughter, and lighted the gas;
+whereupon Fly began to dance "Little Zephyrs," on the pillow, and Dotty
+to declare her eyes were put out.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Little try-patiences, both of them," thought Prudy; "but then they've
+always had their own way, and what can you expect? I'm so glad I wasn't
+born the youngest of the family; it does make children <i>so</i>
+disagreeable!"
+</p>
+<p>
+As soon as Dotty was fairly awake, her love for her friends came back
+again, and her good humor with it. She made Fly bleat like a lamb and
+spin like a top, and applauded her loudly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It's gl-orious to have you here, Fly Clifford. I wouldn't let you go in
+any other room to sleep for anything."
+</p>
+<p>
+Which shows that the same thing looked very different to Dotty after she
+got her eyes open.
+</p>
+<p>
+When the children went down to breakfast, they found bouquets of
+flowers by their plates.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am delighted to see such happy faces." said Aunt Madge. "How would
+you all like to go out by and by, and take the air?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"We'd like it, auntie; and I'll tell you what would be prime," remarked
+Horace, from his uncle's place at the head of the table; "and that is,
+to take Fly to Stewart's, and have her go up in an elevator."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why couldn't I go up, too?" asked Dotty, with the slightest possible
+shade of discontent in her voice. She did not mean to be jealous, but
+she had noticed that Flyaway always came first with Horace, and if there
+was anything hard for Dotty's patience, it was playing the part of
+Number Two.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We'll all go up," said Aunt Madge. "I've an idea of taking you over
+to Brooklyn; and in that case we shan't come home before night."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Carry our dinner in a basket?" suggested Dotty.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, no; we'll go into a restaurant, somewhere, and order whatever you
+like."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Will you, auntie? Well, there, I never went to such a place in my life,
+only once; and then Percy Eastman, he just cried 'Fire!' and I broke the
+saucer all to pieces."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I've been to it a great many times," said Fly, catching part of Dotty's
+meaning; "my mamma bakes 'em in a freezer."
+</p>
+<p>
+At nine o'clock the party of five started out to see New York. Aunt
+Madge and Horace walked first, with Flyaway between them. "We are going
+out to take our <i>airs</i>," said the little one.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't think you need any more," said Horace, looking fondly at his
+pretty sister. "You're so airy now, it's as much as we can do to keep
+your feet on the ground."
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway wore a blue silk bonnet, with white lace around the face, a blue
+dress and cloak, and pretty furs with a squirrel's head on the muff. She
+had never been dressed so well before, and she knew it. She remembered
+hearing "Phibby" say to "Tinka," "Don't that child look like an angel?"
+Fly was sure she did, for big folks like Tinka must know. But here her
+thoughts grew misty. All the angels she had ever heard of were brother
+Harry and "the Charlie boy." How could she look like them?
+</p>
+<p>
+"Does God dress 'em in a cloak and bonnet, you s'pose?" asked she of her
+own thoughts.
+</p>
+<p>
+Prudy and Dotty Dimple wore frocks of black and red plaid, white
+cloaks, and black hats with scarlet feathers. Horace was satisfied that
+a finer group of children could not be found in the city.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Aunt Madge and I have no reason to be ashamed of them, I am sure,"
+thought he, taking out his new watch every few minutes, not because he
+wished to show it, but for fear it was losing time.
+</p>
+<p>
+"How I wish we had Grace and Susey here! and then I should have all my
+nieces," said Aunt Madge. "Is it possible these are the same children I
+used to see at Willowbrook? Here is my only nephew, that drowned Prudy
+on a log, grown tall enough to offer me his arm. (Why, Horace, your head
+is higher than mine!) Here is Prudy, who tried yesterday&mdash;didn't
+she?&mdash;to go up to heaven on a ladder, almost a young lady. Why, how old
+it makes me feel!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"But you don't look old," said Dotty, consolingly; "you don't look
+married any more than Aunt Louise?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Here they took an omnibus, and the children interested themselves in
+watching the different people who sat near them.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Aren't you glad to come?" said Dotty. "See that man getting out. What
+is that little thing he's switching himself with?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's a cane," replied Horace.
+</p>
+<p>
+"A cane? Why, if Flyaway should lean on it, she'd break it in
+two.&mdash;Prudy, look at that man in the corner; <i>his</i> cane is funnier than
+the other one."
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace laughed.
+</p>
+<p>
+"That is a pipe, Dotty&mdash;a meerschaum."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I don't see much difference," said Miss Dimple; "New York is the
+queerest place. Such long pipes, and such short canes!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly was too happy to talk, and sat looking out of the window until an
+elegantly-dressed lady entered the stage, who attracted everybody's
+attention; and then Flyaway started up, and stood on her tiptoes. The
+lady's face was painted so brightly that even a child could not help
+noticing it. It was haggard and wrinkled, all but the cheeks, and those
+bloomed out like a red, red rose. Flyaway had never seen such a sight
+before, and thought if the lady only knew how she looked, she would go
+right home and wash her face.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What a chee-arming little girl!" said the painted woman, crowding in
+between Aunt Madge and Flyaway, and patting the child's shoulder with
+her ungloved hand, which was fairly ablaze with jewels; "bee-youtiful!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway turned quickly around to Aunt Madge, and said, in one of her
+very loud whispers, "What's the matter with her? She's got sumpin on her
+face."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hush," whispered Aunt Madge, pinching the child's hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But there is," spoke up Flyaway, very loud in her earnestness; "O,
+there is sumpin on her face&mdash;sumpin red."
+</p>
+<p>
+There was "sumpin" now on all the other faces in the omnibus, and it was
+a smile. The lady must have blushed away down under the paint. She
+looked at her jewelled fingers, tossed her head proudly, and very soon
+left the stage.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Topknot, how could you be so rude?" said Horace, severely; "little
+girls should be seen, and not heard."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But she speaked to me first," said Flyaway. "I wasn't goin' to say
+nuffin, and then she speaked."
+</p>
+<p>
+A young gentleman and lady opposite seemed very much amused.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'm afraid of your bright eyes, little dear. I'll give you some candy
+if you won't tell me how I look," said the young lady, showering
+sweetmeats into Flyaway's lap.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, I wasn't goin' to tell her how she looked," whispered Fly, very
+much surprised, and trying to nestle out of sight behind Horace's
+shoulder.
+</p>
+<p>
+When they left the omnibus, the children had a discussion about the
+painted lady, and could not decide whether they were glad or sorry that
+Fly had spoken out so plainly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Good enough for her," said Dotty.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But it was such a pity to hurt her feelings!" said Prudy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Who hurted 'em?" asked Fly, looking rather sheepish.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Poh! her feelings can't be worth much," remarked Horace; "a woman
+that'll go and rig herself up in that style."
+</p>
+<p>
+"She must be near-sighted," said Aunt Madge. "She certainly can't have
+the faintest idea how thick that paint is. She ought to let somebody
+else put it on."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But, auntie, isn't it wicked to wear paint on your cheeks?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, Dotty, only foolish. That woman was handsome once, but her beauty
+is gone. She thinks she can make herself young again, and then people
+will admire her."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, but they won't; they'll only laugh."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very true, Dotty; but I dare say she never thought of that till this
+little child told her."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Fly," said Horace, "You are doing a great deal of good going round
+hurting folks' feelings."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Poor woman!" said Aunt Madge, with a pitying smile; "she might comfort
+herself by trying to make her soul beautiful."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That would be altogether the best plan," said Horace, aside to Prudy;
+"she can't do much with her body, that's a fact; it's too dried up."
+</p>
+<p>
+All this while they were passing elegant shops, and Aunt Madge let the
+children pause as long as they liked before the windows, to admire the
+beautiful things.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Whose little grampa is that?" cried Fly, pointing to a Santa Claus
+standing on the pavement and holding out his hands with a very pleasant
+smile; "he's all covered with a snow-storm."
+</p>
+<p>
+"He isn't alive," said Dotty; "and the snow is only painted on his coat
+in little dots."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I didn't spect he was alive, Dotty Dimple, only but he made
+believe he was. And O, see that hossy! he's dead, too, but he looks as
+if you could ride on him."
+</p>
+<p>
+"This other window is the handsomest, Fly; don't I wish I had some of
+those beautiful dripping, red ear-rings?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, little sister," said Prudy, "I'd as soon think of wanting a gold
+nose as those cat-tail ear-rings. What would Grandma Read say?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, she'd say 'thee' and 'thou,' I s'pose, and ask me if I called 'em
+the ornaments of meek and quiet spirits," said Dotty, with a slight curl
+of the lip. "Auntie, is it wicked to wear jewels, if your grandma's a
+Quaker?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I think not; that is, if somebody should give you a pair; but I hope
+somebody never will. It is a mere matter of taste, however. O, children,
+now I think of it, I'll give you each a little pin-money to spend,
+to-day, just as you like. A dollar each to Prudy and Dotty; and, Horace,
+here is fifty cents for Flyaway."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, you darling auntie!" cried the little Parlins, in a breath. Dotty
+shut this, the largest bill she had ever owned, into her red
+porte-monnaie, feeling sure she should never want for anything again
+that money can buy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, now, Hollis," said Fly, drawing her mouth down and her eyebrows
+up, "where's my skipt? <i>my</i> skipt?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"What? A little snip like you mustn't have money," answered Horace,
+carelessly; "auntie gave it to me."
+</p>
+<p>
+The moment he had spoken the words, he was sorry, for the child was too
+young and sensitive to be trifled with. She never doubted that her great
+cruel brother had robbed her. It was too much. Her "dove's eyes" shot
+fire. Flyaway could be terribly angry, and her anger was "as quick as a
+chain o' lightning." Before any one had time to think twice, she had
+turned on her little heel, and was running away. With one impulse the
+whole party turned and followed.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Prudy and I haven't breath enough to run," said Aunt Madge. "Here we
+are at Stewart's. You'll find us in the rotunda, Horace. Come back here
+with Fly, as soon as you have caught her."
+</p>
+<p>
+As soon as he had caught her!
+</p>
+<p>
+They were on Broadway, which was lined with people, moving to and fro.
+Horace and Dotty had to push their way through the crowd, while little
+Fly seemed to float like a creature of air.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Stop, Fly! Stop, Fly!" cried Horace; but that only added speed to her
+wings.
+</p>
+<p>
+"She's like a piece of thistle-down," laughed Horace; "when you get near
+her you blow her away."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Stop, O, stop," cried Dotty; "Horace was only in fun. Don't run away
+from us, Fly."
+</p>
+<p>
+But by this time the child was so far off that the words were lost in
+the din.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, where is she? I don't see her," exclaimed Horace, as the little
+blue figure suddenly vanished, like a puff of smoke. "Did she cross the
+street?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't know, Horace. O, dear, I don't know."
+</p>
+<p>
+It was the first time a fear had entered either of their minds. Knowing
+very little of the danger of large cities, they had not dreamed that the
+foolish little Fly might get caught in some dreadful spider's web.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH5"><!-- CH5 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER V.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+DOTTY HAVING HER OWN WAY.
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+Yes, Fly was out of sight; that was certain. Whether she had turned to
+the right, or to the left, or had merely gone straight on, fallen down,
+and been trampled on, that was the question. How was one to find out?
+People enough to inquire of, but nobody to answer.
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace had as many thoughts as a drowning man. How had he ever dared
+bring such a will-o'-the-wisp away from home? How had his mother
+consented to let him? His father had charged him, over and over, not to
+let go Fly's hand in the street. That did very well to talk about; but
+what could you do with a child that wasn't made of flesh and blood, but
+the very lightest kind of gas?
+</p>
+<p>
+"Dotty, turn down this street, and I'll keep on up Broadway. No&mdash;no;
+you'd get lost. What shall we do? Go just where I do, as hard as you can
+run, and don't lose sight of me."
+</p>
+<p>
+Dotty began to pant. She could not keep on at this rate of speed, and
+Horace saw it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You'll have to go back to Stewart's."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Where's Stewart's?" gasped Dotty, still running.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, that stone building on Tenth Street, with blue curtains, where we
+left auntie."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't know anything about Tenth Street or blue curtains."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But you'll know it when you get there. Just cross over&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Horace Clifford, I can't cross over! There's horses and carriages
+every minute; and my mother made me almost promise I wouldn't ever cross
+over."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There are plenty of policemen, Dotty; they'll take you by the
+shoulder&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Horace Clifford, they shan't take me by the shoulder! S'pose I want
+'em marching me off to the lockup?" screamed Dotty, who believed the
+lockup was the chief end and aim of policemen.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, then, I don't know anything what to do with you," said Horace, in
+despair.
+</p>
+<p>
+It seemed very hard that he should have the care of this willful little
+cousin, just when he wanted so much to be free to pursue Flyaway.
+</p>
+<p>
+"If you won't go back to Stewart's, you won't. Will you go into this
+shop, then, and wait till I call for you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"You'll forget to call."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I certainly won't forget."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, then, I'll go in; but I won't promise to stay. I want to help
+hunt for Fly just as much as you do."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Dotty Dimple, look me right in the eye. I can't stop to coax you. I'm
+frightened to death about Fly. Do you go into this store, and stay in it
+till I call for you, if it's six hours. If you stir, you're lost.
+Do&mdash;you&mdash;<i>hear</i>?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I <i>hear</i>.&mdash;H'm, he thinks my ears are thick as ears o' corn? No
+holes in 'em to hear with, I s'pose! Horace Clifford hasn't got the
+<i>say</i> o' me, though. I can go all over town for all o' him!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"What will you have, my little lady?" said a clerk, bowing to Dotty.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't want anything, if you please, sir. There was a boy, and he
+asked me to stay here while he went to find something."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very well; sit as long as you please."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Screwed right down into the floor, this piano stool is," thought Dotty;
+"makes it real hard to sit on, because you can't whirl it. Guess I'll
+walk 'round a while. Why, if here isn't a window right in the floor!
+Strong enough to walk on. There's a man going over it with big boots and
+a cane. I can look right down into the cellar. Only just I can't see any
+thing, though, the glass is so thick."
+</p>
+<p>
+Dotty watched the clerks measuring off yards of cloth, tapping on the
+counter, and calling out, "Cash." It was rather funny, at first, to see
+the little boys run; but Dotty soon tired of it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace is gone a long while," thought she, going to the door and
+looking out.
+</p>
+<p>
+"He has forgotten to call, or he's forgotten where he left me, or else
+he hasn't found Fly. Dear, dear! I can't wait. I'll just go out a few
+steps, and p'rhaps I'll meet 'em."
+</p>
+<p>
+She walked out a little way, seeing nothing but a multitude of strange
+faces.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I should think this was queer! I'll go right back to that store,
+and sit down on the piano stool. If Horace Clifford can't be more
+polite! Well, I should think!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Dotty went back, and entered, as she supposed, the store she had left;
+but a great change had come over it. It had the same counters, and
+stools, and goods on lines, marked "Selling off below cost;" but the men
+looked very different. "I don't see how they could change round so
+quick," thought Dotty; "I haven't been gone <i>more'n</i> a minute."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What shall I serve you to, mees," said one of them, with a smile that
+was all black eyes and white teeth. Dotty thought he looked very much
+like Lina <i>Rosenbug's</i> brother; and his hair was so shiny and sticky, it
+must have been dipped in molasses.
+</p>
+<p>
+She answered him with some confusion. "I don't want anything. I was the
+girl, you know, that the boy was going somewhere to find something."
+</p>
+<p>
+The man smiled wickedly, and said, "Yees, mees." In an instant it
+flashed across Dotty that she had got into the wrong store. Where was
+the glass window she had walked on? They couldn't have taken that out
+while she was gone. The floor was whole, and made of nothing but boards.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, it's very queer stores should be <i>twins</i>," thought Dotty.
+</p>
+<p>
+She entered the next one. It was not a "twin;" it was full of books and
+pictures.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why didn't Horace leave me here, in the first place, it was so much
+nicer. And they let people read and handle the pictures. O, they have
+the <i>goldest</i>-looking things!"
+</p>
+<p>
+How shocked Prudy would have been, if she had seen her little sister
+reaching up to the counter, and turning over the leaves of books, side
+by side with grown people! Miss Dimple was never very bashful; and what
+did she care for the people in New York, who never saw her before? She
+soon became absorbed in a fairy story. Seconds, minutes, quarters; it
+was a whole hour before she came to herself enough to remember that
+Horace was to call for her, and she was not where he had left her.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But he can't scold; for didn't he keep me waiting, too? Now I'll go
+back."
+</p>
+<p>
+The next place she entered was a cigar store.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I might have known better than to go in; for there's that wooden Indian
+standing there, a-purpose to keep ladies out!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, here's a 'Sample Room.' Now this <i>must</i> be the place, for it says
+'Push,' on the green door, just as the other one did."
+</p>
+<p>
+What was Dotty's astonishment, when she found she had rushed into a room
+which held only tables, bottles, and glasses, and men drinking something
+that smelt like hot brandy!
+</p>
+<p>
+"I shan't go into any more 'Sample Rooms.' I didn't know a 'Sample'
+meant whiskey! But, I do declare, it's funny where <i>my</i> store is gone
+to."
+</p>
+<p>
+The child was going farther and farther away from it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Here is one that looks a little like it Any way, I can see a glass
+window in there, on the floor."
+</p>
+<p>
+A lady stood at a counter, folding a piece of green velvet ribbon. Dotty
+determined to make friends with her; so she went up to her, and said, in
+a low voice, "Will you please tell me, ma'am, if I'm the same little
+girl that was in here before? No, I don't mean so. I mean, did I go into
+the same store, or is this a different one? Because there's a boy going
+to call for me, and I thought I'd better know."
+</p>
+<p>
+Of course the lady smiled, and said it might, or might not be the same
+place; but she did not remember to have seen Dotty before.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What was the number of the store? The boy ought to have known."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But I don't believe he did," replied Dotty, indignantly; "he never said
+a word to me about numbers. I'm almost afraid I'll get lost!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I should be quite afraid of it, child. Where do you live?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"In Portland, in the State of Maine. Prudy and I came to New York: our
+auntie sent for us&mdash;I know the place when I see it; side of a church
+with ivy; but O, dear! I'm afraid the stage don't stop there. She's at
+Mr. Stewart's&mdash;she and Prudy."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you mean Stewart's store?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, no'm; it's a man she knows," replied Dotty, confidently; "he lives
+in a blue house."
+</p>
+<p>
+The lady asked no more questions. If Dotty had said "Stewart's store,"
+and had remembered that the curtains were blue, and not the building,
+Miss Kopper would have thought she knew what to do; she would have sent
+the child straight to Stewart's.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Poor little thing!" said she, twisting the long curl, which hung down
+the back of her neck like a bell-rope, and looking as if she cared more
+about her hair than she cared for all the children in Portland. "The
+best thing you can do is to go right into the druggist's, next door but
+one, and look in the City Directory. Do you know your aunt's husband's
+name?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, yes'm. Colonel Augustus Allen, <i>Fiftieth</i> Avenue."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, then, there'll be no difficulty. Just go in and ask to look in
+the Directory; they'll tell you what stage to take. Now I must attend to
+these ladies. Hope you'll get home safe."
+</p>
+<p>
+"A handsome child," said one of the ladies. "Yes, from the country,"
+replied Miss Kopper with a sweet smile; "I have just been showing her
+the way home."
+</p>
+<p>
+Ah, Miss Kopper, perhaps you thought you were telling the truth; but
+instead of relieving the country child's perplexity, you had confused
+her more than ever. What should Dotty Dimple know about a City
+Directory? She forgot the name of it before she got to the druggist's.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Please, sir, there's something in here,&mdash;may I see it?&mdash;that shows
+folks where they live."
+</p>
+<p>
+"A policeman?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No; O, no, sir."
+</p>
+<p>
+After some time, the gentleman, being rather shrewd, surmised what she
+wanted, and gave her the book.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not that, sir," said Dotty, ready to cry.
+</p>
+<p>
+Perhaps you will be as ready to laugh, when you hear that the child
+really supposed a City Directory was an instrument that drew out and
+shut up like a telescope, and, by peeping through it, she could see the
+distant home of Colonel Allen, on "Fiftieth Avenue."
+</p>
+<p>
+The apothecary did not laugh at her; but, being a kind man, and,
+moreover, not having curls hanging down his neck which needed attention,
+he gave his whole care to Dotty, found an omnibus for her, told the
+driver just where to let her out, and made her repeat her uncle's street
+and number till he thought there was no danger of a mistake.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH6"><!-- CH6 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER VI.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+DOTTY REBUKED.
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+One would have thought that now all Dotty's troubles were over; and so
+they would have been, if she had not tried so hard to remember the
+number. She said it over and over so many times, that all of a sudden it
+went out of her mind. It was like rolling a ball on the ground, backward
+and forward, till most unexpectedly it pops into a hole. Very much
+frightened, Dotty bit her lip, twirled her front hair, and pinched her
+left cheek&mdash;all in vain; the number wouldn't come.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, dear, what'll I do? I'd open that cellar door, where the driver is;
+but he's all done up in a blue cape, and don't know anything only how
+to whip his horses. And there don't anybody know where anybody lives in
+this city; so it's no use to ask. For what do they care? They'd tell you
+to look in the Dictionary. There's nobody in Portland ever told me to
+look in a Dictionary. Here they are, sitting round here, just as happy,
+all but me. They all live in a number, and they know what it is; but
+they keep it to themselves,&mdash;they don't tell. It always makes people
+feel better to know where they're going to. When I'm in Portland I know
+how to get to Park Street, and how to get to Munjoy, and how to get to
+Back Cove, with my eyes shut. But they don't make things as they ought
+to in New York. You can't find out what to do."
+</p>
+<p>
+So the stage rumbled, and Dotty grumbled. Presently a lady in an ermine
+cloak got out, and Dotty did not know of anything better to do than to
+follow. She certainly was on Fifth Avenue, and perhaps, if she walked
+on, she should come to the number.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There isn't any house along here that looks like auntie's," said she,
+anxiously; "only they all look like it some. I never saw such a place as
+this city, So many same things right over, and over; and then, when you
+go into 'em, its just as different, and not the place you s'posed it
+was."
+</p>
+<p>
+Here Dotty ran up some steps, and rang a bell. She thought the damask
+curtains looked familiar.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, no," cried she, running down again, as fast as the mouse ran down
+the clock; "my auntie don't keep onions in her bay window, I hope!"
+</p>
+<p>
+It was hyacinth bulbs, in glass vases, which had excited Dotty's
+disgust.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, I guess I'm on the wrong side of the street; no wonder I can't find
+the house. There, I see a chamber window open; <i>our</i> chamber window was
+open. I'm going to cross over and get near enough to see if there's a
+little clock on the shelf that ticks like a dog wagging his tail."
+</p>
+<p>
+No, there was no clock of any sort, and where the shelf ought to be was
+a baby's crib.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, any way, here's that beautiful church, with ivy round it; it's
+ever so near auntie's; so I'll keep walking."
+</p>
+<p>
+Dotty was right when she said the church was near auntie's&mdash;it was
+within three doors; but she was wrong when she kept walking precisely
+the wrong way. She crossed over to Sixth Avenue. Now, where were the
+brown houses? She saw the horse-cars plodding along, and tried to read
+the words on them.
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Sixth Ave. and Fifty-Ninth Street.' Why, what's an <i>ave</i>? I never heard
+of such a thing before; we don't have 'aves' in Portland. There are ever
+so many people getting out of that car. While it stops, I'll peep in,
+and see where it's going to. Perhaps there's a name inside that tells."
+</p>
+<p>
+And, with her usual rashness, Dotty stepped upon the platform of the
+car, and looked in. What she expected to see she hardly knew,&mdash;perhaps
+"Aunt Madge's House," in gold letters; but what she really saw was, "No
+Smoking;" those two words, and nothing more.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, who wants to smoke? I'm sure <i>I</i> don't," thought Dotty,
+disdainfully, and was turning to step off the platform, when Horace
+Clifford seized her by the shoulder.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Where did you come from, you runaway?" said he, gruffly.
+</p>
+<p>
+Close beside him were Aunt Madge and Prudy; all three were getting out
+of the car.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thank Heaven, one of them is found," cried Aunt Madge, her face very
+pale, her large eyes full of trouble.
+</p>
+<p>
+Prudy kissed and scolded in the same breath. "O, Dotty Dimple, you'd
+better believe we're glad to see you?&mdash;but what a naughty girl! A pretty
+race you've led Horace, and he just wild about Fly!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"H'm! what'd he go off for, then, and leave me there, sitting on a piano
+stool? S'pose I's going to sit there all day? Didn't I want to go home
+as much as the rest of you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And how did you get home? I'd like to know that," said Horace, walking
+on with great strides, and then coming back again to the "ladies;" for
+his anxiety about his little sister would not allow him to behave
+calmly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I rode."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You weren't in the car <i>we</i> came in."
+</p>
+<p>
+"N-o; I just happened to be peeking in there you know. But I came in an
+<i>omnibius</i>."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is wonderful," said Aunt Madge, looking puzzled, "that you ever knew
+what omnibus to take."
+</p>
+<p>
+Dotty looked down to see if her boot was buttoned, and forgot to look up
+again. "Well, <i>I</i> shouldn't have known one <i>omnibius</i>, as you call it,
+from another," said Prudy, lost in admiration. "Why, Dotty, how bright
+you are! And there we were, so afraid about you, and spoke to a
+policeman to look you up."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I wouldn't let a p'liceman catch <i>me</i>," said Dotty, tossing her head.
+"But haven't you found Fly yet?"
+</p>
+<p>
+They were at home by this time, and Horace was ringing the bell.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, the dear child is still missing; but the police are on her track,"
+said Aunt Madge, looking at her watch. "It is now one o'clock. Keep a
+good heart, Horace, my boy. John shall go straight to the telegraph
+office, and wait there for a despatch. Don't you leave us, dear; we
+can't spare you, and you can do no good."
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace made no reply, except to tap the heels of his boots together. He
+looked utterly crushed. A large city was just as strange to him as it
+was to Dotty, and he could only obey his aunt's orders, and try to hope
+for the best. Dotty seemed to be the only one who felt like saying a
+word, and she talked incessantly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, what'd you send the p'lice after her for? To put her in the lockup,
+and make her cry and think she's been naughty? It's the awfulest city
+that ever I saw. Folks might send her home, if they were a mind to, but
+they won't. They don't care what 'comes of you. There's cars and stages
+going to which ways, and nothing but 'No Smoking,' inside. And I went
+and peeped in at a window, and there was <i>onions</i>! And how'd I know
+where to go to? There was a girl with a long curl, and she said, 'Go to
+the 'pothecary's;' and what would Fly have known where she meant? And he
+looked in a Dictionary, and put me in a stage,&mdash;I was going to tell you
+about that when I got ready,&mdash;and asked me if I had ten cents, and I
+had; and then I forgot what the number was, and that was the time I saw
+the onions, or I should have gone right into somebody's else's house.
+And I knew there was a church with ivy round, but Fly don't know; she's
+nothing but a baby. And I should have thought, Horace Clifford, you
+might have given her that money! That was what made her run off; you was
+real cruel, and that's why I wouldn't mind what you said. And&mdash;and&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hush," said Aunt Madge, brushing back a spray of fair curls, which the
+wind had tossed over her forehead. "I don't allow a word of scolding in
+my house. If you don't feel pleasant, Dotty, you may go into the back
+yard and scold into a hole."
+</p>
+<p>
+Dotty stopped suddenly. She knew her aunt was displeased; she felt it in
+the tones of her voice.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Dotty, the wind has been at play with your hair as well as mine.
+Suppose we both go up stairs a few minutes?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, auntie's going to reason with me," thought Dotty, winding slowly
+up the staircase; "I didn't suppose she was one of that kind."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No dear, I'm <i>not</i> one of that kind," said Mrs. Allen, roguishly; for
+she saw just what the child was thinking. "'I come not here to talk.'
+All I have to say is this: Disobey again, and I send you home
+immediately."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes'm," said the little culprit, blushing crimson. "Now, brush your
+hair, and let us go down." This was the only allusion Mrs. Allen ever
+made to the subject; but after this, she and Dotty understood each other
+perfectly. Dotty had learned, once for all, that her aunt was not to be
+trifled with.
+</p>
+<p>
+The child really was ashamed&mdash;thoroughly ashamed; but do you suppose
+she admitted it to Horace? Not she. And he, so full of anguish
+concerning the lost Fly, found not a word of fault; scarcely even
+thought of his naughty cousin at all.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH7"><!-- CH7 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER VII.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+THE LOST FLY.
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+Now we must go back and see what has become of the little one.
+</p>
+<p>
+At first her heart had swollen with rage. Anger had set her going, just
+as a blow from a battledoor sends off a shuttlecock. And, once being
+started, the poor little shuttlecock couldn't stop.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Auntie gave me that skipt. Hollis is a very wicked boy; steals skipt
+from little gee-urls. I don't ever want to see Hollis no more."
+</p>
+<p>
+What she meant to do, or where to go, she had no more idea than the blue
+clouds overhead. She had no doubt her brother was close behind, trying
+to overtake her. Her sole thought was, that she "wouldn't ever see
+Hollis no more." She knew nothing could make him so unhappy as that.
