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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Twin Cousins, 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: The Twin Cousins
+
+
+Author: Sophie May
+
+
+
+Release Date: November 18, 2007  [eBook #23540]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TWIN COUSINS***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
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+      See 23540-h.htm or 23540-h.zip:
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+
+
+[Illustration: DISAGREEABLE PATTY FOLLOWS THE TWINS. Page 180.]
+
+[Illustration: The Twin Cousins]
+
+Flaxie Frizzle Stories
+
+THE TWIN COUSINS
+
+by
+
+SOPHIE MAY
+
+Author of Little Prudy Stories, Dotty Dimple Stories,
+Little Prudy's Flyaway Stories Etc.
+
+Illustrated
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Boston 1893
+Lee and Shepard Publishers
+10 Milk Street Next "The Old South Meeting House"
+
+Copyright,
+1880.
+by Lee and Shepard.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+   Chapter                                   Page
+
+         I. Flaxie Frizzle's Party              9
+        II. Staying out to Tea                 25
+       III. The Lonesome Visit                 40
+        IV. Lucy's Mittens                     59
+         V. That Homely Miss Pike              75
+        VI. The House that Jack built          91
+       VII. Hilltop again                     109
+      VIII. A Crazy Christmas                 124
+        IX. Milly visiting                    139
+         X. Blackdrop                         155
+        XI. Flaxie a Comfort                  167
+       XII. Brave Preston Gray                178
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TWIN COUSINS.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+FLAXIE FRIZZLE'S PARTY.
+
+
+"O Auntie Prim, _may_ I have a party? I'll give you a _thou_-sand kisses
+if you'll lemme have a party!"
+
+Auntie Prim looked as if one kiss would be more than she could bear. She
+was standing by the pantry window that opened upon the garden, rolling
+out pie-crust, and didn't like to be disturbed. She was a very good
+woman, but she _never_ liked to be disturbed.
+
+"Party?" said she, gazing sternly at Flaxie Frizzle and her little
+cousin Milly. "Saturday morning, and your mother gone, too! I should
+think this was a queer time for a party!"
+
+Flaxie rolled her apron over at the corners and chewed it.
+
+"Well, 'cause it's my birthday, and my mamma said--"
+
+"Yes, and her grammy said--" Little Milly got as far as this and then
+stopped. Flaxie was her darling "twin cousin," and she wanted to help
+her; but that tall lady with the rolling-pin was just dreadful.
+
+"Oh, now I remember," said Mrs. Prim, paring off the dough around the
+edge of a pie. "Your mother did say, if you were a good girl all the
+week, you might have a few children here to tea. But _have_ you been a
+good girl, Mary Gray?" added she, with a look through her spectacles
+that pierced her little niece to the soul.
+
+"Yes um," replied Flaxie, gazing down at her boots. "Only once, you
+know, you had to set me on the shelf behind the stove."
+
+"Very true. So you see you _were_ naughty. What did you do?"
+
+"Meddled," said Flaxie in a low voice, with another nibble at her apron.
+
+Mrs. Prim smiled a very small smile, but it was behind her lips, where
+the children could not see it.
+
+"Well, Mary, perhaps you have been as good as could reasonably be
+expected under the circumstances."
+
+Poor little Milly couldn't help feeling as if _she_ were the
+"circumstances," or why did those spectacles shine straight upon her?
+
+"And I suppose you must have the party."
+
+Flaxie gave a scream of delight, and caught Mrs. Prim round the waist.
+
+"O you darling, darling auntie!"
+
+"There, there; don't smother me, or I can't cook your supper. What do
+you want?"
+
+"Oh, _may_ I have what I want? _Pinnuts_ and peaches, and candy and
+preserves, and jelly and choclids, and oranges and _everything_?"
+
+"No, you absurd child, not everything; but whatever is most suitable and
+proper,--if you will only run away out of my sight, you and Milly. But
+go first and tell your grandmother to send Dora to me."
+
+"Grammy's quilting a quilt, and Dodo's quilting a quilt; but I'll tell
+'em to come."
+
+"No, no; I only want Dora."
+
+"That child can't be trusted to do the smallest errand correctly,"
+thought Auntie Prim, taking down the cook-book, with a sigh, and looking
+at the recipes for cake. Her husband was in Canada, and she had kindly
+offered to spend a month or so at Dr. Gray's while his wife went away
+for her health. This would have been very pleasant, only Julia went with
+her mother, and little Flaxie was always troublesome without Julia.
+
+Mrs. Prim had said that morning to Dora that she would go into the
+pantry and make three apple-pies, for she knew how to make them better
+than Dora; and then she must finish writing her lecture on Ancient
+History. And now Flaxie Frizzle had come and asked for a party! Mrs.
+Prim was called a "superior woman," and knew more than almost anybody
+else in town except the minister; but she did think children very
+trying, and their parties "perfectly absurd." Besides, Flaxie wasn't her
+own niece.
+
+"O auntie, auntie!" cried the little tease, coming back again, with
+Milly at her heels, "we've got to go and invite 'em!"
+
+"Certainly; and why don't you go, then?"
+
+"Don' know how; please tell us how," said Flaxie, clutching Mrs. Prim by
+the skirt, and wishing there was a hinge in that lady somewhere, so she
+could bend.
+
+"Don't know how? Just go to the houses, child, and ask the little girls'
+mothers."
+
+"O auntie, we don't want the little girls' mothers!"
+
+"No, no; ask the mothers to let their little daughters come here to tea;
+that's what I mean."
+
+Then Auntie Prim made out a list of ten little girls, for the table
+would seat twelve, and she wanted the party large enough to please
+Flaxie. She thought she would make some of her own delicious tarts and a
+nice sponge roll, and Dora might mix White Mountain cake and boil a
+tongue. Mrs. Prim meant to be very kind, though she was sure, if she had
+had any little girls of her own, they would never have had any parties!
+
+"Now, be sure to say I want the children to come early--at half-past
+two."
+
+"Yes um!" And the little messengers danced out of the house.
+
+"Flaxie," said Mrs. Prim, rapping on the pantry window with the
+egg-beater, "are you sure you heard what I said?"
+
+"Yes um."
+
+"What time did I set?"
+
+"Ha' pas' two."
+
+"Very well.--And I shall be thankful when it is over," sighed the poor
+lady, taking down the spice-box.
+
+But wasn't it gay times for the twin cousins, who had all the fun and
+none of the worry! I wish I were a little girl, just going to have a
+party, don't you? They didn't stop to look at the beautiful trees, with
+their bright October leaves, or at the sky, with its soft white clouds;
+they hopped along, their arms around each other's waist, keeping time to
+the happy thoughts in their hearts.
+
+"Oh, Milly, aren't you glad you came to my house visiting?"
+
+Milly was very glad to-day; she had not been glad yesterday, when they
+had the trouble about their dolls.
+
+The first house was General Townsend's; and when Mrs. Townsend came to
+the door, Milly hid behind a lilac-bush; but Flaxie, who was never
+afraid of anybody, looked up with her laughing blue eyes, and said,
+without stopping for 'How d'ye do?'--
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Townsend, I'm goin' to have a party six years old, and mayn't
+Fanny come? Auntie Prim says for the children to come early,--at ha'
+pas' two,--and she'll be _thankful_ when it's over."
+
+Mrs. Townsend could not possibly help smiling at this remarkable speech,
+but she replied that Fanny might go.
+
+"Now, Flaxie Frizzle," said Mabel, as the door closed, "you oughtn't to
+say your auntie'll be 'thankful'; it isn't polite."
+
+"Yes it is. I guess Auntie Prim knows; she knows everything. But 'fore
+I'd run and hide!" retorted Flaxie.
+
+There wasn't any lilac-bush at the next house, and Milly had to stand on
+the door-stone and hide under her hat.
+
+It was surprising how fast Flaxie said it over: "I'm goin' to have a
+party six years old," &c., without skipping a word; and though Milly had
+her doubts about the politeness of Mrs. Prim's being so "thankful," she
+did think Flaxie Frizzle was a wonderful girl; and indeed Flaxie thought
+so too.
+
+"What, back so soon?" said Auntie Prim, who had scarcely missed the
+children before they appeared again at the pantry-door, rosy with
+running.
+
+"Yes um; I've invited 'em all up."
+
+Flaxie said "I" with quite an air.
+
+"Possible? I wonder if you did it correctly. What did you say?"
+
+"I said," replied Miss Frizzle, proud to have made no mistakes this
+time, "I said, 'I'm goin' to have a party six years old, and Auntie Prim
+says for the children to come early,--at ha' pas' two,--and she'll be
+_thankful_ when it's over.'"
+
+"You didn't!" cried auntie, the color flying into her pale face, and her
+spectacles shining like diamonds.
+
+"Well, I never!" said Dora, and sat right down by the oven-door to
+laugh. "But they do say, children and fools always speak the truth!"
+
+Mrs. Prim resolved to keep calm, but this was very trying.
+
+"Mary Gray," said she, pressing her hands together quite sticky with
+dough, "I didn't mean you to repeat the last part of that speech; I
+didn't even know you had heard it. It does seem to me you are old enough
+to have a _little_ sense of propriety. What can those ladies think of
+me? What can they think of _you_? I shouldn't blame them if they didn't
+let their children come, after such an invitation as that!"
+
+Flaxie hung her head. What had _she_ done so very wrong? She could never
+bear to be blamed; and I must relate that she was rude enough to slip
+out of the house while her aunt was still speaking, followed by Milly.
+
+"She thinks children are goosies, and hates to hear 'em talk," said she,
+the tears dripping over her apron.
+
+"I'm drefful 'shamed; aren't you?" said little Milly.
+
+"Yes, I 'spect we've done something _orful_," returned Flaxie.
+
+You will observe that she said "we" this time, quite willing Milly
+should have a full share of the blame.
+
+"I can't stan' it, Milly Allen, folks laughing at us so! Did you see
+Dodo laughing and laughing and laughing?"
+
+"Yes, I did. She shook all over, and said children were fools."
+
+"My mamma wouldn't 'low her to say that," sobbed Flaxie. "And nobody
+comin' to our party, either. Auntie Prim thinks they won't any of 'em
+come."
+
+"Oh, yes, they will! their mammas said they might."
+
+"Hope they won't!" said Flaxie, stamping her foot so hard that a
+"hop-toad" thought there was an earthquake, and hurried out of the way.
+"Hope they won't, any of 'em! I'm not agoin' to go to it myself,--so
+there!"
+
+Milly peeped up in surprise.
+
+"I hate it, Milly Allen; let's run away!"
+
+"Why, Flaxie Frizzle!" was all Mabel could say, for the idea of a little
+girl's running away from her own party was truly amazing.
+
+"You think I don't dare," said Flaxie; "but I do dare! I'm agoin' right
+off in the woods, and stay there! And I _thought_ you's agoin' with me.
+You're my twin cousin, and it's your party as much as 'tis mine."
+
+Milly knew this was very wrong, and ought to have said so to Flaxie. If
+they had already done one foolish thing, it would make it no better to
+do another foolish thing, as _you_ can see in a moment. But Milly wanted
+to please Flaxie, so she said stoutly:
+
+"Oh, yes, I'm going!"
+
+Silly children! Flaxie pretended she was running away from her party,
+but she didn't mean to _stay_ away. Oh, no! She wouldn't have missed the
+party for anything. Even now she was beginning to wonder what Dora was
+baking.
+
+The woods were deep and high and dark. Before they had gone quarter of a
+mile Flaxie wanted to turn back, but waited for Milly to speak first.
+
+"Oh dear!" cried Milly, trembling, for she had never been in such a
+place before. "You s'pose it's night, Flaxie? Has the sun set?"
+
+"No, it hasn't. But we ought to brought a imbreller; it's goin' to
+rain," replied Flaxie, holding out her hand to catch a drop. "I didn't
+spect you'd be so 'fraid, Milly Allen; but if you _are_ afraid, we'll go
+right home this minute."
+
+They turned, but the wrong way, and instead of going home, only struck
+deeper into the woods. They didn't see the sky at all, and all the light
+seemed to come from the gay leaves and the gold of Flaxie's hair; for I
+am sorry to say she had lost her hat.
+
+"Ha' pas' two; ha' pas' two," said she dreamily. "Let's go home to the
+party."
+
+"Thought you hated the old party," said Milly, falling over a dead tree,
+and crying.
+
+"Well, I was only in fun. Don't you know when I'm in fun, you goosie?"
+
+You see they were both getting cross as well as hungry, for dinner-time
+was past long ago. In another hour they were half-starved.
+
+"I spect we're lost," said Flaxie, calmly. "Going to rain, too; sun
+setting. Pretty near midnight--"
+
+Upon this Milly began to scream.
+
+"Well, then, what made you hide behind the lilac-bush, and not invite
+the folks, Milly Allen?" exclaimed Flaxie, feeling obliged to scold
+_somebody_; and then she too began to scream, though nobody heard, for
+they were three or four miles from the village.
+
+They wound in and out, in and out, among the trees; but it was like a
+little bird putting his head through the bars of his cage. It did no
+good at all; they couldn't get out.
+
+Thoroughly tired at last and discouraged, the poor babes in the wood lay
+down and fell asleep in each other's arms. I know it was a pretty
+sight,--the black head and the golden head so close together, and the
+beautiful bright trees bending over to say, "Good night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+STAYING OUT TO TEA.
+
+
+But before the robins had had time to cover them with leaves, or even to
+think of it, there was a shout from Preston Gray.
+
+"Hurrah, boys, I've found 'em!"
+
+He and half a dozen other lads had been out all the afternoon in search
+of the little wanderers, and here it was five o'clock. They carried them
+home on their backs, taking turns, and Flaxie looked up only once to ask
+sleepily:
+
+"Is it ha' pas' two?"
+
+"Won't she catch it, though?" said Bert Abbott, who was in great awe of
+Mrs. Prim.
+
+But Mrs. Prim was a just woman, and she thought poor little Flaxie's
+punishment had been hard enough. Her party was over long ago; the guests
+hadn't stayed to supper, and had gone home saying they "didn't think
+Flaxie was very polite," and they "wouldn't go to her parties any more."
+And here she was, tired and wretched, and scratched all over by
+blackberry bushes. No, Auntie Prim didn't even scold. She merely looked
+through her spectacles at grandma, and said, "Children are so absurd!"
+
+And grandma replied sorrowfully:
+
+"Well, they have to suffer for their own naughtiness, and that does
+grieve me!"
+
+"They ought to suffer," said Mrs. Prim; "it is the only way they can
+learn not to behave so again."
+
+Dear little Milly heard this, and remembered it, and repeated it to her
+mother the next week when she went home to Hilltop. She thought _she_
+had suffered so much that she should never be "absurd" again, even to
+please her beloved Flaxie Frizzle.
+
+After she had gone away, Flaxie wandered drearily about the house,
+saying, "Oh dear! what shall I do without my twin cousin?"
+
+You would have thought she had enough left to make her happy. Dr. Gray's
+house stood on a hill facing the river, with a green yard in front, and
+a stable and two gardens behind it. It was all beautiful, and Flaxie
+enjoyed the stable as well as the fruit and flower gardens, for she was
+very fond of the horses, Whiz and Hiawatha, and the cows and the hens.
+You needn't tell anybody, but I do pity children who never hunted for
+hens' nests: it is such capital fun! And then there was the handsome
+dog, Tantra-Bogus, one of Flaxie's best friends.
+
+In the house she had her "splendid Dr. Papa;" her dear brother Preston,
+who could whittle all sorts of things with a penknife; her darling
+Grandma Gray, an old lady with white hair, white cap, and white ribbons;
+and last, but not least, she had the "beautifullest baby" Philip, who
+could stand on his head "just as cunning," and "hug grizzly"--that is,
+like a grizzly bear. Flaxie loved him with her whole heart, but there
+were moments when she felt half ashamed of him, for he was eighteen
+months old, and hadn't a sign of a tooth; wasn't it awful?
+
+"Perhaps he'll cut one before your mother and Julia come home; I keep
+hoping so," said grandma, feeling in baby's mouth with her finger, which
+baby bit hard, like an old rogue as he was.
+
+"Will they give him some gold teeth, if his don't ever cut?" asked
+Flaxie anxiously. "Preston says they will."
+
+"No," replied Mrs. Prim, who sat by the window, with her little ebony
+work-box on a stand beside her. "Your brother Preston says very absurd
+things merely in sport; but you must not be so foolish as to believe
+them."
+
+Down dropped Flaxie's head in grandma's lap, her hair falling over
+grandma's black silk apron in a golden shower.
+
+Mrs. Prim looked surprised. She did not know that Flaxie really _had_
+believed in those gold teeth, and had been comforted by thinking how
+Phil would outshine everybody by-and-by! And now the poor little girl
+was crying because it was all a mistake, and because Mrs. Prim had said
+she was "foolish."
+
+"Run and let in the cat," said grandma; "don't you hear her mewing?"
+
+When Kitty Gray was let in, she came bringing a mouse, and Flaxie
+laughed to see her run right up to grandma and rub against her dress.
+
+"Good pussy, pretty pussy," said grandma, stroking the cat, who almost
+purred her heart out for joy. Not a mouse did she ever catch but she
+brought it to grandma or mamma to show it; but she never brought one to
+Mrs. Prim. I wonder why not.
+
+"Now let her out, Mary," said grandma to Flaxie. "And go ask Dora if it
+isn't almost time to make the gravy for dinner."
+
+When Flaxie skipped away, grandma said to Mrs. Prim, "The poor child is
+lonesome, with nothing to do."
+
+"She ought to do something," replied Mrs. Prim, making a knot in her
+silk. "If she were my little girl, I should send her to school, to
+occupy her mind."
+
+"Should you?" said Grandma Gray, hesitating, and patting her white
+curls. "Her mother said there were some naughty children about here,
+and she might be led into mischief at school, while Julia is away."
+
+"I'm sure she is led into mischief at home," said Mrs. Prim.
+
+"Very true. Perhaps she would be quite as safe at school. I will talk to
+her father about it," said Grandma Gray.
+
+And of course Dr. Papa said, "Just as you please;" and Flaxie was sent
+to school with her satchel and books.
+
+She came home the first day very dirty, after the dinner was cold, and
+Auntie Prim wondered if such a child ought to have any pudding.
+
+"Oh, auntie," said Flaxie, shaking her flying hair, "I saw a little girl
+down under the hill, and says I, 'What's your name?' and says she,
+'Patty C. Proudfit.' And I thought you'd want me to go down and play
+with her, and I did."
+
+This was the first Mrs. Prim had ever heard of "Patty C. Proudfit," and
+grandma knew nothing about her either; but Preston said the Proudfit
+family had just moved into town, "a whole army of 'em, and lived in that
+black house under the hill."
