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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Little Prudy's Sister Susy, by Sophie May
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Little Prudy's Sister Susy
+
+Author: Sophie May
+
+Release Date: November 29, 2004  [eBook #14202]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE PRUDY'S SISTER SUSY***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Melissa Er-Raqabi, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+LITTLE PRUDY'S SISTER SUSY
+
+by
+
+SOPHIE MAY
+
+New York
+Hurst & Company
+Publishers
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+TO MY LITTLE NIECE Katie Clarke
+THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU, KATIE, WITH THE LOVE OF YOUR AUNTIE.
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+    CHAPTER
+
+       I. KEEPING SECRETS
+      II. BEFORE DAYLIGHT
+     III. SUSY'S CHRISTMAS
+      IV. SUSY'S WINGS
+       V. PRUDY'S TROUBLE
+      VI. ROSY FRANCES EASTMAN MARY
+     VII. LITTLE TROUBLES
+    VIII. ANNIE LOVEJOY
+      IX. MORAL COURAGE
+       X. RUTHIE TURNER
+      XI. SUSY'S BIRTHDAY
+     XII. FAREWELL
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+Here is a story about the oldest of the three little Parlin girls,
+"sister Susy;" though so many things are always happening to Prudy that
+it is not possible to keep her out of the book.
+
+I hope my dear little friends will see how kind it was in God to send
+the "slow winter" and the long nights of pain to little Prudy.
+
+If trouble should come to us, let us grow gentle, and patient, and
+lovely.
+
+Little friends, be sure of one thing--our dear Father in heaven sends us
+something hard to bear only because he loves us.
+
+
+
+
+SISTER SUSY.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+KEEPING SECRETS.
+
+
+We might begin this story of Susy Parlin on a New Year's day, only it is
+so hard to skip over Christmas. There is such a charm about Christmas!
+It makes you think at once of a fir tree shining with little candles and
+sparkling with toys, or of a droll Santa Claus with a pack full of
+presents, or of a waxen angel called the Christ-child.
+
+And it is just as well to date from the twenty-fifth of December,
+because, as "Christ was born on Christmas day," that is really the
+"Happy New Year."
+
+For a long while the three little Parlin girls had been thinking and
+dreaming of presents. Susy's wise head was like a beehive, full of
+little plans and little fancies, which were flying about like bees, and
+buzzing in everybody's ears.
+
+But it may be as well to give you a short description of the Parlin
+family.
+
+Susy's eyes were of an "evening blue," the very color of the sky in a
+summer night; good eyes, for they were as clear as a well which has the
+"truth" lying at the bottom of it. She was almost as nimble as a
+squirrel, and could face a northern snow storm like an engineer. Her
+hair was dark brown, and as smooth and straight as pine-needles; while
+Prudy's fair hair rippled like a brook running over pebbles. Prudy's
+face was sunny, and her mouth not much larger than a button-hole.
+
+The youngest sister was named Alice, but the family usually called her
+Dotty, or Dotty Dimple, for she was about as round as a period, and had
+a cunning little dimple in each cheek. She had bright eyes, long curls,
+and a very short tongue; that is, she did not talk much. She was two
+years and a half old before she could be prevailed upon to say anything
+at all. Her father declared that Dotty thought there were people enough
+in the world to do the talking, and she would keep still; or perhaps
+she was tired of hearing Prudy say so much.
+
+However, she had a way of nodding her curly head, and shaking her plump
+little forefinger; so everybody knew very well what she meant. She had
+learned the use of signs from a little deaf and dumb boy of whom we
+shall hear more by and by; but all at once, when she was ready she began
+to talk with all her might, and soon made up for lost time.
+
+The other members of the family were only grown people: Mr. and Mrs.
+Parlin, the children's excellent parents; Mrs. Read, their kind Quaker
+grandmother; and the Irish servant girl, Norah.
+
+Just now Mrs. Margaret Parlin, their "aunt Madge," was visiting them,
+and the little girls felt quite easy about Christmas, for they gave it
+all up to her; and when they wanted to know how to spend their small
+stock of money, or how much this or that pretty toy would cost, Prudy
+always settled it by saying, "Let's go ask auntie: _she'll_ know, for
+she's been through the Rithmetic."
+
+Prudy spoke these words with awe. She thought "going through the
+Rithmetic" was next thing to going round the world.
+
+"O Auntie, I'm so glad you came," said Susy, "for I didn't see how I was
+ever going to finish my Christmas presents: I go to school, you know,
+and it takes me all the rest of the time to slide!"
+
+The children were busy making wonderful things "all secret;" or they
+would have been secret if Prudy hadn't told.
+
+For one thing, she wondered very much what Susy could be doing with four
+pins stuck in a spool. She watched the nimble fingers as they passed the
+worsted thread over the pin-heads, making stitches as fast as Susy could
+wink.
+
+"It looks like a tiny snake all sticked through the hole in the spool,"
+said Prudy, eager with curiosity. "If you ain't a-goin' to speak, I
+don't know what I _shall_ do, Susy Parlin!"
+
+When poor Susy could not pretend any longer not to hear, she answered
+Prudy, half vexed, half laughing, "O, dear, I s'pose you'll tease and
+tease till you find out. Won't you never say a word to anybody,
+_never_?"
+
+"Never in my world," replied the little one, with a solemn shake of her
+head.
+
+"Well, it's a lamp-mat for auntie. It's going to be blue, and red, and
+all colors; and when it's done, mother'll sew it into a round, and put
+fringe on: won't it be splendid? But remember, you promised not to
+tell!"
+
+Now, the very next time Prudy sat in her auntie's lap she whispered in
+her ear,--
+
+"You don't know what _we're_ making for you, _all secret_, out of
+worsted, and _I_ shan't tell!"
+
+"Mittens?" said aunt Madge, kissing Prudy's lips, which were pressed
+together over her sweet little secret like a pair of sugar-tongs
+clinching a lump of sugar.
+
+"Mittens? No, indeed! Better'n that! There'll be fringe all over it;
+it's in a round; it's to put something on,--to put the _lamp_ on!"
+
+"Not a lamp-mat, of course?"
+
+"Why, yes it is! O, there, now you've been and guessed all in a minute!
+Susy's gone an' told! I didn't s'pose she'd tell. I wouldn't for nothin'
+in my world!"
+
+Was it strange that Susy felt vexed when she found that her nice little
+surprise was all spoiled?
+
+"Try to be patient," said Mrs. Parlin, gently. "Remember how young and
+thoughtless your sister is. She never means any harm."
+
+"O, but, mamma," replied Susy, "she _keeps_ me being patient all the
+whole time, and it's hard work."
+
+So Susy, in her vexation, said to Prudy, rather sternly, "You little
+naughty thing, to go and tell when you promised not to! You're almost as
+bad as Dotty. What makes you act so?"
+
+"Why, Susy," said the child, looking up through her tears, "have I
+_acted_? I didn't know I'd acted! If you loved me, you wouldn't look
+that way to me. You wrinkle up your face just like Nanny when she says
+she'll shake the naughty out of me, Miss Prudy."
+
+Then what could Susy do but forgive the sweet sister, who kissed her so
+coaxingly, and looked as innocent as a poor little kitty that has been
+stealing cream without knowing it is a sin?
+
+It was plain that it would not do to trust Prudy with secrets. Her brain
+could not hold them, any more than a sieve can hold water. So Mrs.
+Parlin took pity upon Susy, and allowed her and her cousin Florence
+Eastman to lock themselves into her chamber at certain hours, and work
+at their presents without interruption.
+
+While the little girls sat together busily employed with book-marks and
+pin-cushions, the time flew very swiftly, and they were as happy as bees
+in a honeysuckle.
+
+Mrs. Parlin said she believed nothing less than Christmas presents would
+ever make Susy willing to use a needle and thread; for she disliked
+sewing, and declared she wished the man who made the needles had to
+swallow them all.
+
+The family were to celebrate Christmas evening; for Mr. Parlin was away,
+and might not reach home in season for Christmas eve.
+
+For a wonder they were not to have a Tree, but a Santa Claus, "just for
+a change."
+
+"Not a truly Santa Claus, that comes puffin' down the chimney,"
+explained Prudy, who knew very well it would be only cousin Percy under
+a mask and white wig.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+BEFORE DAYLIGHT.
+
+
+On Christmas morning, at three o'clock, there was a great bustle and
+pattering of little feet, and buzzing of little voices trying to speak
+in whispers. Susy and Prudy were awake and astir.
+
+"Where _do_ you s'pose the stockings are?" buzzed Prudy, in a very loud
+whisper.
+
+"Right by the bed-post, Prudy Parlin; and if you don't take care we'll
+wake everybody up.--'Sh! 'Sh!"
+
+"Mine's pinned on," said Prudy; "and I've pricked my fingers. O deary
+me!"
+
+"Well, of course you've waked 'em all now," exclaimed Susy,
+indignantly: "I might have pricked my fingers to pieces, but I wouldn't
+have said a word."
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Parlin, who were in the next room, were wide awake by this
+time; but they said nothing, only listened to the whispers of the
+children, which grew fainter, being smothered and kept down by mouthfuls
+of candy, lozenges, and peanuts.
+
+The little girls longed for daybreak. The sun, however, seemed to be in
+no haste, and it was a long while before there was a peep of light. Susy
+and Prudy waited, wondering whether the sun would really forget to show
+his face; but all the while they waited they were eating candy; so it
+was neither dull nor lonely. As for closing their eyes again, they would
+have scorned the idea. It would be a pity indeed to fall asleep, and
+lose the pleasure of saying "Merry Christmas" to everybody. Norah, the
+Irish servant, had said she should be up very early to attend High Mass:
+they must certainly waylay her on the stairs. How astonished she would
+be, when she supposed they were both soundly asleep!
+
+"Let me do it myself," said Susy: "you stay here, Prudy, for you'll be
+sure to make a noise."
+
+"I'll go on my tippy toes," pleaded Prudy, her mouth half filled with
+chocolate drops.
+
+So through their mother's room they stole softly, only throwing over
+one chair, and hitting Dotty's crib a little in their haste. Dotty made
+a sleepy sound of alarm, and Prudy could not help laughing, but only "in
+her sleeve," that is, in her "nightie" sleeve, which she put up to her
+mouth to smother the noise.
+
+When they had reached the back-stairs Susy whispered, "O, Norah is up
+and gone down. I hear her in the kitchen. 'Sh! 'Sh!"
+
+Susy thought there was no time to be lost, and she would have rushed
+down stairs, two steps at a time, but her little sister was exactly in
+the way.
+
+"Somebody has been and tugged my little chair up here," said Prudy,
+"and I must tug it back again."
+
+So in the dim light the two children groped their way down stairs, Prudy
+going first with the chair.
+
+"O, what a little snail! Hurry--can't you?" said Susy, impatiently;
+"Norah'll be gone! What's the use of our waking up in the night if we
+can't say Merry Christmas to anybody?"
+
+"Well, _ain't_ I a-hurryin' now?" exclaimed Prudy, plunging forward and
+falling, chair and all, the whole length of the stairs.
+
+All the house was awake now, for Prudy screamed lustily. Grandma Read
+called out from the passage-way,--
+
+"O, little Prudence, has thee broken thy neck?"
+
+Mrs. Parlin rushed out, too frightened to speak, and Mr. Parlin ran down
+stairs, and took Prudy up in his arms.
+
+"It was--you--did it--Susy Parlin," sobbed the child. "I
+shouldn't--have--fell, if you--hadn't--have--screamed."
+
+The poor little girl spoke slowly and with difficulty, as if she dropped
+a bucket into her full heart, and drew up the words one at a time.
+
+"O, mother, I know it was me," said Susy meekly; "and I was careless,
+and it was all in the dark. I'm sure I hope Prudy'll forgive me."
+
+"No, it wasn't you, neither," said Prudy, whose good humor was restored
+the moment Susy had made what she considered due confession. "You never
+touched me, Susy! It was the _chair_; and I love you just as dearly as
+ever I did."
+
+Prudy lay on the sofa for some time, looking quite pale by the
+gas-light, while her mother rubbed her side, and the rest of the family
+stood looking at her with anxious faces.
+
+It was quite an important occasion for Prudy, who always liked to be the
+centre of attraction.
+
+"O, mamma," said she, closing her eyes languidly, "when the room makes
+believe whirl round, does it _truly_ whirl round?"
+
+The truth was, she felt faint and dizzy, though only for a short time.
+
+"I wish," said she, "it had been somebody else that fell down stairs,
+and not me, for I didn't go down easy! The _prongs_ of the chair pushed
+right into my side."
+
+But it did not appear that Prudy was much injured, after all. In a few
+minutes she was skipping about the room almost as nimbly as ever, only
+stopping to groan every now and then, when she happened to think of it.
+
+"It is a wonder," said Mr. Parlin, "that more children are not lamed for
+life by such accidents."
+
+"I have often thought of it," said aunt Madge. "Some little ones seem to
+be making hair-breadth escapes almost every day of their lives. I
+believe Prudy would have been in her grave long ago, if it had not been
+for her guardian angel."
+
+The long-expected Christmas had come at last, and Prudy had stumbled
+into it, as she stumbled into everything else. But it is an ill wind
+which blows no good to anybody; and it so happened that in all this
+confusion Susy was able to "wish a Merry Christmas" to Norah, and to the
+whole family besides.
+
+When Mrs. Parlin found that the children were too thoroughly awake to go
+to sleep again that morning, she told them they might dress themselves
+in the parlor if they would keep as quiet as possible, and let the rest
+of the household take another nap.
+
+It all seemed very strange and delightful to the little girls. It was
+like another sort of life, this new arrangement of stealing about the
+house in the silent hours before daybreak. Susy thought she should like
+to sit up all night, and sleep all day, if the mayor would only hush the
+streets; it would be so odd!
+
+"O, how dark the clouds are!" said Prudy, peeping out of the window; "it
+_fogs_ so I can't see a single thing. Susy, I'm going to keep _at watch_
+of the sky. Don't you s'pose, though, 'twill be Christmas all the same,
+if there's a snow storm?"
+
+"There's been snow," said Susy, "all in the night. Look down at the
+pavement. Don't you wish that was frosted cake?"
+
+"O, the snow came in the night, so not to wake us up," cried Prudy,
+clapping her hands; "but it wouldn't have waked us, you know, even in
+the night, for it came so still."
+
+"But why don't the clouds go off?" she added, sadly.
+
+"I don't know," replied Susy; "perhaps they are waiting till the sun
+comes and smiles them away."
+
+Such happy children as these were, as they sat peeping out of the window
+at the dull gray sky!
+
+They did not know that a great mischief was begun that morning--a
+mischief which was no larger yet than "a midge's wing." They were
+watching the clouds for a snow storm; but they never dreamed of such
+things as clouds of _trouble_, which grow darker and darker, and which
+even the beautiful Christmas sun cannot "smile away."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+SUSY'S CHRISTMAS.
+
+
+It was bright and beautiful all day, and then, when no one could
+possibly wait any longer, it was Christmas evening. The coal glowed in
+the grate with a splendid blaze: all the gas-burners were lighted, and
+so were everybody's eyes. If one had listened, one might have heard,
+from out of doors, a joyful tinkling of sleigh-bells; yet I fancy nobody
+could have told whether the streets were still or noisy, or whether the
+sky had a moon in it or not; for nobody was quiet long enough to notice.
+
+But by and by, when the right time had come, the folding-doors were
+opened, just like the two covers to a Christmas fairy book. Then, in a
+second, it was so still you might have heard a pin drop.
+
+Such a funny little old gentleman had arrived: his face alive with
+dimples, and smiles, and wrinkles. His cheeks were as red and round as
+winter apples, and where there wasn't a wrinkle there was a dimple; and
+no doubt there was a dimple in his chin, and his chin maybe was double,
+only you couldn't tell, for it was hidden ever so deep under a beard as
+white as a snow-drift.
+
+He walked along, tottering under the weight of a huge pack full of
+presents. He extended his small arms towards the audience most
+affectionately, and you could see that his antiquated coat-sleeves were
+bristling with toys and glistening with ornaments. His eyes twinkled
+with fun, and his mouth, which seemed nearly worn out with laughing,
+grew bigger every minute.
+
+It took the dear old gentleman some time to clear his throat; but when
+he had found his voice, which at first was as fine as a knitting-needle,
+and all of a tremble, he made
+
+THE SPEECH OF SANTA CLAUS.