+"I'll lose me, and then how'll he feel?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Lose me!" A wild thought, gone in a moment; but meanwhile she was
+already lost.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I hope auntie won't give Hollis nuffin to eat, 'cause he's took away my
+skipt; nuffin to eat but meat and vertato, athout any pie."
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway shook her head so hard, that the "war-plume" under her bonnet
+would have nodded, if the air could have got at it. "Why, where's
+Hollis?" said she, looking back, and finding, to her surprise, he was
+not to be seen. "I spected he'd come. I thought I heard him walking
+ahind me."
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway's anger had died out by this time. It never lasted longer than
+a Fourth of July torpedo.
+</p>
+<p>
+"He didn't know I runned off. Guess I'll go back, and he'll give me the
+skipt; and then I'll forgive him all goody."
+</p>
+<p>
+A very nice plan; only, instead of going back, she turned a corner, and
+tripped along towards University Place. She had twisted her head so much
+in looking for Horace, that it was completely turned round. And,
+besides, a little farther on was a man playing a harp, and a small boy a
+violin. Fly paused and listened, till she no longer remembered Horace or
+the "skipt." She forgot this was New York, and dreamed she had come to
+fairy-land. Her soul was full of music. Happy thoughts about nothing in
+particular made her smile and clap her hands. Birds, flowers, Santa
+Clauses, Flipperties, and "pepnits" seemed to hover near. Something
+beautiful was just going to happen, she didn't know what.
+</p>
+<p>
+After the man had played for some time without attracting attention from
+any body but Flyaway and a poor old beggar woman, he put his harp in a
+green bag, slung it over his shoulder, and walked off. Flyaway followed
+without knowing it. Down Sixth Avenue went the music-man, and close at
+his heels went she. By and by she saw a little girl, no larger than
+herself, with a great bundle on her shoulders.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You don't s'pose she's got a music on <i>her</i> back?&mdash;No, not a music;
+it's too soft all swelled out in a bunch."
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly went nearer the little girl, to see what she was carrying; and as
+she did so, some gray coals, mixed with ashes, fell out of the bundle
+upon her nice cloak.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, she's been and carried off her mother's fireplace," thought Fly,
+shaking her cloak in disgust; "what you s'pose she wanted to do that
+for?"
+</p>
+<p>
+But far from carrying off her mother's fireplace, the ragged little girl
+had only been picking up old coal out of barrels, and was taking it home
+to burn. It had already been burned once, and picked over and burned
+again, and thrown away; but perhaps this poor child's mother could coax
+it into a faint glow, warm enough to fry a few potatoes.
+</p>
+<p>
+While Flyaway was shaking her cloak, and staring at some old silk
+dresses and bed-quilts, which were hung before a shop-door, the man with
+the harp on his back, and the boy with a violin under his arm, had
+turned a corner, and passed out of sight. Flyaway rubbed her eyes, and
+looked again. They must have gone down through the brick pavement, but
+she couldn't see any hole. Far away in the distance she heard their
+music again, and it did not come from under ground. She ran to overtake
+it, and turned into Bleecker Street. No music-man there, but a good
+supply of oranges and apples.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Needn't folks put their hands in, and take some out the barrels? Then
+why for did the folks put 'em on' doors?"
+</p>
+<p>
+While pondering this grave question, she was jostled by a man carrying a
+rocking-chair, and very nearly fell down stairs into an oyster-saloon. A
+minute more and she was back on Broadway, the very street, where Aunt
+Madge and Prudy were waiting for her, but so much lower down that she
+might as well have been in the State of Maine.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now, I'll go find my Hollis," said she turning another corner, and
+running the wrong way with all her might. Past candy-stalls, past
+toy-shops, past orange-wagons. Hark, music again! Not the soft strains
+of a harp, but the stirring notes of bugle, fife, and drum. Fly kept
+time with her feet.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Here we go marchin' on," hummed she. But the crowd "marchin' on" with
+her was a strange one. Carts full of hammers, pincers, and all sorts of
+iron tools, and men in gray shirts, with black caps on their heads. Some
+of the men had banners, with great black words, such as "Equal Rights,"
+or something like them, in German; but of course Fly could not tell one
+letter from another. She only knew it was all very "homebly," in spite
+of the music. She began to think she had better get away as soon as she
+could; so she tried to cross the street, but some one held her back; it
+was a lady, carrying a small dog in her arms, like a baby.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't go there, child; that's a strike, you'll get killed."
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly knew but one meaning for the word <i>strike</i>; and, tearing herself
+from the lady, ran screaming down Broadway, with the thought that every
+man's hand was against her.
+</p>
+<p>
+On she went, and on went the strike, close behind her. A little while
+ago she had been following music, and now music was following her. But
+the fifes and drums were rather slow, and Flyaway's feet were very
+swift; so it was not long before the gray men, with their white banners
+and clattering carts, were far behind her. No danger now that any of the
+wicked creatures would strike her; so she slackened her pace.
+</p>
+<p>
+She did begin to wonder why she had not found Horace; still, she was not
+at all alarmed, and there was a dreadful din in the streets, which
+confused her thoughts. It seemed as if people were making it on purpose.
+Once, at Willowbrook, she had heard boys banging tin pans, grinding
+coffee mills, and pounding with mortars. She had liked that,&mdash;they
+called it the "Calathumpian Band,"&mdash;and she liked this too; it sounded
+about as uproarious.
+</p>
+<p>
+While she sauntered along, spying wonders, her eye was attracted by some
+balancing-toys, which a man was showing off at one of the corners. What
+a pleasant man he was, to set them spinning just to amuse little girls!
+Fly was delighted with one wee soldier, in a blue coat with brass
+buttons, who kept dancing and bowing with the greatest politeness.
+"Captain Jinks, of the horse-marines," said the toy-man, introducing
+him. "Buy him, miss; he'll make a nice little husband for you; only
+fifteen cents."
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly felt quite flattered. It was the first time in her life any one had
+ever asked her to buy anything, and she thought she must have grown tall
+since she came from Indiana. She put her fingers in her mouth, then took
+them out, and put them in her pocket.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Here's my porte-monnaie-ry," said she, dolefully; "but I haven't but
+two cents&mdash;no more. Hollis carried it off."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, well, run along, then. Don't you see you're right in the way?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly was surprised and grieved at the change in the man's tone: she had
+expected he would pity her for not having any money.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Come here, you little lump of love," called out a mellow voice; and
+there, close by, sat a wizened old woman, making flowers into nosegays.
+She had on a quilted hood as soft as her voice, but everything else
+about her was as hard as the door-stone she sat on.
+</p>
+<p>
+"See my beautiful flowers," said the old crone, pointing to the table
+before her; "who cares for them jumping things over yonder? I don't."
+</p>
+<p>
+The flowers were tied in bouquets&mdash;sweet violets, rosebuds, and
+heliotrope. Fly, whose head just reached the top of the table, smelt
+them, and forgot the "little husband, for fifteen cents."
+</p>
+<p>
+"He's a cross man, dearie," said the old woman, lowering her voice, "or
+he wouldn't have sent you off so quick, just because you hadn't any
+money. Now, I love little girls, and I'll warrant we can make some kind
+of a trade for one of my posies."
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly smiled, and quickly seized a bouquet with a clove pink in it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not so fast, child! What you got that you can give me for it? I don't
+mind the money. That old pocket-book will do, though 'tain't wuth much."
+</p>
+<p>
+It was very surprising to Fly to hear her port-monnaie called old; for
+it was bought last week, and was still as red as the cheeks of the
+painted lady.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't <i>dass</i> to give folks my porte-monnaie-ry," said she, clutching
+it tighter, but holding the flowers to her nose all the while.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, fudge! Well, what else you got in your pocket? A handkerchief?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, my hangerfiss is in my muff."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That? Why, there isn't a speck o' lace on it. Nice little ladies always
+has lace. Here's a letter in the corner; what is it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hollis says it's K; stands for Flyaway."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, you're such a pretty little pink, I guess I'll take it; but
+'tain't wuth lookin' at," said the crafty old woman, who saw at a glance
+it was pure linen, and quite fine.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now run along, baby; your mummer will be waitin' for you."
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly walked on slowly. Ought she to have parted with her very best
+hangerfiss!
+</p>
+<p>
+"Nice ole lady, loved little gee-urls; but what you s'pose folks was
+goin' to cry into now?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Tears started at the thought. One of them dropped into the eye of the
+squirrel, who sat on the muff, peeping up into her face.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Nice ole lady, I s'pose; but folks never wanted to buy my
+<i>hangerfisses</i> byfore!" thought Fly, much puzzled by the state of
+society in New York. "And I've got some beau-fler flowers to my auntie's
+house. Wake up&mdash;wake up!" added she, blowing open a pink rose-bud;
+"you's too little for me."
+</p>
+<p>
+But the bud did not wish to wake up and be a rose; it curled itself
+together, and went to sleep again.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't see where Hollis stays to all the time," exclaimed the little
+one, beginning to have a faint curiosity about it.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH8"><!-- CH8 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER VIII.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+"THE FRECKLED DOG."
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+But just then a gentle-looking blind girl came along led by a dog. The
+sight was so strange that Flyaway stopped to admire; for whatever else
+she might be afraid of, she always loved and trusted a dog.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Doggie, doggie," cried she, patting the little animal's head.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, <i>what</i> a sweet voice," said the blind girl, putting out her hand and
+groping till she touched Fly's shoulder. "I never heard such a voice!"
+</p>
+<p>
+This was what strangers often said, and Flyaway never doubted the
+sweetness was caused by eating so much candy; but just now she had had
+none for two days.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What makes you shut your eyes up, right in the street, girl? Is the
+<i>seeingness</i> all gone out of 'em?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, you darling. I haven't had any seeingness in my eyes for a year."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You didn't? Then you's <i>blind-eyed</i>," returned Flyaway, with perfect
+coolness.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And don't you feel sorry for me&mdash;not a bit?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, 'cause your dog is freckled so pretty."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But I can't see his freckles."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, he's got 'em. Little yellow ones, spattered out all over him."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But if I had eyes like you, I shouldn't need any dog. I could go about
+the streets alone."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I don't like to go 'bout the streets alone; I want my own
+brother Hollis."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I hope you haven't got lost, little dear?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No," laughed Fly, gayly; "I didn't get lost! But I don't know where
+nobody is! And there don't nobody know where <i>I</i> am!"
+</p>
+<p>
+The blind girl took Fly's little hand tenderly in hers.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Come, turn down this street with me, and tell me all about it."
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly trudged along, prattling merrily, for about a minute: then she drew
+away. "'Tisn't a nice place; I don't want to go there."
+</p>
+<p>
+A look of pain crossed the blind girl's face.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, I dare say you don't. It isn't much of a place for folks with silk
+bonnets on."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You can't see my bonnet; you can't see anything, you're blind-eyed;
+but," said Fly, glancing sharply around, "it isn't pretty here, at all;
+and there's a dead cat right in the street."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I think likely."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And there's a boy. I spect he frowed the cat out the window; he hasn't
+nuffin on but dirty cloe's."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you see some steps?" said the blind girl, putting her hand out
+cautiously. "Don't fall down."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I shan't fall down; I'm going home."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, don't child; you must come with me. My mother will take care of
+you."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't want nobody's mother to take 'are o' me; I've got a mamma
+myself!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"How little you know!" said the blind girl, thinking aloud; "how lucky
+it is I found you! and O, dear, how I wish I could see! You'll slip
+away in spite of me."
+</p>
+<p>
+But Flyaway allowed herself to be drawn along, step by step, partly
+because she liked the "freckled dog," and partly because she had not
+ceased being amused by the droll sight of a person walking with closed
+eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What's the name of you, girl?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Maria."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Maria? So was my mamma; her name was Maria, when she was a little girl.
+O, look, there's another boy; don't you see him? Up high, in that house.
+Got a big box with a string to it."
+</p>
+<p>
+A very rough-looking boy was standing at a third-story window, lowering
+a bandbox by a clothes-line. As Fly watched the box slowly coming down,
+the boy called out,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"Get in, little un, and I'll give you a free ride."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, no&mdash;O, no; I don't <i>dass</i> to."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, yes; go in, lemons," said the boy, choking with laughter, as he
+saw the child's horror. "If you don't do it, by cracky, I'll come down
+and fetch you."
+</p>
+<p>
+At this, Fly was frightened nearly out of her senses, and ran so fast
+that the dog could scarcely have kept up with her, even if he had not
+had a blind mistress pulling him back.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, where are you?" exclaimed Maria. "Don't run away from me,&mdash;don't!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"He's a-gon to kill me in two," cried Flyaway, stopping for breath.'
+"he's a-gon to kill me in two-oo!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, he isn't, dear! It's only Izzy Paul He couldn't catch you, if he
+tried. He's lame, and goes on crutches."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But he said a swear word,&mdash;yes he, did," sobbed the child, never
+doubting that a boy who could swear was capable of murder, though he had
+neither hands nor feet.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Stop, now," said Maria, clutching Fly as if she had been a spinning
+top. "This is my house. Mother, mother, here's a little girl; catch
+her&mdash;hold her&mdash;keep her!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Me? What should I catch a little girl for?" said Mrs. Brooks, a faded
+woman with a tired face, and a nose that moved up and down when she
+talked. She had been standing at the door of their tumbledown tenement,
+looking for her daughter, and was surprised to see her bringing a
+strange child with her. It was not often that well-dressed people
+wandered into that dirty alley.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The poor little thing has got lost, mother. Perhaps <i>you</i> can find out
+where she came from. I didn't ask her any questions; it was as much as I
+could do to keep up with her."
+</p>
+<p>
+Maria put her hand on her side. Fast walking always tired her, for she
+was afraid every moment of falling.
+</p>
+<p>
+They had to go down a flight of stairs to get into the house; and after
+they got there Fly looked around in dismay.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't want to stay in the stable," she murmured. Indeed it was not
+half as nice as the place where her father kept his horse.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But this is where we have to live," sighed Maria.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Have things to eat?" asked the little stranger, in a solemn whisper.
+</p>
+<p>
+There were a few chairs with broken backs, a few shelves with clean
+dishes, a few children with hungry faces. In one corner was a clumsy
+bedstead, and in a tidy bed lay a pale man.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Who've you got there, Maria?" said he. "Bring her along, and stick her
+up on the bed."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't be afraid," said Mrs. Brooks; "it's only pa; wouldn't the little
+girl like to talk to him? He's sick."
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway was not at all afraid, for the man smiled pleasantly, and did
+not look as if he would hurt anybody. Mrs. Brooks set her on the bed,
+and Maria, afraid of losing her, held her by one foot. The children all
+crowded around to see the little lady in a silk bonnet holding a
+button-hole bouquet to her bosom.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ain't she a ducky dilver!" said the oldest boy. "Pa'll be pleased, for
+he don't see things much. Has to keep abed all the time."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Brooks tried to smile, and Flyaway whispered to Maria, with sudden
+pity,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"Sorry he's sick. Has he got to stay sick? Can't you find the camphor
+bottle?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, father, she thinks if ycu had some camphor to smell of, 'twould cure
+you."
+</p>
+<p>
+Then they all laughed, and Fly timidly offered the sick man her flowers.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What, that pretty posy for me? Bless you, baby, they'll do me a sight
+more good than camfire!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"There," said Maria, joyfully, "now pa is pleased; I know by the sound
+of his voice. Poor pa! only think, little girl, a stick of timber fell
+on him, and lamed him for life!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," said Bennie, "the lower part of him is as limber as a rag."
+</p>
+<p>
+"She don't sense a word you say," remarked Mrs. Brooks, shaking up a
+pillow, "See what we can get out of her. What's your name, dear?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Katie Clifford."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Where do you live?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I <i>have</i> been borned in Nindiana."
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly spoke with some pride. She considered her birth an honor to the
+state.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But where did you come from, Katie? That's what we mean."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I camed from heaven," said the child, with one of her wise looks.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Beats all, don't she?" cried Mr. Brooks, admiringly. "Looks like an
+angel, I declare for't. Did you just drop down out of the sky?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, sir," answered Flyaway, folding her little hands as if she were
+saying her prayers; "I camed down when I was a baby."
+</p>
+
+<a name="image-1"><!-- Image 1 --></a>
+<p class="figure">
+<img src="angel.jpg" width="80%"
+alt="'I Camed Down when I Was a Baby.'"><br />
+<b>'I Camed Down when I Was a Baby.'</b></p>
+
+<p>
+"That's what makes your hair so <i>goldy</i>," said Bennie. "Mother, did you
+ever see such eyes? Say, did you ever? So soft, and kinder shiny, too."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Children, don't stare at her; it makes her uneasy."
+</p>
+<p>
+"<i>I</i> can't stare at her," said Maria, bitterly. "I suppose you don't
+mean me, mother."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brooks only answered her poor daughter by a kiss.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, little Katie, after you were born in <i>Nindiana</i>, you came to New
+York. When did you come?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"One of these other days I camed here with Hollis."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Who's Hollis?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"He's my own brother. Got a new cap. Had his hair cut."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Who did you come to New York to see?"  "My auntie."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Her auntie! A great deal of satisfaction we are likely to get out of
+this child," said Mr. Brooks, laughing. He had not laughed before for a
+week.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What's your auntie's name?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Aunt Madge."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is she married?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, yes; and so's Uncle 'Gustus. Married together, and live together,
+just the same."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Uncle 'Gustus who? Now we'll come at it!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Alling," replied Fly, her quick eyes roving about the room, for she was
+tired of these questions.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Allen, Augustus Allen!" said Mr. Brooks, in surprise; "I wonder if
+there can be two of them. Tell me, child, how does he look?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't look like you," replied Fly, after a keen survey of Mr. Brooks.
+"Your face is pulled away down long, like that;" (stretching her hand
+out straight) "Uncle 'Gustus's face is squeezed up short" (doubling her
+hand into a ball)
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'll warrant it is the colonel himself," said Mrs. Brooks, smiling at
+the description.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, that's the name of him; the 'kernil's' the name of him."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is it possible!" said Mr. Brooks, looking very much pleased.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Uncle 'Gustus has curly hair on his cheeks, on his mouf, all round.
+<i>Not</i> little prickles, sticking out like needles."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, you girl!" said Bennie, frowning at Fly. "You mustn't laugh at my
+pa's beard. There's a man comes in, sometimes, and shaves him nice; but
+now the man's gone to Newark."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is it possible," repeated Mrs. Brooks, taking the child's hand, "that
+this is Colonel Allen's little niece, and my Maria found her!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Your Maria didn't find me," said Fly, decidedly; "I founded Maria."
+</p>
+<p>
+"So she did, pa. The first thing I knew, I heard somebody calling,
+Doggie, doggie,' in such a sweet voice; and then I looked&mdash;no, of course
+I <i>couldn't</i> look."
+</p>
+<p>
+Here the discouraged look came over Maria's mouth, and she said no more.
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, there, cheer up, daughter," said Mr. Brooks, with tears in his
+eyes; "I was only going on to say, it is passing strange that any of our
+family should run afoul of one of the colonel's folks."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It's the Lord's doings; I haven't the slightest doubt of it," said Mrs.
+Brooks, earnestly. "You know what I've been saying to you, pa."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, there, ma'am, <i>don't</i>," said Mr. Brooks; "don't go to raising
+false hopes. You know I'm too proud to beg of anybody's folks."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, pa, I shouldn't call it begging just to tell Colonel Allen how you
+are situated! Do you suppose, if he knew the facts of the case, he'd be
+willing to let you suffer? Such a faithful man as you used to be to
+work."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, I think it's likely he wouldn't. He's got more heart than some rich
+folks; but I hain't no sort of claim on the colonel, if I did help build
+his house. And then, ma'am, you know I've been kind o' hopin'&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Guess I'll go now, and find Hollis," said Fly, slipping down from the
+bed, for the talk did not interest her.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, but I want to go with you, Katie," said Mrs. Brooks, coaxingly.
+"Bennie, you amuse her, while I change my dress."
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH9"><!-- CH9 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER IX.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+MARIA'S MOTHER.
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+"I know your uncle must feel dreadfully to lose you; but never
+mind&mdash;he'll see you soon," said Mr. Brooks.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Uncle 'Gustus isn't there."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not there?" said Mrs. Brooks, turning round from the cracked
+looking-glass. "Where then?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, he's gone off."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Gone off? Why, pa, ain't that too bad? I'm right up and down
+disappointed. But, then, the colonel has a wife; I can go to see her,
+you know; and I'll tell her just how you're situ&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"My Aunt Madge is gone off, too."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You don't say so!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"And my brother Hollis is gone."
+</p>
+<p>
+"This is a funny piece of work if it's true," said Mr. Brooks, with
+another genuine laugh; "you'd better ask her a few more questions before
+you start out. Who else is gone? Have they shut the house up?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, sir; shut it right up tight."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Nobody in it, at all?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, only the men and women. Prudy's gone, and Dotty Dimple's gone, and
+I'm gone."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Only the men and women, she says. That must be the servants. So the
+house must be open, pa. At any rate, I shall take her. Say by-bye, my
+pretty, and we'll be starting."
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly was very glad to go, but Maria clung to her fondly, and Bennie ran
+after her almost to Broadway, where Mrs. Brooks took a Fifth Avenue
+stage. She knew Colonel Allen's house very well, for she had seen it
+more than once, while it was in process of building. That was two or
+three years ago, when her husband was well, and the family lived very
+comfortably on Thirty-third Street. She sighed as she thought how
+different it was now. Mr. Brooks would never be able to work any more;
+they hardly had food enough to eat, and poor Maria had lost her
+eyesight.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Here we are, little Katie," said she.
+</p>
+<p>
+But the child did not wait to be helped out; she danced down the steps,
+and would have flown across the street, if Mrs. Brooks had not caught
+her.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I see it&mdash;I see it; my auntie's house. But there isn't nobody to it."
+</p>
+<p>
+The man who met them at the door was so surprised and delighted to see
+Fly, that he forgot his manners, and did not ask Mrs. Brooks in.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Bless us, the baby's found!" cried he, and ran to spread the news.
+</p>
+<p>
+Aunt Madge was walking the parlor floor, and Horace sitting on the sofa,
+as rigid as the marble elf Puck, just over his head. Prudy and Dotty had
+joined hands, and were crying softly on the rug. As the police had been
+notified of Fly's loss, all the family had to do was to wait. A servant
+was at the nearest telegraph office, with a horse and carriage, and at
+the first tidings would drive home and report.
+</p>
+<p>
+The words "The baby's found" rang through the house like a peal of
+bells. In an instant Flyaway Runaway was clasped in everybody's arms,
+and wet with everybody's tears.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thought I'd come back," said the little truant, peeping up at her
+agitated friends' with some surprise; "thought I'd come back and get my
+skipt!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Then they exclaimed, in chorus,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"Topknot <i>shall</i> have her skipt! The blessed baby! The darling old Fly!"
+</p>
+<p>
+And Dotty wound up by saying,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, you see, we thought you's dead!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Flyaway, who had at first been very much astonished at the fuss made
+over her, now looked deeply offended.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Who said I's dead? What&mdash;a&mdash;drefful&mdash;lie!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, nobody said so, Fly; only we thought p'rhaps you was; and <i>what</i>
+would we do without you, you know?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, if I's dead," said Fly, untying her bonnet strings, "then the
+funy-yal would come round and take me; that's all."
+</p>
+<p>
+"We are most grateful to you," said Aunt Madge, turning to Mrs. Brooks,
+"for bringing home this lost child; but do tell us where you found her."
+</p>
+<p>
+Then Mrs. Brooks related all she knew of Fly's wanderings, the little
+one putting in her own explanations.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I didn' be lost," said she sharply. "I feel jus' like frettin', when
+you say I's lost. 'Tis the truly truth; I's walking on the streets, and
+a naughty woman, she's got my hangerfiss&mdash;had ashes roses on it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I put some otto of rose on it this morning," said Prudy. "What a
+shame!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"And I gave my flowers to the sick man. He was on the bed, with a blue
+bed-kilt. A girl name o' Maria, tookened me home. The seeingness is all
+gone out of her eyes, so she can't see."
+</p>
+<p>
+"How long has your husband been sick?" asked Mrs. Allen of the woman,
+while she was taking lunch in the dining-room. "Did you tell me he knew
+Colonel Allen?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brooks dropped her knife and fork; but her lips trembled so she
+could not speak. Flyaway, who sat in Horace's lap, eating ginger-snaps,
+exclaimed, "She wants some perjerves, auntie. She don't get no
+perjerves, nor nuffin nice to her house."
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Sh!" whispered Horace. The woman looked so respectable and well bred,
+that it seemed a great rudeness to allude to her poverty.
+</p>
+<p>
+But Mrs. Brooks drank some water, and then answered Aunt Madge,
+calmly,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'm not ashamed of being poor, Mrs. Allen; it's no disgrace, for there
+never was an honester man than my husband, nor none that worked harder,
+till a beam fell on him from the roof of a house, two years ago, and he
+lost the use of his limbs.&mdash;Yes, ma'am; he did use to know your husband.
+He was one of the workmen that helped build this house. I came and
+looked on when he was setting these very doors."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What is his name?" asked Aunt Madge, looking very much interested, and
+taking out her note-book and pencil. "What street and number?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Cyrus Brooks, Number Blank, Blank Street, ma'am. Before the accident,
+we lived on Thirty-third Street, in very good shape; but, little by
+little, we were obliged to sell off, and finally had to move into pretty
+snug quarters. But we've always got enough to eat, such as it was,"
+added the good woman, trying not to show much she enjoyed her lunch.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am very glad Providence has sent you here, Mrs. Brooks," said Aunt
+Madge, warmly. "I know Colonel Allen will seek you out when he comes
+home next week; but I shall not wait for that; I shall write him this
+very night."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brooks' heart was so full that she had to cry into a coarse purple
+handkerchief of Bennie's, which happened to be in her pocket, and felt
+very much ashamed because she could not find her voice again, or any
+words in which to tell her gratitude. It was just as well, though. Mrs.
+Allen knew words were not everything. It gave her pleasure to fill a
+huge basket with nice things&mdash;wine and jelly for the sick man, plain
+food for the family, and a pretty woolen dress for Maria, which had been
+intended for Mrs. Fixfax, the housekeeper.
+</p>
+<p>
+The children looked on delighted, while the basket was filled with
+these articles, then passed over to Nathaniel, who was going home with
+Mrs. Brooks. It was amusing to watch Nathaniel, with the monstrous
+burden in his hands trying to help Mrs. Brooks down the front steps; for
+Aunt Madge was not enough of a fine lady to send the pair around by the
+servants' door.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was pleasant, too, to watch Mrs. Brooks's happy face, half hidden in
+the hood of her water-proof cloak, which kept puffing out, in the high
+wind, like a sail. She was going home to tell her husband the Lord had
+heard her prayers, and she had found a friend.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And you may depend I never talked so easy to anybody in my life, pa;"
+this was what she thought she should say. "I didn't <i>have</i> to beg. Mrs.
+Allen is one of the Lord's own; I saw it the minute I clapped my eyes
+on her face."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am going to see that woman to-morrow, and ask some questions about
+her blind daughter," said Aunt Madge, turning away from the window.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ask 'bout her nose, too."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Whose nose, Fly?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"The woman's. It keeps a-moving when she talks."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, who else noticed that?" exclaimed Horace, tossing his young
+sister aloft. "It takes Fly, with her little eye, to see things."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But I didn't ask her nuffin 'bout it, though, Horace Clifford. God made
+her so, with a wire in."
+</p>
+<p>
+Everybody smiled at the notion of Mrs. Brooks being a wax doll.
+</p>
+<p>
+"What a queer day it has been!" said Prudy. "Nothing but hide and seek.
+We'll all keep together next time, and lock hands tight."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Of course," said Dotty, quickly; "but look here; don't you think
+'twould be safer not to let Fly go with us? She was the one that made
+all the fuss."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Want to know if she was," said Horace, slyly. "Guess there are two
+sides to that story."
+</p>
+<p>
+"At any rate," struck in Aunt Madge, "Fly was the one that did the most
+business. You went round doing good&mdash;didn't you, dear?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Little city missionary," said Horace.
+</p>
+<p>
+Whereupon Miss Fly modestly dropped her head on her brother's shoulder.
+She concluded she had done something wonderful in running after a dog.
+</p>
+<p>
+"On the whole," continued auntie, "we've all had a very hard time. It's
+only three o'clock; but seems to me the day has been forty hours long.
+Let us rest, now, and have a quiet little evening, and go to bed early."
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH10"><!-- CH10 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER X.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+FIVE MAKING A CALL.
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+The next morning everybody felt fresh, and ready for new adventures.
+</p>
+<p>
+"All going but the cat," said Fly, never doubting that her own company
+was most desirable.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Look up in my eyes, little Topknot with the blue bonnet on. Will you
+run away from brother Hollis again?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not if you don't take my skipt," replied Fly, looking as innocent as a
+spring violet.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And look up in <i>my</i> eyes, Horace Clifford. Will you run away from
+Cousin Dotty, again?" said Miss Dimple, in a hurry to speak before Aunt
+Madge came up to them, and before Horace had time for a joke.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I didn't run away from you, young lady, but I ran <i>after</i> you, if I
+remember," said Horace, dryly. "I don't mean to pursue you with my
+attentions to-day. You seem to be able to take care of yourself."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Look," cried Aunt Madge, coming up to them with Prudy; "did you ever
+before see a span of horses with a dog running between them?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Never," said Doty; "what splendid horses! and don't the dog have to
+trot, to keep up? How do you suppose he happened to get in there?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, he has been trained to it; dogs often are. Now, my young friends, it
+seems we have started for Brooklyn again; but on our way to Fulton
+Ferry, I would like to stop and see the Brooks family. We must all go
+together, though. 'United we stand, divided we fall.'"