+
+Next day, as Mrs. Prim was looking out of the window, she saw Flaxie and
+Miss Patty playing dolls under the trees. Patty was two years older than
+Flaxie, but her red hair had not been combed lately, her dress was torn,
+and her shoes were out at the toes.
+
+"She is not a nice child; I am sorry to see this," sighed Mrs. Prim,
+turning away from the window. "But as Mrs. Gray is coming home next
+week, I shall do nothing about it."
+
+Flaxie's mind was "occupied" now, and she gave very little trouble in
+the house. Patty was "a dear, sweet, good little girl," she said, "and
+she loved her next as much as her twin cousin."
+
+But you can't be quite happy in this world; and Patty's baby brother,
+only nine months old, had cut four whole teeth, and I won't say this
+wasn't a trial to Flaxie.
+
+"Poh, but they're eeny-teeny things," said she to grandma. "Phil's will
+be lots and lots bigger--when he gets 'em."
+
+Patty came up to the fence one day, where Flaxie stood smelling a
+geranium leaf.
+
+"How do you do?" said she.
+
+"I do as I please, 'cause Auntie Prim is gone," replied little Flaxie,
+with a saucy smile. She was really very bold and naughty sometimes, as
+you have already found out, I suppose.
+
+"Gone home?"
+
+"No, she's coming back to-night, I s'pect, and bring grammy a cap. No, I
+don't s'pect she'll _ever_ go home," said Flaxie, shaking her little
+head sadly.
+
+"Well, she's gone now, ain't she, this whole afternoon? And why can't
+you come up to my house and see me?"
+
+Flaxie knew why. It was because she ought to help amuse the baby. Dora
+had been making peach preserves all day, and it was too hard for Grandma
+Gray to take care of Phil alone. But Flaxie asked all the same, "May I
+go?" and grandma never could say "no" when little folks teased, so she
+answered, "Yes, and stay till half-past four; no longer."
+
+Nothing was said about supper; but the children thought there would be
+time enough for that, and breakfast too, almost--it seemed so very long
+till half-past four.
+
+"Very well," said Patty's mother, when they went into the smoky kitchen,
+where she was holding the baby that had four teeth. "Very well, you may
+both run out to play, and when it is time to call you in, I'll ring the
+bell."
+
+There wasn't much to play with, except sand right in the middle of the
+road; but Flaxie had never been allowed as much dirt as she wanted, and
+this seemed very pleasant for a change. It would have been pleasanter
+still if her conscience had felt easy. She was only six years old, but
+she knew perfectly well when her actions were right and when they were
+wrong.
+
+"I never saw such a splendid visit," said she, when Mr. Proudfit kindly
+allowed her and Patty to feed the pigs. "But _don't_ they have the
+awfullest-looking smell?" added she, gazing thoughtfully into the pen,
+which was dirty, like everything else about the place. Her own nice
+frock was already soiled, but she tried not to see it, and not to think
+how Auntie Prim would stare at it through her spectacles.
+
+"Why, what's that?" said she.
+
+It was, oh dear! it was the bell; and there was Mrs. Proudfit at the
+back door ringing it. Grown people are always thinking what time it is;
+they never forget.
+
+"I'm sorry you can't stay to tea, Miss Flaxie," said Mrs. Proudfit,
+politely.
+
+"Oh, I guess I can; I'll go ask grammy," replied the little girl,
+dashing off up the hill, followed by Patty.
+
+"Oh, grammy, they want me to stay _orf'ly_," she cried, out of breath,
+before they got to the house.
+
+"Well, stay another hour, then," said the dear grandma, though baby was
+very cross and her arms ached, and Flaxie could have been _such_ a help.
+
+So Flaxie went back and stayed another hour, and _then_ it wasn't
+tea-time. She could see some blue and white dishes spread on a round
+table covered with an oil-cloth, and she could smell gingerbread baking
+in the oven, which made her very hungry; and just as Mrs. Proudfit was
+opening a can of preserves, with at least six children clinging to her
+skirts, who should come but Preston, to say it was half-past five and
+Flaxie was wanted at home.
+
+"So you can't stay to tea, after all," said Mrs. Proudfit, putting a
+small covered dish on the table. What in the world could be in it?
+
+Flaxie dropped her head and blushed. "Oh, yes'm, I can stay. I've sent
+Preston home, and locked the door!"
+
+Mrs. Proudfit smiled into the oven as she looked at her gingerbread, and
+thought--of course she did--that Flaxie Frizzle was a very queer child.
+
+It did seem as if that gingerbread never would bake! A cloud came up,
+the wind blew, the baby cried so Patty couldn't play, the children
+quarrelled, and the kitten ran round in a fit.
+
+Nothing seemed half as nice as it had seemed an hour ago; and when
+supper was ready, that gingerbread was burnt, and, as true as you live,
+the preserves were sour! There was nothing in the little covered dish
+but cheese, which Flaxie "despised;" and she wished she hadn't stayed to
+tea, for it was a very poor tea indeed.
+
+It began to rain just as hard as it could pour, and Dr. Papa came for
+her in the carriage, without a single smile on his face.
+
+When she got home there was mamma, looking grieved and surprised,--the
+dear mamma she hadn't seen for three weeks. And there was "Ninny," her
+sweet sister Julia, who had come and found out about her actions, and
+brought her a new doll.
+
+"Baby has cut a tooth, too," said Auntie Prim; "but he's asleep now, and
+you can't see it to-night."
+
+This was the last drop.
+
+"I feel as if my heart was breaking," sobbed Flaxie, tottering up-stairs
+behind her mother. "I don't care if Baby Proudfit _has_ got fo--ur
+teeth; they're _very_ small!"
+
+"I'm afraid you didn't have a good time, dear?"
+
+"No'm, for Baby Proudfit's _so_ squirmy and wigglesome! But they wanted
+me to stay _orf'ly_!"
+
+"And oh, mamma," burst forth Flaxie, at last, "if you'll forgive me,
+I'll never stay _anywhere_ to tea any more, as long as I live!"
+
+"We'll talk about it to-morrow," said Mrs. Gray.
+
+And then she put poor little Flaxie to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE LONESOME VISIT.
+
+
+Flaxie came down to breakfast next morning feeling rather humble, but
+nobody noticed her, for they were all talking about the cat. The
+cellar-door had been left unfastened, and Kitty Gray had come up about
+midnight bringing a nice fat mouse. She mewed a long time, hoping her
+mistress would get out of bed and stroke her, and say, "Good pussy,
+pretty pussy!" But as Mrs. Gray would not rise, what do you think Kitty
+Gray did, for this is a true story?
+
+She just walked into the dining-room where the table was always set
+overnight, jumped up to Mrs. Gray's place by the waiter, and dropped
+the mouse beside her plate!
+
+"There," thought pussy, "she'll see it now first thing in the morning,
+before she turns the coffee; and if she doesn't say 'Good pussy, pretty
+pussy,' why--I'll eat it!"
+
+Of course when Mrs. Gray saw such a droll morsel lying on her napkin she
+laughed, sent for Kitty Gray, stroked her, and called her "Good pussy,
+pretty pussy; and the brightest pussy too that I ever saw!"
+
+Even Mrs. Prim was laughing, and Flaxie began to hope her own behavior
+of yesterday was forgotten. But no, her mother called her into the
+nursery after breakfast, and said, as she took her in her lap:
+
+"I am sorry to hear that my little girl has done so many wrong things
+since I have been gone."
+
+Flaxie dropped her head for shame, but raised it again indignantly.
+
+"How'd you know that, mamma? Auntie Prim must have gone and told."
+
+"Yes, darling, I asked her to tell. Isn't it right for mamma to know all
+her child has been doing?"
+
+"Yes'm," replied Flaxie, watching a fly walk on the ceiling.
+
+"And I thought perhaps you would like to talk with me about it, dear."
+
+"One, two, three, four, five," said Flaxie to herself, counting the
+rosebuds in the carpet. Strange her mamma should suppose she wanted to
+talk about it! Why, there wasn't a subject in the world so disagreeable
+as her own naughtiness!
+
+Mrs. Gray waited patiently till the rosebuds were counted, and then
+Flaxie spoke.
+
+"O mamma, you think I was bad yesterday, but do you _s'pose_ I'd have
+gone off if I'd known my little brother's tooth was a-cutting?"
+
+Mrs. Gray smiled down at the innocent, upturned face.
+
+"Well, darling, whether he cut a tooth or not, had you any excuse for
+staying to tea?"
+
+"No'm. They didn't have a bit good supper at Patty's house, and I
+oughtn't to have stayed."
+
+"Mary," said Mrs. Gray,--she thought her little daughter was old enough
+now to be called by her true name, so she never used the baby name of
+Flaxie Frizzle,--"Mary, I do not wish you to play any more with this
+little girl till I have seen her."
+
+"No'm."
+
+"Have you anything else to tell me?"
+
+"I don' know. Well, yes. Well, I--I--I am so sorry I ran away from my
+party, mamma. Ever so long ago. I s'pect Auntie Prim told of that too?"
+said Flaxie, twisting herself into odd shapes, for the thought of that
+unfortunate affair filled her with shame.
+
+"Yes, Mary, she did."
+
+"Well, I felt so sorry, mamma. And Milly 'n' I, we didn't get but one
+tart and one piece o' cake; for auntie had a party with 'em her own
+self. Do you think 'twas right when she made 'em for Milly and me?"
+
+Here Flaxie's eyes flashed.
+
+"My child, we are talking of you now, not Auntie Prim."
+
+"Yes'm, I know it, and I'm real sorry I'm so naughty; but Auntie Prim
+_makes_ me naughty."
+
+"Mary, Mary, you must not talk so about that good woman!"
+
+"Oh, I know she's good, mamma. Why, she is the best woman in this town;
+she's the best woman in the world! And she _knows_ she's good, and it
+makes her just as proud!"
+
+Now Mrs. Prim really was a person who _seemed_ to be proud of her
+goodness, and Flaxie had described her very well; but Mrs. Gray said
+again:
+
+"Mary, we are talking of you now, not of Auntie Prim."
+
+"Oh dear, I don't like to! I s'pect you think I don't try to be good;
+but, mamma, I do! I try real hard. But," said the little girl, patting
+her chest and her side, "there's something in me that's naughty clear
+through."
+
+The tears had come now and were dropping over the little fat hands, for
+in spite of her queer way of talking, Flaxie felt really unhappy about
+her bad conduct; though perhaps nobody but her mother would have
+believed it.
+
+These two good friends had a long talk,--the kind mamma and her little
+daughter who meant to do better,--and when Ninny came to call them to
+dinner, Flaxie said, joyfully,
+
+"O Ninny, I'm going to begin new, and you mustn't 'member I ever was
+naughty."
+
+That was the way Mrs. Gray forgave her children; she put their
+naughtiness far off and never talked of it any more. Is that the way God
+forgives _his_ children?
+
+After this, Flaxie was one of the most charming little girls you ever
+saw for two whole months. She said it was because Mrs. Prim was gone;
+but of course it was simply because she tried harder to be good; that
+was all. Toward the last of the winter, Uncle Ben Allen, Milly's
+father, passed through Laurel Grove on business, and spent the night at
+Dr. Gray's.
+
+"When I go home to-morrow," said he, "I'd like to take one of these
+little girls. Have you one to spare?"
+
+Now he knew very well which he wanted, but it wouldn't have been polite
+to say so; he wanted Julia. He had always admired her gentle ways, and
+her sweet patience with her trying sister Flaxie, and had often told his
+wife that he loved Julia because she was "like a little candle." Perhaps
+you will know what he meant, for I dare say you have learned these lines
+at Sabbath school:
+
+    "Jesus bids us shine with a clear, pure light,
+    Like a little candle burning in the night;
+    In this world of darkness so we must shine,
+    You in your small corner, and I in mine."
+
+But just because Julia _was_ such a beautiful little candle, her mother
+couldn't spare her from home just now; it was much easier to spare
+Flaxie.
+
+Uncle Ben tried to look delighted when he heard Flaxie was going; but it
+was not till her valise had been packed and she stood by the window
+prepared for the journey, that he happened to remember it wasn't a good
+time to take her to Hilltop, for Milly was gone!
+
+This was a blow! Flaxie winked hard, trying not to cry.
+
+"That is," said Uncle Ben, "perhaps she is gone. When I left home, a
+week ago, her mother was talking of sending her to Troy, to her Aunt
+Sarah's: but I declare I had forgotten all about it till this minute."
+
+Mr. Allen was a man of business, and very forgetful, or he could not
+have made such a blunder as this. And there was Flaxie's new and
+elegant doll, Christie Gretchen, all packed in cotton, in a box by
+itself, on purpose to show Cousin Milly.
+
+"Well, my daughter, you can wait and go another time, that's all," said
+Dr. Papa, oh, so cheerfully, as if it didn't make a bit of difference.
+
+"Another time!" That was a little too dreadful. Flaxie felt as if it was
+more than she could bear, when her bonnet was on and everything ready.
+
+"Oh no, papa, I don't want to wait till another time. I want to go now."
+
+"Yes, let her go," said Uncle Ben.
+
+There wasn't much time to discuss the matter, and Flaxie was so eager
+that it seemed a pity to disappoint her; so she went.
+
+"Homesick?" Why, _she_ shouldn't be homesick! The truth was, she didn't
+know what the word meant.
+
+When they reached Hilltop, Milly _was_ gone. Aunt Charlotte was looking
+for Uncle Ben, but when he alighted from the carriage there was a
+glimmer of blue and gold, and Flaxie Frizzle appeared, borne aloft in
+his arms. Aunt Charlotte ran to the door very much surprised.
+
+"Why, you darling," said she, greeting her with kisses, "we didn't
+expect you just now."
+
+"I know it," returned the little guest triumphantly; "we wanted to
+surprise you. I knew Milly wasn't here, but I thought I'd come to see
+the rest of the folks."
+
+Johnny and Freddy smiled at this very pleasantly; and little Ken, the
+very small baby, cooed and sucked his thumb.
+
+"I don't care a speck if Milly _is_ gone. I've brought a new dolly to
+show you," cried Flaxie, whirling Aunt Charlotte's head around as if it
+had been a revolving globe, and kissing her under the left ear.
+
+"And oh, Uncle Ben and I had such a nice time on the cars! We had bread
+with egg between, and bread with chicken between, and candy and pinnuts.
+'Twas splendid!"
+
+"Well, we'll have nice times here," returned Aunt Charlotte; but her
+tone was doubtful. She knew how suddenly Flaxie sometimes changed from
+one mood to another; and what could she do with such a wayward little
+guest, when Milly was gone?
+
+"I like Hilltop so much," went on Flaxie, pouring out compliments.
+"Uncle Ben's so nice, you know; and Johnny, and Freddy, and the baby."
+
+Freddy threw back his shoulders. He liked to be called "nice;" but
+Johnny was older, and only laughed.
+
+"And I can go to the stores if it does rain and go up in the
+_alleviator_, for I brought my little umbrella."
+
+"You don't need an umbrella in an elevator. And we don't _have_
+elevators," said Johnny.
+
+Everybody was smiling, for it was plain that Flaxie's head was a little
+turned. She was thinking of New York city, and had forgotten that
+Hilltop was only a small village.
+
+She had been here two or three times before, and knew her way all over
+the house: it was a double-house, with another family in the other part.
+She remembered Aunt Charlotte's pictures, and vases, and
+ship-thermometer, and the tidy with a donkey on it drinking from a
+trough. She had spoiled two of the albums when she was a _little_ girl,
+and broken ever so much china; so you see she had reason to feel quite
+at home at Aunt Charlotte's. Ah, but she had never been there before
+without her mother!
+
+The afternoon did seem rather long, but Aunt Charlotte told funny
+stories, and after a great while the boys came home from school, and
+there was a jolly game of romps. Flaxie thought she was very happy.
+
+"We are doing better with her than I expected," said Aunt Charlotte to
+her husband next morning, when the bright face beamed on them at
+breakfast. "I'm so glad you brought her, for I do miss my little Milly."
+
+Flaxie, too, missed Milly, but was resolved to be a little woman, and
+said to Christie Gretchen privately, "_We_ won't cry." After breakfast
+she spent two hours in the kitchen with patient Nancy, spatting out
+little ginger cakes, and picking dirt from the cracks of the floor with
+a pin. Then she danced off to the sitting-room to play with the baby,
+telling him "if he'd be goody, he'd grow up a doctor, like my papa." She
+had promised the same thing to every boy baby at Laurel Grove, for
+doctors were the best people in the world, she thought, and best of all
+was Dr. Papa.
+
+She was as happy as ever, and singing merrily in the front yard, when
+the boys came home at noon. The moment she saw them she felt perfectly
+forlorn, and it suddenly seemed to her as if she couldn't live any
+longer without Milly. That wasn't the worst of it; she _knew_ she
+couldn't live any longer without her mother.
+
+It was a terrible feeling that swept all at once over little Flaxie. I
+wonder if _you_ ever had it? If not, you can't understand it: it was
+_homesickness_. There is no ache or pain like it in the whole world, and
+it seemed to tingle all through Flaxie, from her head to her feet. She
+ran into the sitting-room, ready to scream. "Oh, auntie, I feel so bad;
+I feel bad all over!"
+
+Mrs. Allen did not know what she meant.
+
+"Not _all_ over," said she, looking up pleasantly. "Isn't there a good
+spot somewhere, dear? Perhaps there's a wee spot on your little finger
+that's almost good."
+
+But Flaxie could not smile.
+
+"It's right in here, in my heart, that I feel the worst," moaned she;
+"'cause I can't see my mamma, and haven't anything to kiss but her
+picture!"
+
+Then Aunt Charlotte was full of sympathy, for she knew the dreadful
+suffering Flaxie spoke of was homesickness. It seemed strange that it
+should have seized her so suddenly,--but Flaxie was sudden about
+everything.
+
+"Why, my precious one," said Mrs. Allen, taking the unhappy child in her
+lap, "you know Milly is coming home next week, and in one week more Dr.
+Papa will send for you to go home. Two weeks won't be long."
+
+"Oh, yes'm, oh, very long! And they oughtn't to have lemme come; I'm too
+yo-u-ng!"
+
+"Hullo! Is she sick?" cried Freddy, bursting into the room with a great
+clatter.
+
+His mother shook her head at him.
+
+"I think Flaxie and I will take a ride in the cars to-morrow," said she.
+"I think we'll go to Chicopee to see Mrs. Adams, who has some
+gold-fishes, and a parrot, and a canary. How would you like that,
+Flaxie?"
