1 files changed, 3902 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/24711.txt b/24711.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..82a4393
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24711.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3902 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Prudy, by Sophie May
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Little Prudy
+
+Author: Sophie May
+
+Release Date: February 28, 2008 [EBook #24711]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE PRUDY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, David Edwards, and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+(This file was produced from images generously made
+available by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                [Illustration: THE A. B. C. SCHOLARS.]
+
+
+                         Little Prudy Stories
+
+
+
+                             LITTLE PRUDY
+
+
+
+
+
+                                  BY
+
+
+                              SOPHIE MAY
+
+      Author of "Little Prudy Stories," "Dotty Dimple Stories,"
+      "Flaxie Frizzle Stories," "Little Prudy's Flyaway Series,"
+ "Little Prudy's Children Series," "Pauline Wyman," "Joy Bells," etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                BOSTON
+
+                      LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
+
+
+
+
+                COPYRIGHT, 1891, BY REBECCA S. CLARKE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATION
+
+
+TO THE LITTLE PUBLIC
+
+A Merry Christmas, dear Children
+
+You who have read of Prudy Parlin, in the "Congregationalist" and
+"Little Pilgrim," and have learned to love her there, may love her
+better in a book by herself with pictures.
+
+To you who never saw her before, we will introduce her now. It is easy
+to feel acquainted with Prudy; for she is, as you will find, a very
+talkative little lady.
+
+There is no end of things which might be told of Susy, Grace, and
+Horace; and if you wish to hear more about them, you have only to wait
+a little while.
+
+God is sending us another year as fresh and clean as the purest paper.
+Let us thank Him for it, and try to write it over with kind thoughts
+and good deeds; then it will be for all of us
+
+_A HAPPY NEW YEAR!_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAP.
+
+I.    PRUDY'S PATCHWORK,
+
+II.   PRUDY GOING UP TO HEAVEN,
+
+III.  PRUDY'S KNITTING-WORK,
+
+IV.   PRUDY'S PICNIC,
+
+V.    PRUDY IN THE PINES,
+
+VI.   PRUDY SICK,
+
+VII.  PRUDY'S PRESENT,
+
+VIII. PRUDY FISHING,
+
+IX.   THE HATCHET STORY,
+
+X.    MORE STORIES,
+
+XI.   PRUDY'S WHITE TEA,
+
+XII.  PRUDY TRYING TO HELP,
+
+XIII. THE GYPSY SUPPER,
+
+XIV.  THE ANGEL-BABY,
+
+XV.   GOING HOME,
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+LITTLE PRUDY
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+PRUDY'S PATCHWORK
+
+
+I am going to tell you something about a little girl who was always
+saying and doing funny things, and very often getting into trouble.
+
+Her name was Prudy Parlin, and she and her sister Susy, three years
+older, lived in Portland, in the State of Maine, though every summer
+they went to Willowbrook, to visit their grandmother.
+
+At the very first of our story, Susy was more than six years old, and
+Prudy was between three and four. Susy could sew quite well for a
+girl of her age, and had a stint every day. Prudy always thought it
+very fine to do just as Susy did, so she teased her mother to let
+_her_ have some patchwork, too, and Mrs. Parlin gave her a few calico
+pieces, just to keep her little fingers out of mischief.
+
+But when the squares were basted together, she broke needles, pricked
+her fingers, and made a great fuss; sometimes crying, and wishing
+there were no such thing as patchwork.
+
+One morning she sat in her rocking-chair, doing what she thought was a
+"_stint_." She kept running to her mother with every stitch, saying,
+"Will that do?" Her mother was very busy, and said, "My little
+daughter must not come to me." So Prudy sat down near the door, and
+began to sew with all her might; but soon her little baby sister came
+along, looking so cunning, that Prudy dropped her needle, and went to
+hugging her.
+
+"O, little sister," cried she, "I wouldn't have a horse come and eat
+you up for any thing in the world!"
+
+After this, of course, her mother had to get her another needle, and
+then thread it for her. She went to sewing again till she pricked her
+finger, and the sight of the wee drop of blood made her cry.
+
+"O, dear! I wish somebody would pity me!" But her mother was so busy
+frying doughnuts that she could not stop to talk much; and the next
+thing she saw of Prudy she was at the farther end of the room, while
+her patchwork lay on the spice box.
+
+"Prudy, Prudy, what are you up to now?"
+
+"Up to the table," said Prudy. "O, mother, I'm so sorry, but I've
+broke a crack in the pitcher!"
+
+"What will mamma do with you? You haven't finished your stint--what
+made you get out of your chair?"
+
+"O, I thought grandma might want me to get her _speckles_. I thought I
+would go and find Zip too. See, mamma, he's so tickled to see me he
+shakes all over--every bit of him!"
+
+"Where's your patchwork?"
+
+"I don't know. You've got a double name, haven't you, doggie? It's Zip
+Coon, but it isn't a _very_ double name,--is it, mother?"
+
+When Mrs. Parlin had finished her doughnuts, she said, "Pussy, you
+can't keep still two minutes. Now, if you want to sew this patchwork
+for grandma's quilt, I'll tell you what I shall do. There's an empty
+hogshead in the back kitchen, and I'll lift you into that, and you
+can't climb out. I'll lift you out when your stint is done."
+
+"O, what a funny little house," said Prudy, when she was inside; and
+as she spoke, her voice startled her--it was so loud and hollow. "I'll
+talk some more," thought she, "it makes such a queer noise.--'Old Mrs.
+Hogshead, I thought I'd come and see you, and bring my work. I like
+your house, ma'am, only I should think you'd want some windows. I
+s'pose you know who I am, Mrs. Hogshead? My name is Prudy. My mother
+didn't put me in here because I was a naughty girl, for I haven't done
+nothing--nor nothing--nor nothing. Do you want to hear some singing?
+
+    'O, come, come away,
+    From labor now reposin';
+    Let _busy Caro, wife of Barrow_,
+    Come, come away!'"
+
+"Prudy, what's the matter?" said mamma, from the next room.
+
+"Didn't you hear somebody singing?" said Prudy; "well, 'twas me."
+
+"O, I was afraid you were crying, my dear."
+
+"Then I'll stop," said the child. "Now, Mrs. Hogshead, you won't hear
+me singing any more,--it _mortifies_ my mother very much."
+
+So Prudy made her fingers fly, and soon said, "Now, mamma, I've got it
+done, and I'm ready to be _took out_!"
+
+Just then her father came into the house. "Prudy's in the hogshead,"
+said Mrs. Parlin. "Won't you please lift her out, father? I've got
+baby in my arms."
+
+Mr. Parlin peeped into the hogshead. "How in this world did you ever
+get in here, child?" said he. "I think I'll have to take you out with
+a pair of tongs."
+
+Prudy laughed.
+
+"Give me your hands," said papa. "Up she comes! Now, come sit on my
+knee," added he, when they had gone into the parlor, "and tell me how
+you climbed into that hogshead."
+
+"Mother dropped me in, and I'm going to stay there till I make a
+bedquilt, only I'm coming out to eat, you know."
+
+Mr. Parlin laughed; but just then the dinner bell rang, and when they
+went to the table, Prudy was soon so busy with her roasted chicken and
+custard pie that she forgot all about the patchwork.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+PRUDY GOING UP TO HEAVEN
+
+
+Prudy soon tired of sewing, and her mother said, laughing, "If grandma
+Read has to wait for somebody's little fingers before she gets a
+bedquilt, poor grandma will sleep very cold indeed."
+
+The calico pieces went into the rag-bag, and that was the last of
+Prudy's patchwork.
+
+One day the children wanted to go and play in the "new house," which
+was not quite done. Mrs. Parlin was almost afraid little Prudy might
+get hurt, for there were a great many loose boards and tools lying
+about, and the carpenters, who were at work on the house, had all gone
+away to see some soldiers. But at last she said they might go if Susy
+would be very careful of her little sister.
+
+I dare say Susy meant to watch Prudy with great care, but after a
+while she got to thinking of something else. The little one wanted to
+play "catch," but Susy saw a great deal more sport in building block
+houses.
+
+"Now I know ever so much more than you do," said Susy. "I used to wash
+dishes and scour knives when I was four years old, and that was the
+time I learned you to walk, Prudy; so you ought to play with me, and
+be goody."
+
+"Then I will; but them blocks is too big, Susy. If I had _a axe_ I'd
+chop 'em: I'll go get _a axe_." Little Prudy trotted off, and Susy
+never looked up from her play, and did not notice that she was gone a
+long while.
+
+By and by Mrs. Parlin thought she would go and see what the children
+were doing; so she put on her bonnet and went over to the "new house."
+Susy was still busy with her blocks, but she looked up at the sound of
+her mother's footsteps.
+
+"Where is Prudy?" said Mrs. Parlin, glancing around.
+
+"I'm 'most up to heaven," cried a little voice overhead.
+
+They looked, and what did they see? Prudy herself standing on the
+highest beam of the house! She had climbed three ladders to get there.
+Her mother had heard her say the day before that "she didn't want to
+shut up her eyes and die, and be all deaded up--she meant to have her
+hands and face clean, and go up to heaven on a ladder."
+
+"O," thought the poor mother, "she is surely on the way to heaven, for
+she can never get down alive. My darling, my darling!"
+
+Poor Susy's first thought was to call out to Prudy, but her mother
+gave her one warning glance, and that was enough: Susy neither spoke
+nor stirred.
+
+Mrs. Parlin stood looking up at her--stood as white and still as if
+she had been frozen! Her trembling lips moved a little, but it was in
+prayer; she knew that only God could save the precious one.
+
+While she was begging Him to tell her what to do, a sudden thought
+flashed across her mind. She dared not speak, lest the sound of her
+voice should startle the child; but she had a bunch of keys in her
+pocket, and she jingled the keys, holding them up as high as
+possible, that Prudy might see what they were.
+
+When the little one heard the jingling, she looked down and smiled.
+"You goin' to let me have some cake and 'serves in the china closet,
+me and Susy?"
+
+Mrs. Parlin smiled--such a smile! It was a great deal sadder than
+tears, though Prudy did not know that--she only knew that it meant
+"yes."
+
+"O, then I'm coming right down, 'cause I like cake and 'serves. I
+won't go up to heaven till _bime-by_!"
+
+Then she walked along the beam, and turned about to come down the
+ladders. Mrs. Parlin held her breath, and shut her eyes. She dared not
+look up, for she knew that if Prudy should take one false step, she
+must fall and be dashed in pieces!
+
+But Prudy was not wise enough to fear any thing. O, no. She was only
+thinking very eagerly about crimson jellies and fruit cake. She crept
+down the ladders without a thought of danger--no more afraid than a
+fly that creeps down the window-pane.
+
+The air was so still that the sound of every step was plainly heard,
+as her little feet went pat,--pat,--on the ladder rounds. God was
+taking care of her,--yes, at length the last round was reached--she
+had got down--she was safe!
+
+"Thank God!" cried Mrs. Parlin, as she held little Prudy close to her
+heart; while Susy jumped for joy, exclaiming,--
+
+"We've got her! we've got her! O, ain't you so happy, mamma?"
+
+"O, mamma, what you crying for?" said little Prudy, clinging about
+her neck. "Ain't I your little comfort?--there, now, you know what you
+_speaked_ about! You said you'd get some cake and verserves for me and
+Susy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+PRUDY'S KNITTING-WORK
+
+
+Susy felt as if she had been sadly to blame, and for a long time was
+very watchful of her little sister.
+
+"Your name is Susy," said the child; "and your middle name is _Sister
+Susy_, and you take the care o' me!"
+
+"No, I don't," thought Susy to herself. "If I had taken any care of
+you at all, you wouldn't have climbed those ladders."
+
+When Prudy was four years old, she teased to go to school, and her
+mother decided to let her go until she grew tired of it.
+
+"O, dear!" sighed Susy, the first day she took her; "she'll talk out
+loud, I just about know she will, she's such a little chatter-box."
+
+"Poh; no I shan't," said Prudy. "I ain't a _checker-box_, Susy Parlin;
+but you are! I shan't talk in school, nor I shan't whisper, never in
+my world!"
+
+When they got home that night, Mrs. Parlin asked if Prudy had
+whispered in school.
+
+"No, ma'am. I never done such a thing--I guess. Did I, Susy? How much
+I _didn't_ talk to you, don't you know?"
+
+"O, she was _pretty_ good, mother," said Susy; "but she cried once so
+I had to go out with her."
+
+"Now, Susy Parlin, you _told_ me to cry! She _did_, mamma. She said if
+I'd cry she'd give me a piece of her doughnut."
+
+Susy blushed; and her mother looked at her, and said, "I would like
+to see you alone a little while, Susy."
+
+Then Mrs. Parlin had a talk with Susy in the parlor, and told her how
+wrong it was to deceive, and how she must take the care of her little
+sister, and set her good examples.
+
+Susy said she would do as well as she could.
+
+"But, mamma, if you are willing, I'd rather not sit with Prudy, now,
+certainly. She says such queer things. Why, to-day she said she had
+grandma's rheumatism in her back, and wanted me to look at her
+_tongue_ and see if she hadn't. Why, mother, as true as I live, she
+shut up her eyes and put out her tongue right there in school, and of
+course we girls couldn't help laughing!"
+
+"Well, perhaps she'd better sit by herself," replied Mrs. Parlin,
+smiling. "I will speak to the teacher about her carrying her
+knitting-work--that may keep her out of mischief."
+
+Now it happened that grandma Read had taken a great deal of pains to
+teach Prudy to knit;--but such a piece of work as the child made of
+it!
+
+The first time she carried the thing which she supposed was going to
+be a stocking, the A B C scholars looked very much surprised, for none
+of them knew how to knit.
+
+Prudy said, "Poh, I know how to do it just as easy!"
+
+But in trying to show them how smart she could be, she knit so fast
+that she dropped a stitch every other moment.
+
+"There, now, you are dropping stitches like every thing," said Lottie
+Palmer, very much pleased. "I guess I know how to do _that_!"
+
+"Poh, them's nothing but the _loops_," said Prudy.
+
+But it was not long before she broke the yarn short off, and got her
+work into such a fix that she had to take it home and ask grandma to
+"fix it out."
+
+"Why, child, where's the ball?" said her grandmother. "And here's two
+needles gone!"
+
+"O, I left 'em to school, I s'pose," said Prudy. "I'm sure I never
+noticed 'em."
+
+"I found the ball under the teacher's desk _once_," said Susy.
+
+"Well, 'tain't there now," replied Prudy; "it's all _wounded_ now, and
+I put it where it b'longs."
+
+"Where's that?" asked grandma, laughing.
+
+"Well, I don't know," answered Prudy, trying to think; "but I guess
+it's _somewhere_."