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's so," said Horace, as they entered the stage. "But, auntie, do
+you have perfect faith in the story that woman tells? Perhaps her
+hushand is only just lazy, and her daughter shams blindness. You know
+what humbugs some of 'em are. I've read there's something they rub over
+their eyes, that gives 'em the appearance of being as blind as a bat."
+</p>
+<p>
+Prudy looked up at Horace with admiration and respect. He spoke like a
+person of deep wisdom and wide experience.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We will see for ourselves what we think of the family," said Aunt
+Madge.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now," said she, after they had ridden a mile or two, "we must get out
+here, and walk a few blocks to the house. Fly, hold your brother's hand
+tight."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There's the chamer where the boy lives that says swear words; and
+there's the boy, ahind the window."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Have a free ride, little girl?" shouted Izzy Paul, laughing; for he
+remembered faces as well as Fly did, and saw at once that it was the
+same child he had frightened so the day before. But Fly never knew fear
+where Horace was; she clung to him, and peeped out boldly between her
+fingers.
+</p>
+<p>
+When they went "down cellow," as she called it, into Mr. Brooks's house,
+Aunt Madge was surprised to see how bare it looked. But Dotty Dimple
+need not have held her skirts so tightly about her, and brushed her
+elbow so carefully when it hit against the wall; for the house was as
+clean as hands could make it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Mrs. Brooks, I hope you will forgive me for coming down upon you with
+this little army," said Mrs. Allen, with such a cheery smile that the
+sick man on the bed felt as if a flood of pure sunshine had burst into
+the room. He was so tired of lying there, day after day, like a great
+rag baby, and so glad to see anybody, especially the good lady who, his
+wife said, was "so easy to talk to!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Auntie, look! see the freckled doggie; and there's my flowers, true's
+you live," cried Flyaway.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, pa wanted them in a vial, close to his bed; it's the first he's
+seen this winter," said Maria, stroking Fly as if she had been a kitten.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You may be sure, little lady, it will be as I said; they'll cure me
+full as quick as camphire. And, thank the Lord, I can see as well as
+smell," said Mr. Brooks, with a tender glance at Maria which made
+Horace feel ashamed of himself. The idea of that poor child's rubbing
+anything into her eyes? Why, she looked like a wounded bird that had
+been out in a storm. Her face was really almost beautiful, but so sad
+that you could not see it without a feeling of pity.
+</p>
+<p>
+"She looks as if she was walking in her sleep," thought Prudy, and
+turned away to hide a tear; for somehow there was a chord in her heart
+that thrilled strangely. That "slow winter" came back to her with a
+rush, and she was sure she knew how Maria felt.
+</p>
+<p>
+"She is blind, and I was lame; but it is the same kind of a feeling. O,
+how I wish I could help her!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Dotty was as sorry for Maria as she knew how to be, but she could not be
+as sorry as Prudy was; for she had never had any trouble greater than a
+sore throat.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't see why the tears don't come into my eyes as easy as they do
+into Prudy's," thought she, trying to squeeze out a salt drop; "Mrs.
+Brooks'll think I don't care a speck; but I do care."
+</p>
+<p>
+As for wee Fly, she took Maria's blindness to heart about as much as she
+did the murder of the Hebrew children off in Judea.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pitiful 'bout her seeingness; but I wished I had such a beauful dog!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Aunt Madge was struck with the exalted expression of Maria's face. The
+child was only thirteen, but suffering had made her look much older.
+</p>
+<p>
+"My child," said she, putting her arm around the little girl, and
+drawing her towards her, "I know you see a great deal with your mind,
+even though your eyes are shut. Now, do tell me all about your
+misfortune, and how it happened, for I came on purpose to hear."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, we camed to purpose to hear," said Fly, from the foot-board of the
+bed, where she had perched and prattled every moment since she came in.
+"I founded Maria, and then I went up to her, and says I, 'Doggie,
+doggie!'"
+</p>
+<p>
+"That was a pretty way to speak to her, I should think," said Dotty;
+"but can't you just please to hush while auntie is talking?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"As near as I can tell the story," said Mrs. Brooks, rattling the poor
+old coal-stove,&mdash;for she always had to be moving something else, as well
+as her nose, when she talked,&mdash;"she lost her sight by studying too
+hard, and then getting cold in her eyes."
+</p>
+<p>
+"She was always a master hand to study," put in Mr. Brooks.
+</p>
+<p>
+Maria looked as if she wanted to run and hide. She did not like to have
+her father praise her before people.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," said Mrs. Brooks, setting a chair straight; "and by and by the
+<i>leds</i> began to draw together, and she couldn't keep 'em open; and there
+was such a pain in her eyes, too, that I had to be up nights, bathing
+'em in all kinds of messes."
+</p>
+<p>
+"<i>Don't</i> her nose jiggle?" whispered Fly to Horace.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Of course you took her to a good physician?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, yes; we thought he was good. We went to three, off and on, but
+she kept growing worse and worse. It was about the time her father was
+hurt, and we spent an awful sight on her, till we couldn't spend any
+more."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And it was all a cheat and a swindle," exclaimed Mr. Brooks,
+indignantly. "We'd better have spent the money for a horsewhip, and
+whipped them doctors with it!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't, pa, don't! You see, Mrs. Allen, he gets so excited about it he
+don't know what he says."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I wonder you did not take her to the City Hospital, Mrs. Brooks. There
+she could be treated free of expense."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The fact is, we didn't dare to," replied Mrs. Brooks, taking up an old
+shoe of Bennie's, and beginning to brush it; "there are folks that have
+told us it ain't safe; they try experiments on poor folks."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, I don't believe you need fear the City Hospital," said Mrs. Allen;
+"the physicians there are honest men, and among the most skillful in
+the country."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But that's our feeling on the subject, ma'am, you see," spoke up Mr.
+Brooks, so decidedly, that Aunt Madge saw it was of no use to say any
+more about it. "We don't want her eyes put out; there are times when she
+can just see a little glimmer, and we want to save all there is left."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There are times when she can see? Then there must be hope, Mr. Brooks!
+Let me take her to Dr. Blank; he can help her if any one can."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, now, I take it you're joking, Mrs. Allen. That is the very doctor
+I wanted her to see in the first place; but they do say he'd ask six
+hundred dollars for looking into her eyes while you'd wink twice."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You have been misinformed, Mr. Brooks; he never asks anything of
+people who are unable to pay him. But even if he should in Maria's case,
+I promise to take the matter into my own hands, and settle the bill
+myself."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Mother, do you hear what she says!" cried Mr. Brooks, forgetting
+himself, and trying to sit up in bed.
+</p>
+<p>
+But his wife had broken down, and was polishing Bennie's shoe with her
+tears.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, will you take me? Can I go to that doctor?" cried Maria, forgetting
+her timidity, and turning her sightless eyes towards Mrs. Allen with a
+joyful look, which seemed to glow through the lids.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, dear child, I will take you with the greatest pleasure in life;
+but remember, I don't promise you can be cured. Come with your mother,
+to-morrow morning, at ten. Will that do, Mrs. Brooks? And now, good by,
+all. Children, we must certainly be going."
+</p>
+<p>
+"God bless her," murmured the sick man, as the little party passed out.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Didn't I tell you she was an angel?" said his wife.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, mother; it's that little tot that's the 'angel.' The Lord sent her
+on ahead to spy out the land; and afterwards there comes a
+flesh-and-blood woman to see it laid straight."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pa thinks that baby is a spirit made out of air," said Maria, laughing
+in high excitement. "And, mother, don't you really believe now the Lord
+did send her, just as much as if she dropped down out of the sky?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I hain't a doubt of it, Maria, but what the Lord had us in his
+mind when he let the child slip off and get lost.&mdash;Pa, I'm going to
+give you some of that blackberry cordial now: you look all gone."
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH11"><!-- CH11 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER XI.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+"THE HEN-HOUSES."
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+While the Brooks family were talking so gratefully, and Maria counting
+over the cookies and cups of jelly for the twentieth time, Fly, was
+holding on to Horace's thumb, saying, as she skipped along,&mdash;"I hope the
+doctor'll take a knife, and pick Maria's eyes open, so she can see."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Precious little <i>you</i> care whether she can see or not," said Dotty. "I
+don't think Fly has much feeling,&mdash;do you, Prudy?&mdash;not like you and I, I
+mean!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pshaw! what do you expect of such a baby?" said Horace, indignantly.
+"You never saw a child so full of pity as this one is, when she knows
+what to be sorry for. But a great deal she understands about blindness!
+And why should she?&mdash;Look here, Topknot; which would you rather do? Have
+your eyes put out, and lots of candy to eat, <i>or</i>, your eyes all good,
+and not a speck of candy as long as you live?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'd ravver have the candy '<i>thout</i> blind-eyed?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"But supposing you couldn't have but one?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly reflected seriously for half a minute, and then answered,
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'd ravver have the candy <i>with</i> blind-eyed!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, girls, what did I tell you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Cause I could eat the candy athout looking, you know," added Fly,
+shutting her eyes, and putting a sprig of cedar in her mouth, by way of
+experiment.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You little goosie," said Prudy; "when Aunt Madge was crying so about
+Maria, I did think you were a hard-hearted thing to look up and laugh;
+but now, I don't believe you knew any better."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hard-hearted things will soften," said auntie, kissing the baby's
+puzzled face. "Little bits of green apples, how hard they are! but they
+keep growing mellow."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, you little green apple," cried Dotty, pinching Fly's cheek.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I was rather hard-hearted, if I remember, when I was an apple of that
+size," continued Aunt Madge. "I could tell you of a few cruel things I
+said and did."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Tell them," said Horace; "please 'fess."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, auntie, naughty things are so interesting. Do begin and tell all
+about it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not on the street, dears. Some time, during the holidays, I may turn
+story-teller, if you wish it; but here we are at the ferry; now look out
+for the mud."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, what a place," cried Fly, clinging to Horace, and trying to walk on
+his boots. "Just like where grampa keeps his pig!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"How true, little sister! but you needn't use my feet for a sidewalk.
+I'll take you up in my arms. It snowed in the night; but that makes it
+all the muddier."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, it doesn't do snow any good to fall into New York mud," said Aunt
+Madge; "it is like touching pitch."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I thought it felt like pitch," remarked Dotty; "sticks to your boots
+so."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But, then, overhead how beautiful it is!" said Prudy. "I should think
+the dirty earth would be ashamed to look up at such a clear sky."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But the sky don't mind," returned Horace; "it always overlooks dirt."
+</p>
+<p>
+"How very sharp we are getting!" laughed auntie; "we have begun the day
+brilliantly. Any more remarks from anybody?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I should like to know," said Dotty, "what all those great wooden things
+are made for? I never saw such big hen-houses before!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hear her talk!" exclaimed auntie. "Hen-houses, indeed! Why, that is
+Fulton Market. I shall take you through it when we come back. You can
+buy anything in there, from a live eel to a book of poetry."
+</p>
+<p>
+"'In mud eel is,'" quoted Horace. "Reckon I'll buy one, auntie, and
+carry it home in a piece of brown paper. I believe Dotty is fond of
+eels."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Fond of eels! Why, Horace Clifford, you know I can't bear 'em, any
+more'n a snake. If you do such a thing, Horace Clifford!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Here Prudy gave her talkative sister a pinch; for they were surrounded
+by people, and Aunt Madge was giving ferry-tickets to a man who stood in
+a stall, and brushed them towards him into a drawer.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Does he stay in it all night?" whispered Fly; "he can't lie down, no
+more'n a hossy can."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Here, child, don't try to get down out of my arms. I must carry you
+into the boat. Do you suppose I'd trust those wee, wee feet to go flying
+over East River?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"For don't we know she has wings on her heels?" said Aunt Madge.
+</p>
+<p>
+Fly twisted around one of her little rubbers, and looked at it. She
+understood the joke, but thought it too silly to laugh at. East River
+lay smiling in the sun, white with sails.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Almost as pretty as our Casco Bay," said Dotty. "'Winona;' is that the
+boat we are going in? But, Horace, you must cross to the other side,
+where it says 'Gentlemen's Cabin.'"
+</p>
+<p>
+"How kind you are to take care of me! Wish you'd take as good care of
+yourself, Cousin Dimple."
+</p>
+<p>
+And Horace walked straight into the "Ladies' Cabin." There were more men
+in it, though, than women; so he had the best side of the argument.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace," said Aunt Madge, as they seated themselves, "where is your
+money?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Money? O, in the breast pocket of my coat."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But don't you remember, my boy, I advised you to leave it at home? See
+that placard, right before your eyes."
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Beware of Pickpockets!'" read Horace. "Well, auntie, I intend to
+beware."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Allen did not like his lord-of-creation tone. It was not exactly
+disrespectful. He adored his aunt, and did not mean to snub her. At the
+same time he had paid no attention to her advice, and his cool,
+self-possessed way of setting it one side was very irritating. If Mrs.
+Allen had not been the sweetest of women, she would have enjoyed boxing
+his ears.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I wish he was two years younger, and then he would have to obey me,"
+thought she; "but I don't like to lay my commands on a boy of fourteen."
+</p>
+<p>
+The truth was, Horace had a large swelling on the top of his head, known
+by the name of self-esteem; and it had got bruised a little the day
+before, when he was obliged to stand one side, and let his aunt manage
+about finding Flyaway.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I suppose she thinks I'm a ninny, just because I don't understand this
+bothersome city; but I reckon I know a thing or two, if I don't live in
+New York!"
+</p>
+<p>
+And the foolish boy really took some satisfaction in slapping his breast
+pockets, and remarking to his friends,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Twould take a smart chap to get his hand in there without my knowing
+it. O, Prudy, where's your wallet? And yours, Dotty? I can carry them as
+well as not. There's no knowing what kind of a muss you may be getting
+into before night."
+</p>
+<p>
+Prudy gave up hers without a word, but Dotty demurred.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I guess I've got eyes both sides my head, just the same as Horace has,
+if I am a girl."
+</p>
+<p>
+She and Cousin Horace usually agreed, but this visit had begun wrong.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very well, Dot; if you think 'twould be any consolation to you to have
+somebody come along with a pair of scissors, and snip off your pocket, I
+don't know as it's any of my business."
+</p>
+<p>
+"See if they do," replied Dotty, clutching her pocket in her right hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+They had been speaking in loud tones, and perhaps had been overheard;
+for two men, on the same seat, began to talk of the unusual number of
+robberies that had happened within a few days and to wonder "what we
+were coming to next." In consequence of this, Dotty pinned up her
+pocket. When they reached Brooklyn, she gave her left hand to Horace, in
+stepping off the boat, and walked up Fulton Street, with her right hand
+firmly grasping the skirt of her dress.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Good for you, Dimple!" said Horace, in a low tone; "that's one way of
+letting people know you've got money. Look behind you! There's been a
+man following you for some time."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Where? O, where?" cried Dotty, whirling round and round in wild alarm;
+"I don't see a man anywhere near."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And there isn't one to be seen," said Aunt Madge, laughing; "there's
+nobody following you but Horace himself. He had no right to frighten you
+so."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace!" echoed Dotty, with infinite scorn; "I don't call <i>him</i> a man!
+He's nothing but a small boy!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"A small boy!" She had finished the business now.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The hateful young monkey!" thought Horace. "I shouldn't care much if
+she did have her pocket picked."
+</p>
+<p>
+If he had meant a word of this, which he certainly did not, he was well
+paid for it afterwards.
+</p>
+<p>
+They went to Greenwood Cemetery, which Dotty had to confess was
+handsomer than the one in Portland. Fly thought there were nice places
+to "hide ahind the little white houses," which frightened her brother so
+much, that he carried her in his arms every step of the way. After
+strolling for some time about Greenwood, and taking a peep at Prospect
+Park, they left the "city of churches," and entered a crowded car to go
+back to the ferry.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Look out for <i>our</i> money," whispered Prudy; "you know auntie says a car
+is the very place to lose it in."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes; I'll look out for your pile, Prue, though I dare say you don't
+feel quite so easy about it as you would if Dot had it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Wow, Horace, don't be cross; you know it isn't often I have so much
+money."
+</p>
+<p>
+Aunt Madge here gave both the children a very expressive glance, as much
+as to say,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't mention private affairs in such a crowd."
+</p>
+<p>
+Colonel Allen said if his wife had been born deaf and dumb nobody would
+have mistrusted it, for she could talk with her eyes as well as other
+people with their tongues.
+</p>
+<p>
+When they were on the New York side once more, Mrs. Allen said,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now I will take you through Dotty's hen-houses. What have we here? O,
+Christmas greens."
+</p>
+<p>
+A woman stood at one of the stands, tying holly and evergreens together
+into long strips, which she sold by the yard.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We must adorn the house, children. I will buy some of this, if you will
+help carry it home."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Load me down," said Horace; "I'll take a mile of it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Loaden me down, too; <i>I'll</i> take it a mile," said Fly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Give me that beautiful cross to carry, auntie."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Are you willing to carry crosses, Prudy? Ah, you've learned the lesson
+young!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I like the star best," said Dotty; "why can't they make suns and moons,
+too!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Will you have a <i>hanker</i>, my pretty miss?" said the woman, dropping a
+courtesy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I never heard of a <i>hanker</i>; it looks some like a kettle-hook. Let's
+buy it; see how nicely it fits on Fly's shoulder."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It would look better for Fly to sit on the anchor," said Mrs. Allen,
+smiling. "It is droll enough to see such a big thing walking off with a
+little girl under it. Come, children, we have bought all we can carry."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thank you kindly, lady," said the evergreen woman, with another
+courtesy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't see why she need thank you kindly, auntie," said Dotty. "You
+wouldn't have bought her wreaths if you hadn't liked 'em."
+</p>
+<p>
+They walked through a long space lined with such nice things that the
+children's mouths watered&mdash;oranges, figs, grapes, pears, French
+chestnuts larger than oil-nuts, and, as if that were not enough,
+delicious-looking pies, cakes, cold ham, and doughnuts. On little
+charcoal stoves stood coffee-pots; and there was a great clattering of
+plates and cups and saucers, which men were washing in little pans, and
+wiping on rather dark towels.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It strikes me I should enjoy going into one of those cuddy-holes and
+eating my dinner," said Horace. "I feel about starved."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You have a right to be hungry. It is two o'clock. How would you like
+some oysters? In here is a large room, with tables; rather more
+comfortable than these 'cuddy-holes,' as you call them."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Only not nice," said Prudy. "O, Horace, if you should go once to an
+oyster saloon in Boston, you'd see the difference!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"The probability is, I've been in Boston saloons twice to your once,
+ma'am."
+</p>
+<p>
+Which was correct. She had been once, and he twice.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH12"><!-- CH12 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER XII.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+"GRANNY."
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+Aunt Madge seated her four guests at a little table.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Will you have oysters or scallops?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"What are scallops?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"They are a sort of fish; taste a little like oysters. They come out of
+those small shells, such as you've seen pin-cushions made of."
+</p>
+<p>
+The children thought they should prefer oysters; and after the stews
+were ordered, Mrs. Allen went out, and soon returned with a dessert of
+cake, pie, and fruit.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I thought I would bring it all at once," said she, "just what I know
+you will like; and then sit down and be comfortable. We'll lay the
+wreaths under the table. There are no napkins, girls (this isn't Boston,
+you know); so you'd better tuck your handkerchiefs under your chins."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But is this the handsomest place they've got in New York, without any
+carpet to it?" whispered Dotty.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We'll see, one of these days," replied auntie, with a smile that spoke
+volumes.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was a very jolly dinner, and Mrs. Allen had to send for three plates
+of scallops; for the children found, after tasting hers, that they were
+very nice; all but Fly, who did not relish them, and thought it was
+because she did not like to eat pin-cushions.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now, little folks, if you have eaten sufficiently, and are thoroughly
+rested, shall we start for home? I think a journey to Brooklyn is about
+enough for one day&mdash;don't you? But you musn't leave without seeing
+Granny."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Granny?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I call her so, and it pleases her. She has had a little table in
+the market for a long while, and I like to buy some of her goodies just
+to encourage her, for she has such a way of looking on the bright side
+that she wins my respect. Listen, now, while I speak to her."
+</p>
+<p>
+Auntie's old woman had on a hood and shawl, and was curled up in a
+little heap, half asleep.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pleasant day," said Mrs. Allen, going up to the table.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, mum; nice weather <i>underful</i>," returned the old woman, rousing
+herself, and rubbing an apple with her shawl.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And how do you do, Granny?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, is that you?" said she, the sun coming out all over her face.
+"And how've you been, mum, since the last time I've seen yer?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very well, Granny; and how do things prosper with you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, <i>I'm</i> all right! I've had a touch of rheumaty, and this is the fust
+I've stirred for two weeks."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Sorry to hear it, Granny. Rheumatism can't be very comfortable."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, no; it's bahd for the jints," said the old woman, holding up her
+fingers, which were as shapeless as knobby potatoes.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Poor Granny! How hard that is!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, they be hard, and kind o' stiff-like. But bless ye," laughed she,
+"that's nothing. I wouldn't 'a' cared, only I's afeared I'd lose this
+stand. There was a gyurl come and kep' it for me, what time she could
+spare."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'm glad you havn't lost the stand, Granny; but I don't see how you can
+laugh at the rheumatism."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, mum, what'd be the use to cry? Why, bless ye, there's wus
+things'n that! As long's I hain't got no husband, I don't feel to
+complain!"
+</p>
+<p>
+She shook her sides so heartily at this, that Fly laughed aloud.
+</p>
+<p>
+"So you don't approve of husbands, Granny?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No more I don't, mum; they're troublesome craychers, so fur as I've
+seen."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But don't you get down-hearted, living all alone?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, no, mum; I do suppose I'm the happiest woman in the city o' New
+Yorruk. When I goes to bed, I just gives up all my thrubbles to the
+Lord, and goes to sleep."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But when you are sick, Granny?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, then, sometimes I feels bahd, not to be airnin' nothin', and gets
+some afeard o' the poorhouse; but, bless ye, I can't help thinking the
+Lord'll keep me out."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'm pretty sure He will," said Aunt Madge, resolving on the spot that
+the good old soul never should go to a place she dreaded so much. "Have
+you any butter-scotch to-day, Granny?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, yes, mum; sights of it. Help yourself. I want to tell you
+something'll please you," said the old woman, bending forward, and
+speaking in a low tone, and with sparkling eyes. "I've put some money in
+the bank, mum; enough to bury me! <i>Ain't</i> that good!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Prudy and Dotty were terribly shocked. She must be crazy to talk about
+her own funeral. As if she was glad of it, too? But Horace thought it a
+capital joke.
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's a jolly way to use your money," whispered he to Prudy; "much
+good may it do her?" And then aloud, in a patronizing tone, "I'll take a
+few of your apples, Granny. How do you sell 'em?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"These here, a penny apiece; them there, two pennies; and them, three."
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace felt in his coat pocket for his purse; and drew out his hand
+quickly, as if a bee had stung it.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, what! What does this mean?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"What is it, Horace?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Nothing, auntie, only my wallet's gone," replied the boy, very white
+about the mouth.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Gone? Look again. Are you sure?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, as sure as I want to be?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Mine,&mdash;is mine gone too?" cried Prudy.
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace did not seem willing to answer.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Where did you have your purse last?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Just before we came out of Dorlon's oyster saloon. Just before we came
+here for butter-scotch," replied Horace, glaring fiercely at Granny.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Are you quite sure?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Is mine gone, too?" cried Prudy again. "Did you put mine in the same
+pocket?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, Prue; I put yours in the same pocket; and it's gone, too."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, Horace!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"A pretty clean sweep, Prue."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The <i>vilyins</i>!" cried Granny; looking, auntie thought, as if her whole
+soul was stirred with pity for the children; but, as Horace thought, as
+if she were trying to put a bold face on a very black crime.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Let us go back to Dorlon's, and ask the waiters if you dropped it in
+there," suggested Aunt Madge.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, but <i>I know I didn't,"</i> said Horace, with another scowl at Granny.
+</p>
+<p>
+"<i>My</i> money is safe," said self-righteous Dotty, as they walked away;
+"don't you wish you <i>had</i> given yours to me, Prudy?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"The deceitful old witch!" muttered Horace; meaning Granny, of course.
+</p>
+<p>
+And lo, there she stood close behind them! She was beckoning Mrs. Allen
+back to her fruit-stand.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Wait here one minute, children; I'll be right back."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Nothin', mum," said Granny, looking very much grieved; "nothin' only I
+wants to say, mum, if that youngster thinks as I took his money, I wisht
+you'd sarch me."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Fie, Granny! Never mind what a boy like that says, when he is excited.
+I know you too well to think you'd steal."
+</p>
+<p>
+"The Lord bless you, mum," cried the old woman, all smiles again.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And, Granny, I mean to come here next week, and I'll bring you some
+flannel and liniment for your rheumatism. Where shall I leave them if
+you're sick, and can't be here?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, thank ye, mum; thank ye kindly. The ain't many o' the likes of you,
+mum. And if ye does bring the things for my rheumaty, and I ain't here,
+just ye leave 'em with the gyurl at this stand, if yer will."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did she give it back?" cried Horace, the moment his aunt appeared.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, my boy; how could she when she hadn't it to give?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"But, auntie, I'm up and down sure I felt that wallet in my
+breast-pocket, when we came out of Dorlon's," persisted Horace. "I don't
+see how on earth that old woman contrived it; but I can't help
+remembering how she kept leaning forward when she talked; and once she
+hit square against me. And just about that time I was drawing out my
+handkerchief to wipe my nose."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, he did! He wiped his nose. And the woman tookened the money; I saw
+her do it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"There, I told you so!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"You saw her, Miss Policeman Flyaway?" said Aunt Madge. "And pray how
+did she take it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Just so,&mdash;right in her hand."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, you mean the money for the butter-scotch, you little tease!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes," replied the child, with a roguish twinkle over the sensation she
+had made.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Just like little bits o' flies," said Dotty. "Don't care how folks
+feel. And here's her brother ready to cry; heart all broken."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Needn't be concerned about my heart, Dot; 'tisn't broken yet; only
+cracked. But how anybody could get at my pocket, without my knowing it,
+is a mystery to me, unless Granny is a witch."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace, I pledge you my word Granny is innocent."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And I'm sure nobody else could take it, auntie. The clerks at Dorlon's
+had no knowledge of the money; neither had any of the apple or pie
+merchants along the market. Things look darker for us, Prue; but I will
+give you the credit of behaving like a lady. And one thing is sure&mdash;the
+moment I get home to Indiana I shall send you back your money."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace," said Aunt Madge, "I am very suspicious that you lost your
+purse in one of those cars, on the Brooklyn side."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But, auntie, I tell you there couldn't anybody get at my pockets
+without my knowing it!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Just as Prudy told you you would, you lost it in that car," echoed
+Dotty. "Don't you remember what you said, Prudy?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's right; hit him again," growled Horace.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now, Dotty," said Prudy, suppressing a great sob in her effort to
+"behave like a lady," "what's the use? Don't you suppose Horace feels
+bad enough without being scolded at?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Auntie don't scold, nor Prudy don't, 'cause he didn't mean to lose
+it," said Fly, frowning at Dotty, and caressing Horace, with her hands
+full of evergreens.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Besides, he has lost more than I have," continued Prudy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, a trifle more! Fifty times as much, say. I shouldn't care a
+fig,&mdash;speaking figuratively,&mdash;only it was all I had to get home with."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't fret about that," said Aunt Madge; "I'll see that you go home
+with as full a purse as you brought to my house."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, auntie, how can I thank you? But you know father never would allow
+that!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I could tell you how to thank me," thought Mrs. Allen, though she was
+so kind she would <i>not</i> tell; "you could thank me by saying, 'Auntie,
+I've been a naughty boy.'"
+</p>
+<p>
+But Horace had no idea of making such a confession as that. "The
+money'll come up," said he; "I'm one of the lucky kind. Let's see;
+wouldn't it be best to advertise?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thieves won't answer advertisements," said Mrs. Allen.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But, I tell you, auntie, I dropped that wallet. I could take my oath of
+it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, in such a case an advertisement is the proper thing. But, my boy,
+your positiveness on this subject is extraordinary. How could you drop
+the wallet? Do you keep it in the same pocket with your handkerchief?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"On, no, auntie; right in here."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And you haven't bought anything?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, auntie; you wouldn't let me pay the car fare, or anything else. But
+still I must have taken out the wallet by mistake. You see I <i>know</i>
+nobody's picked my pockets."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, Horace, you just said Granny picked 'em."
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, Dot, I didn't! I only spoke of the queer way she had of leaning
+forward."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But you scowled at her sharp enough to take head off."