+
+"Wouldn't like it a tall, 'cause _she_ isn't my mamma," sobbed the poor
+little girl. "And we couldn't go to-morrow, 'cause to-morrow is Sunday."
+
+"Sunday? First _I_ ever heard of it," said Freddy. "To-day is Friday, I
+suppose you know?"
+
+"Oh, Freddy, Freddy, I can't bear that. It's Saturday," said Flaxie.
+
+As she spoke, the tears poured down her cheeks in little streams, and
+she squeezed her eyelids together so tight that Freddy laughed, for he
+thought the day of the week was a funny thing to cry about.
+
+"To-day isn't Saturday," said he. "If 'tis, what did I go to school for?
+Tell me that."
+
+"Oh, it _is_ Saturday, Freddy Allen! Don't I know what day I came here?
+I came Friday. Didn't I hear Ninny and mamma talk about it, and don't I
+_know_?" screamed the wretched child, hopping up and down, then falling,
+face downward, on the rug. "Oh, I can't bear it; I _can't_ bear it!
+There, don't anybody in this town know what day it is! Nobody knows it
+but me!"
+
+This was funny enough to Freddy, but very painful to his mother, who
+knew the deep trouble at the little girl's heart. Of course Flaxie
+didn't care a bit what day of the week it was; she only felt so very
+unhappy that she could not endure the slightest contradiction.
+
+Before another word had been spoken, she sprang up and flew out of the
+room. About two minutes afterward the front door slammed, and Freddy saw
+her dashing down street with her hat and cloak on, swinging her valise
+in one hand and her umbrella in the other.
+
+[Illustration: FLAXIE LOOKED BEWILDERED. Page 60.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+LUCY'S MITTENS.
+
+Aunt Charlotte ran to the door with the baby, calling out:
+
+"Flaxie, come back! come back!"
+
+But the little runaway would not even turn her head.
+
+"Crazy," said Freddy, still laughing.
+
+"I do believe," exclaimed his mother, "that child is going to the depot!
+Run after her! You and Johnny both run!"
+
+The boys did their best, but Flaxie was already far ahead, and never
+once paused till she reached the station, where she nearly ran the
+baggage-master through the body with her little umbrella.
+
+"Now look here, my little lady," said he, catching her in his arms, "I
+ain't used to being punched in this style, like a passenger-ticket; and
+you'd better stop to explain."
+
+"Oh, don't hold me, don't hold me! I'm going on the cars to my mamma.
+_Let_ me go to my mamma!"
+
+"Why, certainly," said the man, winking to Johnny and Freddy, who had
+reached the platform and stood there panting. "_To_ be sure! We let
+little girls go to their mothers. But you didn't think of starting on
+ahead of the cars, did you?"
+
+Flaxie looked bewildered.
+
+"You see the cars haven't come," said Johnny, coaxingly. "You'd better
+go back with Freddy and me, and wait awhile."
+
+"No, no, no," said Flaxie, brandishing her umbrella. The boys were too
+anxious to get her away, and she wouldn't trust them.
+
+"The cars won't be here till two o'clock," said the baggage-man. "Now
+I'd advise a nice little lady like you to eat your dinner before
+starting on a journey. Or would you like it any better to have me lock
+you up in the ladies'-room till two o'clock? But I should think you'd
+get rather hungry."
+
+He held up a big key as he spoke, and Flaxie gazed at it in dismay. Was
+this the way they treated little girls that wanted to go to see their
+mothers?
+
+"Come, Freddy," said Johnny, "let's hurry home, or there won't be any
+apple-dumpling left. If Flaxie doesn't want to come she needn't, you
+know."
+
+Johnny spoke with such a show of indifference that Flaxie was struck by
+it. He was ten years old, just the age of her brother Preston, and had
+had some experience in managing children younger than himself. As he
+was walking off with Freddy, she trudged after, exclaiming:
+
+"Well, will you lemme leave my umberella? Will you lemme come back
+again? Will you, Johnny?"
+
+"We'll see what mother says. What makes you come home with us? Why don't
+you stay with the man and be locked up?" replied Master Johnny. But he
+had her fast by the hand, and led her home in triumph.
+
+"What did make you try to run away?" asked Freddy, when they were safely
+in the house.
+
+Flaxie felt rather ashamed by that time, for Aunt Charlotte and Uncle
+Ben were both looking at her.
+
+"I read about a little girl that did it," said she, dropping her eyes.
+
+"Well, I'll read to you about a little girl that didn't do it."
+
+"Hush, Freddy," said mamma, for Flaxie's lips were quivering, "we'll
+have our dinner now, and then I am going to Chicopee to see Mrs. Adams,
+who has the gold-fishes and parrot and canary. Flaxie may go with me if
+she likes."
+
+Flaxie brightened a little at this, and thought she wouldn't go home to
+see her mother to-day; she would wait till to-morrow. Still her heart
+ached now and then just as hard as ever, and when she was riding in the
+cars that afternoon to Chicopee with her aunt beside her and her
+second-best dolly in her arms, she did look the picture of woe.
+
+"Toothache, perhaps," thought a woman who entered the car with a baby
+and two little girls. One of the girls limped along, scowling as if
+every step hurt her.
+
+"How do you do, Mrs. Chase?" said Aunt Charlotte, making room for the
+mother and baby by taking Flaxie in her lap; then turning over the seat
+just in front of them for the two little girls. "I think it will be a
+good thing for my niece, Flaxie Frizzle, to see your children, Mrs.
+Chase."
+
+Flaxie wondered why it should be a good thing; still she was glad the
+little girls had come, for she liked to look at them.
+
+Hattie was a bright child of six, just her own age; but the lame girl of
+ten, what a white face she had! What very light, straw-colored hair! Her
+manners were odd, Flaxie thought, for as soon as she saw the doll
+Peppermint Drop, she snatched at her and would have pulled off her blue
+satin sash if Flaxie had not drawn it away.
+
+"Lucy, Lucy," said Mrs. Chase, "don't touch the little girl's doll!"
+
+Then Lucy leaned forward again, and fingered the buttons on Aunt
+Charlotte's dress, and stroked her fur cloak, with a smile. That was a
+queer thing for such a large girl to do, but Aunt Charlotte did not seem
+to mind it, and only said, "I fancy Lucy wants a lozenge," and popped
+one into her mouth as if she had been a baby. Flaxie stared, and the
+mother said, with a sad smile:
+
+"Poor Lucy knows but very little. Aren't you sorry for her?"
+
+"Oh dear, why doesn't she?" said Flaxie, forgetting her own trouble in
+gazing at the strange little girl, who was now stroking Aunt Charlotte's
+cloak again, as if she did not hear a word that was said. "Why doesn't
+she know but little?"
+
+"Because she was very sick a great many years ago, and it hurt her
+mind."
+
+"Can she talk?"
+
+"She only says 'Papa,' 'Mamma,' 'Hattie.' She talks just about as well
+as the baby does, and they play together half the time."
+
+"Does she go to school?" asked Flaxie, growing very much interested
+indeed.
+
+"To school? Oh no! _she_ couldn't learn anything," said Mrs. Chase,
+sighing.
+
+But Hattie seemed rather proud of having such a strange sister.
+
+"See that?" said she, holding up Lucy's right hand.
+
+"Why, it's littler than mine, and all dried up," exclaimed Flaxie
+Frizzle.
+
+"Poor dear, she has lost her mittens again," said Mrs. Chase, wiping
+Lucy's mouth. "I can't afford to keep buying mittens for her, she loses
+them so."
+
+"Wouldn't it be well to fasten them to her cloak-sleeve by a string?"
+asked Mrs. Allen.
+
+Flaxie gazed bewildered at this singular little girl, who could not wipe
+her own mouth, or talk, or go to school. She had never known of such a
+little girl before.
+
+"Too bad about Lucy!" said she, thoughtfully, to her aunt as they got
+out at Chicopee, and left the whole Chase family looking after them from
+the car-window. "Is Lucy poor?"
+
+"Very."
+
+"Where does she live?"
+
+"In Hilltop."
+
+"Oh! I didn't s'pose she lived in Hilltop."
+
+"There," said Aunt Charlotte, "now this next house is Mrs. Adams's,
+where you will see the gold-fishes."
+
+But Flaxie did not care just then for the gold-fishes.
+
+"Auntie, don't you think Lucy ought to have some mittens?"
+
+She spoke cheerily, as if mittens were the very thing, and the only
+thing Lucy needed.
+
+"And, auntie, _I_ can crochet!"
+
+"Is it possible?" said Aunt Charlotte, thinking how many things Flaxie
+had learned that little Milly knew nothing about. "How much can you
+crochet?"
+
+"Well, I made a scarf once for my dolly. I _wish_ I could make some
+mittens for Lucy!"
+
+"That's the very thing! I'll buy you some worsteds this afternoon," said
+Aunt Charlotte, as she rang Mrs. Adams's door-bell; and Flaxie "smiled"
+up her face in a minute, exclaiming:
+
+"Red, auntie, please get 'em red!"
+
+They had a lovely time with Mrs. Adams's gold-fish, and parrot, and
+canary; but after all it was the vision of those red mittens that eased
+the ache at Flaxie's poor little heart.
+
+Auntie was all patience next morning, and her young niece all smiles;
+and between them the ivory hook and the red worsteds kept moving.
+
+"Lucy can't say 'thank you,' but her mamma'll be _so_ pleased," said
+Flaxie, her face beaming. She really thought she was making the mittens
+herself, because she took a stitch now and then.
+
+"What, working on Sunday?" said teasing Johnny.
+
+"Oh, it isn't Sunday, and I _didn't_ come Friday, and I _can_ wait two
+weeks to see my mamma. You see I didn't know there was a little girl I
+could make mittens for, or I shouldn't have cried," said Flaxie,
+stopping a moment to kiss the baby.
+
+The mittens were lovely. Aunt Charlotte finished them off at the wrists
+with a tufted border. Lucy couldn't say "thank you," but her poor mother
+was delighted, and fastened them to the child's cloak by a string, so
+they wouldn't be lost.
+
+The moment Milly got home from Troy and had been kissed all around,
+Flaxie said:
+
+"Oh, you don't know how I did feel, staying here all alone, Milly. But I
+made those mittens, and then I felt better."
+
+"What mittens?" asked Milly, who hadn't untied her bonnet yet, and
+couldn't know in a minute everything that had happened.
+
+"Why, Lucy's red mittens; don't you know? I tell you, Milly, what you
+must do when you don't feel happy: you must make somebody some mittens."
+
+This was Flaxie's way of saying "You must help other people." But Milly
+knew what she meant. Children understand one another when the talking is
+ever so crooked.
+
+Flaxie had now been at Hilltop more than three weeks, and had become so
+contented and happy that she was really sorry when Aunt Jane Abbott
+appeared one morning to take her home.
+
+"Thank you ever so much," said Miss Frizzle, politely; "but I don't care
+'bout going home."
+
+"Indeed!" said Aunt Jane, smiling. "And why not?"
+
+"'Cause she wants to stay here and go to school with me," spoke up
+Milly, with her cheek close to Flaxie's.
+
+"But we thought she'd like to see her little brother Phil; he has eight
+teeth," said Aunt Jane.
+
+"Oh yes'm, I do, I do!"
+
+"Now, Flaxie," pleaded Milly, looking grieved, "when you haven't been to
+my school, and haven't seen my elegant teacher!"
+
+"Well, but isn't Philip my brother? And so are Preston and Ninny. I
+forgot about them."
+
+"And don't you want to see your mother too?" asked Aunt Jane, with
+another smile. She had been smiling ever since she came.
+
+"Oh, yes, my mamma; I want to see her most of anybody in this
+world--'cept my papa!"
+
+Milly's head drooped.
+
+"Oh, but I'm coming back again," said Flaxie, kissing her. "And then
+I'll go to school. Where's my valise?"
+
+She was such a restless, impatient little girl that it wasn't best to
+let her know till the last minute what a beautiful thing had happened at
+home. But the next morning, when her hat and cloak were on, Aunt Jane
+told her she had a dear, new little baby sister, three days old!
+
+Flaxie did just what you might expect she would do: clapped her hands
+and cried for joy.
+
+"What's her name? Has she any teeth? Has she any curls? Where does she
+sleep?"
+
+"Why, what's the matter now?" said Uncle Ben, coming in as Flaxie and
+Milly were whirling around the room in each other's arms.
+
+"Oh, good-bye, Uncle Ben, good-bye! I don't know what her name is, but
+there's a little sister at home, and I must go right off in the cars. I
+_wish_ I had some _seven-legged_ boots! Good-bye, Uncle Ben."
+
+She meant _seven-league_ boots, for the cars did seem very slow. And
+when she got home the baby was so small that she laughed and cried
+again.
+
+"Oh, it's the little _bit-of-est_ baby ever I saw!"
+
+Phil had a grieved lip. He hardly liked the little pink morsel in the
+nurse's lap; but he was glad to see Flaxie, and stood on his head with
+delight.
+
+Mamma looked very happy, and so did Dr. Papa. Ninny went singing about
+the house, and Preston whistled more than ever.
+
+It was all beautiful, only Flaxie wanted to have a "talk" with mamma,
+but nurse said, "You'd better go down-stairs to play;" and then, not
+long after supper, she said again, "And now you'd better go to bed!"
+
+"A queer woman, scolding so to other people's little girls," thought
+Flaxie.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THAT HOMELY MISS PIKE.
+
+
+The nurse did leave the room next day for a minute, and Flaxie ran up to
+the bed and nestled close to her mother.
+
+"Now I'll tell you all about it. I wanted to see you so, my heart ached
+and ached, and once I ran away home."
+
+"You did, darling? I'm glad I didn't know it," said mamma, kissing her.
+
+"I didn't tell anybody--much," returned Flaxie. "I thought 'twasn't
+polite. And then auntie bought me some red worsteds, and I made some
+mittens for a sick girl named Lucy, that can't wipe her mouth, or go to
+school, or talk; and it made me just as happy!"
+
+"That was right. Of course it made you happy to forget yourself and help
+somebody else."
+
+"Yes'm, I know _all about_ that!" replied Flaxie, with a wise look. She
+had learned a deep lesson from those mittens.
+
+"But I don't ever want to go away again," said she, dropping a tear on
+the pillow, "for there isn't any _you_ and Dr. Papa anywhere else."
+
+"Oh, some time you'll want to."
+
+"No, mamma. When I said I'd go there to school with Milly I didn't know
+about my baby sister. I ought to stay and take care of her, and never go
+away any more as long as I live,--not till I die, and go to heaven."
+
+But three months passed, and Flaxie had forgotten all this. She was
+always fond of the baby, whose name was Ethel Gray; but sometimes she
+thought Ethel needn't cry quite so much, and ought to cut a tooth, and
+ought to have more hair.
+
+                 *       *       *       *       *
+
+The world looked dark to Flaxie, for she was sick that spring, and a
+long while getting well. It was a queer sort of illness too. First it
+made her look yellow and then pea-green, and Julia had to sing and smile
+a great deal in order to keep her at all comfortable.
+
+    "After dandelions, buttercups,
+      After buttercups, clover;
+    One blossom follows another one,
+      Over and over and over!"
+
+sang Julia one evening, when Flaxie was making ready to take her
+medicine.
+
+"Now, Flaxie dear, swallow it like a lady."
+
+"Yes. Dr. Papa knows a great deal, and I shall do just as he says,"
+replied the little girl, grasping her cup of rhubarb tightly in one
+hand, and a glass of cold water in the other.
+
+It was a comfort to see her take her medicine for once without crying,
+and Preston shouted "Hurrah!"
+
+She was pea-green at this time, and oh, so cross! For supper she had had
+three slices of bread and butter, and cried because she couldn't have
+the fourth.
+
+"If the poor little thing wasn't so cross we'd send her to Aunt
+Charlotte's for a change," said Dr. Papa in a low voice to his wife; but
+Flaxie heard it.
+
+"Oh, mamma, do lemme go to Aunt Charlotte's, and go to school with
+Milly; she has such a dear teacher! And Milly's my twin cousin, born
+just the same month. And I won't be cross if they _don't_ give me enough
+to eat; and I'll take a whole bushel o' pills!"
+
+"Let her go," laughed papa; "the bushel of pills settles it."
+
+Flaxie was six and a half years old, and could have gone to Hilltop
+alone--almost; but as Captain Jones happened to be travelling that way,
+Dr. Papa thought he would pretend to put her in his charge.
+
+"Did you ever go in the cars alone, Ninny, with your own valise, and a
+check in your pocket?" asked Flaxie in glee, as she rode up to the
+station; "and oh, a umbrella, too!"
+
+"No, I never did--at your age," replied Ninny, who was now a young lady
+of twelve.
+
+"You see Uncle Ben will be there to meet me when we get to Hilltop,"
+said Miss Frizzle, fluttering her darling umbrella against the captain's
+spectacles; "and won't he laugh when he sees me coming all alone, with a
+check in my pocket?"
+
+"Good-bye, curly-head; take care of that umbrella," said her father,
+kissing her pea-green cheek, and hurrying out of the car as the bell
+rang.
+
+"Let's see, where is Hilltop, and how will you know when you get there?"
+asked the captain, before Flaxie had time to cry.
+
+"Oh, it's where Uncle Ben lives and Aunt Charlotte," replied the little
+traveller, who had a vague idea that the house was in the middle of a
+snow-drift, with roses in the front yard and strawberries behind it.
+"Their name is Allen."
+
+"Well, I'm glad you've told me all the particulars," said the captain
+gravely. "And I shall be easy, for we can't miss it."
+
+Flaxie smiled and looked at her check. She felt the whole care of the
+journey, but it didn't trouble her at all, for the captain would tell
+her when to stop. She "'membered" all about Hilltop just as well as
+could be, but she didn't _'xactly_ know where it was!
+
+It was a pleasant ride on that beautiful spring day, and the captain
+would have been very agreeable, only he seemed to have a perfect horror
+of "pinnuts," the very things Flaxie had dreamed about and expected to
+eat all the way. He shook his head at the peanut boys, and told her he
+"wished they would keep away with their trash!" If he had only gone into
+a smoking-car and left her, she might have bought some, for she had her
+red portemonnaie with her; but then he never thought of leaving her, for
+he really had no idea she was travelling alone.
+
+She had said Uncle Ben would laugh at meeting her; and so he did. He
+threw up both hands and cried, "Bless me! what's all this?" for it is
+not every day one sees a little girl of just that color; but he looked
+sober the next minute.
+
+"Poor little thing, you've had a hard time."
+
+"Oh no, sir, not very," said Flaxie, thinking he meant the journey. "I
+like to travel alone."