+
+"How do, my darlings? How do, all round? Bless your little hearts, how
+do you all do? Did they tell ye Santa wasn't a-comin', my dears? Did
+your grandpas and grandmas say, 'Humph! there isn't any such a person.'
+My love to the good old people. I know they mean all right; but tell
+them they'll have to give it up now!"
+
+(Here Santa Claus made a low bow. Everybody laughed and clapped; but
+Prudy whispered, "O, don't he look old all over? What has he done with
+his _teeth_? O, dear, has anybody pulled 'em out?")
+
+"Yes, my dears," continued the old gentleman, encouraged by the
+applause,--"yes, my dears, here I am, as jolly as ever! But bless your
+sweet little hearts, I've had a terrible time getting here! The wind has
+been blowin' me up as fierce as you please, and I've been shook round
+as if I wasn't of more account than a kernel of corn in a popper!
+
+"O, O, I've been ducked up to the chin in some awful deep snow-drifts,
+up there by the North Pole! This is the very first time the storms have
+come so heavy as to cover over the end of the North Pole! But this year
+they had to dig three days before they could find it. O, ho!
+
+"I was a-wanderin' round all last night; a real shivery night, too! Got
+so _broke up_, there's nothing left of me but small pieces. O, hum!
+
+"Such a time as I had in some of those chimneys, you haven't any idee!
+Why, if you'll believe me, over there in Iceland somebody forgot to
+clear out the chimney, and there I stuck fast, like a fish-bone in your
+throat; couldn't be picked out, couldn't be swallowed!
+
+"The funniest time that was! How I laughed! And then the children's
+mother woke up, and, 'O, dear,' said she; 'hear the wind sigh down the
+chimney!' 'Only me,' says I; 'and I've caught you napping this time!'
+She helped me out, and when I had caught my breath, I climbed out the
+window; but, deary me, I shouldn't wonder if that very woman went to
+sleep again, and thought it was all a dream! Heigh-ho! that's the way
+they always treat poor Santa Claus nowadays."
+
+(Here the children laughed, and Susy said, "I guess he must have bumped
+his nose against that chimney: see what a hump!")
+
+"O, O, don't you make sport of me, children! My nose is big, to be sure,
+but I'm going to keep it and make the best of it! If you love Santa as
+he loves you, you wouldn't mind the looks. I _was_ going to change my
+coat and dickey; but then, thinks I, I'll come just as I am! I patted
+myself on the shoulder, and says I, 'Santa Claus, don't you fret if you
+_are_ growin' old! You may look a little dried up, but your heart isn't
+wrinkled; O no!' You see father Adam and me was very near of an age, but
+somehow I never growed up! I always thought big folks did very well in
+their place; but for my part, give me the children. Hurrah for the
+children!"
+
+(Great clapping and laughing.)
+
+"I tell you, darlings, I haven't forgot a single one of you. My pockets
+are running over. I've been preparing presents for you ever since last
+fall, when the birds broke up housekeeping.
+
+"Here's a tippet for the Prudy girl, and she may have it for nothing;
+and they are cheaper 'n that, if you take 'em by the quantity.
+
+"I'm a walkin' book-case. Why, I've brought stories and histories enough
+to set up a store! I've got more nuts than you can shake a hammer at;
+but I think there's more bark to 'em than there is bite. O, O, I find I
+can't crack 'em with my teeth, as I used to a hundred years ago!
+
+"But my dear, sweet, cunning little hearers, I must be a-goin'. Queen
+Victoria, said she to me, said she, 'Now, Santa, my love, do you hurry
+back to fill my children's stockings before the clock strikes twelve.'
+Queen Vic is an excellent woman, and is left a poor widow; so I can't
+disappoint her, poor soul!
+
+"I must be a-goin'! Would like to hug and kiss you all round, but can't
+stop. (Kisses his hand and bows.) A Merry Christmas to you all, and a
+Happy New Year."
+
+So saying, Santa Claus suddenly disappeared at the hall door, dropping
+his heavy pack upon the table.
+
+In another minute the lively old gentleman was in the front parlor
+without any mask, and of course it was nobody but cousin Percy "with his
+face off."
+
+Then they all fell to work sorting out presents. Prudy seized her fur
+tippet, and put it on at once.
+
+"O, how pretty I look," said she; "just like a little cat! _Ain't_ I
+cunning?"
+
+But nobody could pause to attend to Prudy, though she chatted very fast,
+without commas or periods, and held up to view a large wax doll which
+"would be alive if it could talk." They all had gifts as well as Prudy,
+and wished to talk rather than to listen. They asked questions without
+waiting for answers, and did not mind interrupting one another, and
+talking all at once, like a party of school children.
+
+All this was hardly polite, it is true; but people are sometimes
+surprised out of their good manners on Christmas evenings, and must be
+forgiven for it, as such a good time happens but once a year.
+
+Percy broke in with an old song, and went through with a whole stanza of
+it, although no one listened to a word:--
+
+    "Good luck unto old Christmas,
+      And long life let us sing,
+    For he doeth more good unto the poor
+      Than many a crowned king."
+
+"My beautiful books!" cried aunt Madge; "Russia morocco."
+
+"My writing-desk,--has any one looked at it?" said Mrs. Parlin;
+"rose-wood, inlaid with brass."
+
+"My skates!" broke in Susy, at the top of her voice.
+
+"Hush!" screamed cousin Percy; "won't anybody please notice my drum? If
+you won't look, then look out for a drum in each ear!"
+
+And as nobody would look or pay the slightest attention, they all had to
+hear "Dixie" pounded out in true martial style, till they held on to
+their ears.
+
+"Rattlety bang!" went the drum. "Tweet, tweet," whistled the little
+musical instruments which the children were blowing.
+
+"Have pity on us!" cried aunt Madge; "I am bewildered; my head is
+floating like a Chinese garden."
+
+"Order!" shouted Mr. Parlin, laughing.
+
+"O, yes, sir," said Percy, seizing Susy and whirling her round.
+"Children, why don't you try to preserve order? My nerves are strung up
+like violin-strings! I've got a pound of headache to every ounce of
+brains. Susy Parlin, do try to keep still!"
+
+"Thee needn't pretend it is all Susan," said grandma Read, smiling.
+"Thee and little Prudence are the noisiest of the whole!"
+
+In fact, they raised such a din, that after a while poor grandma Read
+smoothed the Quaker cap over her smiling face, and stole off into her
+own chamber, where she could "settle down into quietness." Much noise
+always confused grandma Read.
+
+But in a very few moments, when the excitement began to die out, there
+was a season of overwhelming gratitude. Everybody had to thank everybody
+else; and Mr. Parlin, who had a beautiful dressing-gown to be grateful
+for, nevertheless found time to tell Susy, over and over again, how
+delighted he was with her book-mark, made, by her own fingers, of three
+wide strips of velvet ribbon; on the ends of which were fastened a
+cross, a star, and an anchor, of card-board.
+
+"Papa, one ribbon is to keep your place in the Old Testament," said
+Susy; "one is to stay in the middle, at the births and marriages; and
+the other one is for our chapter in the New Testament, you know."
+
+"I think my lamp-mat is very pretty," said aunt Madge, kissing Susy;
+"every bit as pretty as if Prudy hadn't 'been and told.'"
+
+Prudy had bought a shawl-pin for her mother, a fierce little wooden
+soldier for aunt Madge, and something for everybody else but Susy. Not
+that she forgot Susy. O, no! but one's money does not always hold out,
+even at Christmas time.
+
+"Why," said Mr. Parlin, "what is this sticking fast to the sole of my
+new slipper? Molasses candy, I do believe."
+
+"Yes sir; that's for Susy," cried Prudy, suddenly remembering how she
+had tucked it in at the last moment, when she could not stop to find any
+wrapping-paper. "It isn't so big as it was, but it's the biggest piece I
+had in this world. I saved it last night. Susy likes 'lasses candy, and
+I couldn't think of nothin' else."
+
+It was a wonder that Prudy's candy had not spoiled some of the nice
+presents.
+
+Susy received several pretty things; and though she did not talk quite
+so much as Prudy, she was just as happy. For one thing, she had what she
+had not dreamed was possible for a little girl--a bottle of otto of
+rose; "just like a young lady."
+
+This was a real delight to Susy: but Prudy, sniffing at it, said,
+coolly, "O, ho! it smells 's if it didn't cost more'n a cent! 'Tisn't
+half so sweet as pep'mint!"
+
+Before Dotty could be put to bed, she had contrived to break several
+toys, all of which happened to be Susy's--a sugar temple, a glass
+pitcher, and a small vase.
+
+This was an evening long to be remembered; but the most remarkable event
+of all was to come.
+
+"Susy, my daughter," said Mr. Parlin, "have you been wondering why you
+don't see a present from me?"
+
+Susy blushed. She had certainly expected something handsome this year
+from her father.
+
+"I haven't forgotten you, my dear; but the present I have chosen
+wouldn't sit very well on the shoulders of such a little fellow as Santa
+Claus."
+
+Percy laughed. "Wouldn't it have been a load, uncle?"
+
+"Hush!" whispered aunt Madge; "she isn't to know till morning."
+
+"But, papa," said Susy, her eyes shining with excitement, "why couldn't
+you bring it in here now?"
+
+"It is better off out of doors. Indeed, to tell the truth, my child, it
+is hardly suitable for the parlor."
+
+"Now, Miss Susy," said Percy, measuring off his words on the tips of his
+fingers, "I'm authorized to tell you it's something you mustn't take in
+your lap, mustn't hang on a nail; if you do, you'll lose it. I'm sure
+'twill please you, Susy, because it's a mute, and can't speak. You--"
+
+"O, hush talking about dumb people! I shouldn't think you'd make sport
+of Freddy Jackson! If _you_ was a little _deaf-and-dumber_ than you are
+now, I'd like you better!
+
+"O, dear, dear!" cried she, dancing about the room; "what can it be? I
+can't wait!"
+
+"Only think; all night before I'll know," thought she, as she touched
+her pillow. "O, Prudy, to-morrow morning! Only think of to-morrow
+morning I All my other presents are just nothing at all. Anything is
+_so_ much nicer when you don't know what it is!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+SUSY'S WINGS.
+
+
+Susy awoke next morning very much surprised to find the sun so high.
+Prudy was lying beside her, talking to herself.
+
+"I don't feel very well," said the child; "but I'm pleasant; I mean to
+be good all day."
+
+"Why didn't you speak to me?" cried Susy, springing out of bed, "when
+you knew how I couldn't wait to see my present?"
+
+"I would have woke you up, Susy, but I ain't well; I'm sick in my
+knees."
+
+And Prudy limped about the room to show her sister how lame she was.
+But Susy was in too great a hurry to pay much attention to her, or to
+help her dress.
+
+"Good morning, papa!" she exclaimed, the moment she entered the parlor;
+"now may I see the present?"
+
+"Do you suppose you could wait till after breakfast, Susy?"
+
+Aunt Madge smiled as she looked at the little eager face.
+
+"I see you are going on with your lessons," said she.
+
+"What lessons, auntie? Why, it is the holidays!"
+
+"Lessons in patience, my dear. Isn't something always happening which
+you have to be patient about?"
+
+Susy thought of Prudy's habit of disclosing secrets, Dotty's trying way
+of destroying playthings; and now this long delay about her present. She
+began to think there were a great many vexations in the world, and that
+she bore them remarkably well for such a little girl.
+
+"Yes, thee must let patience have her perfect work, Susan," said grandma
+Read, after the "silent blessing" had been asked at the table.
+
+"Mayn't I go, too?" said Prudy, when she saw her father, her auntie, and
+Susy leaving the house just after breakfast.
+
+And she went, as a matter of course; but the pavements were a little
+slippery from sleet; and Prudy, who was never a famous walker, had as
+much as she could do, even with the help of her father's hand, to keep
+from falling.
+
+"Why, Prudy," said Mr. Parlin, "what ails you this morning? You limp so
+much that I believe you need crutches."
+
+"I'm sick in my knee," replied Prudy, delighted to see that her lameness
+was observed. "If _you_ had my knee, and it hurt, you'd know how it
+feels!"
+
+By this time they had reached a livery stable; and, to Susy's surprise,
+her father stopped short, and said to a man who stood by the door, "Mr.
+Hill, my daughter has come to look at her pony."
+
+Prudy was in a great fright at sight of so many horses, and needed all
+her auntie's attention; but Susy had no fear, and Mr. Parlin led her
+along to a stall where stood a beautiful black pony, as gentle-looking
+as a Newfoundland dog.
+
+"How do you like him, Susy? Stroke his face, and talk to him."
+
+"But, O, papa, you don't mean, you can't mean, he's my very own! A whole
+pony all to myself!"
+
+"See what you think of his saddle, miss," said Mr. Hill, laughing at
+Susy's eagerness; and he led pony out, and threw over his back a
+handsome side-saddle.
+
+"Why, it seems as if I could just jump on without anybody touching me,"
+cried Susy.
+
+"Not afraid a bit?" said Mr. Hill, as Mr. Parlin seated Susy in the
+saddle, and gave her the reins. "Ponies throw people, sometimes."
+
+"O, but my papa would never give me a bad pony," answered Susy, with
+perfect confidence.
+
+Mr. Hill laughed again. He was a rough man; but he thought a child's
+faith in a parent was a beautiful thing.
+
+He did not know many passages of Scripture, but thought he had read
+somewhere, "And if he ask bread, will he give him a stone?" No; fathers
+are glad to give their "best gifts," and the little ones trust them.
+
+"It's like sailing in a boat," cried Susy, riding back and forth about
+the yard in great excitement; "why, it's just as easy as the swing in
+the oilnut-tree at grandma Parlin's! O, papa, to think I should forget
+to thank you!"
+
+But perhaps Mr. Parlin regarded glowing cheeks and shining eyes as the
+very best of thanks.
+
+Prudy thought the pony a beautiful "baby horse;" wanted to ride, and
+didn't want to; was afraid, and wasn't afraid, and, as her father said,
+"had as many minds as some politicians who are said to 'stand on the
+fence.'" By and by, after some coaxing, the timid little thing consented
+to sit behind Susy, and cling round her waist, if her father would walk
+beside her to make sure she didn't fall off. In this way they went
+home.
+
+"I like to sit so I can hug my sister, while she drives the horse," said
+Prudy; "besides, it hurts me to walk."
+
+Mr. Parlin and aunt Madge smiled at the child's speeches, but gave no
+more heed to this lameness of which she complained, than they did to any
+of the rest of her little freaks.
+
+Prudy liked to be pitied for every small hurt; and when Susy had a sore
+throat, and wore a compress, she looked upon her with envy, and felt it
+almost as a personal slight that _her_ throat could not be wrapped in a
+compress too.
+
+On their way they met "lame Jessie," a little girl with crooked spine
+and very high shoulders, who hobbled along on crutches.
+
+"She's lamer than me," said Prudy. "Good morning, Jessie."
+
+"I know what I've thought of," said Susy, who could talk of nothing
+which was not in some way connected with her pony. "I'm going to give
+that girl some rides. How happy she will be, poor little Jessie!"
+
+"When you get your sleigh," said Mr. Parlin.
+
+"My sleigh, papa? How many more presents are coming?"
+
+"It is hard to tell, Susy; one gift makes way for another, you see.
+First comes the pony; but how can he live without a stable, and a groom
+to feed him? Then what is a pony worth without a saddle? And, as one
+does not wish always to ride pony-back, a sleigh is the next thing."
+
+"But, papa, you know in the summer!"
+
+"Yes, my dear, in the summer, if we all live, there must be a light
+carriage made on purpose for you."
+
+"There is one thing more that pony needs," said aunt Madge, stroking his
+eyebrows, "and that is, a name."
+
+"O, I never thought of that," said Susy; "help me find a name, auntie."
+
+"Let me think. I should call him something good and pleasant. Think of
+something good and pleasant Think of something you like very much."
+
+"O, Frosted Cake," cried Prudy: "wouldn't that be pleasant? Susy loves
+that."
+
+"I should like to name him for the American Eagle," said Susy, who had
+heard some patriotic speeches from her cousin Percy; "only you couldn't
+pet that name, could you?"
+
+"You might call him Don Carlos, or Don Pedro," suggested Mr. Parlin.
+
+"No, papa; only think of Donny: that is like Donkey! You haven't any
+long ears, _have_ you, pony? If you had, I'd call you Little Pitcher,
+for 'little pitchers have great ears.' That makes me think of Mr. Allen,
+auntie. How big his ears are, you know? _Is_ it because his teacher
+pulled them so?"