+</p>
+<p>
+"If I were you, Dot, I wouldn't be any more disagreeable than I was
+absolutely obliged to.&mdash;Now, auntie, how much does it cost to
+advertise?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"A dollar or so I believe."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, if you'll lend me the money, I want to do it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"To be plain with you, Horace, I really do not think it will be of the
+slightest use in this case; but I will consent to it if it will be any
+relief to your mind. We shall be obliged to cross the ferry again, for
+the advertisement ought to go into a Brooklyn paper."
+</p>
+<p>
+"We are tired enough to drop," said Dotty; "and all these stars and
+things, too!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, we are all tired; but we will leave you little girls at the
+ferry-house on the other side."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But, auntie," said Prudy, anxiously, "I shouldn't really dare have the
+care of Fly. You know just how it is."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, I do know just how it is. Fly must walk, with her tired little
+feet, to the Eagle office, with Horace and me; or else she must make a
+solemn promise not to go out of the ferry-house."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But I don't want to make a <i>solomon</i> promise, auntie; I want to see the
+eagle."
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Allen sighed. She began to think she had undertaken a great task
+in inviting these children to visit her. Instead of a pleasure, they had
+proved, thus far, a weariness&mdash;always excepting Prudy. She, dear,
+self-forgetting little girl, could not fail to be a comfort wherever she
+went.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<a name="CH13"><!-- CH13 --></a>
+<h2>
+	CHAPTER XIII.
+</h2>
+
+<h3>
+THE PUMPKIN HOOD.
+</h3><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+To the "Eagle" office they went&mdash;obstinate Horace, patient Annt Madge,
+and between them the "blue-bottle Fly."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I do feel right sorry, auntie," said Horace, a sudden sense of shame
+coming over him; "but I'm so sure I dropped the money, you know; or I
+wouldn't drag you up this hill when you're so tired."
+</p>
+<p>
+A sharp answer rose to Mrs. Allen's lips, but she held it back.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Only a boy! In a fair way to learn a useful lesson, too. Let me keep my
+temper! If I scold, I spoil the whole."
+</p>
+<p>
+They entered the office, and left with the editor this advertisement:&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"Lost.&mdash;Between Prospect Park and Fulton Ferry, a porte-monnaie, marked
+'Horace S. Clifford,' containing thirty-five dollars. The finder will be
+suitably rewarded by leaving the same at No. &mdash;&mdash;, Cor. Fifth Ave. and
+&mdash;&mdash; Street."
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is no matter about advertising Prudy's purse, it was so shabby,"
+said Aunt Madge; and on their way back to the ferry-house she bought her
+another.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, thank you, auntie, darling," said Prudy; "and thank you, too,
+Horace, for losing my old one; it wasn't fit to be seen. And here is a
+whole dollar inside! O, Aunt Madge, <i>are</i> you an angel?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Prue, you deserve your good luck; you don't come down on a fellow,
+hammer and tongs, because he happens to meet with an accident."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace," said Dotty, meekly, "are you willing to carry my gloves?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, to be sure; but you don't want to go home bare-handed&mdash;do you?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, I was thinking how nice 'twould be, Horace, to have you take 'em,
+and lose 'em, and me have a new pair. There's a hole in the thumb."
+</p>
+<p>
+This little sally amused everybody, and Horace had the grace not to be
+sensitive, though the laugh was against him.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Another queer day," said he, when they were at last at home again. "I
+don't know what will become of us all, if we keep on like this."
+</p>
+<p>
+The poor boy was trying his best to brave it out; but Aunt Madge could
+see that his heart was sore.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Lost every cent I'm worth," mused he, turning his coat-pocket inside
+out, and scowling at it. "Got to be a beggar as long as I stay in New
+York!"
+</p>
+<p>
+The whole party were tired, and Horace's gloom seemed to fill the parlor
+like a fog, and make even the gas look dim.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I feel dreffly," said Fly, curling her head under her brother's arm,
+like a chicken under its mother's wing&mdash;a way she had when she was
+troubled. "I feel just zif I didn't love nobody in the world, and there
+didn't nobody love me."
+</p>
+<p>
+This brought Horace around in a minute, and called forth a pickaback
+ride.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Music! let us have music," said Aunt Madge, flying to the piano. "When
+little folks grow so cold-hearted, in my house, that they don't love
+anybody, it's time to warm their hearts with some happy little songs.
+Come, girls!"
+</p>
+<p>
+She played a few simple tunes, and the children all sang till the fog
+of gloom had disappeared, and the gas burned brightly once more.
+</p>
+<p>
+Half an hour afterwards, just as Fly was told she ought to be sleepy,
+because her bye-low hymn had been sung,&mdash;"Sleep, little one, like a lamb
+in the fold,"&mdash;and she had answered that she "couldn't be sleepy, athout
+auntie would hurry quick to come in with a drink of water," there was a
+strange arrival. Nathaniel, the waiting man, ushered into the parlor a
+droll little old woman, dressed in a short calico gown, with gay figures
+over it as large as cabbages; calf-skin shoes; and a green pumpkin hood,
+with a bow on top.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Good evening, ma'am," said Horace, rising, and offering her a chair.
+She did not seem to see very well, in spite of her enormous spectacles;
+for she took no notice of the chair, and remained standing in the
+middle of the floor.
+</p>
+
+<a name="image-2"><!-- Image 2 --></a>
+<p class="figure">
+<img src="pumpkin.jpg" width="40%"
+alt="The Pumpkin Hood."><br />
+<b>The Pumpkin Hood</b></p>
+
+<p>
+"She stares at me so hard!" thought Horace&mdash;"that's the reason she can't
+see anything else."&mdash;"Please take a chair, ma'am."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Can't stop to sit down. Is your name Horace S. Clifford?" said the old
+woman, in a very feeble voice.
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace looked at her; she had not a tooth in her head.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, ma'am; my name is Horace Clifford," said he, respectfully. He had
+great reverence for age, and could keep his mouth from twitching; but
+I'm sorry to say Prudy's danced up at the corners, and Dotty's opened
+and showed her back teeth The woman must have had all those clothes made
+when she was young, for nobody wore such things now; but it wasn't
+likely she knew that, poor soul!
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did you go to the 'Brooklyn Eagle' office, to-day, to ad-<i>ver</i>-tise
+some lost money, little boy?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, ma'am.&mdash;Why, that advertisement can't have been printed <i>so</i>
+quick!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, I calculate not. Did you go in with a lady, and a leetle, oneasy,
+springy kind of a leetle girl?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, that's me," put in Fly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, ma'am&mdash;yes; were you there? What do you know about it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Don't be in a hurry, little boy. I want to be safe and sure. I expect
+you took notice of a young man in a bottle-green coat,&mdash;no, a
+greenish-black coat,&mdash;a-sittin' down by the door."
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, I don't know. Yes, I think I did. Was he the one? Did he find the
+money?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did you walk up Orange Street?" continued the old woman. "No, I mean
+Cranberry Street?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, <i>dear</i>, I don't know! Prudy, run, call Aunt Madge. Please tell me,
+ma'am, have you got it with you? Is my name on the inside?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Wait till the little girl calls your aunt. Perhaps she'd be willing to
+let me tell the story in my own way. I'd ruther deal with grown folks,"
+said the provoking old lady.
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace's eyes flashed, but he contrived to keep his temper.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is my purse, ma'am, and my aunt knows nothing about it. I can tell
+you just how it looks, and all there is in it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Perhaps you are one of the kind that can tell folks a good deal, and
+thinks nobody knows things so well as yourself," returned the
+disagreeable old woman, smiling and showing her toothless gums. "From
+what I can learn, I should judge you talked ruther too loud about your
+money; for there was a pusson heerd you in the ferry-boat, and took
+pains to go in the same car afterwards, and pick your pocket."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Pick&mdash;my&mdash;pocket?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, your pocket. You wise, wonderful young man!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"How? When? Where?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"This is how," said the old woman, quick as a thought putting out her
+hand, and thrusting it into Horace's breast pocket.
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, it's auntie's rings&mdash;it's auntie's rings," cried Fly, jumping up,
+and seizing the pretended old woman by her calico sleeve.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, Aunt Madge, that isn't you!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"But how'd you take out yer teeth?" said Fly; "your teeth? your teeth?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, I didn't take them out, Miss Bright-eyes. I only put a little spruce
+gum over them."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Horace, I can't find auntie anywhere in this house," said Prudy,
+appearing at the parlor door. "Do you suppose she's gone off and hid?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, she's hid inside that old gown."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What do you mean?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's auntie, and her teeth's <i>in</i>," explained Fly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Only I wish she was an old woman, and had really brought me my money,"
+said Horace, in a disappointed tone. "I declare, there was one time I
+thought the old nuisance was coming round to it, and going to give me
+the wallet."
+</p>
+<p>
+"What a wise, wonderful youth!" said the aged dame, in a cracked voice.
+"Thinks I can give him his wallet, when he's got it himself, right close
+to his heart."
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace put his hand in his breast pocket.
+</p>
+<p>
+Wonder of wonders! There was the wallet! And not only his, but Prudy's!
+Had he been asleep all day? Or was he asleep now?
+</p>
+<p>
+"Money safe? Not a cent gone. Hoo-rah! Hoo-ra-ah!"
+</p>
+<p>
+And for want of a cap to throw, he threw up Fly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Where did it come from? Where did the old woman find it? O, no; the man
+in the green-bottle coat?&mdash;O, no; there wasn't any old woman," cried the
+children, hopelessly confused. "But who found the money? Did I drop it
+on Cranberry Street?" "Did he drop it on Quamby Street?" "Who brought
+it?" "Who bringed it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Aunt Madge stuffed her fingers into her ears. "They are all talking at
+once; they're enough to craze a body! They forget how old I am! Came all
+the way from the Eagle office, afoot and alone, with only four children
+to&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, auntie, don't play any more! Talk sober! Talk honest! Did Horace
+have his pockets picked?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, he did," replied Aunt Madge, speaking in her natural tones, and
+throwing off the pumpkin hood; "if you want the truth, he did."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why Aunt Madge Allen! It does not seem possible! Who picked my
+pockets?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Some one who heard you talking so loud about your money."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But how could it be taken out, and I not know it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Quite as easily as it could be put back, and you not know it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's true, Horace Clifford! Auntie put it back, and you never knew
+it."
+</p>
+<p>
+"So she did," said Horace, looking as bewildered as if he had been
+whirling around with his eyes shut; "so she did&mdash;didn't she? But that
+was because I was taken by surprise, seeing her without a tooth in her
+head, you know."
+</p>
+<p>
+"You have been taken by surprise twice to-day, then," said Aunt Madge,
+demurely. "It is really refreshing, Horace, to find that such a sharp
+young man <i>can</i> be caught napping!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, I&mdash;I&mdash;I must have been thinking, of something else, auntie."
+</p>
+<p>
+"So I conclude. And you must be thinking of something else still, or
+you'd ask me&mdash;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"O, yes, auntie; how did the thief happen to give it up? There, there,
+you needn't say a word! I see it all in your eyes! You took the money
+yourself. O, Aunt Madge!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Well, if that wasn't queer doings!" cried Dotty.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, it is quite contrary to my usual habits. I never robbed anybody
+before. I hadn't the faintest idea I could do it without Horace's
+knowledge."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why, auntie, I never was so astonished in my life!" said the youth,
+looking greatly confused.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I never heard of a person's being robbed that wasn't astonished," said
+Aunt Madge, with a mischievous smile. "Will you be quite as sure of
+yourself another time, think?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, auntie, I shan't; that's a fact."
+</p>
+<p>
+"That's my good, frank boy," said Aunt Madge, kissing his forehead. "And
+he won't toss his head,&mdash;just this way,&mdash;like a young lord of creation,
+when meddlesome aunties venture to give him advice."
+</p>
+<p>
+Horace kissed Mrs. Allen's cheek rather thoughtfully, by way of reply.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I don't see, Aunt Madge," said Prudy, "why you went back across the
+river to put that piece in the paper, when you were the one that had the
+money all the time."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I did it to pacify Horace. He <i>knew</i> his pockets hadn't been pieked.
+Besides I felt guilty. It was rather cruel in me&mdash;wasn't it?&mdash;to let him
+suffer so long."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not cruel a bit; good enough for me," cried Horace, with a generous
+outburst. "You're just the jolliest woman, auntie&mdash;the jolliest woman!
+There you are; you look so little and sweet! But if folks think they're
+going to get ahead of you, why, just let 'em try it, say I!"
+</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>
+DEAR READERS: Horace was scarcely more astonished, when his pocket was
+picked, than I am this minute, to find myself at the end of my book! I
+had very much more to tell; but now it must wait till another time.
+</p>
+<p>
+Meanwhile the Parlins and Cliffords are "climbing the dream tree." Let
+us hope they are destined to meet with no more misfortunes during the
+rest of their stay in New York.
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Folks Astray
+by Sophia May (Rebecca Sophia Clarke)
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Folks Astray
+by Sophia May (Rebecca Sophia Clarke)
+
+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: Little Folks Astray
+
+Author: Sophia May (Rebecca Sophia Clarke)
+
+Release Date: February 24, 2004 [EBook #11257]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE FOLKS ASTRAY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and Distributed Proofreading
+
+
+
+
+
+LITTLE FOLKS ASTRAY.
+
+BY SOPHIE MAY
+
+
+"To give room for wandering is it
+That the world was made so wide."
+
+1872
+
+
+
+TO
+
+MY YOUNG FRIEND,
+
+EMMA ADAMS.
+
+"JOHNNIE OPTIC."
+
+
+
+
+TO PARENTS.
+
+Here come the Parlins and Cliffords again. They had been sent to bed and
+nicely tucked in, but would not stay asleep. They "wanted to see the
+company down stairs;" so they have dressed themselves, and come back to
+the parlor. I trust you will pardon them, dear friends. Is it not a
+common thing, in this degenerate age, for grown people to frown and
+shake their heads, while little people do exactly as they please?
+
+Well, one thing is certain: if these children insist upon sitting up,
+they shall listen to lectures on self-will and disrespect to superiors,
+which will make their ears tingle.
+
+Moreover, they shall hear of other people, and not always of themselves.
+Fly Clifford, who expects to be in the middle, will be somewhat
+overwhelmed, like a fly in a cup of milk; for Grandma Read is to talk
+her down with her Quaker speech, and Aunt Madge with her story of the
+summer when she was a child. It is but fair that the elders should have
+a voice. That they may speak words which shall come home to many little
+hearts, and move them for good, is the earnest wish of
+
+THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+
+I. THE LETTER
+
+II. THE UNDERTAKING
+
+III. THE FROLIC
+
+IV. "TAKING OUR AIRS"
+
+V. DOTTY HAVING HER OWN WAY
+
+VI. DOTTY REBUKED
+
+VII. THE LOST FLY
+
+VIII. "THE FRECKLED DOG"
+
+IX. MARIA'S MOTHER
+
+X. FIVE MAKING A CALL
+
+XI. "THE HEN-HOUSES"
+
+XII. "GRANNY"
+
+XIII. THE PUMPKIN HOOD
+
+
+
+
+LITTLE FOLKS ASTRAY.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE LETTER.
+
+
+Katie Clifford sat on the floor, in the sun, feeding her white mice. She
+had a tea-spoon and a cup of bread and milk in her hands. If she had
+been their own mother she could not have smiled down on the little
+creatures more sweetly.
+
+"'Cause I spect they's hungry, and that's why I'm goin' to give 'em
+sumpin' to eat. Shut your moufs and open your eyes," said she, waving
+the tea-spoon, and spattering the bread and milk over their backs.
+
+"Quee, quee," squeaked the little mice, very well pleased when a drop
+happened to go into their mouths.
+
+"What are you doing there, Miss Topknot," said Horace: "O, I see;
+catching rats."
+
+Flyaway frowned fearfully, and the tuft of hair atop of her head danced
+like a war-plume.
+
+"I shouldn't think folks would call 'em names, Hollis, when they never
+did a thing to you. Nothing but clean white mouses!"
+
+"Let's see; now I look at 'em, Topknot, they _are_ white. And what's all
+this paper?"
+
+"Bed-kilts."
+
+"_In_-deed?"
+
+"You knew it by-fore!"
+
+"One, two, three; I thought the doctor gave you five. Where are they
+gone?"
+
+"Well, there hasn't but two died; the rest'll live," said Fly, swinging
+one of them around by its tail, as if it had been a tame cherry.
+
+Just then Grace came and stood in the parlor doorway.
+
+"O, fie!" said she; "what work! Ma doesn't allow that cage in the
+parlor. You just carry it out, Fly Clifford."
+
+Miss Thistledown Flyaway looked up at her sister shyly, out of the
+corners of her eyes. Grace was now a beautiful young lady of sixteen,
+and almost as tall as her mother. Flyaway adored her, but there was a
+growing doubt in her mind whether sister Grace had a right to use the
+tone of command.
+
+"'Cause I spect she isn't my mamma."
+
+"Why, Fly, you haven't started yet!"
+
+"I didn't think 'twas best," responded the child, sulkily, fixing her
+eyes on the mice, who were dancing whirligigs round the wheel.
+
+"Come here to your best friend, little Topknot," said Horace. "Let's
+take that cage into the green-house, and ask papa to keep it there,
+because the mice look like water-lilies on long stems."
+
+Flyaway brightened at once. She knew water-lilies were lovely. Giving
+Grace a triumphant glance, she danced across the room, and put the cage
+in Horace's hands, with a smile of trusting love that thrilled his
+heart.
+
+"Hollis laughs at my mouses, but he don't say, 'Put 'em away,' and,
+'_Put_ 'em away;' he says, 'Little gee-urls wants to see things as much
+as anybody else,'" thought she, gratefully.
+
+"Horace," said Grace, with a curling lip, "that child is growing up
+just like you--fond of worms, and bugs, and all such disgusting things."
+
+Horace smiled. No matter for the scorn in Grace's tone; it pleased him
+to be compared in any way with his precious little Flyaway.
+
+"Topknot has a spark of sense," said he, leading her along to the
+green-house. "I'll bring her up not to scream at a spider."
+
+"Now, young lady," said he, setting the cage on the shelf beside a
+camellia, and speaking in a low voice, though they were quite alone,
+"_can_ you keep a secret?"
+
+"Course I can; What _is_ a _secrid_?"
+
+"Why, it's something you musn't ever tell, Topknot, not to anybody that
+lives."
+
+"Then I won't, _cerdily_,--not to mamma, nor papa, nor Gracie."
+
+"Nor anybody else?"
+
+"No; course not. _Whobody_ else could I? O, 'cept Phibby. There, now,
+what's the name of it."
+
+"The name of it is--a secret, and the secret is this--Sure you won't
+tell any single body, Topknot?"
+
+"No; I said, _whobody_ could I tell? O, 'cept Tinka! There now!"
+
+"Well, the secret is this," said Horace, laying his forefingers
+together, and speaking very slowly, in order to prolong the immense
+delight he felt in watching the little one's eager face. "You know
+you've got an aunt Madge?"
+
+"Yes; so've you, too."
+
+"And she lives in the city of New York."
+
+"Does she? When'd she go?"
+
+"Why, she has always lived there; ever since she was married."
+
+"O, yes; and uncle Gustus was married, too; they was both married. Is
+that all?"
+
+"And she thinks you and I are 'cute chicks, and wants us to go and see
+her."
+
+"Well, course she does; I knew that before," said Fly, turning away with
+indifference; "I did go with mamma."
+
+"O, but she means now, Topknot; this very Christmas. She said it in a
+letter."
+
+"Does she truly?" said Fly, beginning to look pleased. "But it can't be
+a _secrid_, though," added she, next moment, sadly, "'cause we can't go,
+Hollis."
+
+"But I really think we shall go, Topknot; that is, if you don't spoil
+the whole by telling."
+
+"O, I cerdily won't tell!" said Fly, fluttering all over with a sense of
+importance, like a kitten with its first mouse.
+
+The breakfast bell rang; and, with many a word of warning, Horace led
+his little sister into the dining-room.
+
+"Papa," said she, the moment she was established in her high chair, "I
+know sumpin'."
+
+"O, Topknot!" cried Horace.
+
+"I know Hollis has got his elbows on the table. There, now, _did_ I
+tell?"
+
+"Hu--sh, Topknot!"
+
+There was a quiet moment while Mr. Clifford said grace.
+
+"Hollis," whispered Katie immediately afterwards, "will I take my
+mouses?"
+
+"'Sh, Topknot!"
+
+"What's going on there between you and Horace?" laughed Grace.
+
+"A _secrid_," said Fly, nipping her little lips together. "You won't get
+me to tell."
+
+"Horace," exclaimed Mrs. Clifford, "you haven't--"
+
+"Why, mother, I thought it was all settled, and wouldn't do any harm;
+and it pleases her so!"
+
+"Well, my son, you've made a hard day's work for me," said Mrs.
+Clifford, smiling behind her coffee-cup, as eager little Katie swayed
+back and forth in her high chair.
+
+"You won't get me to tell, Gracie Clifford. She don't want nobody but
+Hollis and me; she thinks we're very 'cute."
+
+"Who? O, Aunt Louise, probably."
+
+"No, aunt Louise never! It's the auntie that lives to New York."
+
+"Sh, Topknot!"
+
+"Well, I didn't tell, Hollis Clifford!"
+
+"So you didn't," said Grace. "But wouldn't it be nice if somebody should
+ask you to go somewhere to spend Christmas?"
+
+"Well, _there is_!"
+
+"O, Topknot," cried Horace, in mock distress, "you said you could keep
+a secret."
+
+Flyaway looked frightened.
+
+"What'd I do?" cried she; "I didn't tell nuffin 'bout the letter!"
+
+This last speech set everybody to laughing; and the little tell-tale
+looked around from one to another with a face full of innocent wonder.
+They couldn't be laughing at _her_!
+
+"I can keep secrids," said she, with dignity. "It was what I was
+a-doin'."
+
+"It is your brother Horace who cannot be trusted to keep secrets," said
+Mrs. Clifford, taking a letter from her pocket. "Hear, now, what your
+Aunt Madge has written: 'Will you lend me your children for the
+holidays, Maria? I want all three; at any rate, two.'"
+
+"That's me," cried Flyaway, tipping over her white coffee; "'_tenny
+rate two_,' means me."
+
+"Don't interrupt me, dear. 'Brother Edward has promised me Prudy and
+Dotty Dimple. They may have a Santa Claus, or whatever they like. I
+shall devote myself to making them happy, and I am sure there are plenty
+of things in New York to amuse them. Horace must come without fail; for
+the little girl-cousins always depend so much upon him.'"
+
+A smile rose to Horace's mouth; but he rubbed it off with his napkin. It
+was his boast that he was above being flattered.
+
+"But why not have Grace go, too, to keep them steady?" said Mr.
+Clifford, bluntly.
+
+Horace applied himself to his buckwheat cakes in silence, and looked
+rather gloomy.
+
+"Why, I suppose, Henry, it would hardly be safe to send Grace, on
+account of her cough."
+
+"I'm so sorry you asked Dr. De Bruler a word about it, mamma; but I
+suppose I must submit," said Grace, with a face as cloudy as Horace's.
+
+"Horace, my son, do you really feel equal to the task of taking this
+tuft of feathers to New York?"
+
+"I don't know why not, father; I'm willing to try."
+
+"Horace has good courage," said Grace, shaking her auburn curls like so
+many exclamation points. "I never could! I never would! I'd as soon have
+the care of a flying squirrel!"
+
+"Hollis never called me a _squirl_," said Fly, demurely. "I've got two
+brothers, and one of 'em is an angel, and the other isn't; but Hollis
+is _'most_ as good as the one up in the sky."
+
+"Well, my son," remarked Mr. Clifford, after a pause, "if your mother
+gives her consent, I suppose I shall give mine; but it does not look
+clear to me yet. One thing is certain, Horace; if you do undertake this
+journey, you must live on the watch: you must sleep with both eyes open.
+Don't trust the child out of your sight--not for a moment. Don't even
+let go her hand on the street."
+
+"I do believe Horace will be as careful as either you or I, Henry, or I
+certainly wouldn't trust him with our last little darling," said Mrs.
+Clifford.
+
+His mother's words dropped like balm upon Horace's wounded spirit. He
+looked up, and felt himself a man again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE UNDERTAKING.
+
+
+When Flyaway knew she was going to New York, it was about as easy to fit
+her dresses as to clothe a buzzing blue-bottle fly. With spinning head
+and dancing feet, she was set down, at last, in the cars.
+
+"Here we are, all by ourselves, darling, starting off for Gotham. Wave
+your handkerchief to mamma. Don't you see her kissing her hand? There,
+you needn't spring out of the window! And I declare, Brown-brimmer, if
+you haven't thrown away your handkerchief! Here, cry into mine!"
+
+"I didn't want to cry, Hollis; I wanted to laugh," said the child,
+wiping her eyes with her doll's cloak. "When you ride in carriages, you
+don't get anywhere; but when you ride in the cars, you get there right
+off."
+
+"Yes; that's so, my dear. You are in the right of it, as you always are.
+Now I am going to turn the seat over, and sit where I can look at
+you--just so."
+
+"O, that's just as splendid, Hollis! Now there's only me and Flipperty.
+There, I put her 'pellent cloak on wrong; but see, now, I've
+un-_wrong-side-outed_ it! Don't she sit up like a lady?"
+
+Her name was Flipperty Flop. She was a large jointed doll (not a doll
+with large joints,) had seen a great deal of the world, and didn't think
+much of it. She came of a high family, and had such blue blood in her
+veins, that the ground wasn't good enough for her to walk on. She wore
+a "'pellent cloak" and rubber boots, and had a shopping-bag on her arm
+full of "choclid" cakes. She was nearly as large as her mother, and all
+of two years older. A great deal had happened to her before her mother
+was born, and a great deal more since. Sometimes it was dropsy, and she
+had to be tapped, when pints of sawdust would run out. Sometimes it was
+consumption, and she wasted to such a skeleton that she had to be
+revived with cotton. She had lost her head more than once, but it never
+affected her brains: she was all the better with a young head now and
+then on her old shoulders. Her present ailment appeared to be small-pox;
+she was badly pitted with pins and a penknife. "I declare I forgot to
+get a ticket for her," said Horace. "What if the conductor shouldn't
+let her pass?"
+
+"O, Hollis, but he must?" cried Fly, springing to her feet; "_I_ shan't
+pass athout my Flipperty! Tell the 'ductor 'bout my white mouses died,
+and I can't go athout sumpin to carry."
+
+"Pshaw! Dotty Dimple don't carry dolls. She don't like 'em: sensible
+girls never do."
+
+"Well, _I_ like 'em," said Flyaway, nothing daunted. "You knew it
+byfore; 'n if you didn't want Flipperty, you'd ought to not come!"
+
+Horace laughed, as he always did when his little sister tried her power
+over him. The conductor was an old acquaintance, and he told him how it
+stood with Flipperty, how she was needed at New York, and all that;
+whereupon Mr. Van Dusen gave Fly a little green card, and told her to
+keep it to show to all the conductors on the road; for it was a free
+pass, and would take Flipperty all over the United States.
+
+"Yes, sir, if you please," said Fly, with a blush and a smile, and put
+the "free pass" in Miss Flop's cloak pocket.
+
+After this, she never once failed to show it, whenever Mr. Van Dusen, or
+any other conductor, came near, but always had to hunt for it, and once
+brought up a cookie instead, which fearful mistake mortified her to the
+depths of her soul.
+
+Horace was sure all eyes were fixed on his charming little charge, and
+was proud of the honor of showing her off; but he paid for it dearly; it
+cost him more than his Latin, with all the irregular verbs. There was no
+such thing as her being comfortable. She was full of care about him,
+herself, and the baggage. Flipperty lost off a rubber boot, which
+bounced over into the next seat. Horace had to ask a gentleman and his
+sick daughter to move, and, after all, it was in an old lady's lap.
+
+Then Fly's feet were cold, and Horace took her to the stove; but that
+made her eyes too hot, and she danced back, to lie with her head on his
+breast and her feet against the window, till she suddenly whirled
+straight about, and planted her tiny boots under his chin.
+
+"O, Topknot, Topknot, I pity that woman with the baby, if she feels as
+lame all over as I do!"
+
+"Where's the baby, Hollis? O, I see."
+
+"What's the matter, now? Why upon earth can't you sit still, child?"
+said Horace, next minute, catching her as she was darting into the
+aisle, dragging Miss Flop by the hair of the head.
+
+"O, Hollis, don't you see there's a dolly over there, with two girls and
+a lady with red clo'es on? 'Haps they'd be willing for her to get
+'quainted with Flipperty?"
+
+"Well, Topknot, 'haps they would, but 'haps I wouldn't. I can't have you
+dancing all over the car, in this style."
+
+Flyaways's lip quivered, and a tear started. Horace was moved. One of
+Fly's tears weighed a pound with him, even when it only wet her
+eyelashes, and wasn't heavy enough to drop.
+
+"Well, there, darling, you just sit still,--not still enough, though, to
+give you a pain (Fly always said it gave her a pain to sit still),--and
+I'll bring the girls and dollie over here to you. Will that do?"
+
+Fly thought it would.
+
+A dreadful fit of bashfulness came over Horace, when he stood face to
+face with the black-eyed lady and her daughters, and tried to speak.