+
+Captain Jones, who was putting the little umbrella into the carriage,
+laughed, and said he wished he had known that before.
+
+"Good-bye," said he, kissing his hand to her. "I shall miss you very
+much, for _I don't_ like to travel alone!"
+
+Then Flaxie drove off with her uncle in the nice easy carriage, and
+found Aunt Charlotte and all her cousins delighted to see her, as she
+had known they would be. She had told the captain they were "elegant
+cousins;" but when Johnny exclaimed, "Hullo! Miss Frizzle, you look like
+a pickled lime," she blushed a sort of pinkish-green blush, and thought
+he had grown very disagreeable.
+
+"Well, I didn't mean anything. I've seen folks look worse'n you do--a
+good deal," added the little fellow, and thought it a handsome apology.
+
+"I'll tell you who looks worse," he broke in again, as they were all
+seated at supper; "it's our teacher, Miss Pike. She isn't the same color
+by a long shot, but she's awful homely."
+
+"Is she? Well, I guess I shan't go to school."
+
+"Johnny ought not to speak in that way of his dear teacher," said Aunt
+Charlotte gravely; "it is not her fault that she is not pretty; and
+everybody loves her, for she has a beautiful soul."
+
+"Oh, yes, everybody loves her," said Master Freddy; "but didn't Jemmy
+Glover send her a mean valentine last winter?
+
+    'Old Miss Pike, she's ninety-nine,
+    Her hair's the color of a ball of twine.'"
+
+"If she looks so bad, why don't she let the doctor take care of her?"
+asked Flaxie, thoughtfully. "Dr. Papa gives me medicine three times a
+day, and I'm going to be real white."
+
+"Oh, Miss Pike isn't sick; she was born so, and medicine wouldn't help
+her any," said Johnny, trying hard not to laugh at his simple little
+cousin. "I'll take you to see her to-morrow."
+
+Flaxie set her teeth firmly into a cookie, resolving that she would not
+see such a monster of ugliness, much less go to school to her, not if
+Johnny should drag her to the schoolhouse by a rope.
+
+After tea she sat on the front doorsteps awhile in Milly's lap. The
+little friends had a way of sitting in each other's lap, and it was a
+droll sight, as they were just of a size.
+
+"Where's Lucy, that I made the mittens for?" asked Flaxie.
+
+"Oh, she's at home, but her sister Hatty goes to school."
+
+"Well, I shan't have to make mittens or anything this time, 'cause
+you're at home, Milly. I like to be with my twin cousin in a twin
+house," said Flaxie, twisting her neck to look at Mrs. Hunter's
+door-stone. It was just like Aunt Charlotte's, only there were
+flower-pots on it.
+
+"Guess what I dreamed last night," returned Milly. "I dreamed you were
+my sister; and then I woke up and thought how queer it is that God
+always sends brothers to this house, and not any sisters."
+
+"Why so he does; for Johnny and Freddy are _both_ boys, and so is Ken,"
+said Flaxie, struck with a new idea. "It's real-too-bad!"
+
+"But now you've come, and we'll go to school together, and it's just as
+well," said Milly, kissing her pea-green friend in rapture.
+
+"Oh, I didn't say I'd go to school, Milly Allen.--Why, who's that
+coming?"
+
+"Hush! that's my teacher and her sister."
+
+"Which is the sister?"
+
+"The big one."
+
+"Well, she's got the dropsies."
+
+"Oh, no, she hasn't; she teaches the singing in our school."
+
+"But she _has_ got the dropsies, Milly Allen, for a fat woman has 'em
+where I live, and my papa takes care of her; so don't I know?"
+
+Milly said no more, for _her_ papa was not a doctor; so what right had
+she to give an opinion concerning diseases?
+
+The two ladies nodded and smiled in passing. "Oh, how homely!" whispered
+Flaxie, in amazement; "I mean the other one, not the sister."
+
+There was no doubt about it. I really suppose Miss Pike was one of the
+ugliest women in the whole state. Her eyes were small and half shut;
+her mouth was large and half open; her nose was enormous, and turned up
+at the end,--and, to crown the whole, it was red!
+
+Milly, who had always known her, did not mind her looks. Indeed, so
+little can children judge of the beauty of those they love, that I dare
+say she might have thought her dear teacher quite handsome if she had
+not heard everybody speak of her as "that homely Miss Pike."
+
+"We don't have such looking folks keep school where I live," said
+Flaxie, in scorn.
+
+"I can't help it if you don't," returned Milly, slipping her cousin off
+her lap with much indignation. "God made her so, and my mamma says you
+mustn't notice how anybody looks when they have a beautiful soul."
+
+"Well, you won't get _me_ to go to school, not if you give me five
+million thousand dollars, Milly Allen!" said Flaxie; and their loving
+chat on the doorstep was over for the evening.
+
+Flaxie kept her word, and Milly went off next morning half crying; but
+little Freddy confided to his mother that _he_ was "glad Flaxie wouldn't
+go to school, for the scholars would laugh at her, true as you live."
+
+It was rather dull, all alone with Aunt Charlotte and little Ken, who
+was cutting his teeth and cried a great deal; but Flaxie held out for a
+whole week. This was fortunate, as it gave time for the greenish color
+to fade out of her face, and her own natural pink and white to come back
+again as beautiful as ever.
+
+"I guess I _will_ go to school with you, Milly, if you want me to so
+much," said she at last one morning, when her cousins had all stopped
+teasing her. "I just despise Miss Pike, but I like the one that has the
+dropsies, and I want to hear her sing."
+
+Such a hugging and kissing followed this remark that Flaxie felt as if
+she had said a very fine thing, and started off with Milly, carrying her
+head very high.
+
+The schoolhouse was white, with green blinds, and stood on the bank of
+the river, shaded by trees. Burdocks, milkweed, rushes, dandelions, and
+buttercups, were sprinkled around, while close down by the river was a
+narrow strip of clay bank, very nice to cut into with penknives,--as you
+would think if you had seen the pretty images some of the children made
+and spread out on boards in the sun.
+
+Inside the schoolhouse it was nice and cool, with a large entry and
+recitation-room, and flowers on the desks and tables. The teacher, "that
+homely Miss Pike," moved about softly, and spoke in low, sweet tones,
+smiling, and showing even white teeth.
+
+"I s'pose her soul will fly right out of her when she dies,--and _that_
+won't have a red nose," thought Flaxie, gazing at her with curiosity
+mingled with awe.
+
+Somehow there was a happy feeling all over the schoolroom because Miss
+Pike was in it, and Flaxie's thoughts grew pleasant, she could not have
+told why. But one thing she did know, she wanted to be a good girl,--not
+pretty good, but the very best in the world,--that that sweet woman
+might love her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT.
+
+
+"Well, darling," said Aunt Charlotte at noon, "you said you went to hear
+the singing, and you look as if you had enjoyed it."
+
+"Oh, the singing isn't as good as Miss Pike; she's just the best woman.
+Only," added Flaxie regretfully, "I _wish_ I could see her soul,
+auntie!"
+
+Mrs. Allen smiled.
+
+"Wait till you know her better, and then you'll see it shine through her
+face. There's a good look about her that is better than beauty."
+
+After she had once begun, Flaxie would not have missed a day at school
+for anything. She had never learned so fast before, for she had never
+had a teacher she loved so well.
+
+"Oh, auntie," said she one day, "I've seen her soul shine! It shines
+when she smiles."
+
+Milly and Flaxie were the best scholars, so Miss Pike told Aunt
+Charlotte. But they did not study all the time. Oh, no. Miss Pike
+understood children, and didn't _expect_ them to study all the time. She
+often drew pictures on the blackboard for them to copy on the slate, and
+if they wanted to bring their dinners and play at noon she was perfectly
+willing; only they were not to scream too loud, or go near the desks,
+for fear of spilling the ink. She noticed that the little girls were
+more noisy after Flaxie Frizzle came; but this was not strange, for
+Flaxie knew a great many games that the Hilltop children had never heard
+of before.
+
+"Lesson? Oh, yes. I've got that ole thing," she would say sometimes, as
+she rushed for her hat long before school-time.
+
+"Spell _ocean_, then," said studious Milly, following her with the
+spelling-book in her hand.
+
+"_O-s-h-u-n._ There! I'm in a hurry. I want to get to school to play
+'Bloody Murder.'"
+
+That sounded dreadful, but I dare say was not as bad as it seemed. And
+one day after Flaxie had taught the little folks all the games she could
+possibly remember, she thought of a new thing to do.
+
+"See there, Milly," said she, pointing to a high pile of boards behind
+the schoolhouse, under one of the windows. "A man has gone and put those
+down there, and now let's make a house of 'em, and live in it!"
+
+Milly hugged Flaxie, it was such a bright idea. Make a house? Of course
+they would! They had made cupboards out of shingles and stones, and put
+clay dishes on the shelves; they had dug ovens all along the bank like
+swallows' nests; but a real live house, what could be so charming as
+that?
+
+But when you came to think of it, it wasn't what you might call easy
+work, for the boards were very heavy; and with all their tugging the
+little girls could only drag them a little way across the ground.
+
+"Well, Johnny will help," said Milly, puffing for breath. "And perhaps
+Freddy will too."
+
+She knew they couldn't coax Freddy quite as well as they could Johnny.
+The little girls never once thought of asking who owned the boards, but
+I will tell you; it was Esquire Blake, and he was intending to use them
+to repair his office, which stood not far from the schoolhouse.
+
+"'Twill be our ownty-doanty house, and nobody must come into it but us,"
+said Flaxie, gazing with satisfaction at the clean boards.
+
+"The boys must come," suggested Milly.
+
+"Well, yes, I s'pose they'll have to, if they help make it."
+
+"And Ada Blake."
+
+"You always want Ada Blake to go everywhere," pouted Flaxie. "We can
+invite her for company, if you want to, but 'twill be _our_ house."
+
+Johnny thought it all nonsense, but consented to undertake the business.
+He drove four stakes into the ground, near a beautiful maple-tree, and
+then nailed boards on the stakes all around, making a pen about three
+feet high. Everybody looked on deeply interested. After that he and
+Freddy went fishing. The little girls felt very impatient.
+
+"Oh dear," said Milly, "it doesn't look much like a house. You'd think
+it was for pigs to live in."
+
+Next day it rained; but the day after, as Johnny could get no peace of
+his life, he nailed on more boards, till the pen was so high you
+couldn't see over it, unless you stood on tiptoe. That was high enough;
+but where was the roof?
+
+"Oh, bother, what do you want of a roof? Hold up your umbrella."
+
+"Next house I make I'll make it myself!" cried Flaxie, stamping her
+foot.
+
+That amused good-natured Johnny, and he called together some of the
+boys, to help him put on a sloping roof. Then he sawed a door in the
+side next the river; and when all was done the building looked so much
+like a "truly house" that the little girls screamed for joy, and Johnny
+felt rather proud of his work.
+
+"Tell you what," said he, looking around at the boys, "this is the house
+that Jack built. Now let's saw a hole in the roof and put in a
+stove-pipe."
+
+Ah, Johnny! Johnny! it was thoughtless enough to use those boards
+without leave; but to put in a stove-pipe was downright madness!
+
+The girls were charmed, and wanted a fireplace immediately. Why not?
+That wasn't much to make, and they made it themselves with the loose
+pieces of brick they picked out of the old hearth in the
+recitation-room.
+
+Squire Blake knew nothing of this; neither did the teacher. The new and
+elegant building was located on the bank behind the schoolhouse, and as
+the windows that way let in the sun, the blinds were kept closed, and
+Miss Pike did not look out. If she had only looked out! But then perhaps
+she wouldn't have thought much about it; for who would dream of little
+daughters of respectable parents bringing matches to school?
+
+It might be very funny to light a fire on one's own little hearth, and
+bake one's own little biscuits for tea; but then it was certainly wrong.
+If it hadn't been wrong, why didn't the little girls tell of it at home?
+What made Flaxie seize a bunch of matches from the kitchen-shelf and
+hide them in her pocket? What made Milly snatch that piece of dough when
+Nancy's back was turned, and run away with it so fast? Children are
+never sly, you know, when they are doing right.
+
+If these biscuits turned out well, they were to bake some more
+to-morrow, and have what Johnny called a "house-warming," and Freddy
+had partly promised some fish. But this was only the very first day of
+housekeeping, and they had invited nobody but Ada Blake to tea,--Ada and
+her dolls.
+
+It seemed as if recess would never come that afternoon, and when it came
+it wasn't "any longer than your little finger." The fire was kindled the
+very first minute, the thimble-biscuits rolled out, and then the three
+children sat on the grass around their hearth to watch the baking. Seven
+dolls sat there too, with their party-dresses on, waiting very politely.
+There was a dictionary in the middle of the room for a table, with a
+pocket-handkerchief spread on it for a table-cloth, and Milly had set
+out all her best dishes there at noon, with a dot of butter, a pinch of
+sugar, and some bits of cake.
+
+"I guess our oven is slow; they don't bake much," said Milly, peeping at
+the biscuits, which were placed in a row on a cabbage-leaf at a
+respectful distance from the fire.
+
+"Let's wish something while we're waiting," said hungry Flaxie, who had
+only snatched a very hurried dinner. "I wish this world was one big
+doughnut, with only us to eat it!"
+
+"Pshaw!" sniffed Milly, "why didn't you wish something
+good,--sponge-cake, with jelly between?"
+
+"Wish yourself, Milly Allen, if you can do it so much better'n I can,"
+retorted Flaxie, putting another stick on the fire.
+
+"Well, lemme see; I wish you and I were sisters, Flaxie Frizzle, and Ada
+was our aunt come from Boston."
+
+"Well there, Milly Allen, that isn't half as nice as my doughnut! What's
+the use to wish we were sisters, when we are twins now, and that's
+almost as good?"
+
+"Oh, I never!" laughed Ada. "Such a _nidea_ as _you_ being twins! You
+weren't born the same day, either of you! Twins have to be born the same
+day, now truly, or they can't _be_ twins!"
+
+There was wisdom in Ada's voice, and wisdom in her superior smile.
+Flaxie raised her eyes, but that smile was too much for her, and she
+dropped them again. If there was one thing Flaxie could not bear, it was
+to be laughed at by a girl of her own age, who knew more than she did.
+
+At that moment the school-bell rang, and, oh dear, those biscuits were
+not half done! So very queer, too, for the stove-pipe was red-hot, and
+roaring away beautifully!
+
+The three little cooks were the last to enter the schoolhouse, and Miss
+Pike wondered what they were whispering about in the entry.
+
+"Dear little creatures," thought she, petting their heads, "I'm glad
+they've had a good time, for they deserve it!"
+
+She called a class, and everything went on as usual, till suddenly she
+thought she smelt smoke, and went to the window to look out.
+
+Miss Pike was a most sensible young lady, and knew better than to
+scream; but I assure you she never felt more like screaming in her life.
+The "house that Jack built" was all ablaze from top to bottom, and had
+already set fire to the schoolhouse!
+
+She had to think fast. There were sixty children to be got out, and no
+time to lose. If they should know the house was on fire they would be
+crazed with fright and run hither and thither like wild creatures; it
+would never do to let them know it.
+
+Miss Sarah was at the farther end of the room setting copies slowly,
+very slowly. She did not look up, and Miss Pike had no time to go and
+speak to her; the only thing she could do was to walk quietly up to the
+desk and ring the bell. That meant, "Put up your books." A strange order
+while a class was reciting; but it was obeyed instantly.
+
+"Star-spangled Banner," said Miss Pike, calmly. She could see the little
+tongues of flame running along the ceiling now, but she looked as if she
+was thinking of nothing but music and waiting for Miss Sarah to pitch
+the tune. Miss Sarah dropped her pen and did it of course, wondering
+why; and all the sixty voices joined in it, clear and loud, as they had
+often done before; while in time to the music the whole sixty children
+marched in orderly file out of the room.
+
+"_Now, run!_" cried Miss Pike, the moment the last child was in the
+entry, "run and tell everybody the schoolhouse is on fire!"
+
+She had a pail of water in her hand. The children rushed through the
+streets screaming; the bells began to ring; the Hilltop fire-engine came
+out; and all the people and horses and dogs in the village. But Miss
+Pike was the first to pour water on the flames, and everybody said it
+was she who saved the schoolhouse.
+
+There was a black hole in the wall, and another in the roof; the books
+were, many of them, soaked and ruined; the floor an inch deep with
+water, and it would take a whole week to set things to rights. But the
+schoolhouse was saved.
+
+"Why, how did it take fire?" asked Uncle Ben, who had been out of town
+and did not come back till all was over.
+
+The boys looked another way, the twin cousins hung their heads. Aunt
+Charlotte did not answer. She was wondering which child would speak
+first.
+
+It was Flaxie Frizzle. Her face was very pale, and her eyes were fixed
+on the carpet.
+
+"We've got something _orful_ to tell you," said she, her voice
+trembling; "we baked our biscuits, and Johnny built a house out there
+with a stove-pipe in, and we oughtn't to taken any matches. You better
+believe we cried!"
+
+"Well, well, you young rogues; so _you_ set the schoolhouse afire? And
+who saved it?"
+
+"Miss Pike!" broke forth all the children in chorus.
+
+"Yes," said Johnny; "but she marched us all out first, so the little
+ones wouldn't get burnt. Never said a word about the fire till we got
+out!"
+
+"She always does things just right. She's one of God's girls," cried
+Freddy.
+
+"Yes," broke in Flaxie, strongly excited; "I don't care if I can't see
+her soul. I've seen it shine! Oh, it's beautiful to be homely!"
+
+Nobody smiled--they all thought Flaxie was right.
+
+"Yes, it is beautiful to be homely in just Miss Pike's way," said Aunt
+Charlotte.
+
+And then they went out to supper, and, as the twin cousins looked
+broken-hearted, nothing more was said about the house that Jack built.
+
+"Oh, Flaxie, _do_ you s'pose we've suffered enough?" asked little Milly
+that night after they had said their prayers and were lying in bed
+looking at the pure soft moonlight which shone on the far-away hills.
+
+"I don' know. I feel as if I had a pain, don't you? Oh dear!"
+
+"Yes, that's just the way I feel; a pain way in deep," replied Milly,
+heaving a sorrowful sigh. "And I ought to, I'm glad of it."
+
+"Glad, Milly Allen? How queer! Why, _I_ don't like to feel bad!"
+
+"I don't either," said Milly, sitting up in bed and speaking very
+earnestly. "But don't you 'member what Auntie Prim said that time we ran
+away from the party? She said children ought to suffer for their
+naughtiness; it's the only way they can learn to behave better."