+
+"O, call him 'Gustus,'" cried Prudy.
+
+"But that would soon be Gusty," said aunt Madge, "and would sound too
+much like the east wind."
+
+"Dear me," sighed Susy; "who'd ever think it was such hard work to find
+names?"
+
+"O, look," said Prudy, as they passed a jaded old horse; "there is a
+pony just exactly like this! Only it's twice as big, you know, and not a
+_bit_ such a color!"
+
+"Well, there, Prudy," said Susy, disdainfully, "I thought, when you
+began to speak, you was going to tell something! Why don't you wait till
+you have something to say? Please give me a list of names, papa."
+
+"There's Speedwell, Lightfoot, Zephyr, Prince, Will-o'-the-wisp--"
+
+"I might call him Wispy," broke in Susy. "Zephyr is good, only it makes
+you think of worsteds."
+
+"Now, listen," said aunt Madge; "you might call him Elephant, just for
+sport, because he is in reality so very little. Or, on the other hand,
+you might find the least speck of a name, like Firefly, or Midge."
+
+"I don't like any of those," replied Susy, still dissatisfied.
+
+"I see," said aunt Madge, laughing, "nothing will please you but a great
+name. What say to Pegasus, a flying horse, which poets are said to ride?
+It might be shortened to Peggy."
+
+"Now, auntie, you wouldn't have this beautiful pony called Peggy; you
+know you wouldn't! the one my father bought on purpose for me! But was
+there such a horse, truly?"
+
+"O, no; there is an old fable, which, as we say, is 'as true now as it
+ever was,' of a glorious creature with wings, and whoever mounts him
+gets a flying ride into the clouds. But the trouble is to catch him!"
+
+"O, I wish my pony could fly," said Susy, gazing dreamily at his black
+mane and sleek sides. "The first place I'd go to would be the moon; and
+there I'd stay till I built a castle as big as a city. I'd come home
+every night, so mother wouldn't be frightened, and fly up in the
+morning, and--and--"
+
+"See here," said Prudy, who had for some time been trying to speak;
+"call him _Wings_!"
+
+"So I will," answered Susy, quickly, "and I'll make believe he flies in
+the air like a bird. Now, auntie, what do you think of Wings?"
+
+"Odd enough, I'm sure, my dear."
+
+"Well, _I_ like it," returned Susy, with a positive shake of the head.
+"It's of no use to keep fussing so long over a name, and I feel a great
+deal easier, now I've made up my mind! Dear little Wings, you prick up
+your ears, and I know you like it, too. I wish you had a soul, so you
+could be taken to church, and christened like a baby."
+
+Just here Susy was startled by a sudden laugh from cousin Percy, who
+had for some moments been walking behind the pony unobserved.
+
+"You're enough to frighten any one to death," she screamed, "creeping
+about like a cat."
+
+Susy had a foolish dread of being laughed at.
+
+"Creeping like a cat," echoed Percy, "while you creep like a snail! What
+will you take for your pony, that can fly in the air like a bird, but
+can't walk on the ground any better than a goose?"
+
+"I don't know what you're talking about," said Susy, quite excited: "if
+you want to see anybody ride fast, just look here." And she started the
+pony at full speed, regardless of Prudy, who was so frightened, that she
+seized poor Wings by his flowing mane, and called out for her sister to
+stop. But Susy dashed on at a flying pace, and Percy cried after her,
+"O, Susy, cousin Susy, what think of your Christmas present? Will you
+remember not to eat it, and not to hang it on a nail? Susy, Susy?"
+
+There was hardly a happier child living than Susy, during those
+delightful holidays. She said to herself, sometimes, that this was such
+a beautiful world, she couldn't think of a single thing that wasn't as
+splendid as it could be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+PRUDY'S TROUBLE.
+
+
+The happy days flew by. The Old Year was worn out, and the New Year
+stepped in fresh and youthful. Susy found her little sleigh a very
+comfortable affair; and so, I think, did "lame Jessie." When her father
+found that Susy had really chosen for her pony the name of Wings, he
+ordered a beautiful picture of the Flying Horse to be painted on the
+dashboard of the sleigh.
+
+Susy was delighted with this, and her vivid fancy took wings at once,
+and flew away to the other end of the world, where her aunt Madge told
+her the fountain of Pirene was said to gush out of a hill-side.
+
+"Only think," said she to Flossy; "it was a woman once, that fountain
+was; but she poured her life all out into tears, crying because her son
+was killed. So the fountain is made of tears!"
+
+"Bitter and salt, then," said Florence, threading her needle.
+
+"No, indeed; just as sweet and nice as any water. Pegasus loved it; and
+there was a beautiful young man, his name was Bel--Bel--well, I declare,
+I've forgotten,--no, 'twas Bellerophon; and he had a bridle, and wanted
+a horse. O, do you know this horse was white, with silvery wings, wild
+as a hawk; and, once in a while, he would fold up his wings, and trot
+round on the mountain!"
+
+Florence yawned, and waxed her thread.
+
+"O, it was a splendid bridle, this man had, made of gold; and I
+forgot--the mountain the horse trotted round on was called Helicon. And
+the man mounted him, and went up, up, till they were nothing but specks
+in the sky."
+
+"A likely story," said Florence; "there, you've told enough! I don't
+want to hear any more such nonsense."
+
+"Well, if you don't want to hear about the monster they killed, you
+needn't; that's all I can say; but the young man loved that horse; and
+he kissed him, too, he was so splendid!"
+
+"Kiss a horse!" Flossy looked very, much disgusted.
+
+"Why, I've kissed my pony a great many times," said Susy, bravely,
+"right between his eyes; and he almost kisses me. He wants to say, 'I
+love you.' I can see it in his eyes."
+
+By this time Flossy had finished her doll's garment, and, putting it on
+the little thing's shoulders, held up the doll to be admired.
+
+"I think her opera cloak is very 'bewitching,' don't you, Susy? It is
+trimmed with ermine, because she is a queen, and is going to the opera."
+
+"It looks well enough," said Susy, indifferently, "but it isn't ermine;
+it's only white cat's fur, with black spots sewed on,"
+
+"Of course it isn't real ermine!" replied Florence; "but I play that it
+is, and it's just as well."
+
+"But you know all the while it's a make-believe. She hasn't any more
+sense than a stick of wood, either; and I don't see any sport in playing
+with dolls."
+
+"And I don't see any sense in fairy stories," retorted Flossy. "Do you
+know what Percy says about you? He says your head is as full of airy
+notions as a dandelion top. I love Queen Mab as if she was my own
+sister," continued Flossy, in a pettish tone. "You know I do, Susy. I
+always thought, if anything should happen to Queen Mab, and I lost her,
+I should certainly dress in mourning; now you needn't laugh."
+
+"O, I can't help laughing, when anybody makes such a fuss over a doll,"
+replied Susy, with a curl of the lip. "Anything that isn't alive, and
+hasn't any sense, and don't care for you! I like canary birds, and
+babies, and ponies, and that's enough to like."
+
+"Well, now, that's so funny!" said Florence, twitching the folds of
+Queen Mab's dress into place; "for the very reason I like my doll, is
+because she _isn't_ alive. I wouldn't have been you, Susy Parlin, when
+you had your last canary bird, and let him choke to death."
+
+"O, no, Flossy, I didn't let him choke: I forgot to put any seed in the
+bottle, and he stuck his head in so deep, that he smothered to death."
+
+"I don't know but smothering is as bad as choking," said Florence; "and
+now your new bird will be sure to come to some bad end."
+
+"You're always saying hateful things," exclaimed Susy, a good deal
+vexed. "I like Grace Clifford ten times as well, for she's a great deal
+more lady-like."
+
+"Well, I suppose I can go home," said Florence, with a rising color;
+"you're such a perfect lady that I can't get along with you."
+
+"O, dear," thought poor Susy, "what does ail my tongue? Here this very
+morning I said in my prayer, that I meant to be good and patient."
+
+Florence began to put on her cloak.
+
+"Cousin Flossy," said Susy, in a hesitating voice, "I wish you wouldn't
+go. I didn't mean to tell that I liked Gracie best; but it's the real
+honest truth, and if I should take it back, 'twould be a lie."
+
+This was not making matters much better. Florence put on her hood, and
+tied it with a twitch.
+
+"But I like _you_ ever so much, Flossy; now, you know I do. You're
+hateful sometimes; but so am I; and I can't tell which is the
+hatefulest."
+
+Here Flossy, who was as fickle as the wind, laughed merrily, took off
+her hood and cloak, and danced about the room in high spirits.
+
+"Yes," said she, "I'll stay just on purpose to plague you!"
+
+But good humor had been restored on both sides, and the little girls
+were soon talking together, as freely as if nothing had happened.
+
+"Just come out in the kitchen," said Susy, "and you shall see me wash my
+bird."
+
+"Why, I thought birds washed themselves," replied Florence, following
+her cousin with some surprise.
+
+"They do, but Dandy won't; it's all in the world I have against Dandy;
+he isn't a cold-water bird."
+
+Grandma Read stood by the kitchen table, clear-starching one of her
+caps--a piece of work which she always performed with her own hands.
+She moved one side to make room for Susy's bird-cage, but said she did
+not approve of washing canaries; she thought it must be a dangerous
+experiment.
+
+"If he needed a bath, he would take it himself, Susan. Little birds know
+what is best for them by instinct, thee may depend upon it."
+
+"But my birdie gay ought to be clean," persisted Susy, who was often
+very positive. "Mrs. Mason says so--the lady that gave him to me. I told
+her he wouldn't bathe, and she said then I must bathe him."
+
+Susy went to the range, and, dipping some hot water from the boiler,
+cooled it with fresh water, till she found, by putting in her fingers,
+that it was of a proper temperature, according to her own judgment. Then
+she plunged the timid little canary into the bowl, in spite of his
+fluttering. Such a wee young thing as he was too! He seemed to be afraid
+of the water, and struggled against it with all his small strength.
+
+"O, Dandy, darling," said Susy, in a cooing voice, as if she were
+talking to a baby; "be a little man, Dandy; hold up his head, and let
+Susy wash it all cleany! O, he's Susie's birdie gay!--What makes him
+roll up his eyes?"
+
+"Take him out quick, Susan," said grandma Read; "he will strangle."
+
+A few seconds more and all would have been over with birdie gay. He
+curled down very languidly on the floor of the cage, and seemed to wish
+to be let alone.
+
+"He acts so every morning when I bathe him," said Susy, who would not
+give up the point; "but Mrs. Mason told me to do it! Dotty always cried
+when she was washed, till she was ever so old."
+
+"I think," said Mrs. Parlin, who had just entered the kitchen, "I must
+ask Mrs. Mason if she is very sure it is proper to treat little birds in
+that way."
+
+"But look, mamma; here he is, shaking out his feathers, all bright and
+happy again. O, you cunning little Dandy, now we'll hang you up in the
+sun to dry. See him hop on one foot; that is just to make me laugh."
+
+"But _I_ hop on one foot, too," said little Prudy, "and you don't laugh
+at me."
+
+"This is a droll little head for fancies," said Mrs. Parlin, patting
+Prudy's curls, and looking at grandma Read. "Do you know, mother, that
+for several days she has made believe she was lame Jessie, and has
+hobbled about whenever she could think of it."
+
+"Now you mustn't laugh," said Prudy, looking up with a grieved face; I
+can't never help hopping; I _have_ to hop. My knee was so sick, I cried
+last night, and I was just as _wide-awakeful_!"
+
+"Ain't thee afraid the child has been hurt in some way, my daughter?"
+said grandma Read.
+
+"O, no, mother," said Mrs. Parlin, smiling, as Prudy limped out of the
+room. "I have examined her knee, and there is nothing the matter with
+it. She is only imitating that lame child. You know Prudy has all sorts
+of whims. Don't you know how she has wanted us to call her Jessie
+sometimes?"
+
+"Why, no, indeed, grandma, she isn't lame," said Susy, laughing.
+"Sometimes she will run about the room as well as I do, and then, in a
+few minutes, when she thinks of it, she will limp and take hold of
+chairs. Mother, isn't it just the same as a wrong story for Prudy to act
+that way? If I did so, you'd punish me; now, wouldn't you?"
+
+"I don't know what to think about it," said Mrs. Parlin, gravely.
+"Sometimes I am afraid Prudy is really becoming naughty and deceitful. I
+thought once it was only her funny way of playing; but she is getting
+old enough now to know the difference between truth and falsehood."
+
+There was an anxious look on Mrs. Parlin's face. She was a faithful
+mother, and watched her children's conduct with the tenderest care.
+
+But this lameness of which little Prudy complained, was something more
+than play; it was a sad truth, as the family learned very soon. Instead
+of walking properly when her mother bade her do so, the poor child cried
+bitterly, said it hurt her, and she was so tired she wished they would
+let her lie on the sofa, and never get up. At times she seemed better;
+and when everybody thought she was quite well, suddenly the pain and
+weakness would come again, and she could only limp, or walk by catching
+hold of chairs.
+
+At last her father called in a physician.
+
+"How long has this child been lame?" said he.
+
+"A month or more."
+
+The doctor looked grave. "Has she ever had an injury, Mr. Parlin, such
+as slipping on the ice, or falling down stairs?"
+
+"No, sir," replied Mr. Parlin, "I believe not."
+
+"Not a serious injury that I know of," said Mrs. Parlin, passing her
+hand across her forehead, and trying to remember. "No, I think Prudy has
+never had a _bad_ fall, though she is always meeting with slight
+accidents."
+
+"O, mamma," said Susy, who had begged to stay in the room, "she did have
+a fall: don't you know, Christmas day, ever so long ago, how she went
+rolling down stairs with her little chair in her arms, and woke
+everybody up?"
+
+The doctor caught at Susy's words.
+
+"With her little chair in her arms, my dear? And did she cry as if she
+was hurt?"
+
+"Yes, sir; she said the _prongs_ of the chair stuck into her side."
+
+"It hurt me dreffully," said Prudy, who had until now forgotten all
+about it. "Susy spoke so quick, and said I was a little snail; and then
+I rolled over and over, and down I went."
+
+The doctor almost smiled at these words, lisped out in such a plaintive
+voice, as if Prudy could not think of that fall even now, without
+pitying herself very much.
+
+"Just let me see you stand up, little daughter," said he; for Prudy was
+lying on the sofa.
+
+But it hurt her to bear her weight on her feet.
+
+She said, "One foot, the '_lame-knee-foot_,' came down so long, it
+_more_ than touched the floor."
+
+The doctor looked sober. The foot did drag indeed. The trouble was not
+in her knee, but in her hip, which had really been injured when she fell
+down stairs, and the "prongs" of the chair were forced against it.
+
+It seemed to Mrs. Parlin strange that Prudy had never complained of any
+pain in her side; but the doctor said it was very common for people to
+suffer from hip-disease, and seem to have only a lame knee.
+
+"Hip-disease!" When Mrs. Parlin heard these words, she grew so dizzy,
+that it was all she could do to keep from fainting. It came over her in
+a moment, the thought of what her little daughter would have to
+suffer--days and nights of pain, and perhaps a whole lifetime of
+lameness. She had often heard of hip-disease, and was aware that it is a
+very serious thing.
+
+Do you know, she would gladly have changed places with Prudy, would
+gladly have borne all the child must suffer, if by that means she could
+have saved her? This is the feeling which mothers have when any trouble
+comes upon their children; but the little ones, with their simple minds,
+cannot understand it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ROSY FRANCES EASTMAN MARY.
+
+
+Prudy had enjoyed a great many rides in Susy's beautiful sleigh; but now
+the doctor forbade her going out, except for very short distances, and
+even then, he said, she must sit in her mother's lap. He wanted her to
+lie down nearly all the time, and keep very quiet.
+
+At first, Mrs. Parlin wondered how it would be possible to keep such a
+restless child quiet; but she found, as time passed, and the disease
+made progress, that poor little Prudy was only too glad to lie still.
+Every motion seemed to hurt her, and sometimes she cried if any one
+even jarred the sofa suddenly.
+
+These were dark days for everybody in the house. Susy, who was
+thoughtful beyond her years, suffered terribly from anxiety about her
+little sister. More than that, she suffered from remorse.