+
+"I've got a little girl travelling with me, ma'am; she's so--so uneasy,
+that I don't know what to do with her. Will you let me take--I mean, are
+you willing--"
+
+"Bring her over here, and we will try to amuse her," said the black-eyed
+lady, pleasantly; but Horace was sure he saw the oldest girl laughing at
+him.
+
+"It's no fun to go and make a fool of yourself," thought he, leading Fly
+to the new acquaintances, and standing by as she settled herself shyly
+in the seat.
+
+"How do you do, little one? What is your name?--_Flyaway_?--Well, you
+look like it. We saw you were a darling, clear across the aisle. And you
+have a kind brother, I know."
+
+At these words Fly, for want of some answer to make, sprang forward and
+kissed Horace on the bridge of the nose.
+
+"There, you've knocked off my cap."
+
+In stooping to pick it up, he awkwardly hit his head against the older
+girl, who already looked so mischievous that he was rather afraid of
+her.
+
+"Wish I could get out of the way. She expects me to speak, but I shan't.
+
+  "'Needles and pins, needles and pins,
+    When a man travels his trouble begins.'"
+
+Horace was obliged to stand, very ill at ease, till the black-eyed lady
+had found out where he lived, who his father was, and what was his
+mother's name before she was married.
+
+"Tell your father, when you go home, you have seen Mrs. Bonnycastle,
+formerly Ann Jones, and give him my regards. I knew he married a lady
+from Maine."
+
+"I know sumpin," struck in Fly; "if ever _I_ marry anybody, I'll marry
+my own brother Hollis. I mean if I don't be a ole maid!"
+
+"And what is 'a ole maid,' you little witch?"
+
+"I don' know; some folks is," was the wise reply. Flyaway was about to
+add "Gampa Clifford," but did not feel well enough acquainted to talk of
+family matters.
+
+When the Bonnycastles left, at Cleveland, Horace thought that was the
+last of them. Miss Gerty was "decent-looking, looked some like Cassy
+Hallock; but he couldn't bear to see folks giggle; hoped he never should
+set eyes on those people again." Whether he ever did, you shall hear one
+of these days.
+
+"O, Topknot," said he, "your hair looks like a mop. Do you want all
+creation laughing at you? You'll mortify me to death."
+
+"You ought to water it. If you don't take better care o' your little
+sister, I won't never ride with you no more, Hollis Clifford!"
+
+"Well, see that you don't, you little scarecrow," said the suffering
+boy, out of all patience. "If you are going to act in New York as you
+have on the road, I wish I was well out of this scrape."
+
+Flyaway was really a sight to behold. How she managed to tear her dress
+off the waist, and loose five boot buttons, and last, but not least, the
+very hat she wore on her head, _would_ have been a mystery if you hadn't
+seen her run.
+
+When they reached the city, Horace put the soft, flying locks in as
+good order as he could, and tied them up in his handkerchief.
+
+"I wisht I hadn't come," whined Fly; "I don't want to wear a hangerfiss;
+'tisn't speckerble!"
+
+"Hush right up! I'm not going to have you get cold!--My sorrows! Shan't
+I be thankful when I get where there's a woman to take care of her?"
+
+On the platform at the depot, aunt Madge, Prudy, and Dotty Dimple, were
+waiting for them. A hearty laugh went the rounds, which Fly thought was
+decidedly silly. Aunt Madge took the young travellers right into her
+arms, and hugged them in her own cordial style, as if her heart had been
+hungry for them for many a day.
+
+"We're so glad!--for it did seem as if you'd never come," exclaimed
+Dotty Dimple.
+
+"And I'd like to know," said Horace, "how you happened to get here
+first."
+
+"O, we came by express--came yesterday."
+
+"By 'spress?" cried Flyaway, pulling away from aunt Madge, who was
+trying to pin her frock together; "_we_ came by a 'ductor.--Why, where's
+Flipperty's ticket?"
+
+Horace seized Prudy with one hand, and Dotty Dimple with the other,
+turning them round and round.
+
+"I don't see anything of the express mark, 'Handle with care.' What has
+become of it?"
+
+"O, we were done up in brown paper," said Prudy, laughing, "and the
+express mark was on that; but aunt Madge took it off as soon as she got
+the packages home."
+
+"Why, what a story, Prudy Parlin! We didn't have a speck of brown paper
+round us. Just cloaks and hats with feathers in!"
+
+Dotty spoke with some irritation. She had all along been rather
+sensitive about being sent by express, and could not bear any allusion
+to the subject.
+
+"There, that's Miss Dimple herself. Let me shake hands with your
+Dimpleship! Didn't come to New York to take a joke,--did you?"
+
+"No, her Dimpleship came to New York to get warm," said Peacemaker
+Prudy; "and so did I, too. You don't know how cold it is in Maine."
+
+By this time they were rattling over the stones in their aunt's elegant
+carriage. It was dusk; the lamps were lighted, the streets crowded with
+people, the shops blazing with gay colors.
+
+"I didn't come here to get warm, either," said Dotty, determined to
+have the last word: "I was warm enough in Portland. I s'pose we've got a
+furnace,--haven't we?--and a coal grate, too."
+
+"I do hope Horace hasnt't got her started in a contrary fit," thought
+Prudy; "I brought her all the way from home without her saying a cross
+word."
+
+But aunt Madge had a witch's broom, to sweep cobwebs out of the sky.
+Putting her arm around Dotty, she said,--
+
+"You all came to bring sunshine into my house; bless your happy hearts."
+
+That cleared Dotty's sky, and she put up her lips for a kiss; while
+Flyaway, with her "hangerfiss" on, danced about the carriage like a fly
+in a bottle, kissing everybody, and Horace twice over.
+
+"'Cause I spect we've got there. But, Hollis," said she, with the
+comical shade of care which so often flitted across her little face,
+"you never put the trunk in here. Now that 'ductor has gone and carried
+off my nightie."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE FROLIC.
+
+
+If Aunt Madge had dressed in linsey woolsey, with a checked apron on,
+she would still have been lovely. A white rose is lovely even in a
+cracked tea-cup. But Colonel Augustus Allen was a rich man, and his wife
+could afford to dress elegantly. Horace followed her to-night with
+admiring eyes.
+
+"They say she isn't as handsome as Aunt Louise, but I know better; you
+needn't tell me! Her eyes have got the real good twinkle, and that's
+enough said."
+
+Horace was like most boys; he mistook loveliness for beauty. Mrs.
+Allen's small figure, gentle gray eyes, and fair curls made her seem
+almost insignificant beside the splendid Louise; but Horace knew better;
+you needn't tell _him_!
+
+"Horace," said Aunt Madge, "your Uncle Augustus is gone, and that is one
+reason, you know, why I begged for company during the holidays. You will
+be the only gentleman in the house, and we ladies herewith put ourselves
+under your protection. Will you accept the charge?"
+
+"He needn't _pertect_ ME," spoke up Miss Dimple, from the depths of an
+easy-chair; "I can pertect myself."
+
+"Don't mind going to the Museum alone, I suppose, and crossing ferries,
+and riding in the Park, and being out after dark?"
+
+"No; I'm not afraid of things," replied the strong-minded young lady;
+"ask Prudy if I am. And my father lets me go in the horse-cars all over
+Portland. That's since I travelled out west."
+
+Here the bell sounded, and the only gentleman of the house gave his arm
+to Mrs. Allen, to lead her out to what he supposed was supper, though he
+soon found it went by the name of dinner. Neither he nor his young
+cousins were accustomed to seeing so much silver and so many servants;
+but they tried to appear as unconcerned as if it were an every-day
+affair. Dotty afterwards said to Prudy and Horace, "I was 'stonished
+when that man came to the back of my chair with the butter; but I said,
+'_If_ you please, sir,' just as if I 'spected it. _He_ don't know but my
+father's rich."
+
+After dinner Fly's eyes drew together, and Prudy said,--
+
+"O, darling, you don't know what's going to happen. Auntie said you
+might sleep with Dotty and me to-night, right in the middle."
+
+"O, dear!" drawled Flyaway; "when there's two abed, I sleep; but when
+there's three abed, I open out my eyes, and can't."
+
+"So you don't like to sleep with your cousins," said Dotty, "your dear
+cousins, that came all the way from Portland to see you."
+
+"Yes, I do," said Fly, quickly; "my eyes'll open out; but that's no
+matter, 'cause I don't want to go to sleep; I'd ravver not."
+
+They went up stairs, into a beautiful room, which aunt Madge had
+arranged for them with two beds, to suit a whim of Dotty's.
+
+"Now isn't this just splendid?" said Miss Dimple; "the carpet so soft
+your boots go in like feathers; and then such pictures! Look, Fly! here
+are two little girls out in a snow-storm, with an umbrella over 'em.
+Aren't you glad it isn't you? And here are some squirrels, just as
+natural as if they were eating grandpa's oilnuts. And see that pretty
+lady with the kid, or the dog. Any way she is kissing him; and it was
+all she had left out of the whole family, and she wanted to kiss
+somebody."
+
+"Yes," said aunt Madge.
+
+  "'Her sole companion in a dearth
+  Of love upon a hopeless earth.'
+
+"If that makes you look so sober, children, I'm going to take it down.
+Here, on this bracket, is the head of our blessed Saviour."
+
+"O, I'm glad," said Fly. "He'll be right there, a-looking on, when we
+say our prayers."
+
+"Hear that creature talk!" whispered Dotty.
+
+"And these things a-shinin' down over the bed: who's these?" said
+Flyaway, dancing about the room, with "opened-out" eyes.
+
+"Don't you know? That's Christ blessing little children," said Dotty,
+gently. "I always know Him by the rainbow round His head."
+
+"Aureole," corrected Aunt Madge.
+
+"But wasn't it just _like_ a rainbow--red, blue and green?"
+
+"O, no; our Saviour did not really have any such crown of light, Dotty.
+He looked just like other men, only purer and holier. Artists have tried
+in vain to make his expression heavenly enough; so they paint him with
+an aureole."
+
+Prudy said nothing; but as she looked at the picture, a happy feeling
+came over her. She remembered how Christ "called little children like
+lambs to his fold," and it seemed as if He was very near to-night, and
+the room was full of peace. Aunt Madge had done well to place such
+paintings before her young guests; good pictures bring good thoughts.
+
+"All, everywhere, it's so spl-endid!" said Fly; "what's that thing with
+a glass house over it!"
+
+"A clock."
+
+"What a funny clock! It looks like a little dog wagging its tail."
+
+"That's the _penderlum_," explained Dotty; "it beats the time. Every
+clock has a penderlum. Generally hangs down before though, and this
+hangs behind. I declare, Prudy, it does look like a dog wagging its
+tail."
+
+"Hark! it strikes eight," said Aunt Madge. "Time little girls were in
+bed, getting rested for a happy day to-morrow."
+
+"I don't spect that thing knows what time it is," said Fly, gazing at
+the clock doubtfully, "and my eyes are all opened out; but if you want
+me to, auntie, I will!"
+
+So Flyaway slipped off her clothes in a twinkling.
+
+"We're going to lie, all three, in this big bed, Fly, just for one
+night," said Dotty; "and after that we must take turns which shall sleep
+with you. There, child, you're all undressed, and I haven't got my boots
+off yet. You're quicker'n a chain o' lightning, and always was."
+
+"Why, how did that kitty get in here?" said auntie, as a loud mewing
+was heard. "I certainly shut her out before we came up stairs."
+
+Dotty ran round the room, with one boot on, and Prudy in her stockings,
+helping their aunt in the search. The kitten was not under the bed, or
+in either of the closets, or inside the curtains.
+
+"Look ahind the _pendlum_," said Fly, laughing and skipping about in
+high glee; "look ahind the pendlum; look atween the pillow-case."
+
+Still the mewing went on.
+
+"O, here is the kitty--I've found her," said auntie, suddenly seizing
+Fly by the shoulders, and stopping her mocking-bird mouth. "Poor pussy,
+she has turned white--white all over!"
+
+"You don't mean to say that was Fly Clifford?" cried Prudy.
+
+"Shut her up, auntie," said Dotty Dimple; "she's a kitty. I always knew
+her name was Kitty."
+
+Fly ran and courtesied before the mirror in her nightie.
+
+"O, Kitty Clifford, Kitty Clifford," she cried, "when'll you be a cat?"
+
+"Pretty soon, if you can catch mice as well as you can mew," laughed
+auntie; "but look you, my dear; are you going to bed to-night? or shall
+I shut you down cellar?"
+
+"Don't shut me down _cellow_, auntie," cried the mocking-bird, crowing
+like a chicken; "shut me in the barn with the banties."
+
+Next moment it occurred to the child that this style of behavior was not
+very "speckerful;" so she hastily dropped on her knees before her
+auntie, and began to say her prayers. The change was so sudden, from
+the shrill crow of a chicken to the gentle voice of a little girl
+praying, that no one could keep a sober face. Prudy ran into the closet,
+and Dotty laughed into her handkerchief.
+
+"There, now, that's done," said Flyaway, jumping up as suddenly as she
+had knelt down. "Now I must pray Flipperty."
+
+And before any one could think what the child meant to do, she had
+dragged out her dolly, and knelt it on the rug, face downward, over her
+own lap.
+
+"O, the wicked creature!" whispered Dotty. But Aunt Madge said nothing.
+
+"Pray," said the little one, in a tone of command. Then, in a fine,
+squeaking voice, Fly repeated a prayer. It was intended to be
+Flipperty's voice, and Flipperty was too young to talk plain.
+
+"There, that will do," said Aunt Madge, her large gray eyes trying not
+to twinkle; "did she ever say her prayers before?"
+
+"Yes, um; she's a goody girl--when I 'member to pray her!"
+
+"Well, dear, I wouldn't 'pray her' any more. It makes us laugh to see
+such a droll sight, and nobody wishes to laugh when you are talking to
+your Father in heaven."
+
+"No'm," replied Flyaway, winking her eyes solemnly.
+
+But when the "three abed" had been tucked in and kissed, Fly called her
+auntie back to ask, "How can Flipperty grow up a goody girl _athout_ she
+says her prayers?"
+
+There was such a mixture of play and earnestness in the child's eyes,
+that auntie had to turn away her face before she could answer seriously.
+
+"Why, little girls can think and feel you know; but with dollies it is
+different. Now, good night, pet; you won't have beautiful dreams, if you
+talk any more."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+"TAKING OUR AIRS."
+
+
+Flyaway awoke singing, and sprang up in bed, saying,--
+
+"Why, I thought I's a car, and that's why I whissiled."
+
+"But you are not a car," yawned Prudy; "please don't sing again, or
+dance, either."
+
+"It's the _happerness_ in me, Prudy; and that's what dances; it's the
+happerness."
+
+"That's the worst part of Fly Clifford," groaned Dotty; "she won't keep
+still in the morning. Might have known there wouldn't be any peace after
+she got here."
+
+Dotty always came out of sleep by slow stages, and her affections were
+the last part of her to wake up. Just now she did not love Katie
+Clifford one bit, nor her own mother either.
+
+"Won't you light the lamp?" piped Flyaway.
+
+"Please don't, Fly," said Prudy; "don't talk!"
+
+"Won't you light the la-amp?"
+
+"No, we will not," said Dotty, firmly.
+
+"Won't you light the la-amp?"
+
+"Is this what we came to New York for?" moaned Dotty; "to be waked up in
+the middle of the night by folks singing?"
+
+"Won't you light the la-amp?"
+
+"I'll pack my dresses, and go right home! I'll--I'll have Fly Clifford
+sleep out o' this room. Why, I--I--"
+
+"Won't you light the la-amp?"
+
+Prudy sprang out of bed, convulsed with laughter, and lighted the gas;
+whereupon Fly began to dance "Little Zephyrs," on the pillow, and Dotty
+to declare her eyes were put out.
+
+"Little try-patiences, both of them," thought Prudy; "but then they've
+always had their own way, and what can you expect? I'm so glad I wasn't
+born the youngest of the family; it does make children _so_
+disagreeable!"
+
+As soon as Dotty was fairly awake, her love for her friends came back
+again, and her good humor with it. She made Fly bleat like a lamb and
+spin like a top, and applauded her loudly.
+
+"It's gl-orious to have you here, Fly Clifford. I wouldn't let you go in
+any other room to sleep for anything."
+
+Which shows that the same thing looked very different to Dotty after she
+got her eyes open.
+
+When the children went down to breakfast, they found bouquets of
+flowers by their plates.
+
+"I am delighted to see such happy faces." said Aunt Madge. "How would
+you all like to go out by and by, and take the air?"
+
+"We'd like it, auntie; and I'll tell you what would be prime," remarked
+Horace, from his uncle's place at the head of the table; "and that is,
+to take Fly to Stewart's, and have her go up in an elevator."
+
+"Why couldn't I go up, too?" asked Dotty, with the slightest possible
+shade of discontent in her voice. She did not mean to be jealous, but
+she had noticed that Flyaway always came first with Horace, and if there
+was anything hard for Dotty's patience, it was playing the part of
+Number Two.
+
+"We'll all go up," said Aunt Madge. "I've an idea of taking you over
+to Brooklyn; and in that case we shan't come home before night."
+
+"Carry our dinner in a basket?" suggested Dotty.
+
+"O, no; we'll go into a restaurant, somewhere, and order whatever you
+like."
+
+"Will you, auntie? Well, there, I never went to such a place in my life,
+only once; and then Percy Eastman, he just cried 'Fire!' and I broke the
+saucer all to pieces."
+
+"I've been to it a great many times," said Fly, catching part of Dotty's
+meaning; "my mamma bakes 'em in a freezer."
+
+At nine o'clock the party of five started out to see New York. Aunt
+Madge and Horace walked first, with Flyaway between them. "We are going
+out to take our _airs_," said the little one.
+
+"I don't think you need any more," said Horace, looking fondly at his
+pretty sister. "You're so airy now, it's as much as we can do to keep
+your feet on the ground."
+
+Flyaway wore a blue silk bonnet, with white lace around the face, a blue
+dress and cloak, and pretty furs with a squirrel's head on the muff. She
+had never been dressed so well before, and she knew it. She remembered
+hearing "Phibby" say to "Tinka," "Don't that child look like an angel?"
+Fly was sure she did, for big folks like Tinka must know. But here her
+thoughts grew misty. All the angels she had ever heard of were brother
+Harry and "the Charlie boy." How could she look like them?
+
+"Does God dress 'em in a cloak and bonnet, you s'pose?" asked she of her
+own thoughts.
+
+Prudy and Dotty Dimple wore frocks of black and red plaid, white
+cloaks, and black hats with scarlet feathers. Horace was satisfied that
+a finer group of children could not be found in the city.
+
+"Aunt Madge and I have no reason to be ashamed of them, I am sure,"
+thought he, taking out his new watch every few minutes, not because he
+wished to show it, but for fear it was losing time.
+
+"How I wish we had Grace and Susey here! and then I should have all my
+nieces," said Aunt Madge. "Is it possible these are the same children I
+used to see at Willowbrook? Here is my only nephew, that drowned Prudy
+on a log, grown tall enough to offer me his arm. (Why, Horace, your head
+is higher than mine!) Here is Prudy, who tried yesterday--didn't
+she?--to go up to heaven on a ladder, almost a young lady. Why, how old
+it makes me feel!"
+
+"But you don't look old," said Dotty, consolingly; "you don't look
+married any more than Aunt Louise?"
+
+Here they took an omnibus, and the children interested themselves in
+watching the different people who sat near them.
+
+"Aren't you glad to come?" said Dotty. "See that man getting out. What
+is that little thing he's switching himself with?"
+
+"That's a cane," replied Horace.
+
+"A cane? Why, if Flyaway should lean on it, she'd break it in
+two.--Prudy, look at that man in the corner; _his_ cane is funnier than
+the other one."
+
+Horace laughed.
+
+"That is a pipe, Dotty--a meerschaum."
+
+"Well, I don't see much difference," said Miss Dimple; "New York is the
+queerest place. Such long pipes, and such short canes!"
+
+Fly was too happy to talk, and sat looking out of the window until an
+elegantly-dressed lady entered the stage, who attracted everybody's
+attention; and then Flyaway started up, and stood on her tiptoes. The
+lady's face was painted so brightly that even a child could not help
+noticing it. It was haggard and wrinkled, all but the cheeks, and those
+bloomed out like a red, red rose. Flyaway had never seen such a sight
+before, and thought if the lady only knew how she looked, she would go
+right home and wash her face.
+
+"What a chee-arming little girl!" said the painted woman, crowding in
+between Aunt Madge and Flyaway, and patting the child's shoulder with
+her ungloved hand, which was fairly ablaze with jewels; "bee-youtiful!"
+
+Flyaway turned quickly around to Aunt Madge, and said, in one of her
+very loud whispers, "What's the matter with her? She's got sumpin on her
+face."
+
+"Hush," whispered Aunt Madge, pinching the child's hand.
+
+"But there is," spoke up Flyaway, very loud in her earnestness; "O,
+there is sumpin on her face--sumpin red."
+
+There was "sumpin" now on all the other faces in the omnibus, and it was
+a smile. The lady must have blushed away down under the paint. She
+looked at her jewelled fingers, tossed her head proudly, and very soon
+left the stage.
+
+"Topknot, how could you be so rude?" said Horace, severely; "little
+girls should be seen, and not heard."
+
+"But she speaked to me first," said Flyaway. "I wasn't goin' to say
+nuffin, and then she speaked."
+
+A young gentleman and lady opposite seemed very much amused.
+
+"I'm afraid of your bright eyes, little dear. I'll give you some candy
+if you won't tell me how I look," said the young lady, showering
+sweetmeats into Flyaway's lap.
+
+"Why, I wasn't goin' to tell her how she looked," whispered Fly, very
+much surprised, and trying to nestle out of sight behind Horace's
+shoulder.
+
+When they left the omnibus, the children had a discussion about the
+painted lady, and could not decide whether they were glad or sorry that
+Fly had spoken out so plainly.
+
+"Good enough for her," said Dotty.
+
+"But it was such a pity to hurt her feelings!" said Prudy.
+
+"Who hurted 'em?" asked Fly, looking rather sheepish.
+
+"Poh! her feelings can't be worth much," remarked Horace; "a woman
+that'll go and rig herself up in that style."
+
+"She must be near-sighted," said Aunt Madge. "She certainly can't have
+the faintest idea how thick that paint is. She ought to let somebody
+else put it on."
+
+"But, auntie, isn't it wicked to wear paint on your cheeks?"
+
+"No, Dotty, only foolish. That woman was handsome once, but her beauty
+is gone. She thinks she can make herself young again, and then people
+will admire her."
+
+"O, but they won't; they'll only laugh."
+
+"Very true, Dotty; but I dare say she never thought of that till this
+little child told her."
+
+"Fly," said Horace, "You are doing a great deal of good going round
+hurting folks' feelings."
+
+"Poor woman!" said Aunt Madge, with a pitying smile; "she might comfort
+herself by trying to make her soul beautiful."
+
+"That would be altogether the best plan," said Horace, aside to Prudy;
+"she can't do much with her body, that's a fact; it's too dried up."
+
+All this while they were passing elegant shops, and Aunt Madge let the
+children pause as long as they liked before the windows, to admire the
+beautiful things.
+
+"Whose little grampa is that?" cried Fly, pointing to a Santa Claus
+standing on the pavement and holding out his hands with a very pleasant
+smile; "he's all covered with a snow-storm."
+
+"He isn't alive," said Dotty; "and the snow is only painted on his coat
+in little dots."
+
+"Well, I didn't spect he was alive, Dotty Dimple, only but he made
+believe he was. And O, see that hossy! he's dead, too, but he looks as
+if you could ride on him."
+
+"This other window is the handsomest, Fly; don't I wish I had some of
+those beautiful dripping, red ear-rings?"
+
+"Why, little sister," said Prudy, "I'd as soon think of wanting a gold
+nose as those cat-tail ear-rings. What would Grandma Read say?"
+
+"Why, she'd say 'thee' and 'thou,' I s'pose, and ask me if I called 'em
+the ornaments of meek and quiet spirits," said Dotty, with a slight curl
+of the lip. "Auntie, is it wicked to wear jewels, if your grandma's a
+Quaker?"
+
+"I think not; that is, if somebody should give you a pair; but I hope
+somebody never will. It is a mere matter of taste, however. O, children,
+now I think of it, I'll give you each a little pin-money to spend,
+to-day, just as you like. A dollar each to Prudy and Dotty; and, Horace,
+here is fifty cents for Flyaway."
+
+"O, you darling auntie!" cried the little Parlins, in a breath. Dotty
+shut this, the largest bill she had ever owned, into her red
+porte-monnaie, feeling sure she should never want for anything again
+that money can buy.
+
+"There, now, Hollis," said Fly, drawing her mouth down and her eyebrows
+up, "where's my skipt? _my_ skipt?"
+
+"What? A little snip like you mustn't have money," answered Horace,
+carelessly; "auntie gave it to me."
+
+The moment he had spoken the words, he was sorry, for the child was too
+young and sensitive to be trifled with. She never doubted that her great
+cruel brother had robbed her. It was too much. Her "dove's eyes" shot
+fire. Flyaway could be terribly angry, and her anger was "as quick as a
+chain o' lightning." Before any one had time to think twice, she had
+turned on her little heel, and was running away. With one impulse the
+whole party turned and followed.
+
+"Prudy and I haven't breath enough to run," said Aunt Madge. "Here we
+are at Stewart's. You'll find us in the rotunda, Horace. Come back here
+with Fly, as soon as you have caught her."
+
+As soon as he had caught her!
+
+They were on Broadway, which was lined with people, moving to and fro.
+Horace and Dotty had to push their way through the crowd, while little
+Fly seemed to float like a creature of air.
+
+"Stop, Fly! Stop, Fly!" cried Horace; but that only added speed to her
+wings.
+
+"She's like a piece of thistle-down," laughed Horace; "when you get near
+her you blow her away."
+
+"Stop, O, stop," cried Dotty; "Horace was only in fun. Don't run away
+from us, Fly."
+
+But by this time the child was so far off that the words were lost in
+the din.
+
+"Why, where is she? I don't see her," exclaimed Horace, as the little
+blue figure suddenly vanished, like a puff of smoke. "Did she cross the
+street?"
+
+"I don't know, Horace. O, dear, I don't know."
+
+It was the first time a fear had entered either of their minds. Knowing
+very little of the danger of large cities, they had not dreamed that the
+foolish little Fly might get caught in some dreadful spider's web.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+DOTTY HAVING HER OWN WAY.
+
+
+Yes, Fly was out of sight; that was certain. Whether she had turned to
+the right, or to the left, or had merely gone straight on, fallen down,
+and been trampled on, that was the question. How was one to find out?
+People enough to inquire of, but nobody to answer.
+
+Horace had as many thoughts as a drowning man. How had he ever dared
+bring such a will-o'-the-wisp away from home? How had his mother
+consented to let him? His father had charged him, over and over, not to
+let go Fly's hand in the street. That did very well to talk about; but
+what could you do with a child that wasn't made of flesh and blood, but
+the very lightest kind of gas?
+
+"Dotty, turn down this street, and I'll keep on up Broadway. No--no;
+you'd get lost. What shall we do? Go just where I do, as hard as you can
+run, and don't lose sight of me."
+
+Dotty began to pant. She could not keep on at this rate of speed, and
+Horace saw it.
+
+"You'll have to go back to Stewart's."
+
+"Where's Stewart's?" gasped Dotty, still running.
+
+"Why, that stone building on Tenth Street, with blue curtains, where we
+left auntie."
+
+"I don't know anything about Tenth Street or blue curtains."
+
+"But you'll know it when you get there. Just cross over--"
+
+"O, Horace Clifford, I can't cross over! There's horses and carriages
+every minute; and my mother made me almost promise I wouldn't ever cross
+over."
+
+"There are plenty of policemen, Dotty; they'll take you by the
+shoulder--"
+
+"O, Horace Clifford, they shan't take me by the shoulder! S'pose I want
+'em marching me off to the lockup?" screamed Dotty, who believed the
+lockup was the chief end and aim of policemen.
+
+"Well, then, I don't know anything what to do with you," said Horace, in
+despair.
+
+It seemed very hard that he should have the care of this willful little
+cousin, just when he wanted so much to be free to pursue Flyaway.
+
+"If you won't go back to Stewart's, you won't. Will you go into this
+shop, then, and wait till I call for you?"
+
+"You'll forget to call."
+
+"I certainly won't forget."
+
+"Well, then, I'll go in; but I won't promise to stay. I want to help
+hunt for Fly just as much as you do."
+
+"Dotty Dimple, look me right in the eye. I can't stop to coax you. I'm
+frightened to death about Fly. Do you go into this store, and stay in it
+till I call for you, if it's six hours. If you stir, you're lost.
+Do--you--_hear_?"
+
+"Yes, I _hear_.--H'm, he thinks my ears are thick as ears o' corn? No
+holes in 'em to hear with, I s'pose! Horace Clifford hasn't got the
+_say_ o' me, though. I can go all over town for all o' him!"
+
+"What will you have, my little lady?" said a clerk, bowing to Dotty.
+
+"I don't want anything, if you please, sir. There was a boy, and he
+asked me to stay here while he went to find something."
+
+"Very well; sit as long as you please."