+
+"Well, any way," said Flaxie, rolling her eyes uneasily, "'twas Johnny
+that put in the stove-pipe, and he ought to feel the worst. I'm going to
+ask Preston about that, see 'f I don't."
+
+Two days after this Flaxie went home, and her little frizzled head was
+not seen at Hilltop any more till the next December. Then her dear
+Grandma Gray had rheumatic fever, and though Flaxie pitied her all she
+could, she made too much noise in the house, and had to be sent away.
+But I will tell you about that in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+HILLTOP AGAIN.
+
+
+"Little red riding hood, where are you going?"
+
+"Going to see my grandmother," replied Flaxie Frizzle, peeping out from
+under her scarlet hood. "And here's a pat of butter for her in this wee,
+wee basket."
+
+"My dear Red Riding Hood, your grandmother is too sick to eat butter.
+Shut the door, walk very softly, and bring me my writing-desk. I'm going
+to write Aunt Charlotte, and ask her if she wants you at Hilltop."
+
+"Oh, mamma, how elegant! Is it 'cause grandma's sick?" cried Flaxie,
+dropping her wee, wee basket, butter and all. She ought to have been
+ashamed to find she was so noisy that she had to be sent away from home;
+but she never thought about that. She did try to keep still, but as she
+had said to Julia that very morning, "there wasn't any still in her!"
+
+"Oh, let me write it myself to Milly; please let me write it myself."
+
+Flaxie was seven years old now, and had actually learned how to scribble
+pretty fast. She was very proud of this, for Milly could do nothing but
+print.
+
+She seized a postal card, ruled it downhill with a pencil, and wrote on
+it a few cramped-up words, huddled close together like dried apples on a
+string:
+
+     "Dear Twin Little Cousin: My Mamma is going to let me go to your
+     House and go to school to your Dear teacher, becaus I make too
+     much noise, and Grammy is sick with Something in her back and Ime
+     glad but not unless your Mamma is willing. Wont you please to write
+     and say so. My lines are unstraight, and its real too bad Good by
+     FLAXIE FRIZZLE."
+
+Mrs. Gray smiled when her little daughter asked how to spell
+_unstraight_, and smiled again when she saw the card and read, "Dear
+twin little cousin."
+
+"Oh, I know better than that," explained Flaxie, blushing: "we're not
+twins a bit, and couldn't be if we should try, and we've known it for
+quite a long time; but you see, mamma, we're _make-believing_, just for
+fun."
+
+"I never saw such a child for 'make-believing,'" said Mrs. Gray, kissing
+Flaxie, who skipped gayly out of the room to pack her valise.
+
+She always packed it, if there was the least thing said about going
+away. She didn't mind the trouble, it was such a pretty valise,--made
+of brown canvas, with leather straps like a trunk. And she knew Aunt
+Charlotte would want her at Hilltop,--people always do want little
+girls, and can't have too many of them,--and it was best to be ready in
+season.
+
+So she looked up her little umbrella, with F. F. painted on it in white
+letters, her school-books that she had been playing school with all over
+the house, and a half bushel or so of her best dolls. But as she did not
+go for a week, she had time to lose these things over and over, and some
+of them were never found any more.
+
+"Now, darling," said mamma, when Flaxie had bidden good-bye to papa and
+Preston, and Ninny and the baby, and was just entering the car behind
+her friend Mrs. Prim. "Now, darling, don't be troublesome to dear Aunt
+Charlotte, and if you'll learn to be good and orderly and sweet like
+your Cousin Milly, I shall be so glad."
+
+Flaxie pondered upon this speech as she sat rattling along in the cars,
+munching peanuts, while Mrs. Prim took care of the shells.
+
+"Troublesome. Oh, my! 's if _I_ ever troubled anybody! 'Cept Grandma
+Gray; and that's 'cause she's got something in her back. But mamma
+_always_ thinks Milly is nicer than me! Queer what makes mammas _never_
+like their own little girls!--I mean, not much. Now Aunt Charlotte
+thinks I'm the nicest. She scolds to Milly sometimes, but she don't
+scold to ME!"
+
+Hilltop had been green when Flaxie left it, but now it was white, and
+seemed lovelier than ever, for Johnny had a new sled, and was "_such_ a
+kind-hearted boy!" That is, he was always ready to draw the twin cousins
+on the ice till they were half frozen and begged him to stop, and I
+hardly see how he _could_ have been kinder than that!
+
+Then the school was "perfickly elegant," taught by that same dear
+teacher, Miss Pike. What if her nose _was_ red, and her mouth so large
+that little Betty Chase called her "the lady that can't shut her face"?
+She was just lovely for all that, and Flaxie and Milly couldn't forget
+that she had saved the schoolhouse when it was set on fire by mistake.
+After that she hadn't looked homely a minute,--only "a beautiful
+homely," that is ever and ever so much better than handsome;--and the
+little girls fairly adored her.
+
+Now Flaxie was quick to learn, but as a general thing she didn't study
+very hard, I am obliged to confess. When she couldn't spell her lessons
+she said to Milly, "It's 'cause you don't have the same kind of books we
+have where I live. The words look so queer in your books!"
+
+If Flaxie was noisy at Laurel Grove, what was she at Hilltop? Sometimes
+in the evening, when she played the piano and sang, Aunt Charlotte was
+really afraid she would disturb Mrs. Hunter, who lived in the other half
+of the house.
+
+"Oh, I like it," said Mrs. Hunter, pleasantly; "but don't you think,
+Mrs. Allen, there is danger of her pounding your piano in pieces?"
+
+But by and by there wasn't so much time for music and play. The busy
+season had begun, when everybody was making ready for Christmas; and the
+twin cousins had as much as they could do in talking over what they were
+_going_ to do, as they sat in each other's lap and looked at their
+work-baskets.
+
+Flaxie wanted to make a marvellous silk bedquilt for her dear mamma out
+of pieces as big as a dollar; but, finding there wouldn't be time for
+that, concluded to buy her a paper of needles, "if it didn't cost too
+much."
+
+Probably there wouldn't have been anything done but talking if Aunt
+Charlotte hadn't brought out some worsteds and canvas and set the
+helpless little ones at work upon a holder called the "Country Cousin."
+They had a hard time over this young lady, and almost wished sometimes
+that she had never been born; but she turned out very brilliant at last,
+in a yellow skirt, red waist, and blue bonnet, with a green parasol over
+her head. After this they had courage to make some worsted balls for the
+babies, some cologne mats for their brothers who never used cologne, and
+some court-plaster cases for somebody else, with the motto, "I stick to
+you when others cut you."
+
+Both the children were tired with all this labor, and Flaxie discovered,
+after her presents were packed and ready to send off by express, that
+she didn't feel very well.
+
+"My throat is so sore I can't _swoler_,"--so she wrote on a postal to
+her mother; for when she was sick she wanted everybody to know it.
+
+Before Aunt Charlotte heard of the sad condition of her throat, she had
+said she might go with Milly and Johnny and some of the older children
+in the village, to see the ladies trim the church. But when Flaxie came
+into the parlor with her teeth chattering, Aunt Charlotte began to fear
+she ought not to go out.
+
+"Are you so very chilly, my dear?"
+
+"Yes 'm, I am," replied Flaxie, with a doleful look around the corners
+of her mouth. "This house isn't heated by steam like my house where I
+live, and I'm drefful easy to freeze!" And her teeth chattered again.
+
+Aunt Charlotte looked anxious, as she drew on her gloves.
+
+"My child, you'd better not go to the church, for it's rather cold
+there."
+
+"Cold as a barn," put in Johnny.
+
+"Oh, auntie, do please, lemme go! I'm cold, but it's a _warm_ cold
+though," said Flaxie, eagerly; and her teeth stopped chattering.
+
+"I'm sorry, Flaxie, but there's a chill in the air like snow, and if
+your throat is sore it is much wiser for you to stay at home," said Aunt
+Charlotte, gently but firmly, like a good mother who is accustomed to be
+obeyed by her children.
+
+And poor Flaxie was obliged to submit, though it cut her to the heart
+when Milly gave her a light kiss and skipped away; and she did think it
+was cruel in Aunt Charlotte to advise her to go into the nursery and
+stay with Nancy and the baby. She wished she had never said a word about
+her throat.
+
+"It don't feel any worse'n a mosquito-bite," thought she, watching the
+gay party from the window,--half a dozen ladies and as many children;
+"it don't hurt me to swallow either,"--swallowing her tears.
+
+"Hilltop's such a queer place! Not the least speck of steam in the
+houses! If they had steam, you could go anywhere, if your throat _was_
+sore! And I never saw anybody trim a church; and oh, Milly says they'll
+have _beau_-tiful flowers, and crosses, and things! _I_ never saw
+anybody trim _anything_--'cept a loaf of cake and flowers on a bonnet."
+
+Foolish Flaxie, to stand there winking tears into her eyes! _You_ would
+have known better; you would have gone into the nursery to play with
+that lovely baby; but there were times, I am sorry to say, when Flaxie
+really enjoyed being unhappy. So now she stood still, rolling her
+little trouble over and over, as boys roll a snowball, making it larger
+and larger, till presently it was as big as a mountain.
+
+"Auntie _said_ I might go, and then she wouldn't lemme! Made me stay at
+home to play with that ole baby! He's squirmy and wigglesome; what do I
+want to play with _him_ for, when she _said_ I might go? I like good
+aunties; I don't like the kind that tell lies.
+
+"Oh, my throat _is_ growing sore, and I'm going off up-stairs to stay in
+the cold, and get sick, 'cause they ought to keep steam; and _then_ I
+guess auntie'll be sorry!"
+
+I grieve to tell you this about Flaxie, for I fear you will not like a
+little girl who could be so very naughty.
+
+When the happy party of church-trimmers came home at tea-time, there she
+was up-stairs in the "doleful dumps;" and it was a long while before
+Milly could coax her down.
+
+When she came at last, her face was a sight to behold--all purple, and
+spotted, and striped; for a fit of crying always gave her the appearance
+of measles. She consented to take a seat at table, but ate little, said
+nothing, and gazed mournfully at her plate.
+
+This distressed Aunt Charlotte, but she asked no questions, and tried to
+keep Johnny talking, so he would not notice his afflicted little cousin.
+
+"Now what _does_ make you act so?" asked Milly, as soon as tea was over.
+
+    "'Got a _cricket_ in my neck;
+    Can't move it a single speck,'"
+
+replied Flaxie, not knowing she had made poetry, till Johnny, who was
+supposed to be ever so far off, began to laugh; and then she moved her
+neck fast enough, and shook her head, and stamped her foot.
+
+"Let's go in the nursery, so Johnny can't plague you," said the
+peace-loving Milly. "I'm so sorry you're sick."
+
+Flaxie had not meant to speak, but she could not help talking to Milly.
+
+"Wish I'se at home," said she, reproachfully, "'cause my mamma keeps
+pepmint."
+
+"Why, Flaxie, my mamma keeps it too. We've got lots and lots of it in
+the cupboard."
+
+"Don't care if you have," snapped Flaxie. "I just despise pepmint. It's
+something else I want, and can't think of the name of; but I know you
+don't keep it, for your papa isn't a doctor!"
+
+It was not the first time Flaxie had wounded her sweet cousin's feelings
+by this same cutting remark.
+
+"Dr. Papa keeps _tittlish_ powders in blue and white papers, and one of
+the papers _buzzes_. I guess he'd give me that, but I don't know," added
+Flaxie, crying again harder than ever, though the tears fell like fire
+on her poor, sore cheeks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+A CRAZY CHRISTMAS.
+
+
+"You dear little thing," said Aunt Charlotte, coming into the room with
+Ken in her arms, but putting him down and taking up her naughty niece.
+"You've been getting homesick all by yourself this long afternoon. Where
+did you stay?"
+
+"Stayed up-sta--irs," sobbed Flaxie.
+
+"In the cold? Why, darling, what made you?"
+
+"You all went off and left me," replied Flaxie, with a little tempest of
+tears.
+
+Then auntie understood it all,--how this child, who was old enough to
+know better, had been rolling a little bit of a trouble over and over,
+till it had grown into a mountain and almost crushed her. And the
+mother-heart in Aunt Charlotte's bosom ached for poor foolish Flaxie.
+
+"She has added to her cold, and is feverish," thought the good lady,
+sending for Nancy to bring some hot water in the tin bath-tub that was
+used for washing the children.
+
+"I shall have you sleep with me to-night, in the down-stairs room," said
+Aunt Charlotte; "and I'll put a flannel round your neck, dear, and some
+poultices on your feet."
+
+Flaxie smiled faintly as she saw the dried burdock-leaves soaking in
+vinegar, for she liked to have a suitable parade made over her when she
+was sick. Besides, she had often thought she should enjoy sleeping in
+the "down-stairs room," and was glad now that Uncle Ben happened to be
+gone; that is, as glad as she could be of anything. It was a miserable,
+forlorn world all of a sudden to Flaxie, and she had never known such "a
+mean old night," even if it was "the night before Christmas."
+
+The lamp burning dimly in the corner of the room, on the floor, cast
+shadows that frightened her; her head ached; she woke the baby in the
+crib by crying, and then he woke everybody else.
+
+It was a "mean old night" to the whole house; and when I say the _whole_
+house, I mean both halves of it. About midnight, as Mrs. Hunter was
+sleeping sweetly, her door-bell rang a furious peal. Nobody likes to hear
+such a sound at dead of night, and Mrs. Hunter trembled a little, for
+she was all alone with her children; but she rose and dressed as fast as
+possible, and went down-stairs with a lamp.
+
+"Who is it?" she asked, through the keyhole.
+
+"It's ME!" said a childish voice that she thought sounded like one of
+the Allen children.
+
+She ventured to open the door, and there on the steps in the darkness
+stood Flaxie Frizzle, bareheaded, shivering, and looking terribly
+frightened.
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Hunter, something _orful_ has happened at our house. Oh, come
+quick, Mrs. Hunter!"
+
+"Yes, yes, dear, I'll go this minute; but what is it?" said the lady,
+hurrying to the entry closet for her shawl.
+
+"Auntie is crazy! She is running round and round with the tea-kettle."
+
+Mrs. Hunter stood still with amazement.
+
+"Who sent _you_ here?" said she. "Why don't they call the doctor?"
+
+"I don't know. She's going to scald me to death, and I s'pose you know
+I'm sick," whined Flaxie, sinking down on the doormat, where the light
+of the lamp shone full upon her, and Mrs. Hunter saw--what she might
+have seen before, if she had not been so nervous--that the little girl
+wore a checked flannel nightie, and her feet were done up in poultices.
+
+Of course she must have come away without any one's knowing it, that
+cold night, with the snow falling too! It was she that was crazy,
+instead of Aunt Charlotte.
+
+"How could the child have got out of the house?" thought Mrs. Hunter.
+
+But the question was now, how to get her back again?
+
+"Come, Flaxie," said she, in a soothing tone, "let me wrap you up in a
+shawl and take you home pickaback,--there's a good girl!"
+
+"But I don't want auntie to scald me."
+
+"She shan't, dear. If she has got the tea-kettle, I'll take it away from
+her."
+
+"Honest?" asked Flaxie, piteously.
+
+But she forgot her terror as soon as she was mounted pickaback, and
+thought herself the "country cousin" taking a ride on a holder.
+
+All this while everybody in the Allen half of the house was up and
+hunting for the lost child. Milly was crying bitterly; Johnny had come
+in from the barn, where he had pulled the hay all over; and Uncle Ben,
+who had just returned from his journey, was starting out on the street
+with a lantern.
+
+Just then Mrs. Hunter walked in, and dropped Flaxie into Aunt
+Charlotte's arms, saying:
+
+"Here, I've brought you a poor sick child."
+
+Then there was such a commotion that Flaxie was more bewildered than
+ever, and at sight of Uncle Ben she screamed wildly. It was his coming
+home about ten minutes before that had frightened her, in the first
+place, by waking her from a bad dream; and she had slipped out of bed,
+and out of the open front door, before any one missed her.
+
+"There! there! darling, don't cry," said Aunt Charlotte, hushing her in
+her arms, while Mrs. Hunter heated a blanket.
+
+"I've done something _orful_," said Flaxie in her auntie's ear. "I'm so
+sorry; but I stole a horse and sleigh! _Don't_ tell, auntie! I put 'em
+behind that door."
+
+"Well, never mind it, dear; you didn't mean to," said Aunt Charlotte,
+smiling in spite of her heavy heart. Then she turned to Uncle Ben, who
+stood by, looking puzzled, and asked him in a whisper if he "didn't
+think he ought to go for the doctor"?
+
+"Oh, by all means," said Mrs. Hunter, beginning to help him on with his
+overcoat.
+
+He had hurried home in the night train, on purpose to spend Christmas
+day with his family, and was really too tired to take a ride of two
+miles in a snow-storm. But he was not thinking of that; he was thinking
+how dreadful it was to have his dear little niece sick away from home;
+and how her papa didn't like the Hilltop doctor,--and perhaps it was
+best to go three miles farther to the next town after Dr. Pulsifer.
+
+"Yes, go for Dr. Pulsifer," said Aunt Charlotte, when he asked her about
+it; "and be as quick as you can."
+
+Flaxie knew nothing of all this. Her cheeks burned, her eyes shone, and
+she kept saying there were a million lions and tigers in the bed; and
+where was the rat-trap?
+
+"Do bring the rat-trap!" said she, plunging about in a fright. "Oh, you
+don't hear, do you? There's a woman out in the other room eating
+peas,--eating, and eating, and eating. Why don't you stop her? Oh, you
+don't hear! Johnny Allen, run for a sponge and vinegar, and put it in
+auntie's ears, so she can hear!"
+
+Milly laughed at these strange speeches till she heard Nancy say to Mrs.
+Hunter, "Crazy as a loon, ain't she? I'm afraid it's water on the
+brain."
+
+Then Milly, who did not understand Nancy's meaning, but was appalled by
+the tone, ran into the pantry, and cried behind the flour-barrel.
+
+"If Flaxie Frizzle dies, I want to die too! She's the only twin cousin
+I've got in the world."
+
+In a short time, considering how far he had ridden, Uncle Ben came home,
+but without Dr. Pulsifer, who had gone away, and could not be there
+before to-morrow noon.
+
+"I'm so disappointed," said Aunt Charlotte, looking pale and ill enough
+herself to be in bed. "But the poor little thing is asleep now, and
+perhaps she isn't so very sick after all. Do tell me if you think
+there's any danger of brain-fever?"
+
+"Well, I think this," replied Uncle Ben, leaning over the bed and taking
+a long look at the little patient; "_I_ don't know what ails her! It may
+be diphtheria, and then again it may be common sore throat; but if she
+isn't better in the morning, we'll telegraph to her father, for a child
+that can turn yellow and pea-green, as she did last spring, is capable
+of almost anything."