+
+"O, grandma Read," said she one evening, as she sat looking up at the
+solemn, shining stars, with overflowing eyes--"O, grandma!" The words
+came from the depths of a troubled heart. "I may live to be real old;
+but I never shall be happy again! I can't, for, if it hadn't been for
+me? Prudy would be running round the house as well as ever!"
+
+Mrs. Read had a gentle, soothing voice. She could comfort Susy when
+anybody could. Now she tried to set her heart at rest by saying that the
+doctor gave a great deal of hope. He could not promise a certain cure,
+but he felt great faith in a new kind of splint which he was using for
+Prudy's hip.
+
+"O, grandma, it may be, and then, again, it may not be," sobbed poor
+Susy; "we can't tell what God will think best; but anyhow, it was I that
+did it."
+
+"But, Susan, thee must think how innocent thee was of any wrong motive.
+Thee did not get angry, and push thy little sister, thee knows thee
+didn't, Susan! Thee was only in a hurry, and rather thoughtless. The
+best of us often do very foolish things, and cause much mischief; but
+thee'll find it isn't best to grieve over these mistakes. Why, my dear
+little Susan, I have lived eight years to thy one, and if I should sit
+down now and drop a tear for every blunder I have made, I don't know but
+I could almost make a fountain of myself, like that woman thee tells
+about in the fairy story."
+
+"The fountain of Pirene that Pegasus loved," said Susy; "that was the
+name of it. Why, grandma, I never should have thought of your saying
+such a queer thing as that! Why, it seems as if you always did just
+right, and thought it all over before you did it. Do _you_ ever do
+wrong? How funny!"
+
+Mrs. Read smiled sadly. She was not an angel yet; so I suppose she did
+wrong once in a while.
+
+"Now, grandma, I want to ask you one question, real sober and honest.
+You know it was so dark that morning in the middle of the night, when we
+were going down the back stairs? Now, if I'd made a great deal worse
+mistake than calling Prudy a snail,--if I'd pushed her real hard, and
+she had fallen faster,--O, I can't bear to think! I mean, if the
+chair-prongs had hit her head, grandma--and--killed her! What would they
+have done to _me_? I thought about it last night, so I couldn't go to
+sleep for the longest while! I heard the clock _strike_ once while I was
+awake there in bed! Would they have put me in the lock-up, grandma, and
+then hung me for murder?"
+
+"My dear child, no, indeed! How came such horrible ideas in thy tender
+little brain? It is too dreadful to think about; but, even if thy little
+sister _had_ died, Susan, thee would have been no more to blame than
+thee is now, and a great, great deal more to be pitied."
+
+Susy sat for a long while gazing out of the window; but the stars did
+not wink so solemnly; the moon looked friendly once more. Susy was
+drinking in her grandmother's words of comfort. The look of sadness was
+disappearing from the young face, and smiles began to play about the
+corners of her mouth.
+
+"Well," said she, starting up briskly, "I'm glad I wasn't so very
+terribly wicked! I wish I'd been somewhere else, when I stood on those
+back-stairs, in the middle of the night; but what's the use? I'm not
+going to think any more about it, grandma; for if I should think till my
+head was all twisted up in a knot, what good would it do? It wouldn't
+help Prudy any; would it, grandma?"
+
+"No, dear," said the mild, soothing voice again; "don't think, I beg of
+thee; but if thee wants to know what would do Prudence good, I will tell
+thee: try thy best to amuse her. She has to lie day after day and
+suffer. It is very hard for a little girl that loves to play, and can't
+read, and doesn't know how to pass the time; don't thee think so,
+Susan?"
+
+It was certainly hard. Prudy's round rosy face began to grow pale; and,
+instead of laughing and singing half the time, she would now lie and cry
+from pain, or because she really did not know what else to do with
+herself.
+
+It was worst at night. Hour after hour, she would lie awake, and listen
+to the ticking of the clock. Susy thought it a pitiable case, when
+_she_, heard the clock strike _once_; but little Prudy heard it strike
+again and again. How strangely it pounded out the strokes in the night!
+What a dreary sound it was, pealing through the silence! The echoes
+answered with a shudder. Then, when Prudy had counted one, two, three,
+four, and the clock had no more to say at that time, it began to tick
+again: "Prudy's sick! Prudy's sick! O, dear me! O, dear me!"
+
+Prudy could hardly believe it was the same clock she saw in the daytime.
+She wondered if it felt lonesome in the night, and had the blues; or
+what _could_ ail it! The poor little girl wanted somebody to speak to in
+these long, long hours. She did not sleep with Susy, but in a new
+cot-bed of her own, in aunt Madge's room; for, dearly as she loved to
+lie close to any one she loved, she begged now to sleep alone, "so
+nobody could hit her, or move her, or joggle her."
+
+It was a great comfort to have aunt Madge so near. If it had been Susy
+instead, Prudy would have had no company but the sound of her breathing.
+It was of no use to try to wake Susy in the dead of night. Pricking her
+with pins would startle her, but she never knew anything even after she
+was startled. All she could do was to stare about her, cry, and act very
+cross, and then--go to sleep again.
+
+But with aunt Madge it was quite different. She slept like a cat, with
+one eye open. Perhaps the reason she did not sleep more soundly, was,
+that she felt a care of little Prudy. No matter when Prudy spoke to her,
+aunt Madge always answered. She did not say, "O, dear, you've startled
+me out of a delicious nap!" She said, "Well, darling, what do you want?"
+Prudy generally wanted to know when it would be morning? When would the
+steamboat whistle? What made it stay dark so long? She wanted a drink of
+water, and _always_ wanted a story.
+
+If aunt Madge had forgotten to provide a glass of water, she put on her
+slippers, lighted the little handled lamp, and stole softly down stairs
+to the pail, which Norah always pumped full of well-water the last thing
+in the evening.
+
+Or, if Prudy fancied it would console her to have a peep at her
+beautiful doll which "would be alive if it could speak," why, down
+stairs went auntie again to search out the spot where Susy had probably
+left it when "she took it to show to some children."
+
+The many, many times that kind young lady crept shivering down stairs to
+humor Prudy's whims! Prudy could not have counted the times; and you may
+be sure aunt Madge never _would_.
+
+Then the stories, both sensible and silly, which Prudy teased for, and
+always got! Aunt Madge poured them forth like water into the _sieve_ of
+Prudy's mind, which could not hold stories any better than secrets. No
+matter how many she told, Prudy insisted that she wanted "one more," and
+the "same one over again."
+
+It touched Susy to the heart to see how much her little sister
+suffered, and she spent a great deal of time at first in trying to amuse
+her. Aunt Madge told stories in the night; but Susy told them in the
+daytime, till, as she expressed it, her "tongue ached." She cut out
+paper dolls when she wanted to read, and played go visiting, or dressed
+rag babies, when she longed to be out of doors. But while the novelty
+lasted, she was quite a Florence Nightingale.
+
+Her Wednesday and Saturday after-noons were no longer her own. Before
+Prudy's lameness, Susy had used her new skates a great deal, and could
+now skim over the ice quite gracefully, for a little girl of her age.
+The reason she learned to skate so well, was because she was fearless.
+Most children tremble when they try to stand on the ice, and for that
+very reason are nearly sure to fall; but Susy did not tremble in the
+face of danger: she had a strong will of her own, and never expected to
+fail in anything she undertook.
+
+She had spent half of her short life out of doors, and almost considered
+it lost time when she was obliged to stay in the house for the rain.
+
+Mrs. Parlin kept saying it was high time for her eldest daughter to
+begin to be womanly, and do long stints with her needle: she could not
+sew as well now as she sewed two years ago.
+
+But Mr. Parlin laughed at his wife's anxiety, and said he loved Susy's
+red cheeks; he didn't care if she grew as brown as an Indian. She was
+never rude or coarse, he thought; and she would be womanly enough one of
+these days, he was quite sure.
+
+"Anything," said Mr. Parlin, "but these _womanly_ little girls, such as
+I have seen sitting in a row, sewing seams, without animation enough to
+tear rents in their own dresses! If Susy loves birds, and flowers, and
+snowbanks, I am thankful, and perfectly willing she should have plenty
+of them for playthings."
+
+Then, when Mrs. Parlin smiled mischievously, and said, "I should like to
+know what sort of a wild Arab you would make out of a little girl," Mr.
+Parlin answered triumphantly,--"Look at my sister Margaret! I brought
+her up my own self! I always took her out in the woods with me, gunning
+and trouting. I taught her how to skate when she was a mere baby. I
+often said she was all the brother I had in the world! She can remember
+now how I used to wrap her in shawls, and prop her up on the woodpile,
+while I chopped wood."
+
+"And how you hired her to drop ears of corn for you into the
+corn-sheller; and how, one day, her fingers were so benumbed, that one
+of them was clipped off before she knew it!"
+
+"Well, so it was, that is true; but only the tip of it. Active children
+will meet with accidents. She was a regular little fly-away, and would
+sooner climb a tree or a ladder any time, than walk on solid ground.
+_Now_ look at her!"
+
+And Mr. Parlin repeated the words, "Now look at her," as if he was sure
+his wife must confess that she was a remarkable person.
+
+Mrs. Parlin said, if Susy should ever become half as excellent and
+charming as Miss Margaret Parlin, she should be perfectly satisfied, for
+her part.
+
+Thus Susy was allowed to romp to her heart's content; "fairly ran wild,"
+as aunt Eastman declared, with a frown of disapproval. She gathered wild
+roses, and wore them in her cheeks, the very best place in the world
+for roses. She drank in sunshine with the fresh air of heaven, just as
+the flowers do, and thrived on it.
+
+But there was one objection to this out-of-doors life: Susy did not love
+to stay in the house. Ainu days and evenings, to be sure, she made
+herself very happy with reading, for she loved to read, particularly
+fairy books, and Rollo's Travels.
+
+But now, just as she had learned to skate on the basin with other little
+girls and young ladies, and could drive Wings anywhere and everywhere
+she pleased, it was a sore trial to give up these amusements for the
+sake of spending more hours with poor little Prudy. She was very
+self-denying at first, but it grew to be an "old story." She found it
+was not only pony and skates she must give up, but even her precious
+reading, for Prudy was jealous of books, and did not like to have Susy
+touch them. She thought Susy was lost to her when she opened a book, and
+might as well not be in the house, for she never heard a word that
+anybody said.
+
+Now I know just what you will think: "O, I would have given up a great
+deal more than ponies and books for _my_ dear little sister! I would
+have told her stories, and never have complained that my 'tongue ached.'
+It would not have wearied me to do anything and everything for such a
+patient sufferer as little Prudy!"
+
+But now I shall be obliged to confess one thing, which I would have
+gladly concealed.
+
+Prudy was not always patient. Some sweet little children become almost
+like the angels when sickness is laid upon them; but Prudy had been such
+a healthy, active child, that the change to perfect quiet was
+exceedingly tiresome. She was young, too,--too young to reason about the
+uses of suffering. She only knew she was dreadfully afflicted, and
+thought everybody ought to amuse her.
+
+"O, dear me!" said Susy, sometimes, "I just believe the more anybody
+does for Prudy, the more she expects."
+
+Now this was really the case. When Prudy first began to lie upon the
+sofa, everybody pitied her, and tried to say and do funny things, in
+order to take up her attention. It was not possible to keep on giving so
+much time to her; but Prudy expected it. She would lie very pleasant and
+happy for hours at a time, counting the things in the room, talking to
+herself, or humming little tunes; and then, again, everything would go
+wrong. Her playthings would keep falling to the floor, and, as she could
+not stoop at all, some one must come and pick them up that very minute,
+or they "didn't pity her a bit."
+
+Every once in a while, she declared her knee was "broken in seven new
+places," and the doctor must come and take off the splint. She didn't
+want such a hard thing "right on there;" she wanted it "right off."
+
+Her mother told her she must try to be patient, and be one of God's
+little girls. "But, mamma," said Prudy, "does God love me any? I should
+think, if he loved me, he'd be sorrier I was sick, and get me well."
+
+Then, sometimes, when she had been more fretful than usual, she would
+close her eyes, and her mother would hear her say, in a low voice,--
+
+"O, God, I didn't mean to. It's my _knee_ that's cross!"
+
+Upon the whole, I think Prudy was as patient as most children of her age
+would have been under the same trial. Her father and mother, who had the
+most care of her, did not wonder in the least that her poor little
+nerves got tired out sometimes.
+
+While Susy was at school, Prudy had a long time to think what she wanted
+her to do when she should come home. She would lie and watch the clock,
+for she had learned to tell the time quite well; and when the hour drew
+near for Susy to come, she moved her head on the pillow, and twisted her
+fingers together nervously.
+
+If Susy was in good season, Prudy put up her little mouth for a kiss,
+and said,--
+
+"O, how I do love you, Susy! Ain't I your dear little sister? Well,
+won't you make me a lady on the slate?"
+
+Susy's ladies had no necks, and their heads were driven down on their
+shoulders, as if they were going to be packed into their chests; but,
+such as they were, Prudy wanted them over and over again.
+
+But if Susy stopped to slide, or to play by the way, she would find
+little Prudy in tears, and hear her say, "O, what made you? Naughty,
+naughty old Susy! I'm goin' to die, and go to God's house, and then
+you'll be sorry you didn't 'tend to your little sister."
+
+Susy could never bear to hear Prudy talk about going to God's house. Her
+conscience pricked her when she saw that the poor child was grieved; and
+she resolved, every time she was late, that she would never be late
+again.
+
+Prudy had a great many odd fancies now: among others, she had a fancy
+that she did not like the name of Prudy.
+
+"Why; only think," said she, "you keep a-calling me Prudy, and Prudy,
+and Prudy. It makes my head ache, to have you say Prudy so much."
+
+"But, my dear child," said Mr. Parlin, smiling, "it happens,
+unfortunately, that Prudy is your name; so I think you will have to try
+and bear it as well as you can."
+
+"But I can't bear it any longer," said the child, bursting into tears.
+"Prudy is all lame and sick, and I never shall walk any more while you
+call me Prudy, papa."
+
+Mr. Parlin kissed his little daughters's pale cheek, and said, "Then we
+will call you pet names; will that do?"
+
+Prudy smiled with delight.
+
+"I've thought of a real beautiful, splendid name," said she. "It is Rosy
+Frances Eastman Mary; ain't it splendid?"
+
+After this announcement, Prudy expected the family would be sure to call
+her Rosy Frances Eastman Mary; and, indeed, they were quite willing to
+please her, whenever they could remember the name. They all supposed it
+was a fancy she would forget in a day or two; but, instead of that, she
+clung to it more and more fondly. If any one offered her an orange, or
+roasted apple, and said, "Look, Prudy; here is something nice for you,"
+she would turn her face over to one side on the pillow, and make no
+reply. If she wanted a thing very much, she would never accept it when
+she was addressed by the obnoxious name of Prudy. Even when her father
+wanted to take her in his arms to rest her, and happened to say, "Prudy,
+shall I hold you a little while?" she would say, "Who was you a-talkin'
+to, papa? There isn't any Prudy here!" Then her father had to humble
+himself, and ask to be forgiven for being so forgetful.
+
+The child had a delicate appetite, and her mother tried to tempt it with
+little niceties; but, no matter what pains she took, Prudy relished
+nothing unless it was given to her as Rosy Frances, the little girl who
+was _not_ Prudy.
+
+"O, here is a glass of lemonade for you, Prudy; made on purpose for
+you," Susy would say; "do drink it!"
+
+"O, dear me, suz," cried Prudy, with tears falling over her cheeks; "O,
+Susy, you plague me, and I never done a thing to you! You called me
+Prudy, and I ain't Prudy, never again! Call me Rosy Frances Eastman
+Mary, and I'll drink the lemonade."
+
+"You precious little sister," said Susy, bending over her gently,
+"you'll forgive me; won't you, darling?"
+
+"I'll try to," replied Prudy, with a look of meek forbearance, as she
+sipped the lemonade.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+LITTLE TROUBLES.
+
+
+Somebody said once to Susy and Flossy, when they were having a frolic in
+"Prudy's sitting-room," up stairs, "What happy little things! You don't
+know what trouble is, and never will, till you grow up!"
+
+The little girls preserved a respectful silence, till the lady was out
+of hearing, and then held an indignant discussion as to the truth of
+what she had said. It would have been a discussion, I mean, if they had
+not both taken the same side of the question.
+
+"How she sighed," said Susy, "just as if she was the _melancholiest_
+person that ever was!" Susy was famous for the use she made of
+adjectives, forming the superlatives just as it happened.