+
+Mrs. Parlin began to think it was a foolish plan to let Prudy take her
+knitting-work. I was going to mention something she did the last day
+she carried it. She got tired of knitting, tired of twisting her
+pretty curls round her finger, and tired of looking at pictures.
+
+"Let's guess riddles," she whispered to Nancy Glover, who sat on the
+bench beside her. "I can make up riddles just as easy! There's
+something in this room, in Miss Parker's watch-pocket, goes
+_tick--tick_. Now guess that:--that's a riddle."
+
+"I wish you'd behave, Prudy Parlin," said Nancy. "Here I am trying to
+get my spelling lesson."
+
+Then Nancy turned her head a little to one side, and went to studying
+as hard as she could, for it was almost time for her class to be
+called.
+
+All at once Prudy happened to look at Nancy's ear, and thought, "What
+funny little holes folks have in their ears! I s'pose they go clear
+through. I guess I'll put my knitting-needle right through Nannie's
+ear while she's a-studyin'. The needle will look so funny stickin' out
+at the other end!"
+
+So Prudy was very sly about it, and said not a word, but began to push
+in the needle with all her might.
+
+O, such sharp screams as Nannie gave! The teacher was frightened; but
+when she found that Nannie was not so _very_ badly hurt after all, she
+felt easier about her, and began to talk to little Prudy, asking her
+"why she didn't sit still, like a lady, and _mind_?"
+
+Prudy began to cry. "I _was_ a-mindin'," said she; "of course I was. I
+never knew 'twas a-goin' to hurt her."
+
+Miss Parker smiled, and said, "Well, you needn't bring that
+knitting-work here any more. The next thing we should have somebody's
+_eyes_ put out."
+
+When Miss Parker called out the next class in spelling, Nannie sat
+with her head down, feeling very cross. "I don't like you, Prudy,"
+said she. "You 'most killed me! I'll pay you for this, now you see!"
+
+Miss Parker had to call Nannie by name before she would go to her
+class. She was three or four years older than Prudy, and ought to have
+known better than to be angry with such a little child. She should
+have forgotten all about it: that would have been the best way. But
+instead of that, she kept thinking,--
+
+"O, how that knitting-needle did hurt! Prudy ought to be ashamed! I'll
+pay her for it, now you see!"
+
+You may be sure Prudy did not worry her little brains about it at all.
+
+Her mother was brushing her hair next morning for school, and Mr.
+Parlin said,--
+
+"Don't you think she's too little to go to school, mother? I don't
+care about her learning to read yet awhile."
+
+Mrs. Parlin smiled in a droll way. "I should be very sorry myself to
+have Prudy learn to read," replied she; "but she won't keep still long
+enough: you needn't be a bit afraid."
+
+"Look here, Prudy," exclaimed Mr. Parlin, "can you spell any words?"
+
+"Poh! yes, sir, I guess I can," replied Prudy, her eyes looking very
+bright, "I can spell 'most all there is to spell."
+
+"O, ho," laughed Mr. Parlin. "Let's hear you spell your own name.
+Can't do it, can you?"
+
+"Poh! yes, I can! That ain't nothin'. Pre-ed, Prood, Pre-i-eddy,
+Prudy. There!"
+
+"Bravo!" cried papa. "You're getting ahead, I declare! Now can you
+spell Susy's name?"
+
+"Spell Susy? Why, I can do it just as easy!" replied Prudy, her eyes
+shining very bright indeed. "C-ez, Sooz, C-i-ezzy, Susy. There! Can't
+I spell?"
+
+"Why, I should think you could," said papa, laughing. "I can't begin
+to spell the way you do. Now can you spell _Cat_?"
+
+"Cat? _Cat?_" repeated Prudy, looking puzzled. "Well, I guess I've
+forgot how to spell cat. But I can spell _Kitty_. You just hear!
+Kee-et, kit, kee-i-etty, kitty! I can spell the big words the best."
+
+"What think now?" said Mrs. Parlin. "The truth is, Prudy knew eight
+letters when she began to go to school, and now she knows but four."
+
+"Glad of it," returned Mr. Parlin. "Are you ready for school, little
+one?" And he held out his arms, saying,--
+
+    "And now, my own dear little girl,
+      There is no way but this--
+    Put your arms about my neck,
+      And give me one sweet kiss."
+
+So Prudy hugged and kissed her father "just as hard." Then she and
+Susy trudged along to school, and they met Nancy Glover, who was
+carrying something in her apron.
+
+"Mayn't I see what you've got?" said little Prudy.
+
+"Not till I get ready," said Nancy. "Who stuck that knitting-needle
+into my ear?"
+
+"You know she didn't mean to," said Susy.
+
+"I don't care," cried Nancy, "it _hurt_!"
+
+Prudy felt very sorry. "I wish I hadn't hurt you, Nanny," said she,
+"'cause I want to see what you've got in your apron."
+
+"Well, I guess you'll see it soon enough. I brought it to school _to
+purpose_ for you."
+
+"O, did you?" cried the child. "How good you are, Nanny. I love you
+'most as well as I do Susy."
+
+When little Prudy spoke so sweetly, Nancy didn't know what to say; so
+she said nothing. They went into the school-house and took their
+seats, Nancy keeping the corner of her apron rolled up all the while.
+
+By and by, when Miss Parker was hearing the third class, Nancy
+whispered,--
+
+"Look here, Prudy Parlin, you wanted to know what I had in my apron:
+shall I show you now?"
+
+"O, goody!"
+
+"Well, then," continued Nanny,--
+
+    "'Open your mouth and shut your eyes,
+    And I'll give you something to make you wise!'"
+
+So Prudy opened her mouth as wide as it would go, and squeezed her
+eyelids together very hard.
+
+Then what should Nancy do, but take out of her apron _a wee bit of a
+toad_, and drop it in Prudy's mouth! I can't see how she dared do such
+a thing; but she did it. She had found the toad in the street, and
+picked it up to frighten little Prudy.
+
+The moment the toad was dropped on the child's tongue of course it
+began to hop. Prudy hopped too. She seized her tongue with one hand
+and the toad with the other, screaming at the top of her voice.
+
+The scholars were all frightened to hear such a scream, and to see
+Prudy running out to the teacher so fast.
+
+"Do tell me what ails you?" said Miss Parker.
+
+By that time Prudy had got rid of the toad, and could speak.
+
+"O, dear, dear, _dear_," cried she, "I didn't know it was a toad till
+it hopped right up!"
+
+"A _toad_ here in the house!" cried Miss Parker.
+
+"No, ma'am," said Prudy, trembling and sobbing. "It wasn't in the
+house,--it was in my mouth,--right here on my tongue."
+
+Prudy showed Miss Parker her tongue. Miss Parker laughed, thinking her
+a very funny child.
+
+"I've heard, before now, of little folks having frogs in their
+throats," said she. "Is that what you mean?"
+
+"I guess so," sobbed Prudy. "And it was alive--just as alive as could
+be! O, O!--Nancy, she told me to shut up my eyes, you know, and I
+didn't see the toad till it hopped right up in my mouth,--and _then_ I
+didn't see it! O, O!"
+
+"Nancy, come here," said Miss Parker, sternly. "What have you been
+doing to this little child?"
+
+Nancy came out, with her fingers in her mouth, but did not speak.
+
+"Answer me; did you drop a toad into Prudy's mouth?"
+
+"Yes," replied Nancy, sulkily; "but she stuck a knitting-needle into
+my ear _fust_!"
+
+"For shame, you wicked child," said Miss Parker. "Take up that toad,
+Nancy, and carry it out of doors; then come to me, for I must punish
+you."
+
+"Now, Prudy," added Miss Parker, "what do you think I ought to do to
+Nancy for being so naughty?"
+
+"I don't know," answered Prudy, crying still. "I don't s'pose my
+mother would be willing to have folks put toads in my mouth."
+
+"But what do you think I ought to do to her?" said Miss Parker,
+smiling.
+
+"Was you goin' to whip her?" asked Prudy, looking up through her
+tears.
+
+"I think I must, my child."
+
+"Well, I hope you won't hurt her," said dear little Prudy. "Please to
+don't."
+
+But Miss Parker struck Nancy with a piece of whalebone, and hurt her a
+good deal. It was the only way to make Nancy remember not to do such a
+cruel trick again.
+
+When Prudy saw how much Nancy was hurt, it was more than her tender
+heart could bear. She ran up to Miss Parker, and caught hold of the
+skirt of her dress, hiding her head in it.
+
+"O, Miss Parker!" said she, "I've got to cry. Nanny won't do so no
+more. The toad was just as alive as could be, but it never bit a bit!
+O, _won't you please to don't!_"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+PRUDY'S PICNIC
+
+
+This was about the last of Prudy's going to school. In the first place
+she was very tired of it, in the second place it was vacation, and in
+the third place the whole family were going to Willowbrook on a visit.
+
+It was very pleasant at grandpa Parlin's at any time. Such a stout
+swing in the big oil-nut tree! Such a beautiful garden, with a
+summer-house in it! Such a nice cosy seat in the trees! So many "cubby
+holes" all about to hide in!
+
+But this summer I speak of was pleasanter than ever; for the Western
+cousins, Grace and Horace Clifford, had come from Indiana to visit
+their friends in Maine. The Parlin children had not seen them for two
+years; but Grace and Susy became fast friends in a very short time,
+while little Prudy was thrown one side for Horace to take care of when
+he could stop.
+
+"O dear suz," said she, one morning, "I'm so glad there happened to be
+a world, and God made me!"
+
+"What, you here, Prudy?" said grandma Parlin. "What made you get up so
+early?"
+
+"O, the flies waked me, I s'pose. I was dreaming about my _pignig_. I
+thought I had it on top o' the trees."
+
+"Ah, it's the day for Grace's party, sure enough," said her
+grandmother, sighing a little, and stirring faster at her drop-cake.
+
+"You mean _my_ party," said Prudy, dancing around the table. "The
+party b'longs to me. You didn't know that, _did_ you?"
+
+"You'd better go and talk to your aunt Madge," said grandma, "I'm
+busy."
+
+"O," said Prudy, "I guess you ain't glad I got up. I tried to keep
+asleep, grandma, but the flies waked me."
+
+Prudy was going out of the room, but turned and came back.
+
+"Grandma," said she, "if you love me, why don't you hug me?"
+
+"O, I can't stop, dear," said grandma, laughing; "we can't hug little
+girls all the time."
+
+But she did it.
+
+After a while Grace, and Horace, and Susy came down stairs, and then
+there was a great time. As soon as breakfast was over, kind aunt
+Madge promised to make out a list of the little folks to be invited.
+
+"First of all," said she, "are you going to have boys and girls, or
+only girls?"
+
+"O, we don't want any boys," said cousin Grace, tossing her head;
+"they race round, and act so."
+
+"Of course we don't want 'em," said Susy. "I'd laugh if we'd got to
+have a lot of noisy boys."
+
+"Poh! we don't want boys," echoed Prudy. "They are pickin' fusses all
+the time."
+
+Cousin Horace stood by aunt Madge's chair, looking quite forlorn, but
+too proud to say a word.
+
+"See here, Horace," said Grace, very grandly, "we think you'd better
+go a-strawberrying to-day."
+
+"I reckon I won't if I don't want to," said Horace, working the flag
+out of his cap. He knew the girls thought he was almost always in the
+way.
+
+"I want to tell you something, Horace," said aunt Madge, stroking his
+hair. "Mr. Allen is going out to North Pond with some other gentleman,
+fishing, and I begged him to let you go; and he said he would, though
+he wouldn't take the girls for any thing."
+
+"There, girls," cried Horace, with beaming face. "Did Mr. Allen truly
+say so, auntie? Of course he wouldn't have girls go. If we caught a
+fish, how they would scream; wouldn't they, though?"
+
+Horace darted off to find Mr. Allen, and so he was out of the girls'
+way.
+
+"Now," said aunt Madge, smiling, "tell me what girls you want to ask,
+Grace."
+
+So they gave several names--Grace and Susy--which Prudy repeated after
+them.
+
+"But where is Abby Grant?" said aunt Madge. "Don't you want her?"
+
+Grace and Susy looked at each other without speaking. Prudy looked at
+them.
+
+"I don't go with such poor girls when I'm home," said Grace.
+
+"Nor I don't," said Susy.
+
+"Nor me neither," chimed in little Prudy, glad to know what to say.
+
+Aunt Madge shook her curly head. "I guess you mustn't have a party,"
+said she, "if you slight good little girls because they are poor. Why,
+I should ask her a great deal quicker, because it isn't often she has
+any thing nice to eat at home."
+
+"So would I," said Grace, looking ashamed. "You may put her name down,
+auntie."
+
+"Yes, put her name down, auntie," said Prudy.
+
+Such a time as there was to get ready for that party! Aunt Madge and
+aunt Louise worked with all their might, cooking nice things, and the
+children were too happy to keep still. Susy's mother had gone back to
+Portland.
+
+When the first little girl arrived, Grace and Susy hadn't the
+slightest idea what to do with her, and aunt Madge had to go in and
+set them to playing "Puss in the corner."
+
+The next girl that came was Abby Grant.
+
+"I s'posed ye wouldn't come," said Prudy. "We never asked you."
+
+"Why, child," said Grace, blushing, "yes we did ask her, too."
+
+"O, so we did," said foolish little Prudy. "We asked you, Abby, 'cause
+you don't get any thing nice to eat to your house!"
+
+Grace didn't shake Prudy, only because she didn't dare to. In a few
+minutes all the little girls had come, and the whole party went into
+the front yard to play. Aunt Madge made believe she was a little girl,
+and played "Ring Round Rosy," "Catch," and "Button," as hard as any
+body. When they had played till they were all out of breath, aunt
+Louise sent them to the summer-house in the garden to rest, while she
+and aunt Madge set the table in the front yard. O, the apple puffs,
+and lemon tarts, and little seed cakes, and frosted cake, and candy,
+looked so good to poor little Abby Grant! Then the raspberries, like
+red coral, and the white currants, like round pearls! Then the
+flowers, fresh from the garden!
+
+The children sat on the double steps of the long piazza to eat their
+supper. They had plenty of room, and it was nice fun to peep round the
+great white pillars at their neighbors' plates, and whisper to one
+another, "I'm having a grand time, ain't you?" "What splendid cake!"
+"Don't you wish you lived here?"
+
+And the two aunties smiled, and said to each other,--
+
+"It is worth all our trouble to see these children so happy."
+
+After the table was cleared away they sang several pieces, and Prudy's
+sweet little voice filled all the pauses with some funny little chorus
+of her own.
+
+When the party broke up, the children were quite tired out, and glad
+to go to bed.