+
+"That is true," said Aunt Charlotte; "one never knows what she is going
+to do next." And then she looked at Flaxie, and sighed. It was
+wonderful what a power she had of keeping her friends in a worry, this
+little pink and white slip of a girl! Once she had fallen into a brook,
+and once into a well, beside falling sick times without number. Uncle
+Ben and Aunt Charlotte knew all this, but they did not happen to know
+that it was a very common thing for Flaxie to be crazy! It was just so
+with her brother Preston and her sister Ninny; they seldom had any
+little ailment like a bad cold without "going out of their heads," and
+nobody in the family minded it at all.
+
+If Flaxie's mother had been at Hilltop, she would have sent Uncle Ben
+and Aunt Charlotte to bed; but as she was not there, and they didn't
+know any better, they sat up all night watching their queer little
+niece.
+
+Rather a sorry "Christmas eve" all around the house,--but a beautiful
+Christmas morning, and not a cloud in the sky. Flaxie woke as gay as a
+bird, without the least recollection of the horrors she had suffered in
+the night from tigers and tea-kettles.
+
+"Wish you merry Christmas!" cried she to pale Aunt Charlotte, and sprang
+out of bed with poultices on her feet to go after her Christmas
+stocking.
+
+"Well, is this the little girl they thought was so sick," said Dr.
+Pulsifer, when he arrived at noon, and found her and Milly lying on the
+rug, with a pair of twin dolls between them dressed just alike, and each
+with a fur cap on its head.
+
+He felt Flaxie's pulse and looked at her tongue, and said he "shouldn't
+waste any of his nice medicine on _her_."
+
+"But my cold isn't good at all, now honest; and my throat's a little
+sore--I guess," said Flaxie, drawing a long face, and feeling rather
+ashamed not to be sick now, when the doctor had been sent for on
+purpose!
+
+"Never mind! If you don't need me, your aunt does. What do you think of
+yourself, you little piece of mischief, running away in the night, and
+frightening people so that they are sick abed Christmas day?"
+
+All Flaxie's good time was over in a minute. _Was_ auntie sick abed
+up-stairs? Was that why Flaxie hadn't seen her since morning?
+
+"Oh, mayn't I go look at her?" said she, after the doctor had left. And
+Uncle Ben consented, thinking she wouldn't stay a minute.
+
+"Oh, I'm so sorry! I do love you dearly," cried penitent Flaxie,
+climbing upon the bed and cuddling close to the white auntie. "_Did_ I
+make you sick? I didn't mean to; and I don't 'member anything about the
+tea-kettle."
+
+"There, there, dear, don't cry."
+
+"I oughtn't to stayed up-stairs yesterday in the cold," went on Flaxie,
+determined to free her mind. "That was the wickedest thing! But you were
+just as good as you could be, if you _did_ trim the church; and I'll
+never do so again!"
+
+"Oh, hush, dear; you shake the bed."
+
+"I'm real bad in here, in my s-o-ul!" wailed Flaxie, squeezing her
+eyelids together tight, and laying her hand on her stomach. "Why don't
+God make me beautiful inside o' my soul?"
+
+"Ask Him, dear child!"
+
+"Will He?" said Flaxie, earnestly. "Oh, yes, I know;" and her eager face
+fell. "But He'll have to make me homely to do it, just like Miss Pike."
+
+"Oh, no, my darling."
+
+"Won't He? See what a orful cole-sore I've got on my mouth. If it would
+stay there, and stick on always, do you s'pose I'd grow good?" asked
+Flaxie, thoughtfully.
+
+Aunt Charlotte almost smiled.
+
+"'Cause I'm willing to be a little homely,--now truly--if I can have a
+nice so-o-ul," added the child, with a true and deep feeling of her own
+naughtiness that I am sure the angels must have been glad to see.
+
+But she was shaking the bed again, and Uncle Ben drew her gently away,
+and took her down stairs in his arms to finish the rest of her "crazy
+Christmas."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+MILLY VISITING.
+
+
+Winter passed, spring came, and April was half over before the twin
+cousins met again. Then it was Milly's turn to go to Laurel Grove to see
+Flaxie. She had written a postal-card slowly, and with great pains, to
+say "she should be there to-morrow if it was pleasant."
+
+But how it did rain! It had rained for two days as if the sky meant to
+pour itself away in tears; but on Wednesday the sun came rushing through
+the clouds, his face all aglow with smiles, and put an end to such
+dismal business. The rain ceased, the clouds scampered away and hid
+themselves, and the sky cleared up as bright as if nothing had ever been
+the matter.
+
+Sweet little Milly looked out of the window, heard the birds sing, and
+whispered in her heart:
+
+"Oh, how kind God is to give me a good day to go to Laurel Grove!"
+
+She didn't own a pretty valise of brown canvas with leather straps like
+Flaxie's. All in the world she had was an old bandbox trunk that
+belonged to her mother, and she took no care of that, for Milly never
+"travelled alone."
+
+"Well, little sobersides," said her father, putting the check in his
+pocket, the ticket in his hat, and opening a car-window before he sat
+down beside Milly. "Well, little sobersides, are you glad you're going
+visiting?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said she, her eyes shining. She didn't laugh and clap her
+hands quite as much as Flaxie did, but you always knew when she was
+happy by the glad look in her eyes.
+
+"I hope you two little folks won't get into too much mischief at Laurel
+Grove. Are you going to school?"
+
+"Yes, sir; and oh, it's such an elegant schoolhouse!"
+
+"Well, don't set it on fire."
+
+Milly blushed.
+
+"But the teacher isn't half so nice as Miss Pike."
+
+The dear little girl had not been at Laurel Grove for a long while, but
+all the people in town seemed to remember her,--Mr. Lane the minister,
+Mr. Snow the postmaster, and everybody they met in the street. Her
+father noticed how they smiled upon her, as if they loved her, and it
+made his heart glad.
+
+Preston drove his uncle and cousin home from the depot, but he almost
+ran into a lumber-wagon, and Mr. Allen thought he was too young a boy to
+be trusted with such a fiery horse as Whiz. Flaxie sat with him on the
+front seat of the carriage, dancing up and down, and turning around to
+say to Milly:
+
+"Oh, I'm so happy I can't keep still." She looked like a bluebird, in
+her blue dress and sash, with a white chip bonnet, blue ribbon and blue
+feather, and Milly thought there was not another such girl in the world.
+
+It was a charming place at Dr. Gray's, and the house was full of
+beautiful things, such as Milly did not see at her own home; but that
+never made her discontented or unhappy. If God gave Flaxie prettier
+things than He gave her, it was because He thought best to do so, and
+that was enough for Milly.
+
+"O Aunt Emily, _are_ you glad to see me?" said she, as Mrs. Gray kissed
+her over and over again.
+
+"Yes, I'm just as glad as I can be, and I wish you were my own little
+girl," said Mrs. Gray, who had five children already.
+
+The "little bit-of-est" one was a year old now, and didn't know Milly at
+all, but Phil know her and prattled away to her so fast that nobody else
+could be heard.
+
+That afternoon she and Flaxie were in the stable, feeding Whiz with
+lumps of sugar, while the dog, Tantra Bogus, capered about them, giving
+their cheeks a "thou-sand" kisses with his long, loving tongue.
+
+"Stop, Tantra Bogus; now we'll have to go and wash our faces," said
+Flaxie.
+
+As they entered the kitchen by the outside door they met Mrs. Gray
+standing there talking to Preston.
+
+"Here is a cup of jelly," said she, "and I'd like to have you take it to
+Sammy Proudfit."
+
+This was Wednesday afternoon, and Preston was starting to go about half
+a mile up town to recite an extra lesson to his teacher, Mr. Garland.
+
+"Oh, you're coming too, are you?" said he, looking around at Flaxie and
+Milly, who were skipping along behind him, drawing a handsome doll's
+carriage.
+
+"Yes, we are going up on the bank to play with Blanche Jones and Fanny
+Townsend: mamma said we might," replied Flaxie, dancing.
+
+Preston was very glad of the company of two such happy little girls,
+only he forgot to say so.
+
+"And we've built a house of birch bark under the trees. But it hasn't
+any stove-pipe!" said Flaxie, who had never forgotten that unfortunate
+house that Jack built.
+
+"And we're going to have a doll's party in it," remarked Milly.
+
+"Oh, no, not a party, it's a _reception_," corrected Flaxie; "that's
+what Fanny Townsend says they call 'em in Washington. My biggest dolly,
+Christie Gretchen, is going to receive. Oh, you don't know how
+beautifully she's dressed! And all the other dollies are coming to call
+on her, with the cunningest little cards in their pockets."
+
+"Oh, do your dollies play cards?"
+
+"No, indeed; it's _visiting_ cards,--don't you know?--with their names
+printed on them, just like ladies. Ninny did that."
+
+As they chattered in this way they were drawing near the Proudfit house,
+which stood at the foot of the hill, and little Milly sang,
+
+    "There was an old woman lived under the hill;"
+
+Preston sang to the same tune:
+
+    "And she had a little boy who was not very ill,
+    And he went to bed, and he lies there still."
+
+"Why, Preston Gray, did you make that all up yourself?" cried Flaxie,
+amazed at his genius.
+
+But there was no time for more poetry, even if Preston had been able to
+make it, for they were standing now at the door. It was an old,
+tumble-down house. The children called it black, and in fact it was a
+sort of slate-color, though it had never been painted at all, except by
+the sun, wind, and rain. In the road before it three dirty children were
+poking sand, and they looked so shabby that Milly whispered:
+
+"I shouldn't think they'd be called _Proudfits_: they don't look very
+proud!"
+
+"No," replied Preston, trying to be witty, "the name doesn't _fit_."
+
+Mrs. Proudfit was changing Sammy's pillow-cases when she heard the
+children knock, and came to the door with a pillow between her teeth.
+She was "proper glad of the jelly," as Preston thought she ought to be.
+
+There was a smell of hot gingerbread in the air, which reminded Flaxie
+of the time ever so long ago, when she had taken supper in that house
+without leave; and there was Patty at the window this minute making
+faces. It is strange how things change to you as you grow older! Flaxie
+never cared to visit at that house now, for Patty wasn't a nice little
+girl at all; she not only teased away your playthings, but told wrong
+stories.
+
+"Our baby's two months old, and he's got two teeth!" cried she, as
+Flaxie turned away; but nobody believed her.
+
+The twin cousins and their little friends had a gay time that afternoon
+on the bank, and Christie Gretchen "received" with great dignity; but I
+have no time to talk of that now, I want to tell you something about
+Preston.
+
+When they reached Mr. Garland's house, the little girls left him, and he
+walked up the gravel path to Mr. Garland's front door and rang the bell
+with a sober face.
+
+"I don't believe I can say my lesson, and Mr. Garland will think I'm a
+dunce," said he to himself, with a quivering lip.
+
+Now Preston Gray was remarkably handsome, and one of the dearest boys
+that ever lived, but not a great scholar. He could whittle chairs and
+sofas and churns for Flaxie with a jackknife, and I don't know how many
+ships and steam-engines he had made; but he did not learn his lessons
+very well.
+
+To-day, after the recitation was over, Mr. Garland walked with him
+along the bank of the river.
+
+"Preston, my fine little fellow," said he, kindly, "I can't bear to
+scold a boy I love so dearly; but I've been afraid for some time that
+you don't study this term as hard as usual; what's the matter?"
+
+Tears sprang to Preston's eyes, but he brushed them off and pretended to
+be looking the other way.
+
+"Now, seriously, what _do_ you suppose boys were made for?" went on Mr.
+Garland, without the least idea Preston was crying; "you don't suppose
+they were made on purpose to play and have a good time?"
+
+"I don' know, sir," replied Preston, clearing his throat, and trying to
+laugh; "perhaps they were made to play a good deal, you know, because
+they can't play when they grow to be men."
+
+"Ah, Preston, Preston, I am not joking with you at all. If you were a
+small child like your sister Flaxie it would not matter so much whether
+you studied or not, but your father expects a great deal of his oldest
+son, and it grieves me to have to say to him--"
+
+"Oh, don't, don't," wailed poor little Preston, "I'll do anything in the
+world if you won't talk to my father; I'll take my books home,
+I'll--I'll--"
+
+"There, there, never mind it," said soft-hearted Mr. Garland, moved by
+the boy's distress, "if you really mean to do better--Why, look out,
+child, you'd have fallen over that stump if I hadn't pulled you back.
+Where in the world were your eyes?"
+
+"I was looking at that big woman across the street," stammered Preston;
+"how funny she walks!"
+
+"Woman? What woman? Why, that's a boy with a wheelbarrow," exclaimed
+Mr. Garland, in great surprise.
+
+Preston blushed with all his might and dropped his chin.
+
+"Please, don't tell anybody I took a wheelbarrow for a woman! They'd
+laugh at me. Of course I knew better as soon as I came to think."
+
+Mr. Garland stopped suddenly and stared at Preston.
+
+"Look up here into my face, my boy."
+
+Preston raised his beautiful brown eyes,--those _good_ eyes, which won
+everybody's love and trust; and his teacher gazed at them earnestly.
+
+But Mr. Garland was not admiring their beauty or their gentle
+expression. He saw something else in Preston's eyes which startled him
+and gave him a pang. Not tears, for those had been dashed away, but a
+sort of thin mist lay over them, like that which veils the sun in cloudy
+weather.
+
+"Can it be possible? Why, Preston, why, Preston, my boy," said Mr.
+Garland, taking the young face gently between his hands, "when did
+things begin to blur so and look dim to you?"
+
+Preston did not answer.
+
+"Tell me; don't be afraid."
+
+"It's been," replied Preston, choking, "it's been a long while. The sun
+isn't so bright somehow as it was; and oh, Mr. Garland, the print in my
+books isn't so black as it used to be! But I didn't want to make a fuss
+about it, and have father know it."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Oh, he'd give me medicine, I suppose."
+
+"My boy, my poor boy, you ought to have told him."
+
+"Do you think so? Well, I hoped I'd get better, you know."
+
+"Preston, is this the reason you don't learn your lessons any better?"
+
+"I don't know. Yes, sir, I think so. I can't read the words in my books
+very well."
+
+"You poor, blessed child! Growing blind," thought Mr. Garland; but did
+not say the words aloud.
+
+"And I have to sit in the sun to see."
+
+"I wish I had known this before, and I wouldn't have complained when you
+had bad lessons. Why didn't you tell me, you patient soul!"
+
+"Oh, I don't know, sir; you didn't ask me."
+
+"Good night," said Mr. Garland, in an unsteady voice. "And don't you
+study to-morrow one word. You may sit and draw pictures all day long if
+you like."
+
+Preston smiled. He did not know what made his dear teacher say this,
+and place his hand on his shoulder so tenderly; but he was glad of it,
+very glad; for now it was certain that Mr. Garland would not blame him
+any more; and he ran home with a light heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+BLACKDROP.
+
+
+"Oh, we had such an elegant time up there on the bank! only the boys
+came and plagued us," cried Flaxie, bursting into the house, followed by
+Milly.
+
+She said it to her papa, but he did not appear to listen. He sat holding
+Preston on his knee, and looking at him sadly.
+
+Then Flaxie turned to her mother.
+
+"Why, mamma, Willy Patten threw kisses to me when he was a boy, and
+wasn't my cousin!"
+
+But Mrs. Gray did not listen either. She too was looking at Preston. Mr.
+Garland had just been at the house talking with them about the dear
+child's eyes, and she and Dr. Papa were heavy at heart. Flaxie did not
+know of this, but she felt vaguely that something was wrong.
+
+Milly felt it too, and almost wished she had gone home with her father
+in the afternoon train.
+
+"What has mamma been crying about?" thought Julia. "I'm afraid Preston
+has been a naughty boy, for she and papa have looked very sober ever
+since Mr. Garland was here."
+
+Preston himself understood the case a little better, and was saying to
+himself: "I guess there's something awful the matter with my eyes, or
+father wouldn't have told Mr. Garland he should take me to New York."
+
+There were cold turkey, and pop-overs, and honey for supper, but it
+wasn't a pleasant meal; there was no chatting and laughing; and Dr.
+Papa hurried away from the table as soon as possible to go to see a sick
+lady up town.
+
+It was some time before the children were told the dreadful news that
+Preston was losing his sight. They wondered the next week why he should
+be allowed to stay out of school and play, and why his father, who was
+always kind to him, should be so very gentle now, almost as gentle as he
+was to little Phil.
+
+One day Dr. Gray took Preston to New York to see an oculist. An oculist
+is a physician who treats diseases of the eye.
+
+When Dr. A. called Preston up to him, and looked at the beautiful eyes
+over which a veil was slowly stealing, he shook his head.
+
+Poor little Preston! Not twelve years old, yet growing blind like an old
+man of ninety!
+
+"But after he is blind, we can help him," said Dr. A., stroking the
+boy's white forehead. "When that dreadful veil, which is stealing over
+his eyes, has grown thick enough, then we can take it off, and he can
+see. But it is not thick enough yet. He must go home and wait."
+
+Dr. Gray was not at all surprised by this. He had known all the while
+that Preston's eyes must grow worse before they could be made better.
+But how long the boy must wait, the oculist could not say; some months,
+at any rate, and perhaps a year.
+
+It was a sorrowful time for the whole family when Dr. Gray took Preston
+home with him that night and told the story. Julia put her arms around
+her dear brother as if she wanted to hold him safe from this trial.
+Loving Julia! if darkness was coming upon him, _she_ would surely be, as
+Uncle Ben had said:
+
+     "Like a little candle burning in the night."
+
+And what would Flaxie be? I am afraid Preston did not expect much of
+Flaxie, she was such a flyaway child.
+
+She cried bitterly now, and said:
+
+"Oh, I wish 'twas _my_ eyes, 'cause I'm a naughty little girl; but
+Preston is splendid!"
+
+Milly didn't say a word, she only laid her soft cheek against Preston's
+hand to let him know she pitied him.
+
+"There, there, don't feel so bad, all of you," said he, holding up his
+head grandly. "I can bear it, you see if I can't."
+
+How they all loved him for that! And he did bear it nobly and patiently,
+and the whole family helped him. That is one comfort of having a father
+and mother, and brothers and sisters; they always do help you bear your
+troubles.
+
+"Let's read to him," said Milly to Flaxie. So they read,--first one of
+them, and then the other,--whenever he wished. This would have been very
+pleasant if he had liked "nice books" such as little girls enjoy; but
+no, he chose stories of lion-tamers, and sea-serpents, and wild,
+dreadful Indians.