+
+"Yes, just the way," responded Flossy. "I'd like to know what ever
+happened to _her_? Pshaw! She laughed this afternoon, and ate apples
+fast enough!"
+
+"O, she thinks she must make believe have a dreadful time, because she
+is grown up," said Susy, scornfully. "She's forgot she was ever a little
+girl! I've had troubles; I guess I have! And I know one thing, I shall
+remember 'em when I grow up, and not say, 'What happy little things!'
+to children. It's real hateful!"
+
+Little folks have trouble, to be sure. Their hearts are full of it, and
+running over, sometimes; and how can the largest heart that ever beat be
+_more_ than full, and running over?
+
+Susy had daily trials. They were sent to her because they were good for
+her. Shadows and night-dews are good for flowers. If the sun had shone
+on Susy always, and she had never had any shadows and night dews, she
+would have _scorched up_ into a selfish girl.
+
+One of her trials was Miss Dotty Dimple. Now, she loved Dotty dearly,
+and considered her funny all over, from the crown of her head to the
+soles of her little twinkling feet, which were squeezed into a pair of
+gaiters. Dotty loved those gaiters as if they were alive. She had a
+great contempt for the slippers she wore in the morning, but it was her
+"darlin' gaiters," which she put on in the afternoon, and loved next to
+father and mother, and all her best friends.
+
+When ladies called, she stepped very briskly across the floor, looking
+down at her feet, and tiptoeing about, till the ladies smiled, and said,
+"O, what sweet little boots!" and then she was perfectly happy.
+
+Susy was not very wide awake in the morning; but Dotty was stirring as
+soon as there was a peep of light, and usually stole into Susy's bed to
+have a frolic. Nothing but a story would keep her still, and poor Susy
+often wondered which was harder, to be used as a football by Dotty, or
+to tell stories with her eyes shut.
+
+"O, Dotty Dimple, keep still; can't you? There's a darling," she would
+plead, longing for another nap; "_don't_ kill me."
+
+"No, no; me won't kill," the little one would reply; "'tisn't _pooty_ to
+kill!"
+
+"O, dear, you little, cunning, darling plague, now hush, and let me go
+to sleep!"
+
+Then Dotty would plant both feet firmly on Susy's chest, and say, in her
+teasing little voice, as troublesome as the hum of a mosquito,--
+
+"Won't you tell me 'tory--tell me a 'tory--tell me a 'tory, Susy."
+
+"Well, what do you want to hear?"
+
+Now, it was natural for Susy to feel cross when she was sleepy. It cost
+her a hard struggle to speak pleasantly, and when she succeeded in doing
+so, I set it down as one of her greatest victories over herself. The
+Quaker motto of her grandmother, "Let patience have her perfect work,"
+helped her sometimes, when she could wake up enough to remember it.
+
+"Tell 'bout little yellow gell," said the voice of the mosquito, over
+and over again.
+
+Susy roused herself after the third request, and sleepily asked if
+something else wouldn't do?
+
+"I had a little nobby-colt."
+
+"No, no, you _di'n't_, you _di'n't_; grandma had the nobby! Tell yellow
+gell."
+
+"O," sighed Susy, "how can you want to hear that so many, many times?
+Well, once when I was a little bit of a girl--"
+
+"'Bout's big as me, you _said_," put in Dotty.
+
+"O, yes, I did say so once, and I suppose I must tell it so every time,
+or you'll fuss! Well, I had a yellow dress all striped off in checks--"
+
+"Di'n't it go this way?" said Dotty, smoothing the sheet with her little
+hand, "and this way?"
+
+"What? What?" Susy roused herself and rubbed her eyes. "O, yes, it went
+in checks; and I was at grandma Parlin's, and Grace--Grace--O, Grace and
+I went into the pasture where there were a couple of cows, a gray cow
+and a red cow."
+
+"Now you must say what _is_ couple," says Dotty.
+
+"Then what is couple?"
+
+"Gray cow," answers Dotty, very gravely.
+
+"So when the cows saw us coming, they--they--O, they threw up their
+heads, and stopped eating grass--in the air. I mean--threw--up--their
+heads." Susy was nearly asleep.
+
+"Up in the air?"
+
+"Yes, of course, up in the air. (There, I _will_ wake up!) And the gray
+cow began to run towards us, and Grace says to me, 'O, my, she thinks
+you're a pumpkin!'"
+
+"You?"
+
+"Yes, me, because my dress was so yellow. I was just as afraid of the
+cow as I could be."
+
+"Good cow! _He_ wouldn't hurt!"
+
+"No, the cow was good, and didn't think I was a pumpkin, not the least
+speck. But I was so afraid, that I crept under the bars, and ran home."
+
+"To grandma's house?"
+
+"Yes; and grandma laughed."
+
+"Well, where was me?" was the next question, after a pause.
+
+Then, when the duty of story-telling was performed, Susy would gladly
+have gone back to "climbing the dream-tree;" but no, she must still
+listen to Dotty, though she answered her questions in an absent-minded
+way, like a person "hunting for a forgotten dream."
+
+One morning she was going to ride with her cousin Percy. It had been
+some time since she had seen Wings, except in the stable, where she
+visited him every day.
+
+But Dotty had set her heart on a rag-baby which Susy had promised to
+dress, and Prudy was anxious that Susy should play several games of
+checkers with her.
+
+"O, dear," said the eldest sister, with the perplexed air of a mother
+who has disobedient little ones to manage. "I think I have about as much
+as I can bear. The _children_ always make a fuss, just as sure as I
+want to go out."
+
+The old, impatient spirit was rising; that spirit which it was one of
+the duties of Susy's life to keep under control.
+
+She went into the bathing-room, and drank off a glass of cold water, and
+talked to herself a while, for she considered that the safest way.
+
+"Have I any right to be cross? Yes, I think I have. Here Dotty woke me
+up, right in the middle of a dream, and I'm sleepy this minute. Then
+Prudy is a little babyish thing, and always was--making a fuss if I
+forget to call her Rosy Frances! Yes, I'll be cross, and act just as I
+want to. It's too hard work to keep pleasant; I won't try."
+
+She walked along to the door, but, by that time, the better spirit was
+struggling to be heard.
+
+"Now, Susy Parlin," it said, "you little girl with a pony, and a pair of
+skates, and feet to walk on, and everything you want, ain't you ashamed,
+when you think of that dear little sister you pushed down stairs--no,
+didn't push--that poor little lame sister!--O, hark! there is your
+mother winding up that hard splint! How would you feel with such a thing
+on your hip? Go, this minute, and comfort Prudy!"
+
+The impatient feelings were gone for that time; Susy had swallowed
+them, or they had flown out of the window.
+
+"Now Rosy Frances Eastman Mary," said she, "if your splint is all fixed,
+I'll comb your hair."
+
+The splint was made of hard, polished wood and brass. Under it were
+strips of plaster an inch wide, which wound round and round the poor
+wounded limb. These strips of plaster became loose, and there was a
+little key-hole in the splint, into which Mrs. Parlin put a key, and
+wound up and tightened the plaster every morning. This operation did not
+hurt Prudy at all.
+
+"Now," said Susy, after she had combed Prudy's hair carefully, and put a
+net over it, until her mother should be ready to curl it, "now we will
+have a game of checkers."
+
+Prudy played in high glee, for Susy allowed her to jump all her men, and
+march triumphantly into the king-row, at the head of a victorious army.
+
+"There, now, Rosy," said Susy, gently, "are you willing to let me go out
+riding? I can't play any more if I ride, for I must dress Dotty's doll,
+and feed my canary."
+
+"O, well," said Prudy, considering the matter, "I'm sick; I tell you how
+it is, I'm sick, you know; but--well, you may go, Susy, if you'll make
+up a story as long as a mile."
+
+Susy really felt grateful to Prudy, but it was her own gentle manner
+which had charmed the sick child into giving her consent.
+
+Then Susy proceeded to dress Dotty's doll in a very simple fashion, with
+two holes for short sleeves, and a skirt with a raw edge; but she looked
+kind and pleasant while she was at work, and Dotty was just as well
+pleased as if it had been an elegant costume she was preparing. And it
+was really good enough for a poor deformed rag-baby, with a head shaped
+like a stove-pipe.
+
+Susy was delighted to find how well a little patience served her in
+amusing "the children." Next, she went to give Dandy his morning bath.
+Mrs. Parlin still thought it a dangerous practice, but had not seen Mrs.
+Mason, to question her about it, and Susy was too obstinate in her
+opinion to listen to her mother.
+
+"I must do it," said Susy; "it has been ever so long since Dandy was
+bathed, and I shouldn't take any comfort riding, mamma, if I didn't
+leave him clean."
+
+Susy plunged the trembling canary into his little bathing-bowl, in some
+haste. He struggled as usual, and begged, with his weak, piping voice,
+to be spared such an infliction. But Susy was resolute.
+
+"It'll do you good, Ducky Daddles; we mustn't have any lazy, dirty
+birdies in this house."
+
+Ducky Daddies rolled up his little eyes, and gasped for breath.
+
+"O, look, mother!" cried Susy, laughing; "how funny Dandy acts! Do you
+suppose it's to make me laugh? O, is he fainting away?"
+
+"Fainting away! My dear child, he is dying!"
+
+This was the sad truth. Mrs. Parlin fanned him, hoping to call back the
+lingering breath. But it was too late. One or two more throbs, and his
+frightened little heart had ceased to beat; his frail life had gone out
+as suddenly as a spark of fire.
+
+Susy was too much shocked to speak. She stood holding the stiffening
+bird in her hands, and gazing at it.
+
+Mrs. Parlin was very sorry for Susy, and had too much kindness of
+feeling to add to her distress by saying,--
+
+"You know how I warned you, Susy."
+
+Susy was already suffering for her obstinacy and disregard of her
+mother's advice; and Mrs. Parlin believed she would lay the lesson to
+heart quite as well without more words. It was a bitter lesson. Susy
+loved dumb creatures dearly, and was just becoming very fond of Dandy.
+
+In the midst of her trouble, and while her eyes were swollen with tears,
+her cousin Percy came with Wings and the sleigh to give her the promised
+ride. Susy no longer cared for going out: it seemed to her that her
+heart was almost broken.
+
+"Well, cousin Indigo, what is the matter?" said Percy; "you look as if
+this world was a howling wilderness, and you wanted to howl too. What,
+crying over that bird? Poh! I can buy you a screech-owl any time, that
+will make twice the noise he could in his best days. Come, hurry, and
+put your things on!"
+
+Susy buried her face in her apron.
+
+"I'll compose a dirge for him," said Percy.
+
+    "My bird is dead, said Susy P.,
+    My bird is dead; O, deary me!
+    He sang so sweet, te whee, te whee;
+    He sings no more; O, deary me!
+    Go hang his cage up in the tree,
+    That cage I care no more to see.
+    My bird is dead, cried Susy P."
+
+These provoking words Percy drawled out in a sing-song voice. It was
+too much. Susy's eyes flashed through her tears.
+
+"You've always laughed at me, Percy Eastman, and plagued me about Freddy
+Jackson, and everything, and I've borne it like a--like a lady. But when
+you go to laughing at my poor little Dandy that's dead, and can't
+speak--"
+
+Susy was about to say, "Can't speak for himself," but saw in time how
+absurdly she was talking, and stopped short.
+
+Percy laughed.
+
+"Where are you going with that cage?"
+
+"Going to put it away, where I'll never see it again," sobbed poor Susy.
+
+"Give it to me," said Percy: "I'll take care of it for you."
+
+If Susy's eyes had not been blinded by tears, she would have been
+surprised to see the real pity in Percy's face.
+
+He was a rollicking boy, full of merriment and bluster, and what tender
+feelings he possessed, he took such a wonderful amount of pains to
+conceal, that Susy never suspected he had any. She would have enjoyed
+her ride if she had not felt so full of grief. The day was beautiful.
+There had been a storm, and the trees looked as if they had been
+snowballing one another; but Susy had no eye for trees, and just then
+hardly cared for her pony.
+
+Percy put the cage in the sleigh, under the buffalo robes; and when
+they reached his own door, he carried the cage into the house, while
+Susy drew a sigh of relief. He offered to stuff Dandy, or have him
+stuffed; but Susy rejected the idea with horror.
+
+"No, if Dandy was dead, he was all dead; she didn't want to see him
+sitting up stiff and cold, when he couldn't sing a speck."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+ANNIE LOVEJOY.
+
+
+But the day was not over yet. The bright sun and blue sky were doing
+what they could to make a cheerful time of it, but it seemed as if Susy
+fell more deeply into trouble, as the hours passed on.
+
+There are such days in everybody's life, when it rains small vexations
+from morning till night, and when all we can do is to hope for better
+things to-morrow.
+
+It was Wednesday; and in the afternoon, Flossy Eastman came over with a
+new game, and while the little girls, Flossy, Susy and Prudy were
+playing it, and trying their best to keep Dotty Dimple's prying fingers
+and long curls out of the way, in came Miss Annie Lovejoy.
+
+This was a little neighbor, who, as the children sometimes privately
+declared, was "always 'round." Mrs. Parlin had her own private doubts
+about the advantages to be derived from her friendship, and had
+sometimes gone so far as to send her home, when she seemed more than
+usually in the way.
+
+Annie's mother lived next door, but all Mrs. Parlin knew of her, was
+what she could see and hear from her own windows; and that little was
+not very agreeable. She saw that Mrs. Love joy dressed in gaudy colors,
+and loaded herself with jewelry; and she could hear her scold her
+servants and children with a loud, shrill voice.
+
+The two ladies had never exchanged calls; but Annie, it seemed, had few
+playmates, and she clung to Susy with such a show of affection, that Mrs.
+Parlin could not forbid her visits, although she watched her closely;
+anxious, as a careful mother should be, to make sure she was a proper
+companion for her little daughter. So far she had never known her to say
+or do anything morally wrong, though her manners were not exactly those
+of a well-bred little girl.
+
+This afternoon, when the new game was broken up by the entrance of
+Annie, the children began the play of housekeeping, because Prudy could
+join in it. Susy found she enjoyed any amusement much more when it
+pleased the little invalid.
+
+"I will be the lady of the house," said Annie, promptly, "because I have
+rings on my fingers, and a coral necklace. My name is Mrs. Piper.
+Prudy,--no, Rosy,--you shall be Mrs. Shotwell, come a-visiting me;
+because you can't do anything else. We'll make believe you've lost your
+husband in the wars. I know a Mrs. Shotwell, and she is always
+_taking-on_, and saying, 'My poor dear husband,' under her handkerchief;
+just this way."
+
+The children laughed at the nasal twang which Annie gave to the words,
+and Prudy imitated it to perfection, not knowing it was wrong.
+
+"Well, what shall I be?" said Susy, not very well pleased that the first
+characters had been taken already.
+
+"O, you shall be a hired girl, and wear a handkerchief on your head,
+just as our girl does; and you must be a little deaf, and keep saying,
+'What, ma'am?' when I speak to you."
+
+"And I," said Florence, "will be Mr. Peter Piper, the head of the
+family."
+
+"Yes," returned Annie, "you can put on a waterproof cloak, and you will
+make quite a good-looking husband; but I shall be the head of the family
+myself, and have things about as I please!"
+
+"Well, there," cried Flossy, slipping her arms into the sleeves of her
+cloak, "I don't know about that; I don't think it's very polite for you
+to treat your husband in that way."
+
+Flossy wanted to have the control of family matters herself.
+
+"But I believe in 'Woman's Rights,'" said Annie, with a toss of the
+head, "and if there's anything I despise, it is a _man_ meddling about
+the house."
+
+Here little Dotty began to cause a disturbance, by sticking a
+fruit-knife into the edges of the "what-not," and making a whirring
+noise.
+
+"I wouldn't do so, Dotty," said Susy, going up to her; "it troubles us;
+and, besides, I'm afraid it will break the knife."
+
+"I don't allow my hired girl to interfere with my children," said
+Annie, speaking up in the character of Mrs. Piper; "I am mistress of the
+house, I'd have you to know! There, little daughter, they shan't plague
+her; she shall keep on doing mischief; so she shall!"
+
+Dotty needed no coaxing to keep on doing mischief, but hit the musical
+knife harder than ever, giving it a dizzy motion, like the clapper in a
+mill.
+
+Prudy was quite annoyed by the sound, but did not really know whether to
+be nervous or not, and concluded to express her vexation in groans: the
+groans she was giving in memory of the departed Mr. Shotwell, who had
+died of a "cannon bullet."