+
+"Well," said Grace, as they went slowly upstairs, "didn't my picnic go
+off nicely?"
+
+"_Your_ pignig?" said Prudy; "why it b'longs to _me_! I had it
+myself."
+
+"Hush," said Susy. "Cousin Grace came two thousand miles to see us,
+and grandma promised her this party, and she had it."
+
+"There, now, Susy," said Prudy, much grieved, "I've got a cent, and I
+_was_ goin' to buy you some shiny shoes, but now I shan't."
+
+Grace and Susy could not help laughing, and poor tired little Prudy
+could not bear that.
+
+"There," cried she, "don't you do that again! If you'll say 'twas _my_
+pignig, Susy Parlin, then I'll kiss you; but if you say it isn't, I
+won't speak to you again--never in my world!"
+
+"Well, it wasn't your picnic--so there," said Susy.
+
+Prudy settled her cheek to the pillow.
+
+"Susy Parlin," said she, drowsily, "I ain't a-goin' to speak to you
+again--till--you--say--'twas--my--pig----"
+
+But in the middle of a word Prudy made a mistake and dropped off to
+sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+PRUDY IN THE PINES
+
+
+"No, my dears," said grandma. "I couldn't consent to let you go
+strawberrying 'up by the Pines' as you call it. It is Mr. Judkins's
+mowing-field."
+
+"But, grandma," said Grace, "Johnny Gordon went there yesterday, and
+there wasn't any fuss about it."
+
+"Then you may be sure Mr. Judkins did not know it," said grandma. "If
+he should catch any children in his field, he would be sure to give
+them a severe scolding."
+
+"Besides," chimed in aunt Madge, "Prudy isn't fit to walk so far--she
+isn't very well."
+
+"No, she is quite out of sorts," said grandma. "So if you must go
+somewhere, you may take your little baskets and go out in the meadow
+on the other side of the cornfield. Only take good care of Prudy; now
+remember."
+
+"Grandma always says that over," said Susy, as the three children were
+on their way to the meadow; "and aunt Madge always says it too--'take
+care of Prudy!' As if she were a little baby."
+
+"That is all because she cries so much, I presume," said Grace,
+looking at poor Prudy rather sternly. "I did hope, Susy, that when
+Horace went down to the 'crick' fishing, you and I might go off by
+ourselves, and have a nice time for once. But here is 'little Pitcher'
+right at our heels. We never can have any peace. Little Miss Somebody
+thinks she must follow, of course."
+
+"Yes, that's the way it is," said Susy. "Some folks are always round,
+you know."
+
+"Now, Susy," said Prudy, forcing back her tears as well as she could,
+"I guess you don't love your little sister, or you wouldn't talk that
+way to me."
+
+They gathered strawberries for a while in silence, Prudy picking more
+leaves than berries, and sometimes, in her haste to keep up with the
+others, pulling up grass by the roots.
+
+"Well, I don't think much of this," said Grace; "there ain't more than
+ten strawberries in this meadow, and those ain't bigger than peas."
+
+"O, I know it," said Susy, in the tone of one who has made up her mind
+for the worst. "I suppose we've got to stay here, though. We could go
+up in the Pines now if it wasn't for Prudy, and they are real thick up
+there."
+
+"Yes," said Grace, "but grandma knew we couldn't without she would be
+sure to follow. Do you think Mr. Judkins would be likely to scold,
+Susy?"
+
+"No, indeed," said Susy, eating a dry strawberry. "He keeps sheep, and
+goes round talking to himself. I ain't a bit afraid of him. What could
+we little girls do to his grass, I'd like to know? It isn't as if we
+were great, rude boys, is it, Grace?"
+
+"No," said Grace, thoughtfully. "Now if we could only get rid of
+Prudy----"
+
+Little Prudy pushed back her "shaker," and looked up, showing a pair
+of flushed cheeks damp with tears.
+
+"I don't think you are very polite to me," said the child. "Bime-by I
+shall go to heaven, and I shan't never come back any more, and then I
+guess you'll cry."
+
+"What shall we do?" said Grace, looking at Susy; "we mustn't take her,
+and we can't go without her."
+
+"Well, I'm a-goin' right straight home, right off--that's what I'm
+goin' to do," said Prudy, "and when I say my prayers, I shall just
+tell God how naughty you be!"
+
+Prudy turned short about, and the girls went toward the Pines, feeling
+far from happy, for a "still, small voice" told them they were doing
+wrong.
+
+They had got about half way up the hill, when, looking back, there was
+Prudy, puffing and running for dear life.
+
+"I thought you had gone home," said Susy, quite vexed.
+
+"Well, I didn't," said Prudy, who had got her smiles all back again;
+"I couldn't get home--'cause--I got my feet 'most damp and some wet. I
+won't be no trouble, Susy."
+
+So the girls made the best of it, and helped little "Mother Bunch" up
+the long, steep hill. Prudy had one hearty cry before the long walk
+was over. "Her nose fell on a rock," she said; but as it was only
+grazed a little, she soon forgot about it.
+
+"This is something worth while, now," said Grace, after they had at
+last reached the field, and were seated in the tall grass. "The
+strawberries are as thick as spatter."
+
+"Yes," said Susy, "and grandma and aunt Madge will be so glad to see
+our baskets full they'll certainly be glad we didn't stay in the
+meadow. Big as your thumb, ain't they?"
+
+[Illustration: FLYING FROM THE FIELD.]
+
+You see the girls were trying to stifle that still, small voice, and
+they tried to believe they were having a good time.
+
+Grace and Susy had got their baskets nearly half full, and Prudy had
+covered the bottom of hers with leaves, stems, and a few berries, when
+a man's voice was heard muttering, not far off.
+
+"O Grace," whispered Susy, "that's Mr. Judkins!"
+
+He carried a whetstone, on which he was sharpening his jackknife.
+
+"Ah," said he, talking to himself, and not appearing to notice the
+girls, "I never would have thought that these little children--ah,
+would have come into my field--ah, and trampled down my grass! I shall
+hate--ah, to cut off their little ears--ah, and see the blood running
+down!"
+
+I suppose it was not two minutes before the children had left that
+field, pulling the screaming Prudy through the bars as roughly as if
+she had been a sack of wool instead of flesh and blood,--their hair
+flying in the wind, and their poor little hearts pounding against
+their sides like trip-hammers. If the field had been on fire they
+could not have run faster, dragging helpless Prudy, who screamed all
+the way at the very top of her voice.
+
+Susy and Prudy had thrown away their pretty little baskets. Grace had
+pushed hers up her arm, and her sleeve was soaking in the red juice of
+the bruised strawberries, while little streams of juice were trickling
+down her nice, buff-colored dress, ruining it entirely.
+
+"You hadn't ought to have took me up there," sobbed Prudy, as soon as
+she could find her voice; and these were the first words spoken.
+
+"O, hush, hush right up!" cried Susy, in terror. "He's after us, to
+take us to jail."
+
+The family were really frightened when the panting children rushed
+into the house in such a plight.
+
+"It was a crazy drunk man," cried Prudy, "and he had a axe----"
+
+"No," said Grace, "it was that wicked Mr. Judkins, and it was his
+jackknife."
+
+"And he snips off your ears and nose," broke in Prudy, "and blood
+comes a-runnin' down, and he kills you dead, and then he puts you in
+jail, and then he chased us--don't you hear him comin'?"
+
+"What does all this mean?" cried grandma and aunt Madge in one
+breath. "Have you been in that mowing-field, children?"
+
+Grace and Susy hung their heads.
+
+"Yes, they did," said Prudy, "and I wasn't well, and they shouldn't
+have gone and took me up there, and 'twas 'cause they were naughty."
+
+"What shall I do with children that disobey me in this manner?" said
+grandma, much displeased.
+
+"Worst of all," said aunt Madge, pulling off Prudy's shoes, "this
+child has got her feet wet, and is sure to be sick."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+PRUDY SICK
+
+
+When aunt Madge went up stairs that night she found little Prudy
+hiding her head under the pillow, and screaming with fright.
+
+"O, there I was!" cried the child, tossing up her arms, "all tumbled
+out of the window! And the man got me, and I begun to be dead!"
+
+"Why no, darling!" said aunt Madge, "here is auntie close by you, and
+here you are in your pretty white bed;--don't you see?"
+
+"No, no!" screamed Prudy, "I'm up in the Pines, I ain't here."
+
+"Perhaps you'd like to have me sing to you," said aunt Madge; and she
+began, in a low voice, a little ditty Prudy loved:
+
+    "There was a little darling
+      I used to know,
+    And they called her Prudy,
+      Long time ago."
+
+"Stop, Nancy," said Prudy, "you put a toad in my mouth!--I must have a
+drink--dreffully!"
+
+Aunt Madge brought some water, but her fingers were not steady, and
+the glass trembled against the child's hot lips. She watched till
+Prudy dozed again, and then stole softly down stairs to get a "night
+candle," and to tell her mother she was really afraid Prudy was going
+to be sick.
+
+But Mrs. Parlin said aunt Madge mustn't be nervous; that children were
+very apt to be "out of their heads" in the night, and she was pretty
+sure Prudy would wake up bright in the morning.
+
+Aunt Madge tried to hope so, but she hardly slept a wink, for Prudy
+tossed and twisted all night. Sometimes she thought she was picking
+berries on the tufted coverlet. Sometimes she cried out that "the
+crazy man was coming with a axe."
+
+When grandma saw her purple cheeks by daylight she did not laugh at
+aunt Madge. She brushed the soft curls away from the little one's hot
+temples, and said softly,--
+
+"How do you feel, Prudy, darling?"
+
+A wild light burned in the child's eyes. "It isn't Prudy!" screamed
+she, "I ain't her! Go 'way! You're goin' to snip off my nose! O, go
+right off!"
+
+You may be sure that Grace and Susy were far from happy that day. When
+they noticed that their grandmother grew more and more uneasy, and
+when they saw the doctor's gig at the gate, their hearts were very
+heavy.
+
+"O Grace," said Susy, sobbing, "Prudy thought we didn't love her! We
+kept saying she was always round. How much do you suppose she is
+sick?"
+
+"O dear, I don't know," said Grace, wringing her hands; "but I'll tell
+you one thing--we ought to have seen to her, Susy!"
+
+"O Grace," said Susy, "you don't begin to feel so bad as I do--you
+can't, because you haven't got any little sister. Only think of my
+scolding to such a darling little thing as she is!"
+
+"Come, you go up stairs and see what the doctor says," said Grace;
+"you steal in easy."
+
+"O, I don't dare to," whispered Susy, "I'm all of a tremble." But the
+moment their grandmother's step was heard in the passage they flew to
+her.
+
+Mrs. Parlin set her vial down on the hall table. "I don't like to tell
+you," said she, shaking her head sadly; "the doctor calls her a very
+sick child, and says he is afraid of brain fever."
+
+"Do they die with that?" cried Susy, seizing hold of her grandmother's
+dress. "O, stop a minute; is she going to die?"
+
+"We hope not," said Mrs. Parlin, "but she is so sick that we shall
+send a despatch for your mother. I want you to try and keep the house
+still, girls, and coax Horace to stay out of doors."
+
+"Keep the house still? I guess we will!" said Grace. "O grandma, will
+you forgive us for being so naughty yesterday?"
+
+"Can you forgive us?" said Susy. "I tell you we feel awfully about it,
+grandma!"
+
+Mrs. Parlin took off her spectacles to wipe them. "My dear children,"
+said she, gravely, "I am ready to forgive you with all my heart; but I
+hope that before this you have asked pardon of your dear Father in
+heaven. That is the first thing, you know."
+
+Susy stole off into the nursery, and threw herself on the lounge.
+
+"O God," sobbed she, "I should think you would hate me, I have acted
+so bad! O, can you forgive me, and not take Prudy? I never will do so
+again! I didn't mean any thing when I said she was always round. O,
+_don't_ let her die and be put in the ground! Please don't, dear God!
+Seems to me I love her the best of any body. When we have any fuss,
+it's always me that's to blame."
+
+Here Susy's prayer was drowned in sobs; but her heart felt a little
+lighter because she had told her kind Father just how she felt, and if
+it was best for Prudy to get well, she was sure he would save her.
+
+Prudy's mother came in the cars that night, looking pale and troubled.
+Prudy did not know her.
+
+"Why don't you bring my own mamma?" said she.
+
+"Look at me, darling," said her mother, "here I am, right here. Mother
+won't leave her little Prudy again."
+
+"I ain't Prudy!" screamed the child; "Prudy's gone to heaven. God came
+and helped her up the steps."
+
+One of the first things Mrs. Parlin did was to cut off her little
+daughter's beautiful curls, and lay them tenderly away in a drawer.
+
+"Ah, sister Madge," said she, "you can't guess how it makes my heart
+ache to have my child take me for a stranger."
+
+"Perhaps she may know you to-morrow," said aunt Madge; though in her
+heart she had very little hope of the child.
+
+But Prudy did not know any body "to-morrow," nor the next day, nor the
+next. O, the long, weary time that they watched by her bed! The
+terrible disease seemed to be drinking up her life. Her cheeks looked
+as if fierce fires were hidden in them, and when she raved so wildly
+her eyes shone like flames.
+
+A deep hush had fallen on the house. Grace and Susy would go and sit
+by the hour in their seat in the trees, and talk about dear little
+Prudy. Horace had the heartache, too, and asked every day,--
+
+"_Do_ you think she's going to die?"
+
+Nobody could answer him, and he had to wait, like all the rest.
+
+But God did not mean that Prudy should die. At last, after many days,
+the fever died out like a fire when it has burned the wood all down to
+cinders. Then there was a pale little girl left, who looked as if a
+breath would blow her away like white ashes. I think a little baby,
+that tips over if you touch it, could not be weaker than Prudy was
+when she began to get well.
+
+Ah, but it was so joyful to see her own sweet smile once more, though
+never so faint! And every low word she spoke now dropped from her lips
+like a note of music.
+
+Her father and mother, and the whole family, were full of joy, and
+Grace and Susy went to their cosy seat in the trees to talk over the
+pretty things they were going to make for Prudy when she should be
+well enough to enjoy them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+PRUDY'S PRESENT
+
+
+"Well, dear," said grandma, coming up stairs one morning, all out of
+breath, "what did you call me for? What do you want, little one?"
+
+"I don't know," said Prudy, "but I guess _I shall_ want somethin' by
+and by."
+
+"There, there, darling," said grandma, "don't cry."
+
+"No, I won't," said Prudy, trying to stop. "I was a-talkin' to myself,
+and I said, 'I won't cry no more,' and then I cried. I don't like to
+stay in this country, grandma, 'thout I can have somethin' to eat!"