+
+"Isn't it just awful?" said Flaxie to Milly; but they read away like
+young martyrs.
+
+On the whole, as the family was so large, and every member of it so
+kind, Preston had a very good time, and seldom thought of his eyes.
+
+One day the twin cousins were in the shade of the apple-blossoms, in
+what was called the "orchard garden," driving a carriage full of dolls
+to a "wedding picnic." Flaxie's dolls led a very gay life, and perhaps
+that was one reason they all faded so young.
+
+Just as "Christie Gretchen" was alighting from the carriage, assisted
+by her young husband, "Dr. Preston Smith," and just as Milly had
+sweetened the lemonade exactly to the bride's taste, and was cutting the
+cake, there was a quick call from Preston.
+
+"Girls, girls, come here?"
+
+"Oh, dear," said Flaxie to Milly, "when the picnic is beginning so
+beautifully!"
+
+But then they both remembered that Preston was growing blind and they
+must be kind to him; therefore Flaxie dropped Dr. Smith, and Milly
+dropped the cake, and they ran along to the stable.
+
+Before they reached it, however, they had forgotten all about the
+picnic, for right in the stable-door stood a shaggy mustang pony,
+harnessed to a basket-phaeton; and in the phaeton sat Preston holding
+the reins, while Dr. Papa, mamma, and Julia stood looking on and
+smiling.
+
+"Oh, I never did see anything so cunning," cried Flaxie, forgetting she
+had seen several just such ponies when she went to the seaside with Mrs.
+Prim.
+
+"Whoa! Jump in, both of you," said Preston, turning the phaeton half
+round. His face was all aglow with delight.
+
+"Yes, jump in," said Dr. Papa and mamma.
+
+"It's Preston's pony," cried Julia, who had kept the secret for a whole
+day and night, till it "seemed as if she should fly."
+
+The way that gentle little beast walked out of the yard, the way he
+trotted after he turned into the road! I really cannot give a proper
+account of it myself; it needs a little girl about Flaxie's age to
+describe a pony.
+
+"Oh, he's a darling, a beauty, the sweetest little thing, not half as
+big as Whiz! Why, Preston, aren't you just as happy? Is it your
+carriage? Where's the whip? Oh, the silver reins! Didn't they cost a
+_thou_-sand dollars? What do you call the pony? May I drive?"
+
+[Illustration: THE WEDDING PICNIC. Page 160.]
+
+"Yes, by and by, when my eyes grow so bad that I can't see," replied
+Preston, a little sadly in spite of his joy; "but father says I may
+drive now."
+
+Flaxie had reached out for the reins, but Milly pinched her,--one of
+those sly pinches that both the cousins understood,--and she folded her
+little hands to keep them still. She did want to drive this very minute,
+but she wouldn't plague Preston.
+
+"Who is going to take care of your pony?" she asked.
+
+They had a boy, Henry Mann, who took care of Whiz and Hiawatha.
+
+"I shall attend to my pony myself," replied Preston, driving off at high
+speed.
+
+"Well, you must give him a quart of _granary_ as quick as we get home,"
+said Miss Frizzle, looking wondrous wise; "Johnny Townsend feeds his
+pony with granary--a whole quart."
+
+Preston laughed and chirrupped. He was "just as happy," there was no
+doubt about that.
+
+"I guess I'll call him Blackdrop, wouldn't you, though?"
+
+The little girls thought it was a queer name, but they said:
+
+"Oh, yes, if you want to call him Blackdrop, I would."
+
+"It won't do any hurt," added Flaxie encouragingly.
+
+I wish Blackdrop could have known how happy he made the whole family.
+Milly didn't say much, but her eyes shone as she patted his neck, Julia
+sang every time she saw him, Phil "hugged him grizzly," and Grandma
+Gray who was very timid about horses, said she wasn't any more afraid of
+him than if he had been a Newfoundland dog.
+
+It was the funniest thing, but really and truly, before many days that
+dear old lady used to step into the pony carriage and let little Flaxie
+drive her all around the town! Everybody nodded and smiled as the couple
+passed by, and said it was "the cunningest sight," for grandma wasn't so
+very much bigger than Flaxie, and they looked like two little girls
+riding out, only grandma's hair was silver-white, and Flaxie's spun
+gold.
+
+Through the whole summer Preston's eyes grew worse and worse. It was all
+twilight to him now, or, as somebody calls it, "the edge of the dark."
+He still took care of Blackdrop, by the help of Henry, but he could not
+ride out unless somebody else held the reins.
+
+"But then this sort of thing won't last always," said he to his
+particular friend, Bert Abbott. "Just wait a year or two, sir, and I
+shall be as good as anybody."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+FLAXIE A COMFORT.
+
+
+The days went on, and still Preston's eyes were not "ready." Winter
+came, then spring, and Milly paid another visit to Laurel Grove. She was
+one of those quiet, happy little girls, who make hardly any more noise
+than a sunbeam; but everybody likes to see a sunbeam, and everybody was
+glad to see Milly.
+
+She was even more welcome than usual at Laurel Grove just now, for by
+this time Preston's eyes were "ready," and his father was about taking
+him to New York.
+
+There were four grown people left in the house, and five children beside
+Milly; still it seemed lonesome, for everybody was thinking about
+Preston, and wondering if the doctor would hurt him very much.
+
+"He can't see _what_ the doctor is doing to him," said Flaxie to Milly;
+"I shouldn't think God would let my brother be blind, my _good_ brother
+Preston!"
+
+"God knows what is best," replied Milly, meekly.
+
+"Yes, but, oh dear, I feel so bad! Let's go out in the kitchen and see
+what Dodo is doing."
+
+Grandma, mamma, and Julia looked sadder than ever to hear Flaxie talk in
+this way and run out of the parlor crying.
+
+Dora stood by the kitchen-table ironing very cheerfully.
+
+"Dodo," said Flaxie, "what shall we do to have a good time?"
+
+"Such a funny child as you are, Miss Flaxie," said the girl, trying
+another flatiron; "haven't you everything to your mind, and haven't you
+always had ever since you were born?"
+
+"No, indeed, Dodo," said Flaxie, mournfully, breaking off a corner from
+a sheet of sponge-cake which stood cooling in the window; "_I_ don't
+want my brother to be blind."
+
+"Well, but you can't help it, though. So you'd better not go round the
+house, moping in this way and worrying your mother," returned Dora,
+making a quick plunge with her flatiron into the folds of a calico
+dress.
+
+Worrying her mother! Flaxie had not thought of that. She supposed she
+was showing very kind and tender feelings when she cried about Preston.
+
+"Let's go back to the parlor," said Milly; "perhaps Aunt Emily will feel
+better if we talk and laugh and play with the baby."
+
+"That's the nicest little thing I ever saw," thought Dora, gazing after
+Milly; "she don't fret about her own feelings, but tries to make other
+folks happy."
+
+This was very true, but you mustn't suppose that Flaxie didn't also try
+to make other people happy. She did whenever she could think of it. She
+was really learning lessons in unselfishness every day; and how could
+she help it when everybody in the house set her such a good example?
+
+She and Milly went back to the parlor now, and talked to grandma about
+their western cousins, Pollio and Posy Pitcher; and then they made
+little Phil eat apples like a squirrel,--a very funny performance. After
+that they told him to go into the middle of the room, make a bow, and
+"speak his piece." That was funny too, and Ethel joined in on a high
+key:
+
+    "Poor little fish, I know you wish
+      To live as well as I;
+    I will not hook you from the brook,
+      Or even wish to try.
+
+    "And you, old frog, behind the log,
+      I will not stop your song;
+    Your great round eyes may watch the flies,
+      I will not do you wrong."
+
+Mrs. Gray and grandma did not know this exhibition was called for on
+purpose to amuse them, but they laughed heartily, and felt the better
+for it; and so did Flaxie and Milly. Wasn't it much better than sitting
+in silence and thinking about Preston, when they couldn't help him at
+all?
+
+You may know it was a very sad day for the poor boy. When he found
+himself in the "awful chair," his heart failed him and he sprang out of
+it.
+
+"No, no, he never could have his eyes cut with little daggers. Even if
+they did give him ether, he couldn't; Papa must take him right home
+again. It was of no use!"
+
+It was pitiful to see Preston's struggles with himself, and the still
+greater struggles of the father, who tried to hide his feelings for his
+boy's sake.
+
+"Wait till to-morrow," said Preston; "just wait, and I _will_!"
+
+So they waited.
+
+All the afternoon Preston's heart kept sinking down, down, like a
+plummet let into the sea, and his father's heart sank with it, for a
+child cannot feel a sorrow that does not touch his parent too.
+
+But it chanced in the night, as Preston lay awake, that he fell to
+thinking how his father loved him.
+
+"He would do anything in this world for me. He'd take his eyes right out
+and give them to me if he could."
+
+And then Preston wondered if it were really true that God loved him
+better yet?
+
+Oh, yes, loved him so that he would never, never let anything really bad
+happen to his little boy.
+
+"So this isn't really bad," thought he, clapping his hands softly under
+the coverlet; "it seems awful, but it isn't. God sent it, and I can bear
+it--yes, for his sake and father's sake!"
+
+    "Surely what He wills is best,
+    Happy in His will I rest,"
+
+repeated Preston, and went quietly to sleep "like closing flowers at
+night."
+
+Dr. Gray was joyfully surprised at his bright looks next morning.
+
+"Smile up your face, Dr. Papa," said he, playfully. This was what Flaxie
+used to say in her baby days, when they didn't call her Flaxie Frizzle,
+but Pinky Pearly. "Smile up your face, Dr. Papa, and see what Preston
+Gray can do."
+
+The horror was over then for Dr. Gray; his son was going to behave like
+a man.
+
+He did not know when he saw Preston take his seat so calmly in that
+"awful chair," that he was strong because he felt God's arms about him.
+
+But when Preston left that chair, the trouble was not all over. He could
+not bear any light yet, so he had to go home a few days afterwards with
+a bandage over his eyes, and stay in a dark room for many weeks.
+
+But didn't they make the room pleasant for him? Didn't they treat him
+like a prince? Didn't Bert Abbott and the other boys go up and down on
+that stair-carpet till they nearly wore it out?
+
+Of course Julia was good to the young prisoner; you would have expected
+that. Flaxie was good too. She seemed at this time to have forgotten all
+her little fretful, troublesome ways, and was always willing to stay in
+Preston's chamber, and tell him everything that happened in the house or
+out of it; just how the pony looked and acted, and how he coughed a
+little dot of a mouse out of his nose, supposed to have run up his
+nostril when he was eating his "granary." Flaxie could be very
+interesting when she chose, and Preston's face began to light up at the
+sound of her little feet on the stairs.
+
+She had never loved her brother so well as she did now that she had
+become useful to him, and it made her very happy to hear Preston tell
+his mother that "Flaxie grew better and better; she was almost as good
+now as Julia."
+
+Milly had gone home, but she came back again in June. You see that the
+twin cousins were not very particular about taking turns in their
+visits, but went and came just as their two mothers found it most
+convenient.
+
+By this time Preston could venture out of doors on a dark day or in the
+evening; but I am sorry to say he was obliged to wear spectacles. This
+amused the little ones, Phil and Ethel, but Flaxie was very sorry.
+
+"I do pity those spectacles," said she to Milly in a low voice, as they
+walked under the apple-trees with their arms around each other's waist.
+
+"Oh, well," returned Milly brightly, "he won't have to wear them
+always."
+
+"Yes, he will. He said he was afraid the boys would laugh when they saw
+him, but they didn't. Some of them cried though; I saw Bert Abbott
+wiping his eyes."
+
+After a while, the little girls, and indeed all Preston's friends,
+became so accustomed to seeing him in glasses that they did not mind it
+all. He could see perfectly well, and was as happy as ever; so it didn't
+seem worth while to "pity his spectacles."
+
+And now I must tell you one thing more about this dear boy, and then my
+story will be done.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+BRAVE PRESTON GRAY.
+
+
+"Never saw such folks for jelly; they eat it by the quart. Wish I could
+be sick once in a while, and get some myself," muttered Preston, as he
+settled his school-book under his arm, and took the cup his mother had
+brought to the door.
+
+It was Jimmy Proudfit who was sick now, and Mrs. Gray was in the habit
+of sending him little dainties by Preston, who often grumbled about it,
+and said he was "tired of the whole Proudfit family." Mrs. Gray never
+took any notice of these unfeeling remarks, knowing they meant nothing,
+for Preston was an extremely kind-hearted boy. He had a few faults, of
+course, and one of them was a strong dislike for doing errands. He was
+on his way now to recite a Latin lesson to his kind teacher, Mr.
+Garland; and, as usual, the twin cousins were close at his heels,
+skipping and dancing, for they never could walk when they felt truly
+gay.
+
+"Where are you going?" asked Preston, looking back through his
+spectacles.
+
+"Going up on the bank to play 'Uncle Tom.' Blanche Jones and Fanny
+Townsend and everybody else is going, and 'twill be just splendid,"
+replied Flaxie, as Preston walked up to Mrs. Proudfit's door to deliver
+the jelly.
+
+There were four children playing in the sand this time, and one of them
+was Patty. The twin cousins thought they would go by them without
+turning their heads, but Patty called out, "Where are you running to in
+such a hurry?"
+
+"Oh, we're going up to play on the bank there somewhere," replied
+Flaxie, trying to shake off the baby, who had been eating candy and was
+pulling at her frock with his sticky fingers.
+
+"Up on the bank? Well, I'm agoin' too," said that black-eyed,
+disagreeable Patty.
+
+And without waiting to see whether she was wanted or not, she followed
+along with her two dirty sisters; and behind them toddled the baby!
+
+Preston marched on in front, looking very much amused; but Flaxie's face
+was quite red. She pinched Milly's arm, and then Milly pinched hers. It
+was a strange way to go to a party--_the_ party of the season; and
+Flaxie had a great mind to run home; only her mother had charged her
+again and again not to be rude; so she said in a very calm, polite
+manner:
+
+"Patty, don't you think 'twould be a good plan for you to go in the
+house and see Jimmy? He's sick."
+
+Patty only laughed, and the four children scuffled along just the same
+behind Flaxie and Milly, making the dirt fly with their bare toes.
+
+Oh, it was all very well for Preston to whistle! It didn't trouble
+_him_, of course, for _he_ wasn't going to the party! He stopped in a
+few minutes at Mr. Garland's beautiful brown house with the green vines
+around it, and made a low bow as he said "Good-bye."
+
+Flaxie scowled. What would Fanny Townsend and Blanche Jones and all the
+other nice girls say to see her bringing along such a train of dirty
+gypsies? She and Milly kept close together, never turning their heads
+till they came to the place "on the bank up there somewhere," where they
+were to have the party.
+
+Fanny and Blanche, and nearly everybody else, had arrived already, in
+clean frocks, with faces just washed; and, dear! dear! who wanted those
+Proudfits? But the little girls in Laurel Grove were for the most part
+very well-bred, so they said, "How do you do, Patty?" and "How do you
+do, Gretty?" and "How do you do, Baby?" just as if they had expected the
+whole family; though it was really a picnic party, and nobody had a
+right to come to it without an invitation. Patty kept close beside
+Flaxie; but Bubby, the fourteen months' old baby, made himself generally
+disagreeable by wiping the candy and sand off his hands upon the little
+girls' skirts.
+
+"Let's play something," said Flaxie nervously.
+
+It was a beautiful place to play. There were trees for hide-and-seek,
+flat spots for croquet, and little hills and hollows for everything
+else. The village children used this for a sort of park, and the river
+seemed to look on and laugh to see them so gay. It was a very sober,
+steady river above and below, but right here it went leaping and
+tumbling over some rocks, making a merry cascade,--just for fun, you
+would think. The children liked to skip stones and see them spin up and
+down in the foam; but they had been warned not to go too near the bank.
+Nobody had ever fallen in yet, but it wasn't a safe place for very
+little folks, certainly not for roly-poly babies like Bubby Proudfit. He
+was very clumsy, falling down, rolling over, and picking himself up
+again every five minutes. Patty meant to watch him, but he was not very
+interesting, and the little girls quite bewitched her with their kind
+smiles and pretty ways.
+
+Flaxie Frizzle was one of the youngest, but led off in most of the
+games. She was little Eva, and died on a bed of grass "elegantly," while
+everybody else groaned and howled, especially poor Uncle Tom. Uncle Tom
+was Milly, in a black mask of Preston's, which had been played with till
+it was cracked in fifty places, and made Uncle Tom look about two
+hundred years old.
+
+Then they had the "Old Woman in the Shoe," and Flaxie was a fierce and
+cruel mother, whipping her children so "soundly" that you could hear
+them scream half a mile off.
+
+Patty thought all this was beautiful, and a longing look came into her
+bold black eyes, as she gazed at the old woman.
+
+"Oh, if _I_ could wear red stockings, with flowers on them, like Flaxie!
+If _I_ could be a doctor's little girl, and live in a house with blinds
+and trees and flowers, and have a cousin come to see _me_!"
+
+It wasn't strange that Patty should feel like this, and want to cover up
+her bare feet in the grass; but in admiring Flaxie she forgot entirely
+to watch Bubby, and that was a great mistake. _He_ didn't care, he never
+liked to be watched; it was fine fun to see the whole world before him
+and go just where he chose. Didn't the trees and grass and flowers all
+belong to him! To be sure they did, and he meant to carry some of them
+home. But while he was trudging about, and making up his little mind
+where he would begin to pull, he espied the river sparkling in the sun,
+and that was finest of all. "Pitty, pitty!" cried he, and thought he
+would carry the river home too. How nice it would be to splash in! He
+fairly shouted at the idea, for having never seen a bath-tub, he hadn't
+learned to be afraid of soap and water. "Pitty, pitty!" said he,
+toddling down with outstretched hands toward the dashing, dancing,
+merry, white cascade; while the children, running away from the terrible
+old woman, and trying to see which could scream loudest, never saw or
+heard him at all.
+
+Ah, baby, foolish baby, do you think you can seize that bright river and
+carry it home? No, it is the bright river that is going to seize _you_,
+unless somebody stops your little feet before they get to the brink!
+
+About this time Preston Gray had finished reciting his lesson. It was
+not a very good one, though his teacher found no fault whatever; and now
+instead of going home, Preston strolled along toward the "Children's
+Park," thinking how strange it was that little girls should scream so
+much louder than boys at their games.
+
+"Flaxie is a gay one," said he, as he saw her chasing her children with
+a white birch switch; but at that moment he saw something else that made
+his heart stand still. The Proudfit baby was scrambling down the bank,
+just above the falls!