+
+"Screwed right down into the floor, this piano stool is," thought Dotty;
+"makes it real hard to sit on, because you can't whirl it. Guess I'll
+walk 'round a while. Why, if here isn't a window right in the floor!
+Strong enough to walk on. There's a man going over it with big boots and
+a cane. I can look right down into the cellar. Only just I can't see any
+thing, though, the glass is so thick."
+
+Dotty watched the clerks measuring off yards of cloth, tapping on the
+counter, and calling out, "Cash." It was rather funny, at first, to see
+the little boys run; but Dotty soon tired of it.
+
+"Horace is gone a long while," thought she, going to the door and
+looking out.
+
+"He has forgotten to call, or he's forgotten where he left me, or else
+he hasn't found Fly. Dear, dear! I can't wait. I'll just go out a few
+steps, and p'rhaps I'll meet 'em."
+
+She walked out a little way, seeing nothing but a multitude of strange
+faces.
+
+"Well, I should think this was queer! I'll go right back to that store,
+and sit down on the piano stool. If Horace Clifford can't be more
+polite! Well, I should think!"
+
+Dotty went back, and entered, as she supposed, the store she had left;
+but a great change had come over it. It had the same counters, and
+stools, and goods on lines, marked "Selling off below cost;" but the men
+looked very different. "I don't see how they could change round so
+quick," thought Dotty; "I haven't been gone _more'n_ a minute."
+
+"What shall I serve you to, mees," said one of them, with a smile that
+was all black eyes and white teeth. Dotty thought he looked very much
+like Lina _Rosenbug's_ brother; and his hair was so shiny and sticky, it
+must have been dipped in molasses.
+
+She answered him with some confusion. "I don't want anything. I was the
+girl, you know, that the boy was going somewhere to find something."
+
+The man smiled wickedly, and said, "Yees, mees." In an instant it
+flashed across Dotty that she had got into the wrong store. Where was
+the glass window she had walked on? They couldn't have taken that out
+while she was gone. The floor was whole, and made of nothing but boards.
+
+"Well, it's very queer stores should be _twins_," thought Dotty.
+
+She entered the next one. It was not a "twin;" it was full of books and
+pictures.
+
+"Why didn't Horace leave me here, in the first place, it was so much
+nicer. And they let people read and handle the pictures. O, they have
+the _goldest_-looking things!"
+
+How shocked Prudy would have been, if she had seen her little sister
+reaching up to the counter, and turning over the leaves of books, side
+by side with grown people! Miss Dimple was never very bashful; and what
+did she care for the people in New York, who never saw her before? She
+soon became absorbed in a fairy story. Seconds, minutes, quarters; it
+was a whole hour before she came to herself enough to remember that
+Horace was to call for her, and she was not where he had left her.
+
+"But he can't scold; for didn't he keep me waiting, too? Now I'll go
+back."
+
+The next place she entered was a cigar store.
+
+"I might have known better than to go in; for there's that wooden Indian
+standing there, a-purpose to keep ladies out!"
+
+"O, here's a 'Sample Room.' Now this _must_ be the place, for it says
+'Push,' on the green door, just as the other one did."
+
+What was Dotty's astonishment, when she found she had rushed into a room
+which held only tables, bottles, and glasses, and men drinking something
+that smelt like hot brandy!
+
+"I shan't go into any more 'Sample Rooms.' I didn't know a 'Sample'
+meant whiskey! But, I do declare, it's funny where _my_ store is gone
+to."
+
+The child was going farther and farther away from it.
+
+"Here is one that looks a little like it Any way, I can see a glass
+window in there, on the floor."
+
+A lady stood at a counter, folding a piece of green velvet ribbon. Dotty
+determined to make friends with her; so she went up to her, and said, in
+a low voice, "Will you please tell me, ma'am, if I'm the same little
+girl that was in here before? No, I don't mean so. I mean, did I go into
+the same store, or is this a different one? Because there's a boy going
+to call for me, and I thought I'd better know."
+
+Of course the lady smiled, and said it might, or might not be the same
+place; but she did not remember to have seen Dotty before.
+
+"What was the number of the store? The boy ought to have known."
+
+"But I don't believe he did," replied Dotty, indignantly; "he never said
+a word to me about numbers. I'm almost afraid I'll get lost!"
+
+"I should be quite afraid of it, child. Where do you live?"
+
+"In Portland, in the State of Maine. Prudy and I came to New York: our
+auntie sent for us--I know the place when I see it; side of a church
+with ivy; but O, dear! I'm afraid the stage don't stop there. She's at
+Mr. Stewart's--she and Prudy."
+
+"Do you mean Stewart's store?"
+
+"O, no'm; it's a man she knows," replied Dotty, confidently; "he lives
+in a blue house."
+
+The lady asked no more questions. If Dotty had said "Stewart's store,"
+and had remembered that the curtains were blue, and not the building,
+Miss Kopper would have thought she knew what to do; she would have sent
+the child straight to Stewart's.
+
+"Poor little thing!" said she, twisting the long curl, which hung down
+the back of her neck like a bell-rope, and looking as if she cared more
+about her hair than she cared for all the children in Portland. "The
+best thing you can do is to go right into the druggist's, next door but
+one, and look in the City Directory. Do you know your aunt's husband's
+name?"
+
+"O, yes'm. Colonel Augustus Allen, _Fiftieth_ Avenue."
+
+"Well, then, there'll be no difficulty. Just go in and ask to look in
+the Directory; they'll tell you what stage to take. Now I must attend to
+these ladies. Hope you'll get home safe."
+
+"A handsome child," said one of the ladies. "Yes, from the country,"
+replied Miss Kopper with a sweet smile; "I have just been showing her
+the way home."
+
+Ah, Miss Kopper, perhaps you thought you were telling the truth; but
+instead of relieving the country child's perplexity, you had confused
+her more than ever. What should Dotty Dimple know about a City
+Directory? She forgot the name of it before she got to the druggist's.
+
+"Please, sir, there's something in here,--may I see it?--that shows
+folks where they live."
+
+"A policeman?"
+
+"No; O, no, sir."
+
+After some time, the gentleman, being rather shrewd, surmised what she
+wanted, and gave her the book.
+
+"Not that, sir," said Dotty, ready to cry.
+
+Perhaps you will be as ready to laugh, when you hear that the child
+really supposed a City Directory was an instrument that drew out and
+shut up like a telescope, and, by peeping through it, she could see the
+distant home of Colonel Allen, on "Fiftieth Avenue."
+
+The apothecary did not laugh at her; but, being a kind man, and,
+moreover, not having curls hanging down his neck which needed attention,
+he gave his whole care to Dotty, found an omnibus for her, told the
+driver just where to let her out, and made her repeat her uncle's street
+and number till he thought there was no danger of a mistake.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+DOTTY REBUKED.
+
+
+One would have thought that now all Dotty's troubles were over; and so
+they would have been, if she had not tried so hard to remember the
+number. She said it over and over so many times, that all of a sudden it
+went out of her mind. It was like rolling a ball on the ground, backward
+and forward, till most unexpectedly it pops into a hole. Very much
+frightened, Dotty bit her lip, twirled her front hair, and pinched her
+left cheek--all in vain; the number wouldn't come.
+
+"O, dear, what'll I do? I'd open that cellar door, where the driver is;
+but he's all done up in a blue cape, and don't know anything only how
+to whip his horses. And there don't anybody know where anybody lives in
+this city; so it's no use to ask. For what do they care? They'd tell you
+to look in the Dictionary. There's nobody in Portland ever told me to
+look in a Dictionary. Here they are, sitting round here, just as happy,
+all but me. They all live in a number, and they know what it is; but
+they keep it to themselves,--they don't tell. It always makes people
+feel better to know where they're going to. When I'm in Portland I know
+how to get to Park Street, and how to get to Munjoy, and how to get to
+Back Cove, with my eyes shut. But they don't make things as they ought
+to in New York. You can't find out what to do."
+
+So the stage rumbled, and Dotty grumbled. Presently a lady in an ermine
+cloak got out, and Dotty did not know of anything better to do than to
+follow. She certainly was on Fifth Avenue, and perhaps, if she walked
+on, she should come to the number.
+
+"There isn't any house along here that looks like auntie's," said she,
+anxiously; "only they all look like it some. I never saw such a place as
+this city, So many same things right over, and over; and then, when you
+go into 'em, its just as different, and not the place you s'posed it
+was."
+
+Here Dotty ran up some steps, and rang a bell. She thought the damask
+curtains looked familiar.
+
+"No, no," cried she, running down again, as fast as the mouse ran down
+the clock; "my auntie don't keep onions in her bay window, I hope!"
+
+It was hyacinth bulbs, in glass vases, which had excited Dotty's
+disgust.
+
+"O, I guess I'm on the wrong side of the street; no wonder I can't find
+the house. There, I see a chamber window open; _our_ chamber window was
+open. I'm going to cross over and get near enough to see if there's a
+little clock on the shelf that ticks like a dog wagging his tail."
+
+No, there was no clock of any sort, and where the shelf ought to be was
+a baby's crib.
+
+"Well, any way, here's that beautiful church, with ivy round it; it's
+ever so near auntie's; so I'll keep walking."
+
+Dotty was right when she said the church was near auntie's--it was
+within three doors; but she was wrong when she kept walking precisely
+the wrong way. She crossed over to Sixth Avenue. Now, where were the
+brown houses? She saw the horse-cars plodding along, and tried to read
+the words on them.
+
+"'Sixth Ave. and Fifty-Ninth Street.' Why, what's an _ave_? I never heard
+of such a thing before; we don't have 'aves' in Portland. There are ever
+so many people getting out of that car. While it stops, I'll peep in,
+and see where it's going to. Perhaps there's a name inside that tells."
+
+And, with her usual rashness, Dotty stepped upon the platform of the
+car, and looked in. What she expected to see she hardly knew,--perhaps
+"Aunt Madge's House," in gold letters; but what she really saw was, "No
+Smoking;" those two words, and nothing more.
+
+"Well, who wants to smoke? I'm sure _I_ don't," thought Dotty,
+disdainfully, and was turning to step off the platform, when Horace
+Clifford seized her by the shoulder.
+
+"Where did you come from, you runaway?" said he, gruffly.
+
+Close beside him were Aunt Madge and Prudy; all three were getting out
+of the car.
+
+"Thank Heaven, one of them is found," cried Aunt Madge, her face very
+pale, her large eyes full of trouble.
+
+Prudy kissed and scolded in the same breath. "O, Dotty Dimple, you'd
+better believe we're glad to see you?--but what a naughty girl! A pretty
+race you've led Horace, and he just wild about Fly!"
+
+"H'm! what'd he go off for, then, and leave me there, sitting on a piano
+stool? S'pose I's going to sit there all day? Didn't I want to go home
+as much as the rest of you."
+
+"And how did you get home? I'd like to know that," said Horace, walking
+on with great strides, and then coming back again to the "ladies;" for
+his anxiety about his little sister would not allow him to behave
+calmly.
+
+"I rode."
+
+"You weren't in the car _we_ came in."
+
+"N-o; I just happened to be peeking in there you know. But I came in an
+_omnibius_."
+
+"It is wonderful," said Aunt Madge, looking puzzled, "that you ever knew
+what omnibus to take."
+
+Dotty looked down to see if her boot was buttoned, and forgot to look up
+again. "Well, _I_ shouldn't have known one _omnibius_, as you call it,
+from another," said Prudy, lost in admiration. "Why, Dotty, how bright
+you are! And there we were, so afraid about you, and spoke to a
+policeman to look you up."
+
+"I wouldn't let a p'liceman catch _me_," said Dotty, tossing her head.
+"But haven't you found Fly yet?"
+
+They were at home by this time, and Horace was ringing the bell.
+
+"No, the dear child is still missing; but the police are on her track,"
+said Aunt Madge, looking at her watch. "It is now one o'clock. Keep a
+good heart, Horace, my boy. John shall go straight to the telegraph
+office, and wait there for a despatch. Don't you leave us, dear; we
+can't spare you, and you can do no good."
+
+Horace made no reply, except to tap the heels of his boots together. He
+looked utterly crushed. A large city was just as strange to him as it
+was to Dotty, and he could only obey his aunt's orders, and try to hope
+for the best. Dotty seemed to be the only one who felt like saying a
+word, and she talked incessantly.
+
+"O, what'd you send the p'lice after her for? To put her in the lockup,
+and make her cry and think she's been naughty? It's the awfulest city
+that ever I saw. Folks might send her home, if they were a mind to, but
+they won't. They don't care what 'comes of you. There's cars and stages
+going to which ways, and nothing but 'No Smoking,' inside. And I went
+and peeped in at a window, and there was _onions_! And how'd I know
+where to go to? There was a girl with a long curl, and she said, 'Go to
+the 'pothecary's;' and what would Fly have known where she meant? And he
+looked in a Dictionary, and put me in a stage,--I was going to tell you
+about that when I got ready,--and asked me if I had ten cents, and I
+had; and then I forgot what the number was, and that was the time I saw
+the onions, or I should have gone right into somebody's else's house.
+And I knew there was a church with ivy round, but Fly don't know; she's
+nothing but a baby. And I should have thought, Horace Clifford, you
+might have given her that money! That was what made her run off; you was
+real cruel, and that's why I wouldn't mind what you said. And--and--"
+
+"Hush," said Aunt Madge, brushing back a spray of fair curls, which the
+wind had tossed over her forehead. "I don't allow a word of scolding in
+my house. If you don't feel pleasant, Dotty, you may go into the back
+yard and scold into a hole."
+
+Dotty stopped suddenly. She knew her aunt was displeased; she felt it in
+the tones of her voice.
+
+"Dotty, the wind has been at play with your hair as well as mine.
+Suppose we both go up stairs a few minutes?"
+
+"There, auntie's going to reason with me," thought Dotty, winding slowly
+up the staircase; "I didn't suppose she was one of that kind."
+
+"No dear, I'm _not_ one of that kind," said Mrs. Allen, roguishly; for
+she saw just what the child was thinking. "'I come not here to talk.'
+All I have to say is this: Disobey again, and I send you home
+immediately."
+
+"Yes'm," said the little culprit, blushing crimson. "Now, brush your
+hair, and let us go down." This was the only allusion Mrs. Allen ever
+made to the subject; but after this, she and Dotty understood each other
+perfectly. Dotty had learned, once for all, that her aunt was not to be
+trifled with.
+
+The child really was ashamed--thoroughly ashamed; but do you suppose
+she admitted it to Horace? Not she. And he, so full of anguish
+concerning the lost Fly, found not a word of fault; scarcely even
+thought of his naughty cousin at all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE LOST FLY.
+
+
+Now we must go back and see what has become of the little one.
+
+At first her heart had swollen with rage. Anger had set her going, just
+as a blow from a battledoor sends off a shuttlecock. And, once being
+started, the poor little shuttlecock couldn't stop.
+
+"Auntie gave me that skipt. Hollis is a very wicked boy; steals skipt
+from little gee-urls. I don't ever want to see Hollis no more."
+
+What she meant to do, or where to go, she had no more idea than the blue
+clouds overhead. She had no doubt her brother was close behind, trying
+to overtake her. Her sole thought was, that she "wouldn't ever see
+Hollis no more." She knew nothing could make him so unhappy as that.
+"I'll lose me, and then how'll he feel?"
+
+"Lose me!" A wild thought, gone in a moment; but meanwhile she was
+already lost.
+
+"I hope auntie won't give Hollis nuffin to eat, 'cause he's took away my
+skipt; nuffin to eat but meat and vertato, athout any pie."
+
+Flyaway shook her head so hard, that the "war-plume" under her bonnet
+would have nodded, if the air could have got at it. "Why, where's
+Hollis?" said she, looking back, and finding, to her surprise, he was
+not to be seen. "I spected he'd come. I thought I heard him walking
+ahind me."
+
+Flyaway's anger had died out by this time. It never lasted longer than
+a Fourth of July torpedo.
+
+"He didn't know I runned off. Guess I'll go back, and he'll give me the
+skipt; and then I'll forgive him all goody."
+
+A very nice plan; only, instead of going back, she turned a corner, and
+tripped along towards University Place. She had twisted her head so much
+in looking for Horace, that it was completely turned round. And,
+besides, a little farther on was a man playing a harp, and a small boy a
+violin. Fly paused and listened, till she no longer remembered Horace or
+the "skipt." She forgot this was New York, and dreamed she had come to
+fairy-land. Her soul was full of music. Happy thoughts about nothing in
+particular made her smile and clap her hands. Birds, flowers, Santa
+Clauses, Flipperties, and "pepnits" seemed to hover near. Something
+beautiful was just going to happen, she didn't know what.
+
+After the man had played for some time without attracting attention from
+any body but Flyaway and a poor old beggar woman, he put his harp in a
+green bag, slung it over his shoulder, and walked off. Flyaway followed
+without knowing it. Down Sixth Avenue went the music-man, and close at
+his heels went she. By and by she saw a little girl, no larger than
+herself, with a great bundle on her shoulders.
+
+"You don't s'pose she's got a music on _her_ back?--No, not a music;
+it's too soft all swelled out in a bunch."
+
+Fly went nearer the little girl, to see what she was carrying; and as
+she did so, some gray coals, mixed with ashes, fell out of the bundle
+upon her nice cloak.
+
+"Why, she's been and carried off her mother's fireplace," thought Fly,
+shaking her cloak in disgust; "what you s'pose she wanted to do that
+for?"
+
+But far from carrying off her mother's fireplace, the ragged little girl
+had only been picking up old coal out of barrels, and was taking it home
+to burn. It had already been burned once, and picked over and burned
+again, and thrown away; but perhaps this poor child's mother could coax
+it into a faint glow, warm enough to fry a few potatoes.
+
+While Flyaway was shaking her cloak, and staring at some old silk
+dresses and bed-quilts, which were hung before a shop-door, the man with
+the harp on his back, and the boy with a violin under his arm, had
+turned a corner, and passed out of sight. Flyaway rubbed her eyes, and
+looked again. They must have gone down through the brick pavement, but
+she couldn't see any hole. Far away in the distance she heard their
+music again, and it did not come from under ground. She ran to overtake
+it, and turned into Bleecker Street. No music-man there, but a good
+supply of oranges and apples.
+
+"Needn't folks put their hands in, and take some out the barrels? Then
+why for did the folks put 'em on' doors?"
+
+While pondering this grave question, she was jostled by a man carrying a
+rocking-chair, and very nearly fell down stairs into an oyster-saloon. A
+minute more and she was back on Broadway, the very street, where Aunt
+Madge and Prudy were waiting for her, but so much lower down that she
+might as well have been in the State of Maine.
+
+"Now, I'll go find my Hollis," said she turning another corner, and
+running the wrong way with all her might. Past candy-stalls, past
+toy-shops, past orange-wagons. Hark, music again! Not the soft strains
+of a harp, but the stirring notes of bugle, fife, and drum. Fly kept
+time with her feet.
+
+"Here we go marchin' on," hummed she. But the crowd "marchin' on" with
+her was a strange one. Carts full of hammers, pincers, and all sorts of
+iron tools, and men in gray shirts, with black caps on their heads. Some
+of the men had banners, with great black words, such as "Equal Rights,"
+or something like them, in German; but of course Fly could not tell one
+letter from another. She only knew it was all very "homebly," in spite
+of the music. She began to think she had better get away as soon as she
+could; so she tried to cross the street, but some one held her back; it
+was a lady, carrying a small dog in her arms, like a baby.
+
+"Don't go there, child; that's a strike, you'll get killed."
+
+Fly knew but one meaning for the word _strike_; and, tearing herself
+from the lady, ran screaming down Broadway, with the thought that every
+man's hand was against her.
+
+On she went, and on went the strike, close behind her. A little while
+ago she had been following music, and now music was following her. But
+the fifes and drums were rather slow, and Flyaway's feet were very
+swift; so it was not long before the gray men, with their white banners
+and clattering carts, were far behind her. No danger now that any of the
+wicked creatures would strike her; so she slackened her pace.
+
+She did begin to wonder why she had not found Horace; still, she was not
+at all alarmed, and there was a dreadful din in the streets, which
+confused her thoughts. It seemed as if people were making it on purpose.
+Once, at Willowbrook, she had heard boys banging tin pans, grinding
+coffee mills, and pounding with mortars. She had liked that,--they
+called it the "Calathumpian Band,"--and she liked this too; it sounded
+about as uproarious.
+
+While she sauntered along, spying wonders, her eye was attracted by some
+balancing-toys, which a man was showing off at one of the corners. What
+a pleasant man he was, to set them spinning just to amuse little girls!
+Fly was delighted with one wee soldier, in a blue coat with brass
+buttons, who kept dancing and bowing with the greatest politeness.
+"Captain Jinks, of the horse-marines," said the toy-man, introducing
+him. "Buy him, miss; he'll make a nice little husband for you; only
+fifteen cents."
+
+Fly felt quite flattered. It was the first time in her life any one had
+ever asked her to buy anything, and she thought she must have grown tall
+since she came from Indiana. She put her fingers in her mouth, then took
+them out, and put them in her pocket.
+
+"Here's my porte-monnaie-ry," said she, dolefully; "but I haven't but
+two cents--no more. Hollis carried it off."
+
+"Well, well, run along, then. Don't you see you're right in the way?"
+
+Fly was surprised and grieved at the change in the man's tone: she had
+expected he would pity her for not having any money.
+
+"Come here, you little lump of love," called out a mellow voice; and
+there, close by, sat a wizened old woman, making flowers into nosegays.
+She had on a quilted hood as soft as her voice, but everything else
+about her was as hard as the door-stone she sat on.
+
+"See my beautiful flowers," said the old crone, pointing to the table
+before her; "who cares for them jumping things over yonder? I don't."
+
+The flowers were tied in bouquets--sweet violets, rosebuds, and
+heliotrope. Fly, whose head just reached the top of the table, smelt
+them, and forgot the "little husband, for fifteen cents."
+
+"He's a cross man, dearie," said the old woman, lowering her voice, "or
+he wouldn't have sent you off so quick, just because you hadn't any
+money. Now, I love little girls, and I'll warrant we can make some kind
+of a trade for one of my posies."
+
+Fly smiled, and quickly seized a bouquet with a clove pink in it.
+
+"Not so fast, child! What you got that you can give me for it? I don't
+mind the money. That old pocket-book will do, though 'tain't wuth much."
+
+It was very surprising to Fly to hear her port-monnaie called old; for
+it was bought last week, and was still as red as the cheeks of the
+painted lady.
+
+"I don't _dass_ to give folks my porte-monnaie-ry," said she, clutching
+it tighter, but holding the flowers to her nose all the while.
+
+"O, fudge! Well, what else you got in your pocket? A handkerchief?"
+
+"No, my hangerfiss is in my muff."
+
+"That? Why, there isn't a speck o' lace on it. Nice little ladies always
+has lace. Here's a letter in the corner; what is it?"
+
+"Hollis says it's K; stands for Flyaway."
+
+"Well, you're such a pretty little pink, I guess I'll take it; but
+'tain't wuth lookin' at," said the crafty old woman, who saw at a glance
+it was pure linen, and quite fine.
+
+"Now run along, baby; your mummer will be waitin' for you."
+
+Fly walked on slowly. Ought she to have parted with her very best
+hangerfiss!
+
+"Nice ole lady, loved little gee-urls; but what you s'pose folks was
+goin' to cry into now?"
+
+Tears started at the thought. One of them dropped into the eye of the
+squirrel, who sat on the muff, peeping up into her face.
+
+"Nice ole lady, I s'pose; but folks never wanted to buy my
+_hangerfisses_ byfore!" thought Fly, much puzzled by the state of
+society in New York. "And I've got some beau-fler flowers to my auntie's
+house. Wake up--wake up!" added she, blowing open a pink rose-bud;
+"you's too little for me."
+
+But the bud did not wish to wake up and be a rose; it curled itself
+together, and went to sleep again.
+
+"I don't see where Hollis stays to all the time," exclaimed the little
+one, beginning to have a faint curiosity about it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+"THE FRECKLED DOG."
+
+
+But just then a gentle-looking blind girl came along led by a dog. The
+sight was so strange that Flyaway stopped to admire; for whatever else
+she might be afraid of, she always loved and trusted a dog.
+
+"Doggie, doggie," cried she, patting the little animal's head.
+
+"O, _what_ a sweet voice," said the blind girl, putting out her hand and
+groping till she touched Fly's shoulder. "I never heard such a voice!"
+
+This was what strangers often said, and Flyaway never doubted the
+sweetness was caused by eating so much candy; but just now she had had
+none for two days.
+
+"What makes you shut your eyes up, right in the street, girl? Is the
+_seeingness_ all gone out of 'em?"
+
+"Yes, you darling. I haven't had any seeingness in my eyes for a year."
+
+"You didn't? Then you's _blind-eyed_," returned Flyaway, with perfect
+coolness.
+
+"And don't you feel sorry for me--not a bit?"
+
+"No, 'cause your dog is freckled so pretty."
+
+"But I can't see his freckles."
+
+"Well, he's got 'em. Little yellow ones, spattered out all over him."
+
+"But if I had eyes like you, I shouldn't need any dog. I could go about
+the streets alone."
+
+"Well, I don't like to go 'bout the streets alone; I want my own
+brother Hollis."
+
+"I hope you haven't got lost, little dear?"
+
+"No," laughed Fly, gayly; "I didn't get lost! But I don't know where
+nobody is! And there don't nobody know where _I_ am!"
+
+The blind girl took Fly's little hand tenderly in hers.
+
+"Come, turn down this street with me, and tell me all about it."
+
+Fly trudged along, prattling merrily, for about a minute: then she drew
+away. "'Tisn't a nice place; I don't want to go there."
+
+A look of pain crossed the blind girl's face.
+
+"No, I dare say you don't. It isn't much of a place for folks with silk
+bonnets on."
+
+"You can't see my bonnet; you can't see anything, you're blind-eyed;
+but," said Fly, glancing sharply around, "it isn't pretty here, at all;
+and there's a dead cat right in the street."
+
+"Yes, I think likely."
+
+"And there's a boy. I spect he frowed the cat out the window; he hasn't
+nuffin on but dirty cloe's."
+
+"Do you see some steps?" said the blind girl, putting her hand out
+cautiously. "Don't fall down."
+
+"I shan't fall down; I'm going home."
+
+"O, don't child; you must come with me. My mother will take care of
+you."
+
+"I don't want nobody's mother to take 'are o' me; I've got a mamma
+myself!"
+
+"How little you know!" said the blind girl, thinking aloud; "how lucky
+it is I found you! and O, dear, how I wish I could see! You'll slip
+away in spite of me."
+
+But Flyaway allowed herself to be drawn along, step by step, partly
+because she liked the "freckled dog," and partly because she had not
+ceased being amused by the droll sight of a person walking with closed
+eyes.
+
+"What's the name of you, girl?"
+
+"Maria."
+
+"Maria? So was my mamma; her name was Maria, when she was a little girl.
+O, look, there's another boy; don't you see him? Up high, in that house.
+Got a big box with a string to it."
+
+A very rough-looking boy was standing at a third-story window, lowering
+a bandbox by a clothes-line. As Fly watched the box slowly coming down,
+the boy called out,--
+
+"Get in, little un, and I'll give you a free ride."
+
+"O, no--O, no; I don't _dass_ to."
+
+"Yes, yes; go in, lemons," said the boy, choking with laughter, as he
+saw the child's horror. "If you don't do it, by cracky, I'll come down
+and fetch you."
+
+At this, Fly was frightened nearly out of her senses, and ran so fast
+that the dog could scarcely have kept up with her, even if he had not
+had a blind mistress pulling him back.
+
+"O, where are you?" exclaimed Maria. "Don't run away from me,--don't!"
+
+"He's a-gon to kill me in two," cried Flyaway, stopping for breath.'
+"he's a-gon to kill me in two-oo!"
+
+"No, he isn't, dear! It's only Izzy Paul He couldn't catch you, if he
+tried. He's lame, and goes on crutches."
+
+"But he said a swear word,--yes he, did," sobbed the child, never
+doubting that a boy who could swear was capable of murder, though he had
+neither hands nor feet.
+
+"Stop, now," said Maria, clutching Fly as if she had been a spinning
+top. "This is my house. Mother, mother, here's a little girl; catch
+her--hold her--keep her!"
+
+"Me? What should I catch a little girl for?" said Mrs. Brooks, a faded
+woman with a tired face, and a nose that moved up and down when she
+talked. She had been standing at the door of their tumbledown tenement,
+looking for her daughter, and was surprised to see her bringing a
+strange child with her. It was not often that well-dressed people
+wandered into that dirty alley.
+
+"The poor little thing has got lost, mother. Perhaps _you_ can find out
+where she came from. I didn't ask her any questions; it was as much as I
+could do to keep up with her."
+
+Maria put her hand on her side. Fast walking always tired her, for she
+was afraid every moment of falling.
+
+They had to go down a flight of stairs to get into the house; and after
+they got there Fly looked around in dismay.
+
+"I don't want to stay in the stable," she murmured. Indeed it was not
+half as nice as the place where her father kept his horse.
+
+"But this is where we have to live," sighed Maria.
+
+"Have things to eat?" asked the little stranger, in a solemn whisper.