+
+"Of all things," said grandma, "I don't believe there's a little girl
+any where that has so many nice things as you do. See the jelly, and
+oranges, and lemons, and----"
+
+"Well, if I wasn't sick, grandma, and you should ask me to eat some
+_smashed potatoes_, and some _pie_, I'd eat 'em," said Prudy, smiling
+through her tears.
+
+"Bless your little heart," cried grandma, kissing Prudy's pale cheek.
+"Can't you think of something besides eating? What pretty thing shall
+I bring you to look at?"
+
+"O, now I know what it is I want," replied Prudy, lifting her head
+from the pillow, "I want to eat up the _old lady_!"
+
+Prudy was thinking of a little image aunt Madge had formed out of
+candy.
+
+"O, that's made to be looked at," said grandma. "Let's see--where do
+you suppose your little Zip is nowadays? I guess he misses Prudy."
+
+"I don' know--I _ate_ a little dog once," said Prudy, wiping her eyes.
+"He was made out of a doughnut. Once when I lived to Portland--to my
+mother's Portland--I used to eat things."
+
+Poor grandma herself could hardly keep from crying to see Prudy so
+hungry.
+
+"Here is some nice arrow-root," said she. "You may have it all if you
+like. You are a darling little girl not to tease for things you ought
+not to have."
+
+"I believe," she went on, looking at patient little Prudy, as she
+drained the bowl, "I should like to give such a good child a pretty
+present."
+
+"O, dear me suz!" screamed Prudy, "I'm glad I didn't go to heaven
+yet.--Will it be a little wee doll that can live in a thimble?--made
+out of sugar?"
+
+"Well," said grandma, "I don't know, You may be thinking all day what
+you would like best. Not to _eat_, dear, but to _keep_, remember. Now
+I must go down stairs--but here come Grace and Susy, so you won't be
+lonesome."
+
+It was pleasant to see how softly the little girls entered the room,
+and how the glad smiles came and went on Prudy's face when they tried
+to amuse her.
+
+They were dressed in a very funny rig. Susy looked a great deal wiser
+than an owl, out of a pair of spectacles without any eyes, and a
+flaring cap. Grace had stuck some false hair on her head, and a bonnet
+that looked as if a wagon wheel had rolled over it.
+
+"Fine day, Mrs. Prudy," said Grace; "how have you been, ma'am?"
+
+"I've been a-thinkin'," said Prudy, smiling, "about my present."
+
+"You see we've come a-visiting, Mrs. Prudy," said Grace. "Very sorry,
+ma'am, to see your doll looking so sick. Has she got the smallpox?"
+
+"No, ma'am," answered Prudy, delighted, "she's got the measles!"
+
+"Deary me," said Susy, pushing back her cap, and trying to look
+frightened, "how was she taken, ma'am?"
+
+"Taken?" repeated Prudy, "taken _sick_! She's got it all over her."
+
+"Poor little creeter!" cried Grace, rolling up her eyes, "how she must
+suffer! I hope she's out of her head. Does she have her senses,
+ma'am?"
+
+"Her _what_?" said Prudy. "O, yes'm, she's got 'em. I laid 'em up on
+the shelf, to keep 'em for her."
+
+Here the two visitors turned away their heads to laugh. "What do you
+s'pose my present will be?" said Prudy, forgetting their play. "Look
+here, Susy, I could take that vase now, and smash it right down on the
+floor, and break it, and grandma wouldn't scold--'cause I'm sick, you
+know."
+
+"But you wouldn't do it," said Grace. "O, here come Mr. Allen and aunt
+Madge. Now, Mrs. Prudy, you're going to have a ride."
+
+Mr. Allen laughed to see aunt Madge bundle Prudy so much, and said the
+child would be so heavy that he could not carry her in his arms; but I
+think he found her only too light after all.
+
+Prudy almost forgot how hungry she was when she was seated in her
+little carriage and wheeled about the pleasant yard. She had an idea
+that the trees and the flowers in the garden were having good times,
+and the open windows of the house looked as if they were laughing. But
+she did not say much, and when aunt Madge asked her what made her so
+quiet, she said she was "a-thinkin'." And the most of her small
+thoughts were about her present.
+
+"Now," said Mr. Allen, "I'm going to hold you up so you can peep over
+into the pig-pen. There, do you see that little mite of a white
+piggy?"
+
+"O, dear, dear, dear!" cried Prudy, clapping her hands, "what a
+cunning little piggy-wiggy! He looks nice enough to eat right up! I
+never did see such a darling! O, he winks his eyes--see him! He ain't
+dead, is he? Not a mite?"
+
+"No, my little dear, he's alive enough, if that's all," said Mr.
+Allen.
+
+"O, my stars!" said Prudy, sighing with delight. "Don't you wish you
+had such a pretty pink nose, and such little bits of shiny eyes?"
+
+Mr. Allen laughed.
+
+"O, so white and nice!" added Prudy. "He hasn't got a speck of red
+cheeks, 'cept his nose and little toes. Mayn't he have one of my
+oranges? I never did see any thing look so much like a sugar pig."
+
+It did Mr. Allen and aunt Madge a world of good to see the child so
+pleased.
+
+"Do you know," said she, eagerly, "who that piggy b'longs to?"
+
+"Why, to grandpa, I suppose."
+
+"O," said Prudy, very sadly, while the bright color died out of her
+cheeks at once, "I didn't know but it b'longed to grandma."
+
+"Well, you little pet," said aunt Madge, laughing, "what do you care
+who it _b'longs_ to? You can look at it all the same, can't you?"
+
+"But," said Prudy, "do you s'pose----"
+
+"S'pose what?"
+
+"Do you s'pose if grandpa thought I was a darlin'----" Prudy could get
+no farther.
+
+"Of course he _knows_ you're a darling!" said aunt Madge.
+
+"Do you s'pose when I don't tease for things to eat, and grandma says
+I may think what I want for a present, he'd be willing I should
+have--she should give me that--_piggy_?"
+
+"O, what a Prudy!" said aunt Madge, laughing till she cried. "Isn't
+there something nicer you would like for a present? You'd better
+think again."
+
+"O, no, no," said Prudy, trembling with eagerness. "If grandma should
+give me a house full of dolls and candy all rolled up, and every
+single present in the world, I'd rather have that piggy."
+
+"Well, well," said Mr. Allen, "I guess the folks that wouldn't give
+their pigs away to Prudy don't live here. Let's go and see."
+
+They went into the house to see grandpa. Of course he said Yes.
+
+"Of all the funny presents!" said grandma;--but Prudy was happy, and
+that was enough.
+
+Grandpa was very kind, but there was one thing he would not consent
+to--he would not let the pig come into the house. But as he said he
+would be sure to take good care of it, and give it sweet milk to
+drink, Prudy did not mind so much.
+
+When she grew stronger she fed it herself, and the pretty creature
+knew her, and was glad to see her, Prudy thought. Now she had a great
+many presents that summer, but none that pleased her half so well as
+the little pet pig.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+PRUDY FISHING
+
+
+One morning, after Prudy was quite well, aunt Madge told her she might
+go into the garden and get some currants. While she was picking with
+all her might, and breathing very fast, she saw Horace close by, on
+the other side of the fence, with a pole in his hand.
+
+"I thought you was to school!" cried Prudy.
+
+"Well, I ain't," said Horace, pulling his hat over his eyes, and
+looking ashamed. "The teacher don't keep no order, and I won't go to
+such a school, so there!"
+
+"They don't want _me_ to go," said Prudy, "'cause I should know too
+much. I can say all my letters now, right down straight, 'thout
+looking on, either."
+
+"O, ho!" cried Horace, trailing his long pole, "you can't say 'em
+skipping about, and I shouldn't care, if I was you. But you ought to
+know how to fish, Miss. Don't you wish you could drop in your line,
+and catch 'em the way I do?"
+
+"Do they like to have you catch 'em?" said Prudy, dropping her little
+dipper, and going to the fence; "don't it hurt?"
+
+"Hurt? Not as I know of. They needn't bite if they don't want to."
+
+"No," returned Prudy, looking very wise, "I s'pose they want to get
+out, and that's why they bite. Of course when fishes stay in the water
+much it makes 'em drown."
+
+"O, my stars!" cried Horace, laughing, "you ought to live 'out west,'
+you're such a cunning little spud. Come, now, here's another fish-pole
+for you. I'll show you how to catch one, and I bet 'twill be a
+pollywog--you're just big enough."
+
+"But grandma didn't say I might go down to the river. Wait till I go
+ask her."
+
+"Poh!" said Horace, "no you needn't; I have to hurry. Grandma _always_
+likes it when you go with me, Prudy, because you see I'm a boy, and
+she knows I can take care of you twice as well as Grace and Susy can."
+
+"O," cried Prudy, clapping her little hands, "they won't any of 'em
+know I can fish, and how they'll laugh. But there, now, they don't let
+me climb the fence--I forgot."
+
+"Well, give us your bonnet, and then you 'scooch' down, and I'll pull
+you through."
+
+"There," said the naughty boy, when they had got down to the river,
+"now I've been and put a bait on the end of your hook, and I plump it
+in the water--so. You just hold on to the pole."
+
+"But it jiggles--it tips me!" cried Prudy; and as she spoke she fell
+face downwards on the bank.
+
+"Well, that's smart!" said Horace, picking her up. "There, you sit
+down next time, and I'll prop up the pole with a rock--this way.
+There, now, you hold it a little easy, and when you feel a nibble you
+let me know."
+
+"What's a nibble?" asked Prudy, shaking the line.
+
+"A nibble? Why, it's a bite."
+
+They sat quite still for some minutes, the hot sun glaring on Prudy's
+bare head with its rings of soft golden hair.
+
+"Now, now!" cried she suddenly, "I've got a nibble!"
+
+Horace sprang to draw up her line.
+
+"I feel it right here on my neck," said the child; "I s'pose it's a
+fly."
+
+"Now, look here," said Horace, rather vexed, "you're a little too bad.
+You made me drop my line just when I was going to have a nibble. Wait
+till you feel the string wiggle, and then speak, but don't scream."
+
+The children sat still for a few minutes longer, and no sound was
+heard but now and then a wagon going over the bridge. But they might
+as well have dropped their lines in the sand for all the fish they
+caught. Horace began to wish he had gone to school.
+
+"O dear!" groaned Prudy, getting tired, "I never did see such fishes.
+I guess they don't want to be catched."
+
+"There, now you've spoke again, and scared one away," said Horace. "If
+it hadn't been for you I should have got, I don't know how many, by
+this time."
+
+Prudy's lip began to tremble, and two big round tears rose to her
+eyes.
+
+"Poh! crying about that?" said Horace; "you're a nice little girl if
+you do talk too much, so don't you cry."
+
+Horace rather enjoyed seeing Grace and Susy in tears, but could never
+bear to have Prudy cry.
+
+"I'll tell you what it is," said Horace, when Prudy's eyes were clear
+again, "I don't think I make much playing hookey."
+
+"I don't like playing 'hookey' neither," returned Prudy, "'cause the
+hooks won't catch 'em."
+
+"O, you don't know what I mean," laughed Horace. "When we boys 'out
+west' stay out of school, we call _that_ playing hookey."
+
+"O, do you? But I want to go home now, if we can't catch any nibbles."
+
+"No, I'll tell you what we'll do--we'll walk out on that log, and try
+it there."
+
+The river was quite high, and this was one of the logs that had
+drifted down from the "Rips." Prudy was really afraid to walk on it,
+because it was "so round," but not liking to be laughed at, she crept
+on her hands and knees to the very end of the log, trembling all the
+way.
+
+Horace took the two poles and followed; but the moment he stepped on
+the log it rolled quite over, carrying Prudy under.
+
+I do not know what Horace thought then, but he had to think fast. If
+he had been older he might have plunged in after Prudy, but he was
+only a little boy, seven years old, so he ran for the house. O, how he
+ran!
+
+Aunt Madge was ironing in the back kitchen. She heard heavy breathing,
+and the quick pattering of feet, and the words gasped out, "Prudy's in
+the river!"
+
+"Prudy!" screamed aunt Madge, looking wildly at the boy's face, which
+was as white as death.
+
+"Run, tell grandpa!" cried she, and flew down the steps, and out
+across the field towards the river, as if she had wings on her
+slippers, though it seemed to her they were clogged with lead.
+
+"Has she just been saved from death only to be drowned?" was one of
+the quick thoughts that rushed across aunt Madge's dizzy brain. "I
+shall be too late! too late! And her mother gone! God forgive me! It
+is I who should have watched her!"
+
+Poor aunt Madge! as if any one was to blame but Horace.
+
+There was a child crying down by the river.
+
+"Not Prudy," thought aunt Madge. "It sounds like her voice, but it
+can't be. She has sunk by this time!"
+
+"Don't be afraid, Prudy!" cried Mr. Allen, who was just behind aunt
+Madge, "we are running to you."
+
+The cry came up louder: it was Prudy's voice.
+
+Mr. Allen leaped the fence at a bound, and ran down the bank. The
+child was out of the water, struggling to climb the bank, but
+slipping back at every step. She was dripping wet, and covered with
+sand.
+
+Mr. Allen lifted her in his arms, and there she lay, sobbing as if her
+heart would break, but not speaking a word.
+
+When she was lying, clean and warm, in soft blankets, and had had a
+nap, she told them how she got out.
+
+"The log kept jiggling," said she, "and I couldn't hold on, but I did.
+I thought my father would say I was a nice little girl not to get
+drowned, and let the fishes eat me up, and so I kept a-holdin' on."
+
+"Only think," said grandma, shuddering, and looking at Horace, "if
+Prudy hadn't held on!"
+
+Horace seemed very sad and humble, and was still quite pale.
+
+"It makes you feel mortified, don't it, 'Race?" said Prudy, smiling;
+"don't you feel as if you could cry?"
+
+At these first words little Prudy had spoken to him since she fell
+into the water, the boy ran out of the room, and hid in the green
+chamber, for he never would let any one see him cry.
+
+"O, won't you forgive him?" said Prudy, looking up into Mrs.
+Clifford's face; "won't you forgive him, aunt 'Ria? he feels so bad;
+and he didn't catch a fish, and he didn't mean to,--and--'twas the log
+that jiggled."
+
+So Horace was forgiven for Prudy's sake.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE HATCHET STORY
+
+
+One night the children clustered about their aunt Madge, begging for a
+story.
+
+"Fairy, you know," said Susy.
+
+"A fairy story?" repeated aunt Madge. "I don't know about that. I told
+a little boy a fairy story once, and he went right off and whispered
+to his mother that I was a very wicked lady, for that story wasn't
+true, not a bit; and if a baby six months old should hear it, he
+wouldn't believe a word of it!"
+
+"Poh! he was a smart boy," cried Horace.