+
+Preston called out, but it was of no use; there was not a man to be
+seen, and if there had been twenty men they could have heard nothing,
+while the little girls were making such a noise. He ran with all his
+might, but by the time he reached the bank, the baby had tumbled
+headlong into the river!
+
+What was to be done? Preston was only a little boy himself, let me tell
+you, and though he had learned to swim, the current was strong right
+here, and there was great danger of his being carried over the falls.
+
+What would _you_ have done, my little reader? Perhaps you would have
+stopped to think a good many times, saying to yourself:
+
+"Oh, I don't dare, I don't dare!"
+
+And then, ah, _then_, it might have been too late!
+
+Preston was called a slow boy, but he didn't stop to think once; he did
+his thinking while he was pulling off his shoes.
+
+"I must do it!" that was all he thought. And then he dashed in.
+
+Bubby was in deep water already, and his struggles were carrying him
+down stream. Preston seized him by his calico frock, and tried to drag
+him toward the bank; but that dreadful baby had always had a habit of
+nipping at everything like a snapping-turtle, and now he caught
+Preston's throat between his thumb and forefinger, half strangling him.
+And, oh, the current was so swift!
+
+For a moment it was life or death with both of them; but Preston managed
+to unclasp the tiny hand, hold it down, and land the poor little fellow
+safe at last.
+
+"God helped me--I knew he would!" thought brave Preston Gray, as he drew
+his first long breath on the bank.
+
+Of course all the little girls had gathered around him, screaming in
+chorus, and it was a noisy procession that followed the weeping Patty
+down the street, with the dripping baby in her arms.
+
+"'Twas my brother that saved him, 'twas my brother Preston!" cried
+Flaxie to everybody they met. "He jumped into the river and pulled out
+the baby!"
+
+That wasn't the end of it. There was another procession in the evening,
+and this one stopped at Dr. Gray's gate. It was the Brass Band, out in
+uniform; but Preston hadn't the least idea what for, till the men paused
+at the end of a tune, swung their caps, and gave "Three cheers for
+Master Preston Gray!"
+
+Even then he didn't understand. He hid behind his father and thought he
+_should_ like to know what his mother was crying about.
+
+"Hurrah!" said the leader again, Major Patten, swinging his tall fur
+cap, which was the pride of the whole company; "hurrah for the boy that
+risked his life to save a drowning baby!"
+
+"Oh, is that it? Anybody'd have done that!" thought little Preston,
+hiding again. He was a modest boy; but his sister Flaxie, you know, was
+quite too bold.
+
+"Why don't he come out?" whispered she, pulling at his sleeve.
+
+"Hush, let him alone," said Dr. Gray, with tears in his eyes.
+
+And then he raised the noble boy in his arms, so the men could see him,
+for that was what they wanted. But still Preston hid his face. His heart
+was full, and he _couldn't_ look up when those people were praising him
+so.
+
+By this time there were lamps lighted in every window of Dr. Gray's
+house, and even in the trees; and though the moon was shining her best,
+Major Patten, with the wonderful fur cap, asked Preston to stand beside
+him and hold a lamp, that he might see to read his music.
+
+Preston stood there with the light shining on his pure, good face; and
+then the men played, "See the Conquering Hero comes," the
+"Marsellaise," and a dozen other tunes, while their uniforms made such a
+dazzle of red and gold that Flaxie could not help dancing about like a
+wild thing for joy.
+
+It was not so with thoughtful Milly. She snuggled down on the piazza
+beside Julia, and looked on quietly.
+
+"I'm glad Preston was so good," thought she; "perhaps he wouldn't have
+been so very good if he hadn't had those blind eyes and spectacles. How
+God must love him! Papa says Julia is like a little candle, and I'm sure
+Preston is like a candle too. Why, where _is_ Flaxie going now?"
+
+Flaxie was flying down the hill after Henry, the stable-boy. She had
+heard her papa tell him to go to Mr. Springer's for some ice-cream, and
+she wanted to say: "Get it pink, Henry; get the pinkest ice-cream you
+can find!"
+
+Then when the men were seated all about the yard and on the piazza,
+eating their pink ice-cream, somebody threw up a rocket; and that was
+the end of the gayest, brightest evening our little friend Flaxie
+Frizzle had ever known in her life.
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+
+SOPHIE MAY'S "LITTLE-FOLKS" BOOKS
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Illustrated, Comprising:--
+
+"The authoress of The Little Prudy Stories would be elected
+Aunty-laureate if the children had an opportunity, for the wonderful
+books she writes for their amusement. She is the Dickens of the nursery,
+and we do not hesitate to say develops the rarest sort of genius in the
+specialty of depicting smart little children."--Hartford Post.
+
+LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS, BOSTON.
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1884, BY LEE AND SHEPARD.
+
+SOPHIE MAY'S "LITTLE-FOLKS" BOOKS
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"The children will not be left without healthful entertainment and
+kindly instruction so long as Sophie May (Miss Rebecca S. Clarke) lives
+and wields her graceful pen in their behalf, Miss Clarke has made a
+close and loving study of childhood, and she is almost idolized by the
+crowd of 'nephews and nieces' who claim her as aunt. Nothing to us can
+ever be quite so delightfully charming as were the 'Dotty Dimple' and
+the 'Little Prudy' books to our youthful imagination, but we have no
+doubt the little folks of to-day will find the story of 'Flaxie Frizzle'
+and her young friends just as fascinating. There is a sprightliness
+about all of Miss Clarke's books that attracts the young, and their
+purity, their absolute cleanliness, renders them invaluable in the eyes
+of parents and all who are interested in the welfare of children."--
+Morning Star.
+
+"Genius comes in with 'Little Prudy.' Compared with her, all other
+book-children are cold creations of literature; she alone is the real
+thing. All the quaintness of children, its originality, its tenderness
+and its teasing, its infinite uncommon drollery, the serious earnestness
+of its fun, the fun of its seriousness, the naturalness of its plays,
+and the delicious oddity of its progress, all these united for dear
+Little Prudy to embody them."--North American Review.
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+SOPHIE MAY'S "LITTLE-FOLKS" BOOKS
+
+[Illustration:
+LITTLE PRUDY STORIES
+BY SOPHIE MAY
+ILLUSTRATED
+SIX VOLUMES]
+
+Illustrated, Comprising:--
+
+LITTLE PRUDY.
+  LITTLE PRUDY'S SISTER SUSIE.
+    LITTLE PRUDY'S CAPTAIN HORACE.
+      LITTLE PRUDY'S COUSIN GRACE.
+        LITTLE PRUDY'S STORY BOOK.
+          LITTLE PRUDY'S DOTTY DIMPLE.
+
+In neat box. Price 75 cents per volume.
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+SOPHIE MAY'S "LITTLE-FOLKS" BOOKS
+
+LITTLE PRUDY.
+
+"I have been wanting to say a word about a book for children, perfect of
+its kind--I mean Little Prudy. It seems to me the greatest book of the
+season for children. The authoress has a genius for story-telling.
+Prudy's letter to Mr. 'Gustus Somebody must be genuine; if an invention,
+it shows a genius akin to that of the great masters. It is a positive
+kindness to the little ones to remind their parents that there is such a
+book as Little Prudy."--Springfield Republican.
+
+LITTLE PRUDY'S SISTER SUSIE.
+
+"Every little girl and boy who has made the acquaintance of that funny
+'Little Prudy' will be eager to read this book, in which she figures
+quite as largely as her bigger sister, though the joys and troubles of
+poor Susie make a very interesting story."--Portland Transcript.
+
+"Certainly one of the most cunning, natural, and witty little books we
+ever read."--Hartford Press.
+
+LITTLE PRUDY'S CAPTAIN HORACE.
+
+"These are such as none but Sophie May can write, and we know not where
+to look for two more choice and beautiful volumes--Susie for girls and
+Horace for boys. They are not only amusing and wonderfully entertaining,
+but teach most effective lessons of patience, kindness, and
+truthfulness. Our readers will find a good deal in them about Prudy, for
+so many things are always happening to her that the author finds it
+impossible to keep her out."
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+SOPHIE MAY'S "LITTLE-FOLKS" BOOKS
+
+[Illustration: "There were a few articles to be ironed for the bride,
+and Prudy had a mind to try the Jewish flatirons; so, with Barbara's
+leave, she smoothed out some handkerchiefs on a chair."]
+
+SPECIMEN OF "LITTLE PRUDY" CUTS.
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+SOPHIE MAY'S "LITTLE-FOLKS" BOOKS
+
+LITTLE PRUDY'S STORY BOOK.
+
+"This story book is a great favorite with the little folks, for it
+contains just such stories as they like to hear their aunt and older
+sister tell; and learn them by heart and tell them over to one another
+as they set out the best infant tea-set, or piece a baby-quilt, or dress
+dolls, or roll marbles. A book to put on the book-shelf in the playroom
+where Susie and Prudy, Captain Horace, Cousin Grace, and all the rest of
+the 'Little Prudy' folks are kept."--Vermont Record.
+
+LITTLE PRUDY'S COUSIN GRACE.
+
+"An exquisite picture of little-girl life at school and at home, and
+gives an entertaining account of a secret society which originated in
+the fertile brain of Grace, passed some comical resolutions at first,
+but was finally converted into a Soldier's Aid Society. Full of life,
+and fire, and good advice; the latter sugar-coated, of course, to suit
+the taste of little folks."--Press.
+
+LITTLE PRUDY'S DOTTY DIMPLE.
+
+"Dotty Dimple is the plague of Prudy's life, and yet she loves her
+dearly. Both are rare articles in juvenile literature, as real as Eva
+and Topsy of 'Uncle Tom' fame. Witty and wise, full of sport and study,
+sometimes mixing the two in a confusing way, they ran bubbling through
+many volumes, and make everybody wish they could never grow up or
+change, they are so bright and cute."
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+SOPHIE MAY'S "LITTLE-FOLKS" BOOKS
+
+[Illustration: LITTLE PRUDY'S CAPTAIN HORACE.]
+
+"You wide-awake little boys, who make whistles of willow, and go fishing
+and training,--Horace is very much like you, I suppose. He is by no
+means perfect, but he is brave and kind, and scorns a lie. I hope you
+and he will shake hands and be friends."
+
+SPECIMEN OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO PRUDY BOOKS.
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+SOPHIE MAY'S "LITTLE-FOLKS" BOOKS
+
+[Illustration:
+SOPHIE MAY'S "LITTLE FOLKS" BOOKS
+DOTTY DIMPLE STORIES
+SOPHIE MAY
+ILLUSTRATED
+DOTTY AT PLAY.]
+
+Six Volumes. Illustrated. Comprising:--
+
+DOTTY DIMPLE AT HER GRANDMOTHER'S.
+  DOTTY DIMPLE OUT WEST.
+    DOTTY DIMPLE AT HOME.
+      DOTTY DIMPLE AT PLAY.
+        DOTTY DIMPLE AT SCHOOL.
+          DOTTY DIMPLE'S FLYAWAY.
+
+In a neat box. Price 75 cents per volume.
+
+[Illustration: DOTTY GOING WEST]
+
+"'Please stop,' said Dotty faintly, and the boy came to her, elbowing.
+'I want some of that pop-corn so much! I could buy it if you'd hold this
+baby till I put my hand in my pocket.' The youth laughed, but for the
+sake of 'making a trade' set down his basket and took the 'enfant
+terrible.' There was an instant attack upon his hair, which was so long
+and straggling as to prove an easy prey to the enemy."
+
+SPECIMEN OF "DOTTY DIMPLE" ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+SOPHIE MAY'S "LITTLE-FOLKS" BOOKS
+
+DOTTY DIMPLE AT HER GRANDMOTHER'S.
+
+"Sophie May's excellent pen has perhaps never written anything more
+pleasing to children, especially little girls, than Dotty Dimple. If the
+little reader who follows Dotty through these dozen chapters,--from her
+visit to her grandmother to the swing under the trees,--he or she will
+say: 'It has been a treat to read about Dotty Dimple, she's so
+cunning.'"--Herald of Gospel Liberty.
+
+DOTTY DIMPLE OUT WEST.
+
+"Dotty's trip was jolly. In the cars where she saw so many people that
+she thought there'd be nobody left in any of the houses, she offers to
+hold somebody's baby, and when it begins to cry she stuffs pop-corn into
+its mouth, nearly choking it to death. Afterwards, in pulling a man's
+hair, she is horrified at seeing his wig come off, and gasps out 'O
+dear, dear, dear, I didn't know your hair was so tender.' Altogether,
+she is the cunningist chick that ever lived."--Oxford Press.
+
+DOTTY DIMPLE AT HOME.
+
+"This little book is as full of spice as any of its predecessors, and
+well sustains the author's reputation as the very cleverest of all
+writers of this species of children's books. Were there any doubt on
+this point, the matter might be easily tested by inquiry in half the
+households in the city, where the book is being revelled over."--Boston
+Home Journal.
+
+SOPHIE MAY'S "LITTLE-FOLKS" BOOKS
+
+[Illustration: "As Dotty seized two locks of the Major's hair, one in
+each hand, and pulled them both as if she meant to draw them out by the
+roots, out they came! Yes, entirely out; and more than that, all the
+rest of his hair came too. His head was left as smooth as an apple. You
+see how it was. He wore a wig, and just for play had slyly unfastened
+it, and allowed Miss Dotty to pull it off. The perfect despair of her
+little face amused him vastly, but he did not smile; he looked very
+severe. 'See what you have done,' said he. Major Laydie's entire head of
+hair lay at her feet, as brown and wavy as ever it was. Dotty looked at
+it with horror. The idea of scalping a man."
+
+SPECIMEN OF "DOTTY DIMPLE" ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+SOPHIE MAY'S "LITTLE-FOLKS" BOOKS
+
+DOTTY DIMPLE AT SCHOOL.
+
+"Miss Dotty is a peremptory little body, with a great deal of human
+nature in her, who wins our hearts by her comic speeches and funny ways.
+She complains of being bewitched by people, and the wind 'blows her
+out,' and she thinks if her comrade dies in the snow-storm she will be
+'dreadfully 'shamed of it,' and has rather a lively time with all her
+trials in going to school."--New York Citizen.
+
+DOTTY DIMPLE AT PLAY.
+
+"'Charming Dotty Dimple' as she is so universally styled, has become
+decidedly a favorite with young and old, who are alike pleased with her
+funny sayings and doings. Dotty At Play will be found very attractive,
+and the children, especially the girls, will be delighted with her
+adventures."--Boston Express.
+
+DOTTY DIMPLE'S FLYAWAY.
+
+"This is the final volume of the Dotty Dimple Series. It relates how
+little Flyaway provisioned herself with cookies and spectacles and got
+lost on a little hill while seeking to mount to heaven, and what a
+precious alarm there was until she was found, and the subsequent joy at
+her recovery, with lots of quaint speeches and funny incidents."--North
+American.
+
+"A Little Red Riding-Hoodish story, sprightly and takingly told."
+--American Farmer.
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+SOPHIE MAY'S "LITTLE-FOLKS" BOOKS
+
+[Illustration:
+LITTLE PRUDY'S
+FLYAWAY SERIES]
+
+Six Volumes. Illustrated. Comprising:--
+
+LITTLE FOLKS ASTRAY.
+    PRUDY KEEPING HOUSE.
+         AUNT MADGE'S STORY.
+             LITTLE GRANDMOTHER.
+                LITTLE GRANDFATHER.
+                    MISS THISTLEDOWN.
+
+Price 75 cents per volume.
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+SOPHIE MAY'S "LITTLE-FOLKS" BOOKS
+
+LITTLE FOLKS ASTRAY.
+
+"This is a book for the little ones of the nursery or playroom. It
+introduces all the old favorites of the Prudy and Dotty books with new
+characters and funny incidents. It is a charming book, wholesome and
+sweet in every respect, and cannot fail to interest children under
+twelve years of age."--Christian Register.
+
+PRUDY KEEPING HOUSE.
+
+"How she kept it, why she kept it, and what a good time she had playing
+cook, and washerwoman, and ironer, is told as only Sophie May can tell
+stories. All the funny sayings and doings of the queerest and cunningest
+little woman ever tucked away in the covers of a book will please little
+folks and grown people alike."--Press.
+
+AUNT MADGE'S STORY.
+
+"Tells of a little mite of a girl, who gets into every conceivable kind
+of scrape and out again with lightning rapidity, through the whole
+pretty little book. How she nearly drowns her bosom friend, and
+afterwards saves her by a very remarkable display of little-girl
+courage. How she gets left by a train of cars, and loses her kitten and
+finds it again, and is presented with a baby sister 'come down from
+heaven,' with lots of smart and funny sayings."--Boston Traveller.
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+SOPHIE MAY'S "LITTLE-FOLKS" BOOKS
+
+[Illustration:
+PRUDY KEEPING HOUSE.
+"'Oh, what a fascinating creature,' said the Man in the Moon, making an
+eye-glass with his thumb and forefinger, and gazing at the lady
+boarder. 'Are you a widow, mem?'"]
+
+SPECIMEN CUT TO "LITTLE PRUDY'S FLYAWAY SERIES."
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+SOPHIE MAY'S "LITTLE-FOLKS" BOOKS
+
+LITTLE GRANDMOTHER.
+
+"Grandmother Parlen when a little girl is the subject. Of course that
+was ever so long ago, when there were no lucifer matches, and steel and
+tinder were used to light fires; When soda and saleratus had never been
+heard of, but people made their pearl ash by soaking burnt crackers in
+water; when the dressmaker and the tailor and the shoemaker went from
+house to house twice a year to make the dresses and coats of the
+family."--Transcript.
+
+LITTLE GRANDFATHER.
+
+"The story of Grandfather Parlen's little boy life, of the days of knee
+breeches and cocked hats, full of odd incidents, queer and quaint
+sayings, and the customs of 'ye olden time.' These stories of Sophie
+May's are so charmingly written that older folks may well amuse
+themselves by reading them. That same warm sympathy with childhood, the
+earnest naturalness, the novel charm of the preceding volumes will be
+found in this."--Christian Messenger.
+
+MISS THISTLEDOWN.
+
+"One of the queerest of the Prudy family. Read the chapter heads and you
+will see just how much fun there must be in it: 'Fly's Heart,' 'Taking a
+Nap,' 'Going to the Fair,' 'The Dimple Dot,' 'The Hole in the Home,'
+'The Little Bachelor,' 'Fly's Bluebeard,' 'Playing Mamma,' 'Butter
+Spots,' 'Polly's Secret,' 'The Snow Man,' 'The Owl and the Humming-
+Bird,' 'Talks of Hunting Deer,' and 'The Parlen Patchwork.'"
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TWIN COUSINS***
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