+
+There were a few chairs with broken backs, a few shelves with clean
+dishes, a few children with hungry faces. In one corner was a clumsy
+bedstead, and in a tidy bed lay a pale man.
+
+"Who've you got there, Maria?" said he. "Bring her along, and stick her
+up on the bed."
+
+"Don't be afraid," said Mrs. Brooks; "it's only pa; wouldn't the little
+girl like to talk to him? He's sick."
+
+Flyaway was not at all afraid, for the man smiled pleasantly, and did
+not look as if he would hurt anybody. Mrs. Brooks set her on the bed,
+and Maria, afraid of losing her, held her by one foot. The children all
+crowded around to see the little lady in a silk bonnet holding a
+button-hole bouquet to her bosom.
+
+"Ain't she a ducky dilver!" said the oldest boy. "Pa'll be pleased, for
+he don't see things much. Has to keep abed all the time."
+
+Mr. Brooks tried to smile, and Flyaway whispered to Maria, with sudden
+pity,--
+
+"Sorry he's sick. Has he got to stay sick? Can't you find the camphor
+bottle?"
+
+"O, father, she thinks if ycu had some camphor to smell of, 'twould cure
+you."
+
+Then they all laughed, and Fly timidly offered the sick man her flowers.
+
+"What, that pretty posy for me? Bless you, baby, they'll do me a sight
+more good than camfire!"
+
+"There," said Maria, joyfully, "now pa is pleased; I know by the sound
+of his voice. Poor pa! only think, little girl, a stick of timber fell
+on him, and lamed him for life!"
+
+"Yes," said Bennie, "the lower part of him is as limber as a rag."
+
+"She don't sense a word you say," remarked Mrs. Brooks, shaking up a
+pillow, "See what we can get out of her. What's your name, dear?"
+
+"Katie Clifford."
+
+"Where do you live?"
+
+"I _have_ been borned in Nindiana."
+
+Fly spoke with some pride. She considered her birth an honor to the
+state.
+
+"But where did you come from, Katie? That's what we mean."
+
+"I camed from heaven," said the child, with one of her wise looks.
+
+"Beats all, don't she?" cried Mr. Brooks, admiringly. "Looks like an
+angel, I declare for't. Did you just drop down out of the sky?"
+
+"No, sir," answered Flyaway, folding her little hands as if she were
+saying her prayers; "I camed down when I was a baby."
+
+[Illustration: "I CAMED DOWN WHEN I WAS A BABY."]
+
+"That's what makes your hair so _goldy_," said Bennie. "Mother, did you
+ever see such eyes? Say, did you ever? So soft, and kinder shiny, too."
+
+"Children, don't stare at her; it makes her uneasy."
+
+"_I_ can't stare at her," said Maria, bitterly. "I suppose you don't
+mean me, mother."
+
+Mrs. Brooks only answered her poor daughter by a kiss.
+
+"Well, little Katie, after you were born in _Nindiana_, you came to New
+York. When did you come?"
+
+"One of these other days I camed here with Hollis."
+
+"Who's Hollis?"
+
+"He's my own brother. Got a new cap. Had his hair cut."
+
+"Who did you come to New York to see?"  "My auntie."
+
+"Her auntie! A great deal of satisfaction we are likely to get out of
+this child," said Mr. Brooks, laughing. He had not laughed before for a
+week.
+
+"What's your auntie's name?"
+
+"Aunt Madge."
+
+"Is she married?"
+
+"O, yes; and so's Uncle 'Gustus. Married together, and live together,
+just the same."
+
+"Uncle 'Gustus who? Now we'll come at it!"
+
+"Alling," replied Fly, her quick eyes roving about the room, for she was
+tired of these questions.
+
+"Allen, Augustus Allen!" said Mr. Brooks, in surprise; "I wonder if
+there can be two of them. Tell me, child, how does he look?"
+
+"Don't look like you," replied Fly, after a keen survey of Mr. Brooks.
+"Your face is pulled away down long, like that;" (stretching her hand
+out straight) "Uncle 'Gustus's face is squeezed up short" (doubling her
+hand into a ball)
+
+"I'll warrant it is the colonel himself," said Mrs. Brooks, smiling at
+the description.
+
+"Yes, that's the name of him; the 'kernil's' the name of him."
+
+"Is it possible!" said Mr. Brooks, looking very much pleased.
+
+"Uncle 'Gustus has curly hair on his cheeks, on his mouf, all round.
+_Not_ little prickles, sticking out like needles."
+
+"O, you girl!" said Bennie, frowning at Fly. "You mustn't laugh at my
+pa's beard. There's a man comes in, sometimes, and shaves him nice; but
+now the man's gone to Newark."
+
+"Is it possible," repeated Mrs. Brooks, taking the child's hand, "that
+this is Colonel Allen's little niece, and my Maria found her!"
+
+"Your Maria didn't find me," said Fly, decidedly; "I founded Maria."
+
+"So she did, pa. The first thing I knew, I heard somebody calling,
+Doggie, doggie,' in such a sweet voice; and then I looked--no, of course
+I _couldn't_ look."
+
+Here the discouraged look came over Maria's mouth, and she said no more.
+
+"There, there, cheer up, daughter," said Mr. Brooks, with tears in his
+eyes; "I was only going on to say, it is passing strange that any of our
+family should run afoul of one of the colonel's folks."
+
+"It's the Lord's doings; I haven't the slightest doubt of it," said Mrs.
+Brooks, earnestly. "You know what I've been saying to you, pa."
+
+"There, there, ma'am, _don't_," said Mr. Brooks; "don't go to raising
+false hopes. You know I'm too proud to beg of anybody's folks."
+
+"Why, pa, I shouldn't call it begging just to tell Colonel Allen how you
+are situated! Do you suppose, if he knew the facts of the case, he'd be
+willing to let you suffer? Such a faithful man as you used to be to
+work."
+
+"No, I think it's likely he wouldn't. He's got more heart than some rich
+folks; but I hain't no sort of claim on the colonel, if I did help build
+his house. And then, ma'am, you know I've been kind o' hopin'--"
+
+"Guess I'll go now, and find Hollis," said Fly, slipping down from the
+bed, for the talk did not interest her.
+
+"O, but I want to go with you, Katie," said Mrs. Brooks, coaxingly.
+"Bennie, you amuse her, while I change my dress."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+MARIA'S MOTHER.
+
+
+"I know your uncle must feel dreadfully to lose you; but never
+mind--he'll see you soon," said Mr. Brooks.
+
+"O, Uncle 'Gustus isn't there."
+
+"Not there?" said Mrs. Brooks, turning round from the cracked
+looking-glass. "Where then?"
+
+"O, he's gone off."
+
+"Gone off? Why, pa, ain't that too bad? I'm right up and down
+disappointed. But, then, the colonel has a wife; I can go to see her,
+you know; and I'll tell her just how you're situ--"
+
+"My Aunt Madge is gone off, too."
+
+"You don't say so!"
+
+"And my brother Hollis is gone."
+
+"This is a funny piece of work if it's true," said Mr. Brooks, with
+another genuine laugh; "you'd better ask her a few more questions before
+you start out. Who else is gone? Have they shut the house up?"
+
+"Yes, sir; shut it right up tight."
+
+"Nobody in it, at all?"
+
+"No, only the men and women. Prudy's gone, and Dotty Dimple's gone, and
+I'm gone."
+
+"Only the men and women, she says. That must be the servants. So the
+house must be open, pa. At any rate, I shall take her. Say by-bye, my
+pretty, and we'll be starting."
+
+Fly was very glad to go, but Maria clung to her fondly, and Bennie ran
+after her almost to Broadway, where Mrs. Brooks took a Fifth Avenue
+stage. She knew Colonel Allen's house very well, for she had seen it
+more than once, while it was in process of building. That was two or
+three years ago, when her husband was well, and the family lived very
+comfortably on Thirty-third Street. She sighed as she thought how
+different it was now. Mr. Brooks would never be able to work any more;
+they hardly had food enough to eat, and poor Maria had lost her
+eyesight.
+
+"Here we are, little Katie," said she.
+
+But the child did not wait to be helped out; she danced down the steps,
+and would have flown across the street, if Mrs. Brooks had not caught
+her.
+
+"I see it--I see it; my auntie's house. But there isn't nobody to it."
+
+The man who met them at the door was so surprised and delighted to see
+Fly, that he forgot his manners, and did not ask Mrs. Brooks in.
+
+"Bless us, the baby's found!" cried he, and ran to spread the news.
+
+Aunt Madge was walking the parlor floor, and Horace sitting on the sofa,
+as rigid as the marble elf Puck, just over his head. Prudy and Dotty had
+joined hands, and were crying softly on the rug. As the police had been
+notified of Fly's loss, all the family had to do was to wait. A servant
+was at the nearest telegraph office, with a horse and carriage, and at
+the first tidings would drive home and report.
+
+The words "The baby's found" rang through the house like a peal of
+bells. In an instant Flyaway Runaway was clasped in everybody's arms,
+and wet with everybody's tears.
+
+"Thought I'd come back," said the little truant, peeping up at her
+agitated friends' with some surprise; "thought I'd come back and get my
+skipt!"
+
+Then they exclaimed, in chorus,--
+
+"Topknot _shall_ have her skipt! The blessed baby! The darling old Fly!"
+
+And Dotty wound up by saying,--
+
+"Why, you see, we thought you's dead!"
+
+Flyaway, who had at first been very much astonished at the fuss made
+over her, now looked deeply offended.
+
+"Who said I's dead? What--a--drefful--lie!"
+
+"O, nobody said so, Fly; only we thought p'rhaps you was; and _what_
+would we do without you, you know?"
+
+"Why, if I's dead," said Fly, untying her bonnet strings, "then the
+funy-yal would come round and take me; that's all."
+
+"We are most grateful to you," said Aunt Madge, turning to Mrs. Brooks,
+"for bringing home this lost child; but do tell us where you found her."
+
+Then Mrs. Brooks related all she knew of Fly's wanderings, the little
+one putting in her own explanations.
+
+"I didn' be lost," said she sharply. "I feel jus' like frettin', when
+you say I's lost. 'Tis the truly truth; I's walking on the streets, and
+a naughty woman, she's got my hangerfiss--had ashes roses on it."
+
+"Yes, I put some otto of rose on it this morning," said Prudy. "What a
+shame!"
+
+"And I gave my flowers to the sick man. He was on the bed, with a blue
+bed-kilt. A girl name o' Maria, tookened me home. The seeingness is all
+gone out of her eyes, so she can't see."
+
+"How long has your husband been sick?" asked Mrs. Allen of the woman,
+while she was taking lunch in the dining-room. "Did you tell me he knew
+Colonel Allen?"
+
+Mrs. Brooks dropped her knife and fork; but her lips trembled so she
+could not speak. Flyaway, who sat in Horace's lap, eating ginger-snaps,
+exclaimed, "She wants some perjerves, auntie. She don't get no
+perjerves, nor nuffin nice to her house."
+
+"'Sh!" whispered Horace. The woman looked so respectable and well bred,
+that it seemed a great rudeness to allude to her poverty.
+
+But Mrs. Brooks drank some water, and then answered Aunt Madge,
+calmly,--
+
+"I'm not ashamed of being poor, Mrs. Allen; it's no disgrace, for there
+never was an honester man than my husband, nor none that worked harder,
+till a beam fell on him from the roof of a house, two years ago, and he
+lost the use of his limbs.--Yes, ma'am; he did use to know your husband.
+He was one of the workmen that helped build this house. I came and
+looked on when he was setting these very doors."
+
+"What is his name?" asked Aunt Madge, looking very much interested, and
+taking out her note-book and pencil. "What street and number?"
+
+"Cyrus Brooks, Number Blank, Blank Street, ma'am. Before the accident,
+we lived on Thirty-third Street, in very good shape; but, little by
+little, we were obliged to sell off, and finally had to move into pretty
+snug quarters. But we've always got enough to eat, such as it was,"
+added the good woman, trying not to show much she enjoyed her lunch.
+
+"I am very glad Providence has sent you here, Mrs. Brooks," said Aunt
+Madge, warmly. "I know Colonel Allen will seek you out when he comes
+home next week; but I shall not wait for that; I shall write him this
+very night."
+
+Mrs. Brooks' heart was so full that she had to cry into a coarse purple
+handkerchief of Bennie's, which happened to be in her pocket, and felt
+very much ashamed because she could not find her voice again, or any
+words in which to tell her gratitude. It was just as well, though. Mrs.
+Allen knew words were not everything. It gave her pleasure to fill a
+huge basket with nice things--wine and jelly for the sick man, plain
+food for the family, and a pretty woolen dress for Maria, which had been
+intended for Mrs. Fixfax, the housekeeper.
+
+The children looked on delighted, while the basket was filled with
+these articles, then passed over to Nathaniel, who was going home with
+Mrs. Brooks. It was amusing to watch Nathaniel, with the monstrous
+burden in his hands trying to help Mrs. Brooks down the front steps; for
+Aunt Madge was not enough of a fine lady to send the pair around by the
+servants' door.
+
+It was pleasant, too, to watch Mrs. Brooks's happy face, half hidden in
+the hood of her water-proof cloak, which kept puffing out, in the high
+wind, like a sail. She was going home to tell her husband the Lord had
+heard her prayers, and she had found a friend.
+
+"And you may depend I never talked so easy to anybody in my life, pa;"
+this was what she thought she should say. "I didn't _have_ to beg. Mrs.
+Allen is one of the Lord's own; I saw it the minute I clapped my eyes
+on her face."
+
+"I am going to see that woman to-morrow, and ask some questions about
+her blind daughter," said Aunt Madge, turning away from the window.
+
+"Ask 'bout her nose, too."
+
+"Whose nose, Fly?"
+
+"The woman's. It keeps a-moving when she talks."
+
+"There, who else noticed that?" exclaimed Horace, tossing his young
+sister aloft. "It takes Fly, with her little eye, to see things."
+
+"But I didn't ask her nuffin 'bout it, though, Horace Clifford. God made
+her so, with a wire in."
+
+Everybody smiled at the notion of Mrs. Brooks being a wax doll.
+
+"What a queer day it has been!" said Prudy. "Nothing but hide and seek.
+We'll all keep together next time, and lock hands tight."
+
+"Of course," said Dotty, quickly; "but look here; don't you think
+'twould be safer not to let Fly go with us? She was the one that made
+all the fuss."
+
+"Want to know if she was," said Horace, slyly. "Guess there are two
+sides to that story."
+
+"At any rate," struck in Aunt Madge, "Fly was the one that did the most
+business. You went round doing good--didn't you, dear?"
+
+"Little city missionary," said Horace.
+
+Whereupon Miss Fly modestly dropped her head on her brother's shoulder.
+She concluded she had done something wonderful in running after a dog.
+
+"On the whole," continued auntie, "we've all had a very hard time. It's
+only three o'clock; but seems to me the day has been forty hours long.
+Let us rest, now, and have a quiet little evening, and go to bed early."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+FIVE MAKING A CALL.
+
+
+The next morning everybody felt fresh, and ready for new adventures.
+
+"All going but the cat," said Fly, never doubting that her own company
+was most desirable.
+
+"Look up in my eyes, little Topknot with the blue bonnet on. Will you
+run away from brother Hollis again?"
+
+"Not if you don't take my skipt," replied Fly, looking as innocent as a
+spring violet.
+
+"And look up in _my_ eyes, Horace Clifford. Will you run away from
+Cousin Dotty, again?" said Miss Dimple, in a hurry to speak before Aunt
+Madge came up to them, and before Horace had time for a joke.
+
+"I didn't run away from you, young lady, but I ran _after_ you, if I
+remember," said Horace, dryly. "I don't mean to pursue you with my
+attentions to-day. You seem to be able to take care of yourself."
+
+"Look," cried Aunt Madge, coming up to them with Prudy; "did you ever
+before see a span of horses with a dog running between them?"
+
+"Never," said Doty; "what splendid horses! and don't the dog have to
+trot, to keep up? How do you suppose he happened to get in there?"
+
+"O, he has been trained to it; dogs often are. Now, my young friends, it
+seems we have started for Brooklyn again; but on our way to Fulton
+Ferry, I would like to stop and see the Brooks family. We must all go
+together, though. 'United we stand, divided we fall.'"
+
+"That's so," said Horace, as they entered the stage. "But, auntie, do
+you have perfect faith in the story that woman tells? Perhaps her
+hushand is only just lazy, and her daughter shams blindness. You know
+what humbugs some of 'em are. I've read there's something they rub over
+their eyes, that gives 'em the appearance of being as blind as a bat."
+
+Prudy looked up at Horace with admiration and respect. He spoke like a
+person of deep wisdom and wide experience.
+
+"We will see for ourselves what we think of the family," said Aunt
+Madge.
+
+"Now," said she, after they had ridden a mile or two, "we must get out
+here, and walk a few blocks to the house. Fly, hold your brother's hand
+tight."
+
+"There's the chamer where the boy lives that says swear words; and
+there's the boy, ahind the window."
+
+"Have a free ride, little girl?" shouted Izzy Paul, laughing; for he
+remembered faces as well as Fly did, and saw at once that it was the
+same child he had frightened so the day before. But Fly never knew fear
+where Horace was; she clung to him, and peeped out boldly between her
+fingers.
+
+When they went "down cellow," as she called it, into Mr. Brooks's house,
+Aunt Madge was surprised to see how bare it looked. But Dotty Dimple
+need not have held her skirts so tightly about her, and brushed her
+elbow so carefully when it hit against the wall; for the house was as
+clean as hands could make it.
+
+"Mrs. Brooks, I hope you will forgive me for coming down upon you with
+this little army," said Mrs. Allen, with such a cheery smile that the
+sick man on the bed felt as if a flood of pure sunshine had burst into
+the room. He was so tired of lying there, day after day, like a great
+rag baby, and so glad to see anybody, especially the good lady who, his
+wife said, was "so easy to talk to!"
+
+"Auntie, look! see the freckled doggie; and there's my flowers, true's
+you live," cried Flyaway.
+
+"Yes, pa wanted them in a vial, close to his bed; it's the first he's
+seen this winter," said Maria, stroking Fly as if she had been a kitten.
+
+"You may be sure, little lady, it will be as I said; they'll cure me
+full as quick as camphire. And, thank the Lord, I can see as well as
+smell," said Mr. Brooks, with a tender glance at Maria which made
+Horace feel ashamed of himself. The idea of that poor child's rubbing
+anything into her eyes? Why, she looked like a wounded bird that had
+been out in a storm. Her face was really almost beautiful, but so sad
+that you could not see it without a feeling of pity.
+
+"She looks as if she was walking in her sleep," thought Prudy, and
+turned away to hide a tear; for somehow there was a chord in her heart
+that thrilled strangely. That "slow winter" came back to her with a
+rush, and she was sure she knew how Maria felt.
+
+"She is blind, and I was lame; but it is the same kind of a feeling. O,
+how I wish I could help her!"
+
+Dotty was as sorry for Maria as she knew how to be, but she could not be
+as sorry as Prudy was; for she had never had any trouble greater than a
+sore throat.
+
+"I don't see why the tears don't come into my eyes as easy as they do
+into Prudy's," thought she, trying to squeeze out a salt drop; "Mrs.
+Brooks'll think I don't care a speck; but I do care."
+
+As for wee Fly, she took Maria's blindness to heart about as much as she
+did the murder of the Hebrew children off in Judea.
+
+"Pitiful 'bout her seeingness; but I wished I had such a beauful dog!"
+
+Aunt Madge was struck with the exalted expression of Maria's face. The
+child was only thirteen, but suffering had made her look much older.
+
+"My child," said she, putting her arm around the little girl, and
+drawing her towards her, "I know you see a great deal with your mind,
+even though your eyes are shut. Now, do tell me all about your
+misfortune, and how it happened, for I came on purpose to hear."
+
+"Yes, we camed to purpose to hear," said Fly, from the foot-board of the
+bed, where she had perched and prattled every moment since she came in.
+"I founded Maria, and then I went up to her, and says I, 'Doggie,
+doggie!'"
+
+"That was a pretty way to speak to her, I should think," said Dotty;
+"but can't you just please to hush while auntie is talking?"
+
+"As near as I can tell the story," said Mrs. Brooks, rattling the poor
+old coal-stove,--for she always had to be moving something else, as well
+as her nose, when she talked,--"she lost her sight by studying too
+hard, and then getting cold in her eyes."
+
+"She was always a master hand to study," put in Mr. Brooks.
+
+Maria looked as if she wanted to run and hide. She did not like to have
+her father praise her before people.
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Brooks, setting a chair straight; "and by and by the
+_leds_ began to draw together, and she couldn't keep 'em open; and there
+was such a pain in her eyes, too, that I had to be up nights, bathing
+'em in all kinds of messes."
+
+"_Don't_ her nose jiggle?" whispered Fly to Horace.
+
+"Of course you took her to a good physician?"
+
+"Well, yes; we thought he was good. We went to three, off and on, but
+she kept growing worse and worse. It was about the time her father was
+hurt, and we spent an awful sight on her, till we couldn't spend any
+more."
+
+"And it was all a cheat and a swindle," exclaimed Mr. Brooks,
+indignantly. "We'd better have spent the money for a horsewhip, and
+whipped them doctors with it!"
+
+"Don't, pa, don't! You see, Mrs. Allen, he gets so excited about it he
+don't know what he says."
+
+"I wonder you did not take her to the City Hospital, Mrs. Brooks. There
+she could be treated free of expense."
+
+"The fact is, we didn't dare to," replied Mrs. Brooks, taking up an old
+shoe of Bennie's, and beginning to brush it; "there are folks that have
+told us it ain't safe; they try experiments on poor folks."
+
+"O, I don't believe you need fear the City Hospital," said Mrs. Allen;
+"the physicians there are honest men, and among the most skillful in
+the country."
+
+"But that's our feeling on the subject, ma'am, you see," spoke up Mr.
+Brooks, so decidedly, that Aunt Madge saw it was of no use to say any
+more about it. "We don't want her eyes put out; there are times when she
+can just see a little glimmer, and we want to save all there is left."
+
+"There are times when she can see? Then there must be hope, Mr. Brooks!
+Let me take her to Dr. Blank; he can help her if any one can."
+
+"Well, now, I take it you're joking, Mrs. Allen. That is the very doctor
+I wanted her to see in the first place; but they do say he'd ask six
+hundred dollars for looking into her eyes while you'd wink twice."
+
+"You have been misinformed, Mr. Brooks; he never asks anything of
+people who are unable to pay him. But even if he should in Maria's case,
+I promise to take the matter into my own hands, and settle the bill
+myself."
+
+"Mother, do you hear what she says!" cried Mr. Brooks, forgetting
+himself, and trying to sit up in bed.
+
+But his wife had broken down, and was polishing Bennie's shoe with her
+tears.
+
+"O, will you take me? Can I go to that doctor?" cried Maria, forgetting
+her timidity, and turning her sightless eyes towards Mrs. Allen with a
+joyful look, which seemed to glow through the lids.
+
+"Yes, dear child, I will take you with the greatest pleasure in life;
+but remember, I don't promise you can be cured. Come with your mother,
+to-morrow morning, at ten. Will that do, Mrs. Brooks? And now, good by,
+all. Children, we must certainly be going."
+
+"God bless her," murmured the sick man, as the little party passed out.
+
+"Didn't I tell you she was an angel?" said his wife.
+
+"No, mother; it's that little tot that's the 'angel.' The Lord sent her
+on ahead to spy out the land; and afterwards there comes a
+flesh-and-blood woman to see it laid straight."
+
+"Pa thinks that baby is a spirit made out of air," said Maria, laughing
+in high excitement. "And, mother, don't you really believe now the Lord
+did send her, just as much as if she dropped down out of the sky?"
+
+"Yes, I hain't a doubt of it, Maria, but what the Lord had us in his
+mind when he let the child slip off and get lost.--Pa, I'm going to
+give you some of that blackberry cordial now: you look all gone."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+"THE HEN-HOUSES."
+
+
+While the Brooks family were talking so gratefully, and Maria counting
+over the cookies and cups of jelly for the twentieth time, Fly, was
+holding on to Horace's thumb, saying, as she skipped along,--"I hope the
+doctor'll take a knife, and pick Maria's eyes open, so she can see."
+
+"Precious little _you_ care whether she can see or not," said Dotty. "I
+don't think Fly has much feeling,--do you, Prudy?--not like you and I, I
+mean!"
+
+"Pshaw! what do you expect of such a baby?" said Horace, indignantly.
+"You never saw a child so full of pity as this one is, when she knows
+what to be sorry for. But a great deal she understands about blindness!
+And why should she?--Look here, Topknot; which would you rather do? Have
+your eyes put out, and lots of candy to eat, _or_, your eyes all good,
+and not a speck of candy as long as you live?"
+
+"I'd ravver have the candy '_thout_ blind-eyed?"
+
+"But supposing you couldn't have but one?"
+
+Fly reflected seriously for half a minute, and then answered,
+
+"I'd ravver have the candy _with_ blind-eyed!"
+
+"There, girls, what did I tell you?"
+
+"'Cause I could eat the candy athout looking, you know," added Fly,
+shutting her eyes, and putting a sprig of cedar in her mouth, by way of
+experiment.
+
+"You little goosie," said Prudy; "when Aunt Madge was crying so about
+Maria, I did think you were a hard-hearted thing to look up and laugh;
+but now, I don't believe you knew any better."
+
+"Hard-hearted things will soften," said auntie, kissing the baby's
+puzzled face. "Little bits of green apples, how hard they are! but they
+keep growing mellow."
+
+"O, you little green apple," cried Dotty, pinching Fly's cheek.
+
+"I was rather hard-hearted, if I remember, when I was an apple of that
+size," continued Aunt Madge. "I could tell you of a few cruel things I
+said and did."
+
+"Tell them," said Horace; "please 'fess."
+
+"Yes, auntie, naughty things are so interesting. Do begin and tell all
+about it."
+
+"Not on the street, dears. Some time, during the holidays, I may turn
+story-teller, if you wish it; but here we are at the ferry; now look out
+for the mud."
+
+"O, what a place," cried Fly, clinging to Horace, and trying to walk on
+his boots. "Just like where grampa keeps his pig!"
+
+"How true, little sister! but you needn't use my feet for a sidewalk.
+I'll take you up in my arms. It snowed in the night; but that makes it
+all the muddier."
+
+"Yes, it doesn't do snow any good to fall into New York mud," said Aunt
+Madge; "it is like touching pitch."
+
+"I thought it felt like pitch," remarked Dotty; "sticks to your boots
+so."
+
+"But, then, overhead how beautiful it is!" said Prudy. "I should think
+the dirty earth would be ashamed to look up at such a clear sky."
+
+"But the sky don't mind," returned Horace; "it always overlooks dirt."
+
+"How very sharp we are getting!" laughed auntie; "we have begun the day
+brilliantly. Any more remarks from anybody?"
+
+"I should like to know," said Dotty, "what all those great wooden things
+are made for? I never saw such big hen-houses before!"
+
+"Hear her talk!" exclaimed auntie. "Hen-houses, indeed! Why, that is
+Fulton Market. I shall take you through it when we come back. You can
+buy anything in there, from a live eel to a book of poetry."
+
+"'In mud eel is,'" quoted Horace. "Reckon I'll buy one, auntie, and
+carry it home in a piece of brown paper. I believe Dotty is fond of
+eels."
+
+"Fond of eels! Why, Horace Clifford, you know I can't bear 'em, any
+more'n a snake. If you do such a thing, Horace Clifford!"
+
+Here Prudy gave her talkative sister a pinch; for they were surrounded
+by people, and Aunt Madge was giving ferry-tickets to a man who stood in
+a stall, and brushed them towards him into a drawer.
+
+"Does he stay in it all night?" whispered Fly; "he can't lie down, no
+more'n a hossy can."
+
+"Here, child, don't try to get down out of my arms. I must carry you
+into the boat. Do you suppose I'd trust those wee, wee feet to go flying
+over East River?"
+
+"For don't we know she has wings on her heels?" said Aunt Madge.
+
+Fly twisted around one of her little rubbers, and looked at it. She
+understood the joke, but thought it too silly to laugh at. East River
+lay smiling in the sun, white with sails.
+
+"Almost as pretty as our Casco Bay," said Dotty. "'Winona;' is that the
+boat we are going in? But, Horace, you must cross to the other side,
+where it says 'Gentlemen's Cabin.'"
+
+"How kind you are to take care of me! Wish you'd take as good care of
+yourself, Cousin Dimple."
+
+And Horace walked straight into the "Ladies' Cabin." There were more men
+in it, though, than women; so he had the best side of the argument.
+
+"Horace," said Aunt Madge, as they seated themselves, "where is your
+money?"
+
+"Money? O, in the breast pocket of my coat."
+
+"But don't you remember, my boy, I advised you to leave it at home? See
+that placard, right before your eyes."
+
+"'Beware of Pickpockets!'" read Horace. "Well, auntie, I intend to
+beware."
+
+Mrs. Allen did not like his lord-of-creation tone. It was not exactly
+disrespectful. He adored his aunt, and did not mean to snub her. At the
+same time he had paid no attention to her advice, and his cool,
+self-possessed way of setting it one side was very irritating. If Mrs.