+
+"My good Mrs. Shotwell," said Mrs. Piper, trying to "make
+conversation," "I think I have got something in my eye: will you please
+tell me how it looks?"
+
+"O," said Prudy, peeping into it, "your eye looks very well, ma'am;
+don't you '_xcuse_ it; it looks well enough for _me_."
+
+"Ahem!" said Mrs. Piper, laughing, and settling her head-dress, which
+was Susy's red scarf: "are your feet warm, Mrs. Shotwell?"
+
+"Thank you, ma'am," replied Prudy, "I don't feel 'em cold. O, dear, if
+your husband was all deaded up, I guess you'd cry, Mrs. Piper."
+
+Susy and Flossy looked at each other, and smiled. They thought Prudy
+seemed more like herself than they had known her for a long time.
+
+"You must go right out of the parlor, Betsey," said Mrs. Piper,
+flourishing the poker; "I mean you, Susy--the parlor isn't any place for
+hired girls."
+
+"Ma'am?" said Susy, inclining her head to one side, in order to hear
+better.
+
+"O, dear! the plague of having a deaf girl!" moaned Mrs. Piper. "You
+don't know how trying it is, Mrs. Shotwell! That hired girl, Betsey,
+hears with her elbows, Mrs. Shotwell; I verily believe she does!"
+
+"O, no, ma'am," replied Prudy; "I guess she doesn't hear with her
+elbows, does she? If she _heard_ with her elbows, she wouldn't have to
+ask you over again!"
+
+This queer little speech set Mr. Piper and his wife, and their servant,
+all to laughing, and Betsey looked at her elbows, to see if they were in
+the right place.
+
+"Will you please, ma'am," said Prudy, "ask Betsey to _hot_ a flatiron?
+I've cried my handkerchief all up!"
+
+"Yes; go right out, Betsey, and _hot_ a flatiron," said Mrs. Piper, very
+hospitably. "Go out, this instant, and build a fire, Betsey."
+
+"Yes, go right out, Betsey," echoed Mr. Piper, who could find nothing
+better to do than to repeat his wife's words; for, in spite of himself,
+she did appear to be the "head of the family."
+
+"It was my darlin' husband's handkerchief," sobbed Prudy.
+
+"Rather a small one for a man," said Mr. Piper, laughing.
+
+"Well," replied Prudy, rather quick for a thought, "my husband had a
+very small nose!"
+
+Mrs. Piper tried to make more "conversation."
+
+"O, Mrs. Shotwell, you ought to be exceeding thankful you're a widow,
+and don't keep house! I think my hired girls will carry down my gray
+hairs to the grave! The last one I had was Irish, and very Catholic."
+
+Prudy groaned for sympathy, and wiped her eyes on that corner of her
+handkerchief which was supposed to be not quite "cried up."
+
+"Yes, indeed, it was awful," continued Mrs. Piper; "for she was always
+going to masses and mass-meetings; and there couldn't anybody die but
+they must be 'waked,' you know."
+
+"Why, I didn't know they could be waked up when they was dead," said
+Prudy, opening her eyes.
+
+"O, but they only _make believe_ you can wake 'em," said Mrs. Piper; "of
+course it isn't true! For my part, I don't believe a word an Irish girl
+says, any way."
+
+"Hush, my child," she continued, turning to Dotty, who was now
+sharpening the silver knife on the edges of the iron grate. "Betsey, why
+in the world don't you see to that baby? I believe you are losing your
+mind!"
+
+"That makes me think," said Prudy, suddenly breaking in with a new
+idea; "what do you s'pose the reason is folks can't be waked up? What
+makes 'em stay in heaven all the days, and nights, and years, and never
+come down here to see anybody, not a minute?"
+
+"What an idea!" said Annie. "I'm sure I don't know."
+
+"Well, I've been a thinkin'," said Prudy, answering her own question,
+"that when God has sended 'em up to the sky, they like to stay up there
+the best. It's a nicer place, a great deal nicer place, up to God's
+house."
+
+"O, yes, of course," replied Annie, "but our play--"
+
+"I've been a thinkin'," continued Prudy, "that when I go up to God's
+house, I shan't wear the splint. I can run all over the house, and he'll
+be willing I should go up stairs, and down cellar, you know."
+
+Prudy sighed. Sometimes she almost longed for "God's house."
+
+"Well, let's go on with our play," said Annie, impatiently. "It's most
+supper-time, Mrs. Shotwell. Come in, Betsey."
+
+"Ma'am?" said Betsey, appearing at the door, and turning up one ear,
+very much as if it were a dipper, in which she expected to catch the
+words which dropped from the lips of her mistress. "Betsey, have you
+attended to your sister--to my little child, I mean? Then go out and
+make some sassafras cakes, and some eel-pie, and some squirrel-soup;
+and set the table in five minutes: do you hear?"
+
+"Ma'am?" said the deaf servant; "what did you say about ginger-bread?"
+
+Susy did not like her part of the game; but she played it as well as she
+could, and let Annie manage everything, because that was what pleased
+Annie.
+
+"O, how stupid Betsey is!" said Mr. Piper, coming to the aid of his
+wife. "Mrs. Piper says eel-jumbles, and sassafras-pie, and pound-cake;
+all made in five minutes!"
+
+Here everybody laughed, and Prudy, suddenly remembering her part,
+sighed, and said,--
+
+"O, my darlin' husband used to like jumble-pie! I've forgot to cry for
+ever so long!"
+
+Susy began to set the table, and went into the nursery for some cake and
+cookies, which were kept in an old tin chest, on purpose for this play
+of housekeeping, which had now been carried on regularly every Wednesday
+and Saturday afternoon, for some time.
+
+Susy opened the cake-chest, and found nothing in it but a few dry
+cookies: the fruit-cake was all gone. Who could have eaten it? Not
+Flossy, for she had a singular dislike for raisins and currants, and
+never so much as tasted fruit-cake. Not Prudy, for the poor little thing
+had grown so lame by this time, that she was unable to bear her weight
+on her feet, much less to walk into the nursery. Dotty could not be the
+thief. Her baby-conscience was rather tough and elastic, and I suppose
+she would have felt no more scruples about nibbling nice things, than an
+unprincipled little mouse.
+
+But, then Dotty couldn't reach the cake-chest; so she was certainly
+innocent.
+
+Then Susy remembered in a moment that it was Annie: Annie had run into
+the house morning and night, and had often said, "I'm right hungry. I'm
+going to steal a piece of our cake!"
+
+So it seemed that Annie had eaten it _all_. Susy ran back to Prudy's
+sitting-room, where her little guests were seated, and said, trying not
+to laugh,--
+
+"Please, ma'am, I just made some eel-jumbles and things, and a dog came
+in and stole them."
+
+"Very well, Betsey," said Mrs. Piper, serenely; "make some more."
+
+"Yes, make some more," echoed Mr. Piper; and added, "chain up that dog."
+
+"But real honest true," said Susy, "the fruit-cake _is_ all gone out of
+the chest. You ate it up, you know, Annie; but it's no matter: we'll cut
+up some cookies, or, may be, mother'll let us have some
+oyster-crackers."
+
+"_I_ ate up the cake!" cried Annie; "It's no such a thing; I never
+touched it!" Her face flushed as she spoke.
+
+"O, but you did," persisted Susy; "I suppose you've forgotten! You went
+to the cake-chest this morning, and last night, and yesterday noon, and
+ever so many more times."
+
+Annie was too angry to speak.
+
+"But it's just as well," added Susy, politely; "you could have it as
+well as not, and perfectly welcome!"
+
+"What are you talking about?" cried Annie, indignantly; for she thought
+she saw a look of surprise and contempt on Flossy's face, and fancied
+that Flossy despised her because she had a weakness for fruit-cake.
+
+"I wonder if you take me for a pig, Susy Parlin! I heard what your
+mother said about that cake! She said it was too dry for her company,
+but it was too rich for little girls, and we must only eat a _teeny_
+speck at a time. I told my mamma, and she laughed, to think such mean
+dried-up cake was too rich for little girls!"
+
+Susy felt her temper rising, but her desire to be polite did not desert
+her.
+
+"It _was_ rich, nice cake, Annie; but mother said the slices had been
+cut a great while, and it was drying up. Let's not talk any more about
+it."
+
+"O, but I _shall_ talk more about it," cried Annie, still more
+irritated; "you keep hinting that I tell wrong stories and steal cake;
+yes, you do! and then you ain't willing to let me speak!"
+
+All this sounded like righteous indignation, but was only anger. Annie
+was entirely in the wrong, and knew it; therefore she lost her temper.
+
+Susy had an unusual amount of self-control at this time, merely because
+she had the truth on her side. But her dignified composure only vexed
+Annie the more.
+
+"I won't stay here to be imposed upon, and told that I'm a liar and a
+thief; so I won't! I'll go right home this very minute, and tell my
+mother just how you treat your company!"
+
+And, in spite of all Susy could say, Annie threw on her hood and cloak,
+and flounced out of the room; forgetting, in her wrath, to take off
+Susy's red scarf, which was still festooned about her head.
+
+"Well, I'm glad she's gone," said Flossy, coolly, as the door closed
+with a slam. "She's a bold thing, and my mother wouldn't like me to play
+with her, if she knew how she acts! She said 'victuals' for food, and
+that isn't _elegant_, mother says. What right had she to set up and say
+she'd be Mrs. Piper? So forward!"
+
+After all, this was the grievous part of the whole to Flossy,--that she
+had to take an inferior part in the play.
+
+"But I'm _sorry_ she's gone," said Susy, uneasily. "I don't like to have
+her go and tell that I wasn't polite."
+
+"You _was_ polite," chimed in little Prudy, from the sofa; "a great deal
+politer'n she was! I wouldn't care, if I would be you, Susy. I don't
+wish Annie was dead, but I wish she was a duck a-sailin' on the water!"
+
+The children went back to the game they had been playing before Annie
+came; but the interest was quite gone. Their quick-tempered little
+guest had been a "_kill-joy_" in spite of her name.
+
+But the afternoon was not over yet. What happened next, I will tell you
+in another chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+MORAL COURAGE.
+
+
+Annie Lovejoy had not been gone fifteen minutes, when there was a sharp
+ringing of Mrs. Parlin's doorbell, and a little boy gave Norah the red
+scarf of Susy's, and a note for Mrs. Parlin.
+
+Norah suspected they both came from Mrs. Lovejoy, and she could see that
+lady from the opposite window, looking toward the house with a very
+defiant expression.
+
+Mrs. Parlin opened the note with some surprise, for she had been
+engaged with visitors in the parlor, and did not know what had been
+going on up stairs.
+
+Whatever Mrs. Lovejoy's other accomplishments might be, she could not
+write very elegantly. The ink was hardly dry, and the words were badly
+blotted, as well as incorrectly spelled.
+
+    "Mrs. Parlin.
+
+     "Madam: If my own _doughter_ is a _theif_ and a _lier_, I beg to be
+     informed. She has no _knowlidg_ of the cake, _whitch_ was so
+     _dryed_ up, a _begar woold_ not touch it. Will Miss Susan Parlin
+     come over here, and take back her words?
+
+    "SERENA LOVEJOY."
+
+Mrs. Parlin was at a loss to understand this, for she had quite
+forgotten the fact, that the children had any cake to use at their play
+of housekeeping. She supposed that Susy must have accused Annie of
+prying into the china-closet, where the cakes and jellies were kept. She
+sent for Susy at once.
+
+"My daughter," said she, in her usual quiet tones, "did you ever have
+any reason to suppose that Annie Lovejoy went about meddling with our
+things, and peeping into the closets?"
+
+"Why, no, mother," replied Susy, much surprised; "she never saw the
+closets, that I know of. Why, mother, what do you mean?"
+
+"Never ate cake, did she, without leave?"
+
+"O, now I know what you mean, mother! Yes'm, she ate some of that
+fruit-cake you gave us to play with; and when I told her of it, she got
+angry, and said she was going right home, and would tell her mother how
+I treated my company; but I don't see how you found that out!"
+
+"Never mind yet how I found it out, my dear. I want to know if you are
+sure that Annie ate the cake?"
+
+"Yes, mother: just as certain sure as I can be! You know Dotty can't
+reach that high shelf in the nursery-closet, and I can't, without
+getting into a chair; and Prudy can't walk a step; and Flossy despises
+cake."
+
+"But," said Mrs. Parlin, smiling, "I don't see that you have proved
+Annie to be the guilty one."
+
+"Guilty? O, I don't know as she is _guilty_, mamma; but she ate the
+cake! She ate it right before my face and eyes; but I told her it was
+just as well, she was perfectly welcome, and tried to be as polite as if
+she was a grown-up lady, mother. But, O, dear, it didn't make a speck of
+difference how much I said; for the more I said, the more angry she
+grew, and I couldn't make her believe I didn't think she was a thief and
+a liar! Only think, a thief and a liar! But I never said those words at
+all, mother!"
+
+"Very well, my dear; I am sure you did not. It is a great comfort to
+me, Susy, that I can always rely on your word. You have done nothing
+wrong, and need not be unhappy; but Mrs. Lovejoy sends for you to go
+over and tell her just what you mean about the cake; are you willing to
+go?"
+
+Susy was not willing; indeed, she was very much frightened, and begged
+her mother to excuse her in some way to Mrs. Lovejoy, or, if that would
+not do, to go herself and explain the matter for her.
+
+But, as it was Susy's own affair, Mrs. Parlin wished to have as little
+to do with it as possible. Besides, she considered it a good opportunity
+to teach Susy a lesson in moral courage.
+
+Susy started very reluctantly.
+
+"I'm afraid Mrs. Lovejoy will scold real sharp," said she. "What shall I
+do? O, mother, I didn't see Annie eat _all_ the cake; I didn't watch.
+How do I know but she gave some crumbs to the cat? Can't I--can't I say,
+I _guess_ the cat ate it?"
+
+"Susy!" said Mrs. Parlin, sternly, "are you more afraid of displeasing
+Mrs. Lovejoy than you are of displeasing God? All that is required of
+you is the simple truth. Merely say to Annie's mother just what you have
+said to me; that you saw Annie eating cake several times, though there
+was no harm in it, and you did _not_ call her either a thief or a liar.
+Speak respectfully, but decidedly; and when you have said all that is
+necessary, leave her politely, and come home."
+
+Susy called up all her courage when she entered Mrs. Lovejoy's house,
+and saw that lady sitting very erect on a sofa, with a bleak face, which
+looked somehow as if a north-east wind had blown over it, and frozen it.
+
+"Well, little girl," said she, without waiting for ceremony, "so you
+call my Annie all the bad names you can think of, it seems. Is that the
+way you are brought up?"
+
+"I didn't call her names, ma'am; she ate the cake, but I was willing,"
+replied Susy, calmly and respectfully, though she trembled from head to
+foot. There was one thought which sustained Susy; she was telling the
+truth, and that was just what God wanted her to do.
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Lovejoy, "I must say you're a dignified little piece!
+Do you know you've done the same thing as to tell me I lie?"
+
+This was just the way _Annie_ had spoken; warping innocent words, and
+making them the occasion of a quarrel.
+
+Susy could think of nothing which seemed exactly right to say to Mrs.
+Lovejoy in reply; so she wisely held her peace.
+
+"Yes, miss, you've insulted my child, and, as if that were not enough,
+you come over here, deliberately, and insult _me_, in my own house!"
+
+Tears sprang to Susy's eyes, but she resolutely crushed them back.
+There was, in her childish mind, a certain sense of self-respect, which
+made her unwilling to cry in the presence of such a person as Mrs.
+Lovejoy. She felt instinctively that the woman was not a lady. Susy was
+too young to reason about the matter; but she was quite sure her own
+mother was a model of good manners; and never, never had she known her
+mother to raise her voice to such a high key, or speak such angry words!
+
+Mrs. Lovejoy said a great many things which were both severe and unjust;
+but Susy managed to keep up a respectful manner, as her mother had
+directed. Mrs. Lovejoy was disappointed. She had expected Susy would
+quail before her presence and make the most humble confessions.
+
+"I always knew," cried Mrs. Lovejoy, becoming more and more
+exasperated,--"I always knew Mrs. Parlin held her head pretty high! She
+is a proud, stuck-up woman, your mother is; she has taught you to look
+down on my little girl! O, yes, I understand the whole story! You're a
+beautiful family for neighbors!"
+
+Poor Susy was fairly bewildered.