+
+"So I am afraid to tell fairy stories since that, for I don't like to
+be called a wicked lady, you know."
+
+"There, now, auntie," said Susy, "don't you s'pose we know they're
+only play-stories? Just as if we hadn't a speck of sense!"
+
+"Well, let me see," said aunt Madge, covering her eyes with her
+fingers. "Once upon a time when the moon was full----"
+
+"Full of what?" said Prudy, who was leaning on the arm of her auntie's
+chair, and peeping up into her face, "full of fairies?"
+
+"When the moon was round, my child," said auntie, stroking the little one's
+hair. "But wait. I'll tell a story Prudy can understand--wouldn't you, my
+dears? When I was a little girl----"
+
+[Illustration: AUNT MADGE TELLING A STORY.]
+
+"That's right," cried the children. "O, tell about that."
+
+"Was you about as big as me?" said Prudy, "and was your name _little
+Madge_?"
+
+"Yes, they called me little Madge sometimes, and sometimes Maggie.
+When I was about as old as our Susy, I happened to go into the
+back-room one day, and saw uncle Edward's hatchet lying on the
+meat-block. I knew I had no right to touch it, but it came into my
+head that I would try to break open the clams. The hatchet, instead of
+cracking the shells, came down with full force on my foot! I had on
+thick boots, but it cut through my right boot deep into the bone. O,
+how I screamed!"
+
+"I should have thought you would, auntie," cried Grace, fairly turning
+pale. "Did it bring the blood?"
+
+"Yes, indeed! Why, when I went into the kitchen, my footsteps were
+tracked with little pools of blood, oozing out of my boot. Sister
+Maria screamed out,--'O, look at Maggie! She's cut her foot with that
+hatchet!'"
+
+"'No, no, I haven't,' said I, for I was frightened almost to death,
+and afraid of being punished for disobedience. You see father had
+forbidden us little ones ever to touch the hatchet."
+
+"Why, you told a right up and down----fib," said Susy, looking
+shocked.
+
+"A real whopper," said Horace, shaking his head.
+
+"So I did, children, and before my story is done you shall see what
+misery my sin caused me."
+
+"Did Mr. 'Gustus Allen know about it?" asked little Prudy.
+
+"I guess not," replied aunt Madge, blushing. "He lived ever so far off
+then."
+
+"O dear," sighed Prudy, "I wish he hadn't gone to the wars. How it
+made you cry!"
+
+"Hush up, please, can't you, Prudy?" said Susy. "Aunt Madge is telling
+a story."
+
+"Well, they sent for the doctor in great haste, and then tried to pull
+off my boot; but my foot was so badly swollen, and bleeding so fast,
+that it took a great while. I can't tell how long, for I fainted. When
+the doctor saw the wound they said he looked very sober."
+
+"'So, so, little girl,' said he (that was after I came to myself),
+'you thought you'd make me a good job while you were about it. There's
+no half-way work about you. You are the child that had the tip of a
+finger clipped off in the corn-sheller, hey?'"
+
+"I was always afraid of Dr. Foster, so I only buried my face in my
+apron, and cried."
+
+"'She must have brought the hatchet down with a great deal of force,'
+said the doctor. 'See, Mrs. Parlin, how deep it went into the bone.'"
+
+"'I fell and hit my foot,' I sobbed out. 'I never _touched_ the
+hatchet!'"
+
+"I knew well enough that the doctor didn't believe me."
+
+"'So, so,' said he. 'Very well, never mind how 'twas done, but keep
+your foot still, little one, and we'll talk about the hatchet another
+time. Mrs. Parlin, if it goes to bleeding again, be sure to send for
+me.'"
+
+"It was ever so long before I could walk a step. Every time any body
+spoke of my hurt, I said, 'Why, I was just coming into the house with
+those clams, and my foot slipped, and I fell and hit me on something.
+I don't know whether it was a hatchet or a stick of wood; but I never
+touched the hatchet!'"
+
+"There, I shouldn't have thought that of _you_, auntie," said Grace.
+
+"Poh!" cried Horace, "they must have known you was a-foolin'; of
+course they did!"
+
+"Well, every time the doctor came to see me, he laughed and asked me
+how I cut my foot."
+
+"'Just the same as I did in the first place, you know,' said I. 'I
+don't know nothing about it, only I never touched the hatchet!'"
+
+"'Well,' he would answer, 'you remember the old saying, A lie well
+stuck to, is better than the truth wavering.'"
+
+"I didn't know what that meant, but he laughed so that I knew he was
+making sport of me. I knew nobody believed me. The hatchet had been
+found red with blood, and mother looked, O, so sad! but I had told
+that falsehood so many times that it did seem as if I hadn't any
+courage left to tell the truth. It had grown to be very easy to keep
+saying, I never _touched_ the hatchet.'"
+
+"Makes me think of that play, 'My father's lost his hatchet,'"
+whispered Susy to Grace.
+
+"Every one tried to amuse me while I was sick, but there was always a
+thorn in my pillow."
+
+"A thorn?" said Prudy.
+
+"Not a real thorn, dear. I mean I had told a wrong story, and I
+couldn't feel happy."
+
+Here Susy turned away her head and looked out of the window, though
+she saw nothing there but grandpa coming in from the garden with a
+watering-pot.
+
+"Whenever father looked at me, I felt just as if he was thinking,
+'Margaret doesn't tell the truth;' and when mother spoke my name
+quick, I was afraid she was going to say something about the hatchet."
+
+"I got well, only I limped a little. Then it was almost time to think
+of making presents for the Christmas tree. I didn't like to have
+Christmas come while I was feeling so. People are so good that day, I
+thought. That is the time when every body loves you, and spends money
+for you. I wanted to confess, and feel _clean_; but then I had told
+that lie over so many times that I thought I _couldn't_ take it back."
+
+"I talked it over with myself a great while though, and at last said
+I, 'I _will_; I'll do it!' First, I asked God to forgive me and help
+me, and when I had got as far as that, the thing was half done,
+children."
+
+"I went into the parlor where your grandfather was--he wasn't deaf
+then. I thought I should choke; but I caught hold of one of the
+buttons on his coat, and spoke as fast as I could."
+
+"'O father,' said I, 'I've told more than a hundred thousand lies. I
+_did_ take that hatchet! Will you forgive me?'"
+
+"Did he?" asked Susy.
+
+"Forgive! I guess he did! My dear child, it was just what he had been
+waiting to do! And, O, I can tell you he talked to me in such a way
+about the awful sin of lying, that I never, never forgot it, and
+shan't, if I live to be a hundred years old."
+
+"My father had forgiven me: I was sure God had forgiven me too; and
+after that, I felt as if I could look people in the face once more,
+and I had a splendid time Christmas.--I believe that's about all the
+_story_ there is to it, children."
+
+"Well," said Grace, "I'm much obliged to you, auntie; I think it's
+just as nice as a fairy story--don't you, Susy?"
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure," replied Susy, looking confused. "See here,
+auntie, I've lost your gold ring!"
+
+"My ring?" said aunt Madge. "I forgot that I let you take it."
+
+"Don't you know I asked you for it when you stood by the table making
+bread? and it slipped off my finger this afternoon into the water
+barrel!"
+
+"Why, Susy!"
+
+"And I was a coward, and didn't dare tell you, auntie. I thought maybe
+you'd forget I had it, and some time when you asked for it, I was
+going to say, 'Hadn't you better take a pair of tongs and see if it
+isn't in the water barrel?'"
+
+"O, Susy!" said aunt Madge.
+
+"She isn't any worse than me, auntie," said Grace. "Ma asked me how
+the mud came on my handkerchief, and I said Prudy wiped my boots with
+it. And so she did, auntie, but I told her to; and wasn't I such a
+coward for laying it off on little Prudy? I am ashamed--you may
+believe I am."
+
+"I am glad you have told me the whole truth now," replied aunt Madge,
+"though it does make me feel sad, too, for it's too much like my
+hatchet story. O, do remember from this time, children, and never,
+never, _dare_ be _cowards_ again!"
+
+Just then grandpa Parlin came to the door with a sad face, saying,--
+
+"Margaret, please come up stairs, and see if you can soothe poor
+little Harry by singing. He is so restless that neither Maria nor I
+can do any thing with him."
+
+This baby, Horace's brother, was sick all the time now, and once in a
+while Margaret's sweet voice would charm him to sleep when every thing
+else failed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+MORE STORIES
+
+
+"I move we have some more stories," said Horace the next evening, as
+they were sitting in the twilight. "It's your turn, Gracie."
+
+"Well, I don't know but I'd as soon tell a story as not," replied
+Grace, pushing back her curls; "I reckon Pincher wants to hear one, he
+begins to wag his tail. I can't make up any thing as I go along, but I
+can tell a sober, true story."
+
+"Certain true, black and blue?" asked Prudy, who always _would_ have
+something to say, whether she knew what she was talking about or not.
+
+"Didn't I ever tell you about our school-dog out West, aunt Madge? You
+see it was so queer. I don't know where in the world he came from. He
+had one of his eyes put out, and was 'most blind out of the other, and
+only a stump of a tail, and didn't know how to get his living like
+other dogs."
+
+"O dear, it was so funny he should take it into his head to come to
+school, now wasn't it, auntie? He knew Miss All'n just as well as
+could be, and used to go with the rest of the scholars to meet her
+every morning; and when she patted him on the head, and said 'Good old
+doggie,' it did seem like he'd fly out of his wits."
+
+"Then when she rang the bell he trotted in just as proud, hanging down
+his head as meek as could be. He thought she rang the bell for him as
+much as any of the rest of the scholars. His seat was right by the
+stove on the floor--it _wasn't_ a seat, I mean; and he just lay there
+the whole living time, and slept and snored--you see he was so old,
+auntie! But then we all loved him, we just loved him so! O dear me,
+it's as much as I can do to keep from crying, and I don't know how
+_any body_ could help it!"
+
+"What was I talking about--O, he used to walk round under the seats
+just as sly sometimes, and put his nose into the dinner baskets. I
+tell you he liked cake, that dog did, and he liked meat and mince pie.
+You see he could _smell_, for his nose was as good as ever it was, and
+the girls used to cry sometimes when he picked out the nice things."
+
+"But then we just loved him so, you know, auntie! Why, we thought he
+was just as good as any body. He never bit nor growled, that dog
+didn't, not a mite. There wasn't one of us but he loved,--'specially
+Miss All'n."
+
+"Now wasn't it too bad Mrs. Snell made such a fuss? She didn't love
+that dog one speck,--I don't know as she ever saw him,--and she didn't
+care whether he was dead or alive. I just know she didn't."
+
+"I'll tell you how it was. Sometimes he got locked up all night. He'd
+be asleep, you know, by the stove, or else under the seats, and Miss
+All'n would forget, and suppose he was gone with the rest of the
+scholars."
+
+"Well, he was a darling old dog, if he _did_ chew up the books! I just
+about know he got hungry in the night, or he never would have thought
+of it. How did _he_ know it was wrong? he didn't know one letter from
+another. He spoiled Jenny Snell's spelling-book, I know, and lots of
+readers and things; but what if he did, auntie, now what of it?"
+
+"I ain't crying any thing about that, I wouldn't have you to think!
+But you see Mrs. Snell made a great fuss, and went to her husband and
+told him he ought to be shot."
+
+"That Mr. Snell ought to be shot?"
+
+"Now, Susy, I shouldn't think you'd feel like laughing or making
+fun.--The dog, of _course_; and they sent for the city marshal. You
+know Mr. Garvin, Horace?"
+
+"Yes, the man that scowls so, with the scar on his nose, and a
+horse-whip in his hand."
+
+"Miss All'n cried. She lifted up the lid of her desk, and hid her
+head, but we all knew she was crying. You see we had such a time about
+it. We thought he was going to carry the dog off to some place, and
+take care of him like he was his master, or may be shut him up, or
+something that way; but, do you believe, he just _shot_ that dog right
+in the yard!"
+
+"How dreadful!"
+
+"Yes, auntie, I reckon it was! We all cried like we should kill
+ourselves, and put our fingers in our ears; for we heard the man when
+he fired the gun,--I mean we heard the gun when the man fired it,--and
+_then_ it was of no use; but we stopped our ears, and Miss All'n hid
+her face, and cried--and cried--and cried!"
+
+"O dear me, it did seem like we didn't any of us want to go to school
+any more, if we couldn't see our old dog coming to meet us, and rub
+his head against our dresses. And it was just as lonesome,--now it was
+_so_, auntie."
+
+"Poor old doggie!" sighed aunt Madge.
+
+"It wasn't you, was it, Pincher," cried Horace, seizing his dog by
+both ears. "I reckon if they tried to shoot you they'd catch it."
+
+"Now, Susy, it's your turn," said Grace.
+
+"No, Horace's; he's the oldest."
+
+"Pshaw!" returned Horace, who had been the very first one to propose
+stories, "I'd like to get shut of it. Pshaw! I can't think of
+nothin'."
+
+"But you must, you know, Horace; so it's no use to grumble."
+
+"O shucks! Has it got to be true?"
+
+"Don't say 'shucks,' Horace," said Grace, gently. "You can tell a true
+story, or make it up as you go along.--Come, hurry."
+
+"I know what _I'm_ goin' to tell," whispered Prudy to Horace.
+
+"Well," said the boy, thinking a moment, "I'll tell my story double
+quick, and be done with it."
+
+"You'd ought to see my pa's horse out West, auntie; there ain't a
+Yankee horse can hold a candle to him; I'll leave it to Pincher. His
+name is Sancho, and my ma sends him to market mornings, early, with
+the basket, and puts some money in, and a note to the butcher, and
+that horse comes back, sir, just as fast as he can trot, sir, and he
+has the meat there all wrapped up, and just has the basket in his
+teeth, this way."
+
+"Why, Horace Clifford!" cried Grace, in surprise; "why, what a story!"
+
+"Of course it's a story. You wanted me to tell a story, didn't you? I
+was just a-blowin'."
+
+"Well, there, tell something nice, can't you, please?"
+
+"I've told all the story I'm a-goin' to," said Horace, firmly. "Now
+it's Susy's turn."
+
+"You talk about something else a while," replied Susy, "and let me be
+a-thinkin'."
+
+"I'll tell one," cried Prudy, "let _me_, now."
+
+"Once there was goin' to be three balls, and Cindrilla didn't have no
+mother, and her father didn't have no wife, so he married him one. And
+there was goin' to be three great big balls, and Cindrilla asked her
+mother if she couldn't go, and her mother said, No, indeed; she hadn't
+nothin' to wear. And then they started off, and her grandma came,--O,
+I forgot, the woman was wicked, and she made her little girls sit in
+the parlor, all dressed up spandy clean, and she made Cindrilla sit in
+the coal-hod."