+Allen had not been the sweetest of women, she would have enjoyed boxing
+his ears.
+
+"I wish he was two years younger, and then he would have to obey me,"
+thought she; "but I don't like to lay my commands on a boy of fourteen."
+
+The truth was, Horace had a large swelling on the top of his head, known
+by the name of self-esteem; and it had got bruised a little the day
+before, when he was obliged to stand one side, and let his aunt manage
+about finding Flyaway.
+
+"I suppose she thinks I'm a ninny, just because I don't understand this
+bothersome city; but I reckon I know a thing or two, if I don't live in
+New York!"
+
+And the foolish boy really took some satisfaction in slapping his breast
+pockets, and remarking to his friends,--
+
+"'Twould take a smart chap to get his hand in there without my knowing
+it. O, Prudy, where's your wallet? And yours, Dotty? I can carry them as
+well as not. There's no knowing what kind of a muss you may be getting
+into before night."
+
+Prudy gave up hers without a word, but Dotty demurred.
+
+"I guess I've got eyes both sides my head, just the same as Horace has,
+if I am a girl."
+
+She and Cousin Horace usually agreed, but this visit had begun wrong.
+
+"Very well, Dot; if you think 'twould be any consolation to you to have
+somebody come along with a pair of scissors, and snip off your pocket, I
+don't know as it's any of my business."
+
+"See if they do," replied Dotty, clutching her pocket in her right hand.
+
+They had been speaking in loud tones, and perhaps had been overheard;
+for two men, on the same seat, began to talk of the unusual number of
+robberies that had happened within a few days and to wonder "what we
+were coming to next." In consequence of this, Dotty pinned up her
+pocket. When they reached Brooklyn, she gave her left hand to Horace, in
+stepping off the boat, and walked up Fulton Street, with her right hand
+firmly grasping the skirt of her dress.
+
+"Good for you, Dimple!" said Horace, in a low tone; "that's one way of
+letting people know you've got money. Look behind you! There's been a
+man following you for some time."
+
+"Where? O, where?" cried Dotty, whirling round and round in wild alarm;
+"I don't see a man anywhere near."
+
+"And there isn't one to be seen," said Aunt Madge, laughing; "there's
+nobody following you but Horace himself. He had no right to frighten you
+so."
+
+"Horace!" echoed Dotty, with infinite scorn; "I don't call _him_ a man!
+He's nothing but a small boy!"
+
+"A small boy!" She had finished the business now.
+
+"The hateful young monkey!" thought Horace. "I shouldn't care much if
+she did have her pocket picked."
+
+If he had meant a word of this, which he certainly did not, he was well
+paid for it afterwards.
+
+They went to Greenwood Cemetery, which Dotty had to confess was
+handsomer than the one in Portland. Fly thought there were nice places
+to "hide ahind the little white houses," which frightened her brother so
+much, that he carried her in his arms every step of the way. After
+strolling for some time about Greenwood, and taking a peep at Prospect
+Park, they left the "city of churches," and entered a crowded car to go
+back to the ferry.
+
+"Look out for _our_ money," whispered Prudy; "you know auntie says a car
+is the very place to lose it in."
+
+"Yes; I'll look out for your pile, Prue, though I dare say you don't
+feel quite so easy about it as you would if Dot had it."
+
+"Wow, Horace, don't be cross; you know it isn't often I have so much
+money."
+
+Aunt Madge here gave both the children a very expressive glance, as much
+as to say,--
+
+"Don't mention private affairs in such a crowd."
+
+Colonel Allen said if his wife had been born deaf and dumb nobody would
+have mistrusted it, for she could talk with her eyes as well as other
+people with their tongues.
+
+When they were on the New York side once more, Mrs. Allen said,--
+
+"Now I will take you through Dotty's hen-houses. What have we here? O,
+Christmas greens."
+
+A woman stood at one of the stands, tying holly and evergreens together
+into long strips, which she sold by the yard.
+
+"We must adorn the house, children. I will buy some of this, if you will
+help carry it home."
+
+"Load me down," said Horace; "I'll take a mile of it."
+
+"Loaden me down, too; _I'll_ take it a mile," said Fly.
+
+"Give me that beautiful cross to carry, auntie."
+
+"Are you willing to carry crosses, Prudy? Ah, you've learned the lesson
+young!"
+
+"I like the star best," said Dotty; "why can't they make suns and moons,
+too!"
+
+"Will you have a _hanker_, my pretty miss?" said the woman, dropping a
+courtesy.
+
+"I never heard of a _hanker_; it looks some like a kettle-hook. Let's
+buy it; see how nicely it fits on Fly's shoulder."
+
+"It would look better for Fly to sit on the anchor," said Mrs. Allen,
+smiling. "It is droll enough to see such a big thing walking off with a
+little girl under it. Come, children, we have bought all we can carry."
+
+"Thank you kindly, lady," said the evergreen woman, with another
+courtesy.
+
+"I don't see why she need thank you kindly, auntie," said Dotty. "You
+wouldn't have bought her wreaths if you hadn't liked 'em."
+
+They walked through a long space lined with such nice things that the
+children's mouths watered--oranges, figs, grapes, pears, French
+chestnuts larger than oil-nuts, and, as if that were not enough,
+delicious-looking pies, cakes, cold ham, and doughnuts. On little
+charcoal stoves stood coffee-pots; and there was a great clattering of
+plates and cups and saucers, which men were washing in little pans, and
+wiping on rather dark towels.
+
+"It strikes me I should enjoy going into one of those cuddy-holes and
+eating my dinner," said Horace. "I feel about starved."
+
+"You have a right to be hungry. It is two o'clock. How would you like
+some oysters? In here is a large room, with tables; rather more
+comfortable than these 'cuddy-holes,' as you call them."
+
+"Only not nice," said Prudy. "O, Horace, if you should go once to an
+oyster saloon in Boston, you'd see the difference!"
+
+"The probability is, I've been in Boston saloons twice to your once,
+ma'am."
+
+Which was correct. She had been once, and he twice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+"GRANNY."
+
+
+Aunt Madge seated her four guests at a little table.
+
+"Will you have oysters or scallops?"
+
+"What are scallops?"
+
+"They are a sort of fish; taste a little like oysters. They come out of
+those small shells, such as you've seen pin-cushions made of."
+
+The children thought they should prefer oysters; and after the stews
+were ordered, Mrs. Allen went out, and soon returned with a dessert of
+cake, pie, and fruit.
+
+"I thought I would bring it all at once," said she, "just what I know
+you will like; and then sit down and be comfortable. We'll lay the
+wreaths under the table. There are no napkins, girls (this isn't Boston,
+you know); so you'd better tuck your handkerchiefs under your chins."
+
+"But is this the handsomest place they've got in New York, without any
+carpet to it?" whispered Dotty.
+
+"We'll see, one of these days," replied auntie, with a smile that spoke
+volumes.
+
+It was a very jolly dinner, and Mrs. Allen had to send for three plates
+of scallops; for the children found, after tasting hers, that they were
+very nice; all but Fly, who did not relish them, and thought it was
+because she did not like to eat pin-cushions.
+
+"Now, little folks, if you have eaten sufficiently, and are thoroughly
+rested, shall we start for home? I think a journey to Brooklyn is about
+enough for one day--don't you? But you musn't leave without seeing
+Granny."
+
+"Granny?"
+
+"Yes, I call her so, and it pleases her. She has had a little table in
+the market for a long while, and I like to buy some of her goodies just
+to encourage her, for she has such a way of looking on the bright side
+that she wins my respect. Listen, now, while I speak to her."
+
+Auntie's old woman had on a hood and shawl, and was curled up in a
+little heap, half asleep.
+
+"Pleasant day," said Mrs. Allen, going up to the table.
+
+"Yes, mum; nice weather _underful_," returned the old woman, rousing
+herself, and rubbing an apple with her shawl.
+
+"And how do you do, Granny?"
+
+"Why, is that you?" said she, the sun coming out all over her face.
+"And how've you been, mum, since the last time I've seen yer?"
+
+"Very well, Granny; and how do things prosper with you?"
+
+"O, _I'm_ all right! I've had a touch of rheumaty, and this is the fust
+I've stirred for two weeks."
+
+"Sorry to hear it, Granny. Rheumatism can't be very comfortable."
+
+"Well, no; it's bahd for the jints," said the old woman, holding up her
+fingers, which were as shapeless as knobby potatoes.
+
+"Poor Granny! How hard that is!"
+
+"Well, they be hard, and kind o' stiff-like. But bless ye," laughed she,
+"that's nothing. I wouldn't 'a' cared, only I's afeared I'd lose this
+stand. There was a gyurl come and kep' it for me, what time she could
+spare."
+
+"I'm glad you havn't lost the stand, Granny; but I don't see how you can
+laugh at the rheumatism."
+
+"Well, mum, what'd be the use to cry? Why, bless ye, there's wus
+things'n that! As long's I hain't got no husband, I don't feel to
+complain!"
+
+She shook her sides so heartily at this, that Fly laughed aloud.
+
+"So you don't approve of husbands, Granny?"
+
+"No more I don't, mum; they're troublesome craychers, so fur as I've
+seen."
+
+"But don't you get down-hearted, living all alone?"
+
+"O, no, mum; I do suppose I'm the happiest woman in the city o' New
+Yorruk. When I goes to bed, I just gives up all my thrubbles to the
+Lord, and goes to sleep."
+
+"But when you are sick, Granny?"
+
+"O, then, sometimes I feels bahd, not to be airnin' nothin', and gets
+some afeard o' the poorhouse; but, bless ye, I can't help thinking the
+Lord'll keep me out."
+
+"I'm pretty sure He will," said Aunt Madge, resolving on the spot that
+the good old soul never should go to a place she dreaded so much. "Have
+you any butter-scotch to-day, Granny?"
+
+"O, yes, mum; sights of it. Help yourself. I want to tell you
+something'll please you," said the old woman, bending forward, and
+speaking in a low tone, and with sparkling eyes. "I've put some money in
+the bank, mum; enough to bury me! _Ain't_ that good!"
+
+Prudy and Dotty were terribly shocked. She must be crazy to talk about
+her own funeral. As if she was glad of it, too? But Horace thought it a
+capital joke.
+
+"That's a jolly way to use your money," whispered he to Prudy; "much
+good may it do her?" And then aloud, in a patronizing tone, "I'll take a
+few of your apples, Granny. How do you sell 'em?"
+
+"These here, a penny apiece; them there, two pennies; and them, three."
+
+Horace felt in his coat pocket for his purse; and drew out his hand
+quickly, as if a bee had stung it.
+
+"Why, what! What does this mean?"
+
+"What is it, Horace?"
+
+"Nothing, auntie, only my wallet's gone," replied the boy, very white
+about the mouth.
+
+"Gone? Look again. Are you sure?"
+
+"Yes, as sure as I want to be?"
+
+"Mine,--is mine gone too?" cried Prudy.
+
+Horace did not seem willing to answer.
+
+"Where did you have your purse last?"
+
+"Just before we came out of Dorlon's oyster saloon. Just before we came
+here for butter-scotch," replied Horace, glaring fiercely at Granny.
+
+"Are you quite sure?"
+
+"Is mine gone, too?" cried Prudy again. "Did you put mine in the same
+pocket?"
+
+"Yes, Prue; I put yours in the same pocket; and it's gone, too."
+
+"O, Horace!"
+
+"A pretty clean sweep, Prue."
+
+"The _vilyins_!" cried Granny; looking, auntie thought, as if her whole
+soul was stirred with pity for the children; but, as Horace thought, as
+if she were trying to put a bold face on a very black crime.
+
+"Let us go back to Dorlon's, and ask the waiters if you dropped it in
+there," suggested Aunt Madge.
+
+"Yes, but _I know I didn't,"_ said Horace, with another scowl at Granny.
+
+"_My_ money is safe," said self-righteous Dotty, as they walked away;
+"don't you wish you _had_ given yours to me, Prudy?"
+
+"The deceitful old witch!" muttered Horace; meaning Granny, of course.
+
+And lo, there she stood close behind them! She was beckoning Mrs. Allen
+back to her fruit-stand.
+
+"Wait here one minute, children; I'll be right back."
+
+"Nothin', mum," said Granny, looking very much grieved; "nothin' only I
+wants to say, mum, if that youngster thinks as I took his money, I wisht
+you'd sarch me."
+
+"Fie, Granny! Never mind what a boy like that says, when he is excited.
+I know you too well to think you'd steal."
+
+"The Lord bless you, mum," cried the old woman, all smiles again.
+
+"And, Granny, I mean to come here next week, and I'll bring you some
+flannel and liniment for your rheumatism. Where shall I leave them if
+you're sick, and can't be here?"
+
+"O, thank ye, mum; thank ye kindly. The ain't many o' the likes of you,
+mum. And if ye does bring the things for my rheumaty, and I ain't here,
+just ye leave 'em with the gyurl at this stand, if yer will."
+
+"Did she give it back?" cried Horace, the moment his aunt appeared.
+
+"No, my boy; how could she when she hadn't it to give?"
+
+"But, auntie, I'm up and down sure I felt that wallet in my
+breast-pocket, when we came out of Dorlon's," persisted Horace. "I don't
+see how on earth that old woman contrived it; but I can't help
+remembering how she kept leaning forward when she talked; and once she
+hit square against me. And just about that time I was drawing out my
+handkerchief to wipe my nose."
+
+"Yes, he did! He wiped his nose. And the woman tookened the money; I saw
+her do it."
+
+"There, I told you so!"
+
+"You saw her, Miss Policeman Flyaway?" said Aunt Madge. "And pray how
+did she take it?"
+
+"Just so,--right in her hand."
+
+"O, you mean the money for the butter-scotch, you little tease!"
+
+"Yes," replied the child, with a roguish twinkle over the sensation she
+had made.
+
+"Just like little bits o' flies," said Dotty. "Don't care how folks
+feel. And here's her brother ready to cry; heart all broken."
+
+"Needn't be concerned about my heart, Dot; 'tisn't broken yet; only
+cracked. But how anybody could get at my pocket, without my knowing it,
+is a mystery to me, unless Granny is a witch."
+
+"Horace, I pledge you my word Granny is innocent."
+
+"And I'm sure nobody else could take it, auntie. The clerks at Dorlon's
+had no knowledge of the money; neither had any of the apple or pie
+merchants along the market. Things look darker for us, Prue; but I will
+give you the credit of behaving like a lady. And one thing is sure--the
+moment I get home to Indiana I shall send you back your money."
+
+"Horace," said Aunt Madge, "I am very suspicious that you lost your
+purse in one of those cars, on the Brooklyn side."
+
+"But, auntie, I tell you there couldn't anybody get at my pockets
+without my knowing it!"
+
+"Just as Prudy told you you would, you lost it in that car," echoed
+Dotty. "Don't you remember what you said, Prudy?"
+
+"That's right; hit him again," growled Horace.
+
+"Now, Dotty," said Prudy, suppressing a great sob in her effort to
+"behave like a lady," "what's the use? Don't you suppose Horace feels
+bad enough without being scolded at?"
+
+"Auntie don't scold, nor Prudy don't, 'cause he didn't mean to lose
+it," said Fly, frowning at Dotty, and caressing Horace, with her hands
+full of evergreens.
+
+"Besides, he has lost more than I have," continued Prudy.
+
+"Well, a trifle more! Fifty times as much, say. I shouldn't care a
+fig,--speaking figuratively,--only it was all I had to get home with."
+
+"Don't fret about that," said Aunt Madge; "I'll see that you go home
+with as full a purse as you brought to my house."
+
+"O, auntie, how can I thank you? But you know father never would allow
+that!"
+
+"I could tell you how to thank me," thought Mrs. Allen, though she was
+so kind she would _not_ tell; "you could thank me by saying, 'Auntie,
+I've been a naughty boy.'"
+
+But Horace had no idea of making such a confession as that. "The
+money'll come up," said he; "I'm one of the lucky kind. Let's see;
+wouldn't it be best to advertise?"
+
+"Thieves won't answer advertisements," said Mrs. Allen.
+
+"But, I tell you, auntie, I dropped that wallet. I could take my oath of
+it."
+
+"Well, in such a case an advertisement is the proper thing. But, my boy,
+your positiveness on this subject is extraordinary. How could you drop
+the wallet? Do you keep it in the same pocket with your handkerchief?"
+
+"On, no, auntie; right in here."
+
+"And you haven't bought anything?"
+
+"No, auntie; you wouldn't let me pay the car fare, or anything else. But
+still I must have taken out the wallet by mistake. You see I _know_
+nobody's picked my pockets."
+
+"Why, Horace, you just said Granny picked 'em."
+
+"No, Dot, I didn't! I only spoke of the queer way she had of leaning
+forward."
+
+"But you scowled at her sharp enough to take head off."
+
+"If I were you, Dot, I wouldn't be any more disagreeable than I was
+absolutely obliged to.--Now, auntie, how much does it cost to
+advertise?"
+
+"A dollar or so I believe."
+
+"Well, if you'll lend me the money, I want to do it."
+
+"To be plain with you, Horace, I really do not think it will be of the
+slightest use in this case; but I will consent to it if it will be any
+relief to your mind. We shall be obliged to cross the ferry again, for
+the advertisement ought to go into a Brooklyn paper."
+
+"We are tired enough to drop," said Dotty; "and all these stars and
+things, too!"
+
+"Yes, we are all tired; but we will leave you little girls at the
+ferry-house on the other side."
+
+"But, auntie," said Prudy, anxiously, "I shouldn't really dare have the
+care of Fly. You know just how it is."
+
+"Yes, I do know just how it is. Fly must walk, with her tired little
+feet, to the Eagle office, with Horace and me; or else she must make a
+solemn promise not to go out of the ferry-house."
+
+"But I don't want to make a _solomon_ promise, auntie; I want to see the
+eagle."
+
+Mrs. Allen sighed. She began to think she had undertaken a great task
+in inviting these children to visit her. Instead of a pleasure, they had
+proved, thus far, a weariness--always excepting Prudy. She, dear,
+self-forgetting little girl, could not fail to be a comfort wherever she
+went.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE PUMPKIN HOOD.
+
+
+To the "Eagle" office they went--obstinate Horace, patient Annt Madge,
+and between them the "blue-bottle Fly."
+
+"I do feel right sorry, auntie," said Horace, a sudden sense of shame
+coming over him; "but I'm so sure I dropped the money, you know; or I
+wouldn't drag you up this hill when you're so tired."
+
+A sharp answer rose to Mrs. Allen's lips, but she held it back.
+
+"Only a boy! In a fair way to learn a useful lesson, too. Let me keep my
+temper! If I scold, I spoil the whole."
+
+They entered the office, and left with the editor this advertisement:--
+
+"Lost.--Between Prospect Park and Fulton Ferry, a porte-monnaie, marked
+'Horace S. Clifford,' containing thirty-five dollars. The finder will be
+suitably rewarded by leaving the same at No. ----, Cor. Fifth Ave. and
+---- Street."
+
+"It is no matter about advertising Prudy's purse, it was so shabby,"
+said Aunt Madge; and on their way back to the ferry-house she bought her
+another.
+
+"O, thank you, auntie, darling," said Prudy; "and thank you, too,
+Horace, for losing my old one; it wasn't fit to be seen. And here is a
+whole dollar inside! O, Aunt Madge, _are_ you an angel?"
+
+"Prue, you deserve your good luck; you don't come down on a fellow,
+hammer and tongs, because he happens to meet with an accident."
+
+"Horace," said Dotty, meekly, "are you willing to carry my gloves?"
+
+"Yes, to be sure; but you don't want to go home bare-handed--do you?"
+
+"Why, I was thinking how nice 'twould be, Horace, to have you take 'em,
+and lose 'em, and me have a new pair. There's a hole in the thumb."
+
+This little sally amused everybody, and Horace had the grace not to be
+sensitive, though the laugh was against him.
+
+"Another queer day," said he, when they were at last at home again. "I
+don't know what will become of us all, if we keep on like this."
+
+The poor boy was trying his best to brave it out; but Aunt Madge could
+see that his heart was sore.
+
+"Lost every cent I'm worth," mused he, turning his coat-pocket inside
+out, and scowling at it. "Got to be a beggar as long as I stay in New
+York!"
+
+The whole party were tired, and Horace's gloom seemed to fill the parlor
+like a fog, and make even the gas look dim.
+
+"I feel dreffly," said Fly, curling her head under her brother's arm,
+like a chicken under its mother's wing--a way she had when she was
+troubled. "I feel just zif I didn't love nobody in the world, and there
+didn't nobody love me."
+
+This brought Horace around in a minute, and called forth a pickaback
+ride.
+
+"Music! let us have music," said Aunt Madge, flying to the piano. "When
+little folks grow so cold-hearted, in my house, that they don't love
+anybody, it's time to warm their hearts with some happy little songs.
+Come, girls!"
+
+She played a few simple tunes, and the children all sang till the fog
+of gloom had disappeared, and the gas burned brightly once more.
+
+Half an hour afterwards, just as Fly was told she ought to be sleepy,
+because her bye-low hymn had been sung,--"Sleep, little one, like a lamb
+in the fold,"--and she had answered that she "couldn't be sleepy, athout
+auntie would hurry quick to come in with a drink of water," there was a
+strange arrival. Nathaniel, the waiting man, ushered into the parlor a
+droll little old woman, dressed in a short calico gown, with gay figures
+over it as large as cabbages; calf-skin shoes; and a green pumpkin hood,
+with a bow on top.
+
+"Good evening, ma'am," said Horace, rising, and offering her a chair.
+She did not seem to see very well, in spite of her enormous spectacles;
+for she took no notice of the chair, and remained standing in the
+middle of the floor.
+
+[Illustration: THE PUMPKIN HOOD.]
+
+"She stares at me so hard!" thought Horace--"that's the reason she can't
+see anything else."--"Please take a chair, ma'am."
+
+"Can't stop to sit down. Is your name Horace S. Clifford?" said the old
+woman, in a very feeble voice.
+
+Horace looked at her; she had not a tooth in her head.
+
+"Yes, ma'am; my name is Horace Clifford," said he, respectfully. He had
+great reverence for age, and could keep his mouth from twitching; but
+I'm sorry to say Prudy's danced up at the corners, and Dotty's opened
+and showed her back teeth The woman must have had all those clothes made
+when she was young, for nobody wore such things now; but it wasn't
+likely she knew that, poor soul!
+
+"Did you go to the 'Brooklyn Eagle' office, to-day, to ad-_ver_-tise
+some lost money, little boy?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am.--Why, that advertisement can't have been printed _so_
+quick!"
+
+"No, I calculate not. Did you go in with a lady, and a leetle, oneasy,
+springy kind of a leetle girl?"
+
+"Why, that's me," put in Fly.
+
+"Yes, ma'am--yes; were you there? What do you know about it?"
+
+"Don't be in a hurry, little boy. I want to be safe and sure. I expect
+you took notice of a young man in a bottle-green coat,--no, a
+greenish-black coat,--a-sittin' down by the door."
+
+"O, I don't know. Yes, I think I did. Was he the one? Did he find the
+money?"
+
+"Did you walk up Orange Street?" continued the old woman. "No, I mean
+Cranberry Street?"
+
+"O, _dear_, I don't know! Prudy, run, call Aunt Madge. Please tell me,
+ma'am, have you got it with you? Is my name on the inside?"
+
+"Wait till the little girl calls your aunt. Perhaps she'd be willing to
+let me tell the story in my own way. I'd ruther deal with grown folks,"
+said the provoking old lady.
+
+Horace's eyes flashed, but he contrived to keep his temper.
+
+"It is my purse, ma'am, and my aunt knows nothing about it. I can tell
+you just how it looks, and all there is in it."
+
+"Perhaps you are one of the kind that can tell folks a good deal, and
+thinks nobody knows things so well as yourself," returned the
+disagreeable old woman, smiling and showing her toothless gums. "From
+what I can learn, I should judge you talked ruther too loud about your
+money; for there was a pusson heerd you in the ferry-boat, and took
+pains to go in the same car afterwards, and pick your pocket."
+
+"Pick--my--pocket?"
+
+"Yes, your pocket. You wise, wonderful young man!"
+
+"How? When? Where?"
+
+"This is how," said the old woman, quick as a thought putting out her
+hand, and thrusting it into Horace's breast pocket.
+
+"O, it's auntie's rings--it's auntie's rings," cried Fly, jumping up,
+and seizing the pretended old woman by her calico sleeve.
+
+"Why, Aunt Madge, that isn't you!"
+
+"But how'd you take out yer teeth?" said Fly; "your teeth? your teeth?"
+
+"O, I didn't take them out, Miss Bright-eyes. I only put a little spruce
+gum over them."
+
+"Horace, I can't find auntie anywhere in this house," said Prudy,
+appearing at the parlor door. "Do you suppose she's gone off and hid?"
+
+"Yes, she's hid inside that old gown."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"That's auntie, and her teeth's _in_," explained Fly.
+
+"Only I wish she was an old woman, and had really brought me my money,"
+said Horace, in a disappointed tone. "I declare, there was one time I
+thought the old nuisance was coming round to it, and going to give me
+the wallet."
+
+"What a wise, wonderful youth!" said the aged dame, in a cracked voice.
+"Thinks I can give him his wallet, when he's got it himself, right close
+to his heart."
+
+Horace put his hand in his breast pocket.
+
+Wonder of wonders! There was the wallet! And not only his, but Prudy's!
+Had he been asleep all day? Or was he asleep now?
+
+"Money safe? Not a cent gone. Hoo-rah! Hoo-ra-ah!"
+
+And for want of a cap to throw, he threw up Fly.
+
+"Where did it come from? Where did the old woman find it? O, no; the man
+in the green-bottle coat?--O, no; there wasn't any old woman," cried the
+children, hopelessly confused. "But who found the money? Did I drop it
+on Cranberry Street?" "Did he drop it on Quamby Street?" "Who brought
+it?" "Who bringed it?"
+
+Aunt Madge stuffed her fingers into her ears. "They are all talking at
+once; they're enough to craze a body! They forget how old I am! Came all
+the way from the Eagle office, afoot and alone, with only four children
+to--"
+
+"O, auntie, don't play any more! Talk sober! Talk honest! Did Horace
+have his pockets picked?"
+
+"Yes, he did," replied Aunt Madge, speaking in her natural tones, and
+throwing off the pumpkin hood; "if you want the truth, he did."
+
+"Why Aunt Madge Allen! It does not seem possible! Who picked my
+pockets?"
+
+"Some one who heard you talking so loud about your money."
+
+"But how could it be taken out, and I not know it?"
+
+"Quite as easily as it could be put back, and you not know it."
+
+"That's true, Horace Clifford! Auntie put it back, and you never knew
+it."
+
+"So she did," said Horace, looking as bewildered as if he had been
+whirling around with his eyes shut; "so she did--didn't she? But that
+was because I was taken by surprise, seeing her without a tooth in her
+head, you know."
+
+"You have been taken by surprise twice to-day, then," said Aunt Madge,
+demurely. "It is really refreshing, Horace, to find that such a sharp
+young man _can_ be caught napping!"
+
+"Well, I--I--I must have been thinking, of something else, auntie."
+
+"So I conclude. And you must be thinking of something else still, or
+you'd ask me--"
+
+"O, yes, auntie; how did the thief happen to give it up? There, there,
+you needn't say a word! I see it all in your eyes! You took the money
+yourself. O, Aunt Madge!"
+
+"Well, if that wasn't queer doings!" cried Dotty.
+
+"Yes, it is quite contrary to my usual habits. I never robbed anybody
+before. I hadn't the faintest idea I could do it without Horace's
+knowledge."
+
+"Why, auntie, I never was so astonished in my life!" said the youth,
+looking greatly confused.
+
+"I never heard of a person's being robbed that wasn't astonished," said
+Aunt Madge, with a mischievous smile. "Will you be quite as sure of
+yourself another time, think?"
+
+"No, auntie, I shan't; that's a fact."
+
+"That's my good, frank boy," said Aunt Madge, kissing his forehead. "And
+he won't toss his head,--just this way,--like a young lord of creation,
+when meddlesome aunties venture to give him advice."
+
+Horace kissed Mrs. Allen's cheek rather thoughtfully, by way of reply.
+
+"I don't see, Aunt Madge," said Prudy, "why you went back across the
+river to put that piece in the paper, when you were the one that had the
+money all the time."
+
+"I did it to pacify Horace. He _knew_ his pockets hadn't been pieked.
+Besides I felt guilty. It was rather cruel in me--wasn't it?--to let him
+suffer so long."
+
+"Not cruel a bit; good enough for me," cried Horace, with a generous
+outburst. "You're just the jolliest woman, auntie--the jolliest woman!
+There you are; you look so little and sweet! But if folks think they're
+going to get ahead of you, why, just let 'em try it, say I!"
+
+
+DEAR READERS: Horace was scarcely more astonished, when his pocket was
+picked, than I am this minute, to find myself at the end of my book! I
+had very much more to tell; but now it must wait till another time.
+
+Meanwhile the Parlins and Cliffords are "climbing the dream tree." Let
+us hope they are destined to meet with no more misfortunes during the
+rest of their stay in New York.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Folks Astray
+by Sophia May (Rebecca Sophia Clarke)
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE FOLKS ASTRAY ***
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