+
+"Now you may go home as straight as you can go! But remember one thing:
+never, while we live in this city, shall my daughter Annie darken your
+doors again!"
+
+Susy walked home with downcast head and overflowing eyes. Her heart was
+very heavy, for she felt she had been disgraced for life, and could
+never be respected any more. Here was a trial so terrible that it caused
+the death of little Dandy to seem almost a trifle by comparison.
+
+It was strange, Susy thought, how people could live through such severe
+troubles as had fallen to her lot to-day. She was a little girl of quick
+and sensitive feelings, and a sharp word always wounded her more than a
+blow. How that angry woman had talked about her mother!
+
+Susy decided, upon the whole, that this was the sting--this was the "pin
+in the lash," which had hurt her more than the lash. How _dared_ Mrs.
+Lovejoy say a word about her own mother, who was certainly the best
+woman that ever lived, always excepting the good people in the Bible!
+
+By the time she entered the house, her indignation had risen like a
+blaze, and burned away all her tears. But should she tell her mother
+what Mrs. Lovejoy had said about her ownself, about her being "stuck
+up," and holding her head pretty high? Susy could not decide whether she
+ought to tell her, and risk the danger of almost breaking her heart! But
+before she had time to decide, she had poured out the whole story in a
+torrent.
+
+Strange to say, Mrs. Parlin listened with perfect calmness, and even
+said, when Susy had finished,--
+
+"Very well, my dear; now you may go and hang up your hood and cloak."
+
+"But, mother," said Susy, rushing up stairs again, quite out of breath,
+"now I've taken care of my things; but did you understand what I said,
+mother? Annie will never come into this house, never again! Her mother
+forbids it!"
+
+"That is quite fortunate for me, Susy, as it saves me the trouble of
+forbidding it myself!"
+
+"Why, mother, you wouldn't do such a thing as that! Why, mother, I never
+heard of your doing such a thing in my life!"
+
+"I should regret the necessity very much, my child; but wouldn't it be
+better, on the whole, to have a little moral courage, and put an end to
+all intercourse between the two families, than to live in a constant
+broil?"
+
+"Why, yes, mother, I suppose so."
+
+Susy was beginning to feel more composed. She saw that her mother
+understood the whole story, yet her heart was far from being broken!
+
+"What is moral courage, mother?"
+
+"The courage to do right."
+
+"Did I have moral courage when I told Mrs. Lovejoy the truth?"
+
+"Yes, dear. It was hard for you, wasn't it? If it had been easy, there
+would have been no moral courage about it."
+
+"I am glad I had moral courage!" said Susy with animation. "I knew I did
+something _right_, but I didn't know what you called it."
+
+"Now," continued Mrs. Parlin, "I have this very day been talking with a
+lady, who once lived next door to Mrs. Lovejoy; and she tells me enough
+about her to convince me that she is not a person I wish for a neighbor.
+And I have heard enough about Annie, too, to feel very sure she is not a
+safe companion for my little daughter."
+
+"But, mother," said Susy, "you are not--you don't feel 'stuck up' above
+Mrs. Lovejoy?"
+
+Mrs. Parlin smiled.
+
+"That is not a very proper expression, Susy; but I think I do not feel
+_stuck-up_ above her in the least. I am only anxious that my little
+daughter may not be injured by bad examples. I don't know what sort of a
+little girl Annie might be with proper influences, but--"
+
+"Now, mamma, I don't want to say anything improper," said Susy,
+earnestly; "but wouldn't it be the _piousest_ for me to play with Annie,
+and try to make her go to Sabbath school, and be better?"
+
+Mrs. Parlin did not answer at once. She was thinking of what she had
+said to Susy about people who are "home missionaries," and do a great
+deal of good by a beautiful example.
+
+"If you were older, dear, it would be quite different. But, instead of
+improving Annie, who is a self-willed child, I fear you would only grow
+worse yourself. She is bold, and you are rather timid. She wants to
+lead, and not to follow. I fear she will set you bad examples."
+
+"I didn't know, mamma; but I thought I was almost old enough to set my
+_own_ examples! I'm the oldest of the family."
+
+Susy said no more about becoming a home-missionary to Annie; for,
+although she could not quite see the force of her mother's reasoning,
+she believed her mother was always right.
+
+"But what does she mean by calling me _timid_? She has blamed me a great
+deal for being _bold_."
+
+Yes, bold Susy certainly was, when there was a fence to climb, a pony to
+ride, or a storm to be faced; but she was, nevertheless, a little
+faint-hearted when people laughed at her. But Susy was learning every
+day, and this time it had been a lesson in moral courage. She did not
+fully understand her mother, however, as you will see by and by.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+RUTHIE TURNER.
+
+                  "The darkest day,
+    Wait till to-morrow, will have passed away."
+
+
+The next morning, Susy woke with a faint recollection that something
+unpleasant had occurred, though she could not at first remember what it
+was.
+
+"But I didn't do anything wrong," was her second thought. "Now, after I
+say my prayers, the next thing I'll feed--O, Dandy is dead!"
+
+"See here, Susy," said Percy, coming into the dining-room, just after
+breakfast; "did you ever see this cage before?"
+
+"Now, Percy! When you know I want it out of my sight!"
+
+Then, in the next breath, "Why, Percy Eastman, if here isn't your
+beautiful mocking-bird in the cage!"
+
+"Yes, Susy; and if you'll keep him, and be good to him, you'll do me a
+great favor."
+
+It was a long while before Susy could be persuaded that this rare bird
+was to be her "ownest own." It was a wonderfully gifted little creature.
+Susy could but own that he was just as good as a canary, only a great
+deal better. "The greater included the less." He had as sweet a voice,
+and a vast deal more compass. His powers of mimicry were very amusing to
+poor little Prudy, who was never tired of hearing him mew like a kitten,
+quack like a duck, or whistle like a schoolboy.
+
+Susy was still more delighted than Prudy. It was so comforting, too, to
+know that she was doing Percy "a great favor," by accepting his
+beautiful present. She wondered in her own mind how he _could_ be tired
+of such an interesting pet, and asked her to take it, just to get rid of
+it!
+
+About this time, Mr. Parlin bought for Prudy a little armed-chair, which
+rolled about the floor on wheels. This Prudy herself could propel with
+only the outlay of a very little strength; but there were days when she
+did not care to sit in it at all. Prudy seemed to grow worse. The doctor
+was hopeful, very hopeful; but Mrs. Parlin was not.
+
+Prudy's dimpled hands had grown so thin, that you could trace the
+winding path of every blue vein quite distinctly. Her eyes were large
+and mournful, and seemed to be always asking for pity. She grew quiet
+and patient--"painfully patient," her father said. Indeed, Mr. Parlin,
+as well as his wife, feared the little sufferer was ripening for heaven.
+
+"Mamma," said she, one day, "mamma, you never snip my fingers any
+nowadays do you? When I'm just as naughty, you never snip my fingers!"
+
+Mrs. Parlin turned her face away. There were tears in her eyes, and she
+did not like to look at those little white fingers, which she was almost
+afraid would never have the natural, childish naughtiness in them any
+more.
+
+"I think sick and patient little girls don't need punishing," said she,
+after a while. "Do you remember how you used to think I snipped your
+hands to 'get the naughty out?' You thought the naughty was all in your
+little hands!"
+
+"But it wasn't, mamma," said Prudy, slowly and solemnly. "I know where
+it was: it was in my _heart_."
+
+"Who can take the naughty out of our hearts, dear? Do you ever think?"
+
+"Our Father in heaven. No one else can. _He_ knows how to snip our
+hearts, and get the naughty out. Sometimes he sends the earache and the
+toothache to Susy, and the--the--lameness to me. O, he has a great many
+ways of snipping!"
+
+Prudy was showing the angel-side of her nature now. Suffering was
+"making her perfect." She had a firm belief that God knew all about it,
+and that somehow or other it was "all right." Her mother took a great
+deal of pains to teach her this. She knew that no one can bear
+affliction with real cheerfulness who does not trust in God.
+
+But there was now and then a bright day when Prudy felt quite buoyant,
+and wanted to play. Susy left everything then, and tried to amuse her.
+If this lameness was refining little Prudy, it was also making Susy more
+patient. She could not look at her little sister's pale face, and not be
+touched with pity.
+
+One afternoon, Flossy Eastman and Ruthie Turner came to see Susy; and,
+as it was one of Prudy's best days, Mrs. Parlin said they might play in
+Prudy's sitting-room. Ruthie was what Susy called an "old-fashioned
+little girl." She lived with a widowed mother, and had no brothers and
+sisters, so that she appeared much older than she really was. She liked
+to talk with grown people upon wise subjects, as if she were at least
+twenty-five years old. Susy knew that this was not good manners, and she
+longed to say so to Ruthie.
+
+Aunt Madge was in Prudy's sitting-room when Ruthie entered. Ruthie went
+up to her and shook hands at once.
+
+"I suppose it is Susy's aunt Madge," said she. "I am delighted to see
+you, for Susy says you love little girls, and know lots of games."
+
+There was such a quiet composure in Ruth's manner, and she seemed to
+feel so perfectly at home in addressing a young lady she had never seen
+before, that Miss Parlin was quite astonished, as well as a little
+inclined to smile.
+
+Then Ruthie went on to talk about the war. Susy listened in mute
+despair, for she did not know anything about politics. Aunt Madge looked
+at Susy's face, and felt amused, for _Ruthie_ knew nothing about
+politics either: she was as ignorant as Susy. She had only heard her
+mother and other ladies talking together. Ruthie answered all the
+purpose of a parrot hung up in a cage, for she caught and echoed
+everything that was said, not having much idea what it meant.
+
+When aunt Madge heard Ruth laboring away at long sentences, with hard
+words in them, she thought of little Dotty, as she had seen her, that
+morning, trying to tug Percy's huge dog up stairs in her arms.
+
+"It is too much for her," thought aunt Madge: "the dog got the
+upper-hand of Dotty, and I think the big words are more than a match for
+Ruth."
+
+But Ruth did not seem to know it, for she persevered. She gravely asked
+aunt Madge if she approved of the "_Mancimation_ of _Proclapation_."
+Then she said she and her mamma were very much "_perplexed"_ when news
+came of the last defeat. She would have said "_surprised_" only
+_surprised_ was an every-day word, and not up to standard of elegant
+English.
+
+Ruth was not so very silly, after all. It was only when she tried to
+talk of matters too old for her that she made herself ridiculous. She
+was very quiet and industrious, and had knit several pairs of socks for
+the soldiers.
+
+As soon as Miss Parlin could disentangle herself from her conversation
+with Ruthie, she left the children to themselves.
+
+"Let's keep school," said Prudy. "I'll be teacher, if you want me to."
+
+"Very well," replied Susy, "we'll let her; won't we, girls? she is such
+a darling."
+
+"Well," said Prudy, with a look of immense satisfaction, "please go,
+Susy, and ask grandma if I may have one of those shiny, white
+handkerchiefs she wears on her neck, and a cap, and play Quaker."
+
+Grandma was very glad that Prudy felt well enough to play Quaker, and
+lent her as much "costume" as she needed, as well as a pair of
+spectacles without eyes, which the children often borrowed for their
+plays, fancying that they added to the dignity of the wearer.
+
+When Prudy was fairly equipped, she was a droll little Quakeress,
+surely, and grandma had to be called up from the kitchen to behold her
+with her own eyes. The little soft face, almost lost in the folds of the
+expansive cap, was every bit as solemn as if she had been, as aunt Madge
+said, "a hundred years old, and very old for her age."
+
+She was really a sweet little likeness of grandma Read in miniature.
+
+"And their names are alike, too," said Susy: "grandma's name is
+Prudence, and so is Prudy's."
+
+"Used to be," said Prudy, gravely.
+
+"Rosy Frances" was now lifted most carefully into her little wheeled
+chair and no queen ever held a court with more dignity than she assumed
+as she smoothed into place the folds of her grandma's snowy kerchief,
+which she wore about her neck.
+
+"What shall we do first?" said Flossy and Susy.
+
+"Thee? thee?" Prudy considered "thee" the most important word of all.
+"Why, _thee_ may behave; I mean, behave _thyselves_."
+
+The new teacher had not collected her ideas yet.
+
+"Let's get our books together," said Susy, "and then we'll all sit on
+the sofa and study."
+
+"Me, me," chimed in Dotty Dimple, dropping the little carriage in which
+she was wheeling her kitty; "me, too!"
+
+"Well, if you must, you must; snuggle in here between Flossy and me,"
+said Susy, who was determined that to-day everything should go on
+pleasantly.
+
+"Sixteenth class in joggerphy," said Miss Rosy Frances, peeping severely
+over her spectacles. "Be spry quick!"
+
+The three pupils stood up in a row, holding their books close to their
+faces.
+
+"Thee may hold out your hands now, and I shall ferule thee--the whole
+school," was the stern remark of the young teacher, as she took off her
+spectacles to wipe the holes.
+
+"Why, we haven't been doing anything," said Ruthie, affecting to cry.
+
+"No, I know it; but thee'd _ought_ to have been doing something; thee'd
+ought to have studied thy lessons."
+
+"But, teacher, we didn't have time," pleaded Flossy; "you called us out
+so quick! Won't you forgive us!"
+
+"Yes, I will," said Rosy Frances, gently; "I will, if thee'll speak up
+_'xtremely_ loud, and fix _thine_ eyes on thy teacher."
+
+The pupils replied, "Yes, ma'am," at the top of their voices.
+
+"Now," said Rosy Frances, appearing to read from the book, "where is the
+Isthmus of _Susy?_"
+
+The scholars all laughed, and answered at random. They did not know that
+their teacher was trying to say the "Isthmus of Suez."
+
+The next question took them by surprise:--
+
+"Is there any man in the moon?"
+
+"What a queer idea, Rosy," said Susy; "what made you ask that?"
+
+"'Cause I wanted to know," replied the Quaker damsel. "They said he
+came down when the other man was eatin' porridge. I should think, if he
+went back up there, and didn't have any wife and children, he'd be real
+lonesome!"
+
+This idea of Prudy's set the whole school to romancing, although it was
+in the midst of a recitation. Flossy said if there was a man in the
+moon, he must be a giant, or he never could get round over the
+mountains, which she had heard were very steep.
+
+Ruthie asked if there was anything said about his wife! Susy, who had
+read considerable poetry was sure she had heard something of a woman up
+there, named "Cynthia;" but she supposed it was all "moonshine," or
+"made up," as she expressed it. She said she meant to ask her aunt
+Madge to write a fairy story about it.
+
+Here their progress in useful knowledge was cut short by the
+disappearance of Dotty. Looking out of the window, they saw the little
+rogue driving ducks with a broomstick. These ducks had a home not far
+from Mrs. Parlin's, and if Dotty Dimple had one temptation stronger than
+all others, it was the sight of those waddling fowls, with their velvet
+heads, beads of eyes, and spotted feathers. When she saw them "marshin'
+along," she was instantly seized with a desire either to head the
+company or to march in the rear, and set them to quacking. She was
+bareheaded, and Susy ran down stairs to bring her into the house; and
+that was an end of the school for that day. Dotty Dimple was something
+like the kettle of molasses which Norah was boiling, very sweet, but
+very apt to _boil over_: she needed watching.
+
+When Norah's candy was brought up stairs, the little girls pronounced it
+excellent.
+
+"O, dear," said Flossy, "I wish our girl was half as good as Norah! I
+don't see why Electa and Norah ain't more alike when they are own
+sisters!"
+
+"What dreadful girls your mother always has!" said Susy; "it's too bad?"
+
+"I know of a girl," said Prudy, "one you'd like ever'n, ever so much,
+Flossy; only you can't have her."
+
+"Why not?" said Flossy; "my mother would go hundreds of leagues to get a
+good girl. Why can't she have her?"
+
+"O, 'cause, she's _dead!_ It's Norah's cousin over to Ireland."
+
+They next played the little game of guessing "something in this room,"
+that begins with a certain letter. Ruthie puzzled them a long while on
+the initial S. At last she said she meant "scrutau" (escritoire or
+scrutoire), pointing towards the article with her finger.
+
+"Why, that's a _writing-desk_," said Susy. "I don't see where you learn
+so many big worns, Ruthie."
+
+"O, I take notice, and remember them," replied Ruthie, looking quite
+pleased. She thought Susy was praising her.
+
+"Now let _me_ tell some letters," said Prudy.
+
+"L.R. She lives at your house, Flossy."