+
+"And then she told her to get a great punkin, and it turned into a
+gold hack, and she went off into the back shed and got the rat-trap,
+and it turned into two footmens,--and the king's son--O, no----"
+
+"And then there was some bugs round there, and they was six horses,
+and she got in and rode on to the ball, and her shoes come off, and
+then the king married her, and she had the other shoe in her pocket,
+and he married her right off, and they're all safe now."
+
+"All safe?" said aunt Madge, laughing; "what do you mean by that?"
+
+"O, now she'll have a good father and a good mother, and won't sit in
+the coal-hod no more.--Now it's your turn, Susy."
+
+"O dear suz! I was going to tell a story, a fairy story. It was going
+to be a real good one, about 'The Bravest of Lion's Castle,' and I
+couldn't think of a thing to say, and now Prudy has drove it all out
+of my head."
+
+"Well, children," said aunt Madge, "suppose we give Susy a little more
+time, and excuse her for to-night? It's time for pleasant dreams now,
+and kisses all 'round."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+PRUDY'S WHITE TEA
+
+
+"Blessings on the blessed children!" said aunt Madge, one morning soon
+after this. "So we little folks are going out to spend the day, are
+we?"
+
+"Yes'm," replied Grace, "all but Horace."
+
+"Yes," said Prudy, dancing in high glee, "grandma wants _me_ to go,
+and I'm goin'. I mean to do every single thing grandma wants me to."
+
+"I wish you could go with us, aunt Madge," said Grace, almost pouting;
+"we don't have half so good times with aunt Louise."
+
+"No, we don't," cried Prudy; "she wants us to 'take care' all the
+time. She don't love little girls when she has 'the nervous.'"
+
+Almost while they were talking, their aunt Louise came into the room,
+looking prettier than ever in her new pink dress. She was a very young
+lady, hardly fifteen years old.
+
+"Come, Prudy," said she, smiling, "please run up stairs and get my
+parasol--there's a darling."
+
+But Prudy was picking a pebble out of her shoe, and did not start at
+once.
+
+"Ah!" said aunt Louise, drawing on her gloves, "I see Prudy isn't
+going to mind me."
+
+"Well, don't you see me getting up out of my chair?" said Prudy.
+"There now, don't you see me got clear to the door?"
+
+"O dear," said poor aunt Louise to her sister, "what shall I do all
+this long day with three noisy children? I'm afraid some of them will
+get drowned, or run over, or break their necks. You see if something
+awful doesn't happen before we get back."
+
+"O, I hope not," replied sister Madge, laughing. "I think there is
+nothing so very wicked about our little nieces."
+
+"Here is your parasol, auntie," said Prudy, coming back. "I know who I
+love best of any body in this house, and it ain't the one that's got
+her bonnet on--it's a-r-n-t, aunt, M-i-g, Madge."
+
+"Well, you ought to love your aunt _Mig_, all of you," said aunt
+Louise, laughing, "for I do believe she thinks you children are as
+lovely as little white rose-buds.--Come, are you all ready? Then run
+along, and I'll follow after."
+
+"O, I'm so glad I'm alive!" cried little Prudy, hoping on one foot; "I
+do hope I shall never die!"
+
+"I just mean to be careful, and not get a speck of dirt on my clean
+apron," whispered Susy to Grace. "Aunt Madge ironed it this morning."
+
+They had such a pleasant walk through the streets of the beautiful
+village, in the "sunshine, calm and sweet!" Grace thought the trees
+met overhead just as if they were clasping hands, and playing a game
+of "King's Cruise" for every body to "march through."
+
+When they had almost reached aunt Martha's house, aunt Louise stopped
+them, saying,--
+
+"Now, tell me if you are going to be good children, so I shan't be
+ashamed of you?"
+
+"Why, yes, auntie," said Grace, looking quite grieved and surprised.
+
+"O, auntie," said Susy, "did you think we were going to be naughty?"
+
+"No, you'll mean to be good, I dare say," answered aunt Louise,
+speaking more kindly,--"if you don't forget it. And you'll be a nice,
+dear little girl, won't you, Prudy?"
+
+"I don't know," said Prudy, coolly.
+
+"Don't _know_? Why, do you think I should have taken you visiting if I
+hadn't supposed you'd try to be good?"
+
+"Well, I didn't say I wouldn't," said Prudy, with some dignity, "I
+said 'I don't know,' and when I say that, I mean '_yes_.'"
+
+"Well, I'm sure I hope you'll do the very best you can," sighed aunt
+Louise, "and not make any body crazy."
+
+By this time they had gone up the nice gravel walk, and aunt Martha
+had come to the door, opening her arms as if she wanted to embrace
+them all at once.
+
+"Dear little souls," said she, "come right into the house, and let me
+take off your things. I've been looking for you these two hours. This
+is my little nephew, Lonnie Adams.--Shake hands with the little girls,
+my dear."
+
+Lonnie was a fair-haired, sickly little boy, seven years old. The
+children very soon felt at ease with him.
+
+It was so pleasant in aunt Martha's shaded parlor, and the children
+took such delight in looking at the books and pictures, that they were
+all sorry when aunt Louise "got nervous," and thought it was time
+they went off somewhere to play.
+
+"Very well," said dear aunt Martha; "they may go all over the house
+and grounds, if they like, with Lonnie."
+
+So all over the house and grounds they went in a very few minutes, and
+at last came to a stand-still in Bridget's chamber over the kitchen,
+tired enough to sit down a while--all but Prudy, who "didn't have any
+kind of _tiredness_ about her."
+
+"Look here, Prudy Parlin," said Grace, "you mustn't open that drawer."
+
+"Who owns it?" said Prudy, putting in both hands.
+
+"Why, Bridget does, of course."
+
+"No, she doesn't," said Prudy, "God owns this drawer, and he's willing
+I should look into it as long as I'm a mind to."
+
+"Well, I'll tell aunt Louise, you see if I don't. That's the way
+little Paddy girls act that steal things."
+
+"I ain't a stealer," cried Prudy. "Now, Gracie Clifford, I saw you
+once, and you was a-nippin' cream out of the cream-pot. _You're_ a
+Paddy!--O, here's _a ink-stand_!"
+
+"Put it right back," said Susy, "and come away."
+
+"Let me take it," cried Lonnie, seizing it out of Prudy's hand, "I'm
+going to put it up at auction. I'm Mr. Nelson, riding horseback," said
+he, jumping up on a stand. "I'm ringin' a bell. 'O yes! O yes! O yes!
+Auction at two o'clock! Who'll buy my fine, fresh ink?'"
+
+"Please give it to me," cried Grace; "it isn't yours."
+
+"'Fresh ink, red as a lobster!'"
+
+"This minute!" cried Grace.
+
+"'As green as a pea! Who'll bid? Going! Going!'"
+
+"Now, do give it to me, Lonnie," said Susy, climbing into a chair, and
+reaching after it; "you ain't fair a bit."
+
+"'Do you say you bid a _bit_? That's a ninepence, ma'am. It's yours;
+going, gone for a ninepence. Knocked off to Miss Parlin.'"
+
+Somehow, in "knocking it off," out came the stopper, and over went the
+ink on Susy's fair white apron. Lonnie was dreadfully frightened.
+
+"Don't tell that I did it!" cried he. "You know I didn't mean any
+harm. Won't you promise not to tell?"
+
+"Yes, I will," said Susy; but she ought not to have promised any such
+thing.
+
+"O, dear, O dear! What is to be done?"
+
+Little black streams were trickling down the apron on to the dress.
+Grace pulled Susy to the washing-stand, and Prudy thought she meant to
+lift her into it, and tried to help.
+
+"I guess this honey soap will take it out," said Susy; but with all
+their washing and rinsing they could not make black white any more
+than the poor negro who scoured his face.
+
+"Stop a minute!" cried Grace. "Soap makes it worse--ma puts on milk."
+
+"O dear! I wish we had some," said Susy; "how can we get it?"
+
+"I'll tell you what we'll do," said Grace; "we'll send Prudy down
+stairs to Bridget, to ask for some milk to drink."
+
+"I like milk and water the best," said Prudy, "with sugar in."
+
+"Well, get that," said Grace, "it's just as good; and come right back
+with it, and don't tell about the ink."
+
+Aunt Martha and Bridget were taking up the dinner when Prudy went down
+into the kitchen, calling out,--
+
+"O, Bridget, may I have some white tea?"
+
+"White _tay_!" said Bridget; "and what may that be now?"
+
+"O, some white tea, in a cup, you know, with sugar. They let me have
+it every little once in a while."
+
+"Milk and water, I suppose," said aunt Martha. "Can't you wait till
+dinner, my dear?"
+
+"But the girls _can't_ wait," replied Prudy; "they want it now."
+
+"O, it's for the girls, is it?"
+
+"Yes, but when they've washed the apron I can drink the rest--with
+white sugar in."
+
+"The apron!" said aunt Martha, "_what_ apron?"
+
+"O, nothing but Susy's. I told grandma I'd be good, and I did be good;
+it wasn't _me_ spilled the ink."
+
+"Ink spilled?" cried aunt Martha, and she stopped beating the turnip.
+
+"O, I ain't goin' to tell!" cried Prudy, beginning to tremble; "I
+didn't, did I? they won't '_low_ me to tell."
+
+Aunt Louise, passing through the kitchen, caught some of the last
+words, and rushed up stairs, two steps at a time.
+
+"O, Susy Parlin, you naughty, naughty child, what _have_ you been
+into? Who spilled that ink?"
+
+"It got tipped over," answered Susy, in a fright, but not forgetting
+her promise.
+
+"Of course it got tipped over--but not without hands, you careless
+girl! Do you get your shaker, and march home as quick as ever you can!
+I must go with you, I suppose."
+
+Lonnie ought to have come forward now, like a little gentleman, and
+told the whole story; but he had run away.
+
+"O, auntie," said Grace, "she wasn't to blame. It----"
+
+"Don't say a word," said aunt Louise, briskly. "If she was my little
+girl I'd have her sent to bed. That dress and apron ought to be
+soaking this very minute."
+
+Bridget listened at the foot of the stairs in a very angry mood,
+muttering,--
+
+"It's not much like the child's mother she is. A mother can pass it by
+when the childers does such capers, and wait till they get more
+sinse."
+
+Poor little Susy had to go home in the noonday sun, hanging down her
+head like a guilty child, and crying all the way. Some of the tears
+were for her soiled clothes, some for her auntie's sharp words, and
+some for the nice dinner she had left.
+
+"O, aunt Madge," sobbed she, when they had got home, "I kept as far
+behind aunt Louise as I could, so nobody would think I was her little
+girl. She was ashamed of me, I looked so!"
+
+"There, there! try not to cry," said aunt Madge, as she took off
+Susy's soiled clothes.
+
+"But I can't stop crying, I feel so bad. If there's any body gets into
+a fuss it's always _me_! I'm all the time making some kind of trouble.
+Sometimes I wish there wasn't any such girl as me!"
+
+Tears came into aunt Madge's kind gray eyes, and she made up her mind
+that the poor child should be comforted. So she quietly put away the
+silk dress she was so anxious to finish, and after dinner took the
+fresh, tidy, happy little Susy across the fields to aunt Martha's
+again, where the unlucky day was finished very happily after all.
+
+"The truth is, Louise," said aunt Madge that night, after their
+return, "_Lonnie_ spilled that ink, and Susy was not at all to blame.
+You scolded her without mercy for being careless, and she bore it all
+because she would not break her promise to that cowardly boy."
+
+"O, how unjust I have been!" said aunt Louise, who did not mean to be
+unkind, in spite of her hasty way of speaking.
+
+"You _have_ been unjust," said aunt Madge. "Only think what a trifling
+thing it is for a little child to soil her dress! and what a great
+thing to have her keep her word! Susy has a tender heart, and it
+grieves her to be unjustly scolded; but she would bear it all rather
+than tell a falsehood. For my part I am proud of such a noble,
+truthful little niece."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+PRUDY TRYING TO HELP
+
+
+Prudy awoke one morning full of mischief. At the second table she
+split her johnny-cake, and spread it open, saying it was a
+singing-book, and began to sing out of it,--
+
+    "Little drops of water,
+    Little _grains_ of sand."
+
+Grandma heard her from the next room, and came in very much surprised.
+
+"What shall I do with such a little girl as this?" said she, shaking
+her finger at Prudy.
+
+"I think," answered the child, "you ought to call me to you and say,
+'You been a-singin' to the table, Prudy.' Then I'll say 'Yes'm;' and
+you'll say, 'Prudy, go right out in the kitchen, and don't let me see
+you till you come back pleasant.'"
+
+Grandma put her head out of the window a moment, for she didn't want
+any body to see her smile.
+
+"This is one of Prudy's days," thought she. "I'm really afraid I shall
+have to punish her before it's over."
+
+Very soon after breakfast the doorbell rang, and a little boy left a
+note directed to Miss Grace Clifford. It said,--
+
+"Miss Grace Clifford, the Misses Parlin, and Mr. Horace Clifford, are
+respectfully invited to a gypsy supper in the Pines."
+
+The children hardly knew what it meant.
+
+"What _is_ jispies?" asked Prudy, a little frightened. "Be they up in
+the Pines?"
+
+"It means a picnic, that's all," said aunt Madge, "and a very nice
+time you will have."
+
+"A picnic!" screamed all the voices in chorus. It was almost too good
+to believe. Grace clapped her hands and laughed. Susy ran about the
+room like a crazy thing. Prudy hopped up and down, and Horace tried to
+stand on his head.
+
+"Now scamper, every one of you," said aunt Madge, "for I must go right
+to cooking.--Let's see, you shall have some cunning little sandwiches,
+some hard-boiled eggs; and what else can you think of, Louise?"
+
+"Stop a minute," said aunt Louise, drawing on a long face, "I hope
+Susy and Prudy----"
+
+"Tarts and plum-cake!" cried Susy and Grace.
+
+"Oranges, dates, and figs!" said Horace.
+
+"And them little cookies you cut out of a thimble, you know," added
+Prudy, anxious to put in a word.
+
+"Hear me speak," said aunt Louise. "I hope Susy and Prudy don't think
+they are going to this picnic, for the truth is, they haven't been
+invited."
+
+"Not invited?" gasped Susy.
+
+"The note says, 'the Misses Parlin,'" said aunt Louise, gravely. "That
+might mean your grandmother, but it doesn't! I take it to mean _the
+young ladies_, Madge (or Mig) and Louise, your beautiful aunties, who
+are often called 'the Misses Parlin.' Of course it _can't_ mean two
+little slips of girls in short dresses!"
+
+Susy burst into tears, and tried to talk at the same time, but nobody
+could understand her.
+
+"O, O!" moaned Prudy, burying her face in the roller-towel, "if I
+can't go I shall just lay down my head and cry!"
+
+"It's not true, children, not one word; she's only joking," said aunt
+Madge, laughing and shaking the egg-beater at her sister. "I'm really
+ashamed of your aunt Louise for trying to tease you. What _do_ you
+suppose any body wants of old grown-up folks at your nice little
+party? There, there, don't laugh _quite_ so loud. Run away, and stay
+away, if you want me ever to do any thing."
+
+In a few moments the children were playing out of doors in high
+spirits, and Prudy had told the workmen, in her pretty, lisping way,
+"that every one of we children were invited to a _jispy_ supper; had
+a ticket come a-purpose, so of course we should _have_ to go!"
+
+The children were too much excited to do their morning work properly.
+Grandma could not tell by the looks of the piazza whether Susy had
+swept it or not, and had to go and ask.
+
+"She's swept it off," said Prudy, speaking for her, "but she didn't
+sweep it _way off_!"
+
+"I should judge not," said grandma; "and here is Prudy, with her bib
+on yet, and Grace hasn't made her bed. Do you think such children
+ought to go to a party?"
+
+"O, grandma," cried Prudy, "you know we had a ticket come a-purpose!"
+
+"I'm ashamed," said Grace, promptly. "Susy, you and I are too big to
+act so. Let's go and do up our work right nice, and then see if we
+can't help grandma."
+
+And off went the two little girls, with beaming faces, trying to make
+themselves useful.
+
+"What shall I do?" thought Prudy, for every body was at work,--even
+Horace, who was turning the grindstone for the men.
+
+"I'll dust the parlors, that's what I'll do. It does take aunt Madge
+so long."
+
+So, with the big feather duster, Prudy made a great stir among the
+books and ornaments, and at last knocked over a little pitcher and
+broke its nose.
+
+"You little meddlesome thing," cried aunt Louise, as soon as she knew
+it, "this is one of your _days_, I should think!"
+
+"I didn't mean to," cried the child; "I was trying to help."
+
+"Don't say you didn't mean to; you hadn't any business to touch the
+duster. I shall have to snip your fingers, I do believe."
+
+"Don't," begged the child, "_I'll_ snip my hands, _you_ needn't;
+_I'll_ snip my hands and get the naughty out."
+
+"They ought to be snipped from now till next Christmas," said aunt
+Louise, laughing in spite of herself to see the little one set to work
+with thumb and finger, trying to do her own punishing. "There, there,
+go off, and be a good girl."
+
+Prudy's bright spirits rose again at these words, and she thought she
+would keep on trying to make herself useful. It was aunt Madge she
+wanted to help--good aunt Madge, who was so busy cooking for the gypsy
+supper.
+
+[Illustration: PRUDY DUSTING.]
+
+"I'll feed her bird," thought the child; "he sings as if he was
+hungry."
+
+Now aunt Madge had fed little Daffy before sunrise, and he was as
+yellow and happy as a canary can be. But silly little Prudy trotted
+off after a piece of sponge cake, climbed into a chair, opened the
+cage door, and swung the cake before his eyes.
+
+Of course Daffy flew out, and one might suppose that was the last of
+him; but it so happened that the windows were not up.
+
+Prudy ran, in great fright, to tell aunt Madge, and when she opened
+the door, the cat got in; and such a time as there was, you may
+imagine. Kitty rushed for the canary, aunt Louise rushed for the
+kitty, and aunt Madge for the bird. At last, Daffy was caught, and
+safe in his little home, with only the loss of a few tiny feathers.
+
+"I'd give that child one sound whipping," said aunt Louise.
+
+"Let Madge attend to her," replied grandma; "she will do right, for
+she knows how to keep her temper."
+
+Louise said nothing, but she felt the rebuke; and as she left the
+room, there was a bright color in her cheeks.
+
+"Prudy," said aunt Madge, gently, "you didn't mean to open the cage
+door, did you?"
+
+Prudy remembered that she had been scolded before for saying "I didn't
+mean to."
+
+"Yes'm, I did," replied she, in a choked voice, "I meant to do it
+a-purpose."
+
+"I'm really astonished," cried aunt Madge, raising both hands. "Then
+it's surely my duty to punish you."
+
+"You may," sobbed Prudy. "You may shut me up, and not let me have no
+dinner, 'cause I ain't hungry. I've been eatin' cake!"
+
+"I think," said aunt Madge, "it would be a better punishment to keep
+you home from the party."
+
+"O," cried Prudy, eagerly, "wouldn't you rather snip my hands? You can
+snip 'em with a piece o' whalebone, you know, and switch me all over
+with a switch, and do _every thing_ to me, if you'll only let me go to
+the party!"
+
+"I'm afraid you'll forget, unless you're kept at home, Prudy."
+
+"O, no, no; I'll promise truly I won't try to help again, never, never
+in my world."
+
+"Were you trying to help when you let out the bird?"
+
+"Yes'm, I was. He was singin' for somethin' to eat."
+
+"O, I begin to understand," said aunt Madge, laughing heartily. "So
+you didn't mean to be a naughty girl after all. I am very glad of
+that, Prudy, for I couldn't tell what to make of you. But you must
+never touch the cage again. Little girls that want to _help_, must ask
+somebody to tell them what to do. There, now, kiss me, dear, and I'll
+forgive you, and we won't say any more about your being naughty, if
+you'll only remember next time."
+
+Prudy laughed, and twinkled off the tears. She was what aunt Madge
+called a "bird-child," and was never unhappy but a little while at a
+time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE GYPSY SUPPER
+
+
+After a great, great while, it was afternoon, and the children went up
+to the Pines, carrying a small market basket half full of nice things.
+
+I don't know which felt most at home in those woods, the birds or the
+children. It wasn't at all like having a party in a parlor, where
+there are chairs and rugs in the way; and where you can't run and jump
+without being afraid of hurting something. No, there wasn't any danger
+of scratching the varnish off the trees, nor any danger of soiling the
+soft carpet of the earth.
+
+And if there hadn't been a party, it was enough to make any body happy
+only to breathe the sweet air, and look away down at the white
+village, and away off at the blue hills.
+
+Dr. Gray's daughter Ruth, a girl of fourteen, was to have the care of
+Prudy; and at first she followed the child about like her shadow.
+
+"You dear little pet," said she, "don't walk so fast. There, now, my
+sweet dovey, let me take your hand."
+
+Prudy looked down at her copper-toed shoes with something like a pout,
+and slowly gave her hand to the young girl.
+
+"Now, you're a little pink of a dear," said Ruth. "Let's see," added
+she, feeling anxious to say something, for she thought Prudy would
+want to be amused, "do you love your aunt Madge any? _I_ think she's
+very good and nice."
+
+"Yes'm," said Prudy, "I've kissed her so much that I love her a good
+deal."
+
+"Well, I declare," laughed Ruth, "that's a new way of learning to love
+any body! I guess people call you a funny little monkey, don't they?"
+
+"No'm, they don't," replied Prudy, drawing away a little, "they think
+I'm as cunning as I can be."
+
+"O, my! I know a little girl that thinks pretty well of herself. Ah,
+here comes Dedy Roberts; does my little love know Dedy?"
+
+"Yes'm, I went to see her once; she lives in a dreadful _ragged_
+house!"
+
+"Well, you two little lammies can sit right down here and pick
+flowers, and if you find a strawberry I'll give you a cent."
+
+"As if we was babies," thought the little girls, for they were wise
+enough to know that strawberries were gone long ago.
+
+"I don't like her," said Prudy to Dedy, when Ruth had turned away;
+"she calls me names all the whole time. I guess she don't know my name
+is Prudy."
+
+"I wouldn't let her," said Dedy. "What did she call you?"
+
+"O, monkeys, and lammies, and pinkies, and things. Don't you s'pose
+she's 'most an _April fool_?"
+
+After watching Prudy to the child's vexation for about two hours, Ruth
+forgot all about her, and it so happened that the little thing strayed
+off with Horace and his friend Gilbert, whom he called "Grasshopper,"
+to a little clearing in the wood.
+
+It is a sad fact that "Grasshopper" had a bunch of matches in his
+pocket, and the boys meant to build a fire. Horace gathered the dry
+sticks and crossed them, so all Grasshopper had to do was to strike a
+match, and the fire was soon crackling briskly.
+
+"How it pops!" said Prudy, "just like corn."
+
+"I reckon this is _popple_ wood," said Horace, "and they call it so
+because it pops in the fire."
+
+Prudy did not doubt it. She never doubted any thing Horace said. She
+stood looking on, with dumb surprise, as he took out of the inside
+pocket of his raglan three small fishes.
+
+"Now," said he, "if we can cook these for our supper, won't we go
+a-flyin'?"
+
+"Be they minnies?" asked Prudy. "O, I know; it's mack fishes!"
+
+"She means _mackerel_, you see," said Horace, with a wise look at
+Grasshopper. "No, Prudy, these are chubbs, nice chubbs, too; I caught
+'em myself."
+
+How to cook a fish, Horace had no idea, but he was not a boy to give
+up at trifles.
+
+"If I put 'em into the fire they'll burn up," said he; "but if I hold
+'em over the fire they'll cook;--now won't they?"
+
+"Your hand will cook, too, I guess," said lazy Grasshopper, sitting
+down and looking on.
+
+Horace said no more, but went quietly to work and whittled some long
+splinters, on which he stuck the fish and set them to roasting. True,
+they got badly scorched and dreadfully smoked, but that was not all
+that happened. A spark flying out caught Prudy's gingham dress, and
+set it in flames in a second.
+
+Whether the boys would have known what to do, I can't say; but just
+then Sam Walker, a good-natured colored man, came up and put out the
+flames before Prudy fairly knew there were any. Then he brought water
+from a spring and drowned the bonfire, and gave the boys "a piece of
+his mind."
+
+All the while poor Prudy was running off into the thickest part of the
+wood, crying bitterly. Sam ran after her, and caught her up, as if she
+had been a stray lamb; and though she struggled hard, he carried her
+to the picnic ground, where the large girls were just spreading the
+table for supper.
+
+"You'd better look out for these here young ones," said Sam. "This one
+would have been roasted sure, if I hadn't a-happened along in the nick
+of time."
+
+Ruth Gray dropped the paper of candy she was untying, and turned very
+pale. She had been too busy playing games to remember that she had the
+care of any body.
+
+"O, you little ducky darling," cried she, seizing Prudy in her arms,
+"don't you cry, and you shall have a pocket full of candy. You didn't
+get burnt a mite, did you, honey?"
+
+"No'm, I ain't cryin'," sobbed Prudy. "I ain't crying any thing about
+that;" and every word seemed to be shaken out, as if there was a
+little earthquake at her heart--"_there--is--black folks!_ O, he is
+just as--_black_!"
+
+"Is that all," said Grace, stroking Prudy's hair. "Didn't she ever see
+any negroes--any nice black negro men before, Susy?"
+
+"I thought she had; why, we have 'em in the streets at Portland, lots
+and lots of 'em."
+
+After much soothing, and a good deal of candy, Prudy was comforted,
+and the supper went off famously. The children were all polite and
+well-behaved, "even the boys," as Ruth said; and though they all had
+keen appetites, nobody was greedy.
+
+By and by, when it would not do to stay any longer, they all started
+for home, happy and tired.
+
+Ruth held Prudy's little hand in a firm grasp, and wished she had held
+it so all the afternoon; "for," as she said, to herself, "she's a very
+_slippery_ child."
+
+This had been a trying day for Prudy, and when aunt Madge put her to
+bed, her sweet blue eyes wouldn't stay shut.
+
+"Where do they grow, auntie?" said she, "them black folks. Be _they_
+the jispies?"
+
+"O, they grow any where," replied aunt Madge, laughing; "just like any
+body. They are not gypsies, but negroes."
+
+"I should think they'd wash their faces."
+
+"O, they do, but our Heavenly Father made them black."
+
+"Did he?" cried Prudy, raising her head from the pillow. "And did he
+know how they was goin' to look when he made 'em? That man that
+catched me up, why, how he must feel!"
+
+"He was very kind," said aunt Madge, trembling as she thought of the
+child's danger. "O Prudy, did you thank him?"
+
+"No, I didn't," replied Prudy. "I didn't know as he could hear any
+thing. O, mayn't I go up to the jispy Pines to-morrow and thank him?"
+
+"We'll see; but now it's time you went to sleep."
+
+"Well, I will," said Prudy, "I'll go in a minute; but, auntie, he's
+good, ain't he? He ain't black _all_ through?"
+
+"He's quite a good man," answered aunt Madge, trying not to smile,
+"and has had a great deal of trouble. I can't stop to tell you, and
+you wouldn't understand; but I dare say he has cried ever so much,
+Prudy, and felt worse than you can think, all because he is black; and
+some people don't like black men."
+
+"I should think they'd be ashamed," cried the child. "Why, _I_ love
+him, 'cause he can't wash it off! Mayn't I put him in my prayer?"
+
+Then Prudy had to get out of bed and kneel down and say her prayer
+over again. It followed the Lord's Prayer, and was in her own words:--
+
+"O God, please bless every body. Bless all the big children, and the
+little children, and the little mites o' babies. And bless all the men
+and ladies that live in the whole o' the houses."
+
+And now she added,--
+
+"And won't you please to bless that black man that catched me up, and
+bless all the black folks, forever, amen."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE ANGEL-BABY
+
+
+The beautiful summer was passing away very fast. Only a few days more
+till autumn. A little longer, and the cousins must separate; so, for
+the time that was left, they clung all the more closely together.
+
+I have called it a beautiful summer; so it was, but there is one
+sorrowful thing I have not said much about. There was one trouble
+which always made the children feel sad when they stopped to think of
+it.
+
+While they were playing in the hay-field, or taking supper "up in the
+trees," now and then they would hear the tired cry of the darling sick
+baby.
+
+Then Grace would clasp her hands together in her quick way, and say,--
+
+"O dear, dear, I wish the doctor would get Harry well."
+
+"Poh!" said Horace, "the doctors they have East ain't no 'count, are
+they, though, Gracie?"
+
+"Of course they don't know so much as Dr. De Bruler," replied Grace,
+very decidedly.
+
+"I'll tell you how they make doctors," spoke up little Prudy; "they
+take a man and put him in a bear's buffalo coat, and that makes a
+doctor."
+
+"And a gig," said Horace, "and some sharp things, and lots of little
+bottles."
+
+"What children!" said Grace, looking down upon them with a lofty
+smile. "Why, Prudy, what _have_ you got in your pocket?"
+
+"O, I don't know," said Prudy, throwing her hands behind her.
+"_Goodness_ won't hurt me, will it, Susy?"