+
+Nobody could guess.
+
+"Why, I should think _that_ was easy enough," said Prudy: "it's that
+girl that lives there; she takes off the covers of your stove with a
+clothes-pin: it's 'Lecta Rosbornd.'"
+
+The little girls explained to Prudy that the true initials of Electa
+Osborne would be E.O., instead of L.R. But Prudy did not know much about
+spelling. She _had_ known most of her letters; but it was some time ago,
+and they had nearly all slipped out of her head.
+
+She said, often, she wished she could "only, only read;" and Susy
+offered to teach her, but Mrs. Parlin said it would never do till Prudy
+felt stronger.
+
+I will tell you now why I think Susy did not understand her mother when
+she said Annie was not a suitable playmate. In the evening, after Ruthie
+and Flossy were gone, Susy said to her mother,--
+
+"I feel real cross with Ruthie, mamma: I think she puts herself forward.
+She goes into a room, and no matter how old the people are that are
+talking, she speaks up, and says, 'O, yes, I know all about it.' I never
+saw such an old-fashioned little girl."
+
+"Very well," said Mrs. Parlin; "if _she_ is rude, take care that the
+same fault does not appear in yourself, Susy."
+
+"But, mother," said Susy, suddenly veering about and speaking in Ruth's
+favor, "I don't know but it's proper to do as Ruthy does. If you know
+something, and other people don't, ain't it right to speak up and say
+it?"
+
+"It is never right for little girls to _monopolize_ conversation, Susy;
+that is, to take the lead in it, and so prevent older people from
+talking. Neither is it proper to pretend to know more than we do, and
+talk of things beyond our knowledge."
+
+"I knew you would say so, mother. I just asked to hear what you would
+say. I know Ruthie is ill-mannered: do you think I ought to play with
+her any more?"
+
+Mrs. Parlin looked at Susy in surprise.
+
+"Why, you know, mother, you wouldn't let me play with Annie Lovejoy. You
+said, 'evil communications corrupted good manners.'"
+
+"But can't you see any difference in the cases, Susy? What a muddy
+little head you must wear on your shoulders!"
+
+"Not much of any," said Susy, trying to think; "they're both _bold_;
+that's what you don't like."
+
+"Anything else, Susy?"
+
+"O, yes, mother; Ruthie's good, and Annie isn't. It was queer for me to
+forget that!"
+
+"I should think it was, Susy, since it is the only thing of much
+importance, after all. Now, it seems to me you are very ready to cast
+off your friends when their manners offend you. How would you like it to
+be treated in the same way? Suppose Mrs. Turner and Ruthie should be
+talking together this very minute. Ruthie says, 'That Susy Parlin keeps
+her drawers in a perfect tumble; she isn't orderly a bit. Susy Parlin
+never knit a stitch for the soldiers in her life. Mother, mayn't I stop
+playing with Susy Parlin?'"
+
+Susy laughed, and looked a little ashamed.
+
+"Well, mother," said she, twisting the corner of her handkerchief, "I
+guess I can't say anything about Ruthie Turner; she's a great deal
+better girl than I am, any way."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+SUSY'S BIRTHDAY.
+
+
+Days and weeks passed. The snowflakes, which had fallen from time to
+time, and kept themselves busy making a patchwork quilt for mother
+Earth, now melted away, and the white quilt was torn into shreds. The
+bare ground was all there was to be seen, except now and then a dot of
+the white coverlet. It was Spring, and everything began to wake up. The
+sun wasn't half so sleepy, and didn't walk off over the western hills in
+the middle of the afternoon to take a nap.
+
+The sleighing was gone long ago. The roads were dismal swamps. "Wings"
+would have a rest till "settled going." Susy's skates were hung up in a
+green baize bag, to dream away the summer.
+
+The mocking-bird performed his daily duties of entertaining the family,
+besides learning a great many new songs. Susy said she tried not to set
+her heart on that bird.
+
+"I'll not give him a name," she added, "for then he'll be sure to die!
+My first canary was Bertie, and I named the others Berties, as fast as
+they died off. The last one was so yellow that I couldn't help calling
+him Dandelion; but I wish I hadn't, for then, perhaps, he'd have lived."
+
+Susy had caught some whimsical notions about "signs and wonders." It is
+strange how some intelligent children will believe in superstitious
+stories! But as soon as Susy's parents discovered that her young head
+had been stored with such worse than foolish ideas, they were not slow
+to teach her better.
+
+She had a great fright, about this time, concerning Freddy Jackson. He
+was one of the few children who were allowed to play in "Prudy's
+sitting-room." He did not distract the tired nerves of "Rosy Frances,"
+as her cousin Percy and other boys did, by sudden shouts and loud
+laughing. Prudy had a vague feeling that he was one of the little ones
+that God thought best to punish by "snipping his heart." She knew what
+it was to have _her_ heart snipped, and had a sympathy with little
+Freddy.
+
+Susy loved Freddy, too. Perhaps Percy was right, when he said that Susy
+loved everything that was dumb; and I am not sure but her tender heart
+would have warmed to him all the more if he had been stone-blind, as
+well as deaf.
+
+Freddy had a drunken father, and a sad home; but, for all that, he was
+not entirely miserable. It is only the wicked who are miserable. The
+kind Father in heaven has so planned it that there is something pleasant
+in everybody's life.
+
+Freddy had no more idea what _sound_ is than we have of the angels in
+heaven; but he could see, and there is so much to be seen! Here is a
+great, round world, full of beauty and wonder. It stands ready to be
+looked at. Freddy's ears must be forever shut out from pleasant sound;
+but his bright eyes were wide open, seeing all that was made to be
+seen.
+
+He loved to go to Mrs. Parlin's, for there he was sure to be greeted
+pleasantly; and he understood the language of smiles as well as anybody.
+
+When grandma Read saw him coming she would say,--
+
+"Now, Susan, thee'd better lay aside thy book, for most likely the poor
+little fellow will want to _talk_."
+
+And Susy did lay aside her book. She had learned so many lessons this
+winter in self-denial!
+
+These "silent talks" were quite droll. Little Dotty almost understood
+something about them; that is, when they used the signs: the alphabet
+was more than she could manage. When Freddy wanted to talk about Dotty,
+he made a sign for a dimple in each cheek. He smoothed his hair when he
+meant Susy, and made a waving motion over his head for Prudy, whose hair
+was full of ripples.
+
+Prudy said she had wrinkled hair, and she knew it; but the wrinkles
+"wouldn't come out."
+
+Grandma Read sat one evening by the coal-grate, holding a letter in her
+hand, and looking into the glowing fire with a thoughtful expression.
+Susy came and sat near her, resting one arm on her grandma's lap, and
+trying in various ways to attract her attention.
+
+"Why, grandma," said she, "I've spoken to you three times; but I can't
+get you to answer or look at me."
+
+"What does thee want, my dear? I will try to attend to thee."
+
+"O, grandma, there are ever so many things I want to say, now mother is
+out of the room, and father hasn't got home. I must tell somebody, or my
+heart will break; and you know, grandma dear, I can talk to you so
+easy."
+
+"Can thee? Then go on, Susy; what would thee like to say?"
+
+"O, two or three things. Have you noticed, grandma, that I've been just
+as sober as can be?"
+
+"For how long, Susan?"
+
+"O, all day; I've felt as if I couldn't but just live!"
+
+Grandma Read did not smile at this. She knew very well that such a child
+as Susy is capable of intense suffering.
+
+"Well, Susan, is it about thy sister Prudence?"
+
+"O, no, grandma! she's getting; better; isn't she?"
+
+"Are thy lessons at school too hard for thee, Susan?"
+
+Mrs. Read saw that Susy was very reluctant about opening her heart,
+although she had said she could talk to her grandmother "so easy."
+
+"No, indeed, grandma; my lessons are not too hard. I'm a real good
+scholar--one of the best in school for my age."
+
+This was a fact. Some people would have chidden Susy for it; but Mrs.
+Read reflected that the child was only telling the simple truth, and had
+no idea of boasting. She was not a little girl who would intrude such
+remarks about herself upon strangers. But when she and her grandma were
+talking together confidentially, she thought it made all the difference
+in the world; as indeed it did.
+
+"I have a great deal to trouble me," said Susy, and the "evening-blue"
+of her eyes clouded over, till there were signs of a shower. "I thought
+my pony would make me happy as long as I lived; but it hasn't. One thing
+that I feel bad about is--well, it's turning over a new leaf. When New
+Year's comes, I'm going to do it, and don't; so I wait till my birthday,
+and then I don't. It seems as if I'd tried about a thousand New Years
+and birthdays to turn over that leaf."
+
+Grandma smiled, but did not interrupt Susy.
+
+"I think I should be real good," continued the child, "if it wasn't such
+hard work. I can't be orderly, grandma--not much; and then Dotty upsets
+everything. Sometimes I have to hold my breath to keep patient.
+
+"Well, grandma, my birthday comes to-morrow, the 8th of April. I like
+it well enough; only there's one reason why I don't like it at all, and
+that is a Bible reason. It's so dreadful that I can't bear to say it to
+you," said Susy, shuddering, and lowering her voice to a whisper; "I
+don't want to grow up, for I shall have to marry Freddy Jackson."
+
+Grandma tried to look serious.
+
+"Who put such a foolish idea into thy head, child?"
+
+"Cousin Percy told me last night," answered Susy, solemnly. "How can you
+laugh when it's all in the Bible, grandma? I never told anybody before.
+Wait; I'll show you the verse. I've put a mark at the place."
+
+Susy brought her Bible to her grandmother, and, opening it at the
+thirty-first chapter of Proverbs, pointed, with a trembling finger, to
+the eighth verse, which Mrs. Read read aloud,--
+
+"Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed
+to destruction."
+
+"Now Percy says that's a sure sign! I told him, O, dear! Freddy ought to
+marry a dumb woman; that would be _properest_; but Percy says
+no--anything has got to 'come to pass' when it's _foreordinationed_!"
+
+"And could thee really believe such foolishness, my sensible little
+Susan? Does thee suppose the good Lord ever meant that we should read
+his Bible as if it were a wicked dream-book?"
+
+"Then you don't think I shall have to marry Freddy Jackson," cried Susy,
+immensely relieved. "I'm so glad I told you! I felt so sober all day,
+only nobody noticed it, and I was ashamed to tell!"
+
+"It is a good thing for thee to tell thy little troubles to thy older
+friends, Susan: thee'll almost always find it so," said grandma Read,
+stroking Susy's hair.
+
+"Now, my child, I have a piece of news for thee, if thee is ready to
+hear it: thy cousin, Grace Clifford, has a little sister."
+
+"A baby sister? A real sister? Does mother know it?"
+
+"Yes, thy mother knows it."
+
+"But how _could_ you keep it to yourself so long?"
+
+"Thee thinks good news is hard to keep, does thee? Well, thee shall be
+the first to tell thy father when he comes home."
+
+Susy heard steps on the door-stone, and rushed out, with the joyful
+story on her lips. It proved to be not her father, but callers, who were
+just ringing the bell; and they heard Susy's exclamation,--
+
+"O, have you heard? Grace has a new sister, a baby sister, as true as
+you live!" with the most provoking coolness.
+
+But when Mr. Parlin came, he was sufficiently interested in the news to
+satisfy even Susy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+FAREWELL.
+
+
+Prudy was really getting better. Mrs. Parlin said she should trust a
+physician more next time. The doctor declared that all the severe pain
+Prudy had suffered was really necessary.
+
+"Believe me, my dear madam," said he, "when the poor child has
+complained most, she has in fact been making most progress towards
+health. When the sinews are 'knitting together,' as we call it, then the
+agony is greatest."
+
+This was very comforting to Mrs. Parlin, who thought she would not be
+discouraged so easily again; she would always believe that it is
+"darkest just before day."
+
+There was really everything to hope for Prudy. The doctor thought that
+by the end of three months she would walk as well as ever. He said she
+might make the effort now, every day, to bear her weight on her feet.
+She tried this experiment first with her father and mother on each side
+to support her; but it was not many days before she could stand firmly
+on her right foot, and bear a little weight on her left one, which did
+not now, as formerly, drag, or, as she had said, "_more_ than touch the
+floor." By and by she began to scramble about on the carpet on all
+fours, partly creeping, partly pushing herself along.
+
+It was surprising how much pleasure Prudy took in going back to these
+ways of babyhood.
+
+Faint blush roses began to bloom in her cheeks as soon as she could take
+a little exercise and go out of doors. Her father bought a little
+carriage just suitable for the pony, and in this she rode every morning,
+her mother or Percy driving; for Mrs. Parlin thought it hardly safe to
+trust Susy with such a precious encumbrance as this dear little sister.
+
+She had been willing that Susy should manage Wings in a sleigh, but in a
+carriage the case was quite different; for, though in a sleigh there
+might be even more danger of overturning, there was not as much danger
+of getting hurt. Indeed, Susy's sleigh had tipped over once or twice in
+turning too sharp a corner, and Susy had fallen out, but had instantly
+jumped up again, laughing.
+
+She would have driven in her new carriage to Yarmouth and back again, or
+perhaps to Bath, if she had been permitted. She was a reckless little
+horsewoman, afraid of nothing, and for that very reason could not be
+trusted alone.
+
+But there was no difficulty in finding companions. Percy pretended to
+study book-keeping, but was always ready for a ride. Flossy was not
+steady enough to be trusted with the reins, but Ruth Turner was as
+careful a driver as need be; though Susy laughed because she held the
+reins in both hands, and looked so terrified.
+
+She said it did no good to talk with Ruth when she was driving; she
+never heard a word, for she was always watching to see if a carriage
+was coming, and talking to herself, to make sure she remembered which
+was her right hand, so she could "turn to the right, as the law
+directs."
+
+Prudy enjoyed the out-of-doors world once more, and felt like a bird let
+out of a cage. And so did Susy, for she thought she had had a dull
+season of it, and fully agreed with Prudy, who spoke of it as the "slow
+winter."
+
+But now it was the quick spring, the live spring. The brooks began to
+gossip; the birds poured out their hearts in song, and the dumb trees
+expressed their joy in leaves.
+
+    "The bobolink, on the mullein-stalk,
+    Would rattle away like a sweet girl's talk."
+
+The frogs took severe colds, but gave concerts a little way out of the
+city every evening. The little flowers peeped up from their beds, as
+Norah said, "like babies asking to be took;" and Susy took them;
+whenever she could find them, you may be sure, and looked joyfully into
+their faces. She could almost say,--
+
+    "And 'tis my faith that every flower
+      Enjoys the air it breathes."
+
+She said, "I don't suppose they know much, but _perhaps_ they know
+enough to have a good time: who knows?"
+
+Susy took long walks to Westbrook, and farther, coming home tired out,
+but loaded with precious flowers. There were plenty of friends to give
+them to her from their early gardens: broad-faced crocuses, jonquils,
+and lilies of the valley, and by and by lilacs, with "purple spikes."
+
+She gathered snowdrops, "the first pale blossoms of the unripened
+year," and May-flowers, pink and white, like sea-shells, or like
+"cream-candy," as Prudy said. These soft little blossoms blushed so
+sweetly on the same leaf with such old experienced leaves! Susy said,
+"it made her think of little bits of children who hadn't any mother, and
+lived with their grandparents."
+
+Dotty was almost crazy with delight when she had a "new pair o' boots,
+and a pair o' shaker," and was allowed to toddle about on the pavement
+in the sunshine. She had a green twig or a switch to flourish, and could
+now cry, "Hullelo!" to those waddling ducks, and hear them reply,
+"Quack! quack!" without having such a trembling fear that some stern
+Norah, or firm mamma, would rush out bareheaded, and drag her into the
+house, like a little culprit.
+
+It was good times for Dotty Dimple, and good times for the whole family.
+Spring had come, and Prudy was getting well. There was a great deal to
+thank God for!
+
+It is an evening in the last of May. A bit of a moon, called "the new
+moon," is peeping in at the window. It shines over Susy's right
+shoulder, she says. Susy is reading, Prudy is walking slowly across the
+floor, and Dotty Dimple is whispering to her kitty, telling her to go
+down cellar, and catch the naughty rats while they are asleep. When
+kitty winks, Dotty thinks it the same as if she said,--
+
+"I hear you, little Miss Dotty: I'm going."
+
+I think perhaps this is a good time to bid the three little girls
+good-by, or, as dear grandma Read would say, "Farewell!"
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE PRUDY'S SISTER SUSY***
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