+
+"I guess _you_ ain't good enough to hurt."
+
+"Well, grandma says not to eat green apples," said the child, "but
+she'd be willing I could chew 'em and get the _good_ all out--don't
+you s'pose she would?"
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure," replied Susy; "you must ask."
+
+"Well, I never teased for any. Horace gave 'em to me, and I shan't
+swallow 'em."
+
+"O, what a little snipe," cried Grace, laughing, "your pocket is
+stuffed so full it's going to burst open, and you'll be sick again,
+now you see!"
+
+"Sick?" repeated Prudy, looking frightened, for she did not forget her
+severe illness; "then I'll throw 'em away. I don't love such sour
+things anyhow. I was only _hung-buggin_'."
+
+And Prudy went down the wooden stairs which led from the trees, and
+walked slowly towards the house, dropping the green apples one by one
+into the grass.
+
+At the kitchen door she met her aunt Madge, who was in tears.
+
+"O auntie," said she, "I'm going to wash my hands spandy clean, and
+then are you willing there is any thing I can have to eat?"
+
+"Cookies, if you like, my dear."
+
+"O auntie," cried Prudy, eager with a new thought, "won't you tell me
+where them raisins is--the ones you didn't put in the pudding? Tell
+me, O, do, do! If you will, I won't touch 'em, true as the world."
+
+"Then why do you want to know where they are?" said aunt Madge, a
+faint smile flitting across her face and then dying out again.
+
+"O, 'cause," said Prudy, "then I can tell Susy, and _she_ can get
+'em!"
+
+"You can each of you have a handful," said aunt Madge, reaching down
+the box. "You may have some, for I know you wouldn't take them without
+leave, and Susy wouldn't either, you funny child!"
+
+"Now," said she, putting the raisins in Prudy's apron, "I want you to
+go out of doors and keep very still."
+
+"Why do you cry so, my dearest auntie in the world?" said Prudy,
+climbing into a chair, and throwing her arms around her auntie's neck,
+while the raisins dropped to the floor; "is Mr. 'Gustus Allen dead?"
+
+"No," said aunt Madge, hugging little Prudy as if she was good for the
+heartache, "the baby is a _great deal worse_, darling! Tell the
+children I will send them some dinner up in the trees, and don't let
+Horace come into the house. You know he means to keep still, but his
+boots make so much noise."
+
+Prudy gathered up the raisins, and went out quietly, her happy little
+face looking very sober. But the "bird-child" could not be sad long at
+a time, and she had hardly climbed the steps into the trees, and given
+away the clusters of raisins, before the sick baby was almost
+forgotten.
+
+"There," said Horace, suddenly, "I must go right into the house and
+see Harry. I haven't seen him to-day."
+
+"O, no, no!" cried Prudy, holding him back, and speaking very fast,
+"he's a great deal _wusser_, and auntie said your boots was so big
+she'd send the dinner out here; and then she cried like every thing."
+
+"O," said Grace, "I'm so afraid the baby won't get well! Aunt Madge
+didn't say any thing about _dying_--about Harry's _dying_, did she,
+Prudy?"
+
+"No," replied Prudy, stopping a moment to think; "she said he was
+wusser--a great deal wusser, darling. And then she talked about
+Horace's boots, and that's all."
+
+"The darling little baby! He used to love me before he got so sick;
+and all the way coming East I held him ever so much, you know,
+Horace."
+
+"Well, he liked me, too," said Horace, looking very sober, "and I've
+played with him the most, and let him spoil lots of my things."
+
+"So you have," said Grace. "I heard ma say the other day you'd always
+been good to little brother. O Susy, you ought to have seen how Harry
+used to jump when he'd hear Horace open the door; he always expected a
+frolic!"
+
+"Didn't we have _times_!" cried Horace, dropping his eyes, which were
+full of tears.
+
+"O Susy," said Grace, "do you suppose any one that's sick all summer
+ever gets well?"
+
+"I don't know," sighed Susy; "mother says if God is willing they'll
+get well, and if he isn't they'll die. God knows what is best."
+
+"Yes," chimed in little Prudy, "God knows a great deal more'n I do!"
+
+And so the children chatted and played quietly all day long, sometimes
+breaking off in the midst of a game to talk about the baby. It seemed
+like a very strange day. The sky looked so calm and peaceful that you
+could almost fancy it was keeping still to listen to something a great
+way off. The quiet trees might have been dreaming of heaven, Susy
+thought. Horace begged her now to tell that fairy story about "The
+Bravest of Lion's Castle;" but Susy said it made her feel wicked to
+think of fairy stories _that_ day, though she couldn't tell why.
+
+When the children went into the house at supper-time it was very
+still. Nobody was to be seen but aunt Madge, who gave them some bowls
+of bread and milk, and said the family had taken tea.
+
+A kind of awe crept over Grace as she looked at the tearful face of
+her auntie, and she dared not ask about the baby.
+
+After they had finished their supper, aunt Madge said, "You may all
+follow me into the nursery; I have something to tell you.--Our dear
+little pale baby, who has been sick day and night all this long
+summer, will never feel sick or cry any more. God has taken him to
+heaven to be a little angel."
+
+All but Prudy knew that she spoke of death. Grace flung herself on the
+floor and wept aloud. Horace rushed up stairs into the back chamber,
+without saying a word to any body; and Susy buried her face in the
+sofa-pillows, whispering, "O God, don't let it be so; it isn't true,
+is it?"
+
+But Prudy only opened her blue eyes in wonder. When she saw the pure
+little form of the baby lying on the bed, in a soft crimson dress, she
+smiled and said,--
+
+"O, he looks as if he was asleep, and he is asleep!"
+
+"But see, he doesn't breathe," whispered Susy.
+
+"No," said Prudy, "he don't breathe because he don't want to. He was
+sick, and it made him too tired to _breathe_ so much."
+
+Why every body should weep was more than Prudy could tell; but she
+thought it must be right to do as the rest did, and by bedtime she was
+sobbing as if her heart would break. She afterwards said to Susy,--
+
+"I tried as hard as I could to cry, and when I got to crying I cried
+as tight as I could spring!"
+
+But when aunt Madge wanted to put Prudy to bed she was unwilling to
+go. "O, no," said she, "I want to wait and see the baby go up!"
+
+"See what?" said aunt Madge.
+
+"See God take the baby up to heaven," sobbed the child.
+
+"But he is in heaven _now_," replied aunt Madge.
+
+"O, no, he hasn't gone a single step. I saw him on the bed. They
+haven't put his wings on yet!"
+
+Aunt Madge was puzzled, and hardly knew what to say, for it is not
+easy to make such very little children know the difference between the
+body, which goes back to dust, and the spirit, which goes to God who
+gave it.
+
+She talked a long while, but I doubt if Prudy understood one word, for
+when the casket which held the form of little Harry was buried in the
+garden, she cried because the earth was heaped over it.
+
+"What makes 'em do it?" she asked, "he can't get to heaven through all
+that dirt!"
+
+But by and by, when days passed, and there was no longer a baby in
+the house, Prudy began to think of him as one of the angels. And one
+morning she told a beautiful dream which she thought she had had,
+though she sometimes called her _thoughts_ dreams.
+
+"O," said she, "I dreamed about my angel! He had stars all round his
+head, and he _flowed_ in the air like a bird. There was ever so many
+little angels with him, and some of 'em sang. They didn't sing
+_sorry_; they was singing, 'The Little Boy that died.' And, aunt 'Ria,
+I guess you wouldn't cry if you could see how happy they were!"
+
+"No, no," sobbed poor aunt 'Ria, holding Prudy close in her arms,
+which she said felt "_so_ empty" now, "it can't be right to cry, can
+it, Prudy, when I _know_ my baby is so happy in heaven?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+GOING HOME
+
+
+It was now autumn. The trees couldn't keep green any longer, for their
+time had come; so they just made the best of it, like sad faces
+laughing through tears, and glowed and flushed in a perfect blaze of
+glory, making believe they were having splendid times all by
+themselves, and didn't care for what was coming.
+
+The Parlin children had stayed a great deal longer than their parents
+at first meant they should stay, and now they must really go back to
+Portland.
+
+The little cousins were sorry to part, for you know they had learned
+to love one another dearly. Grace and Susy clung together till the
+last moment.
+
+"O Susy," sobbed Grace, "don't you forget these good times! Remember
+to write, no matter how it looks. I wish I hadn't got to go 'way off
+out West. I never did have such times in any place as we've had here
+at grandma's."
+
+"Nor I either," said Susy, looking sorrowfully at the barn, the seat
+in the trees, and the clover patch. "Remember, you're coming back in
+just two years. Won't it be splendid?--O dear, but two years is 'most
+forever!" added Susy, suddenly breaking down.
+
+"Good by, Prudy," said Horace, climbing into the stage-coach, quite
+out of breath. He had run all the way to the post office just for the
+sake of seeing her again.
+
+"Good by, Prudy. You're the cunningest little spud! If you lived out
+West I'd just go a-flyin'."
+
+Nobody knew whether Horace cried or not, for nobody saw him till
+dinner time, but then he looked very sober indeed. He and Grasshopper
+had been building a fort, he said; and after he had told so much, he
+seemed not to care about talking. He felt captain of a little company,
+and such a brave soldier that he would not even say he felt sorry
+Prudy was gone.
+
+Grace talked a great deal about Susy, and asked her mamma if she might
+not invite her to go out West some time.
+
+Mrs. Clifford said she should be very glad, indeed, to have a visit
+from both the children, and who knew but it might happen so? for Mr.
+Parlin, Susy's father, often took journeys out West on business.
+
+This idea struck Grace very pleasantly, and she had a strong hope of
+the visit in a minute. In two minutes she had a firm belief in it; and
+the last we see of Grace and Horace in this book, they are sitting on
+the piazza, eagerly talking about the next winter, when they shall
+both go to the cars to meet uncle Edward and the children.
+
+"They'll be there my birthday--what'll you bet?" said Horace.
+
+"I shall wear my tippet when we go to the depot, and have a new hood,"
+said Grace. "I don't know what my dress will be, though."
+
+"I'll make a bow-arrow, and a gun, and a steamboat for Prudy."
+
+"And I'll give Susy my large doll, and make a blue dress for it, with
+flowing sleeves. She shall put all her things into my cabinet."
+
+"What'll we have to eat? Pecans, and 'simmons, and raisins, and figs."
+
+"O, we shall have plenty to eat, Horace, we always do. We'll give 'em
+canned peaches with cream. Susy likes cream as well as a cat."
+
+"I'd like to see Prudy eat a 'simmon--a green one, I mean," cried
+Horace, laughing aloud. "Seems like I can see her mouth puckering up
+now."
+
+Susy and Prudy, all this while, were riding home in the cars, under
+the care of the conductor.
+
+"O," sighed Susy, "I wish we were going backwards, just the other way.
+Grandma is going to let Grace boil some candy to-night, and put
+oilnuts in it."
+
+"I guess they'll want _me_ to help 'em pull it," said Prudy.
+
+"There, now, we've got to Brunswick," murmured Susy. "I don't like to
+get so far away from the folks at grandma's. Don't it seem real
+lonesome?"
+
+"No, indeed," replied Prudy. "I'm glad we're goin' home to see mother
+and the rest of 'em. What do you s'pose the baby'll say?"
+
+But their speech was cut short by some large pieces of sponge cake,
+which the smiling conductor brought to them wrapped in a newspaper.
+
+Susy and Prudy reached home safely, and there is nothing more to be
+said about them at present.
+
+I think I will copy the letter which Prudy wrote to her dear friend,
+Mr. Allen, or which she got aunt Madge to write the next time she went
+to Portland.
+
+CHRISTMAS DAY.
+
+DEAR MR. 'GUSTUS ALLEN:
+
+When you went off to the wars aunt Madge cried some, for I saw her
+wiping her eyes. You asked me if I loved you for the candy, but I
+didn't; I loved you for the nuts and oranges.
+
+I think you was real good to write me a letter. I had just as lief
+kiss you as not if you _wasn't_ my father; and aunt Madge says she'll
+answer it, 'cause you couldn't read my writing; _but_ I hain't got any
+pig! He was a pinky winky little thing, but grandpa kept a keepin' him
+eatin', and he got so big once when I was gone that they had to kill
+him.
+
+But he didn't go to heaven, and I'm glad, for I don't ever want to see
+_him_ again. That was last summer, when I was a _little_ girl. I don't
+like pigs _now_.
+
+Of course I'm going on five, for if I wasn't most five my grandpa Read
+wouldn't be dead most two years.
+
+I've got my presents, but they ain't took off the tree yet. Mother
+gave me a tea-set. O, I wish you could see it, 'cause you wouldn't
+break a single thing. And I had a doll, and lots of candy and books,
+and a new dress, and a scarf, and some shiny shoes.
+
+I'm glad you wrote me that darling letter. I can't think of any thing
+to think of. The skeeters bit me when I was to grandma's. I hate
+_live_ skeeters. They might be flies, and I wouldn't care then. They
+used to get into my skin just as easy, and sting me all up.
+
+Won't you write me another letter? Please to.
+
+Susy fastened her tooth to the door-latch once. It got so loose it
+shook in her mouth, and it hurt her so I had to cry. But _my_ teeth
+are drove in real hard. I mean it hurt her when 'twas pulled, that's
+what I mean.
+
+I saw a cow the other day in the road, that wasn't hitched. Susy said,
+"Go long goff, sir," but he didn't, and then a man shoo-brauded him,
+and he went.
+
+We had a dear little toady in the garden, and when I talked to him he
+winked. He had a nest in the flower-bed last summer.
+
+I like to stay at grandma's, so I can jump off of something. Mother
+won't let us hunt for any eggs to Portland--'cause we haven't any
+hens.
+
+Horace was a captain to his men. He made me a sled. I had a new dress
+on the Christmas-tree, and a sugar basket.
+
+I've got a bad cold, but Susy hasn't. My head is all snuffed up.
+
+When are you goin' to come home?
+
+I haven't seen Grace and Horace for so long! They went home after the
+baby died. God has got the baby up in heaven, but the _tired part_ of
+him is in the garden.
+
+My father is 'most crazy to see me. He is, truly; and when I say
+_truly_, I _can't_ lie. He _said_ he wanted to see me so he was 'most
+crazy, and he's comin' to-night.
+
+I s'pose he'll bring me something, for I've been good. When I act
+cross, it's 'cause I don't feel well.
+
+Aunt Madge says to me I've wrote enough, and I'm tired. She's wrote
+the letter, but I made it up.
+
+I wish you a Merry Christmas! She asked me if I forgot to wish it, but
+I didn't.
+
+Good by.
+
+From
+
+PRUDY PARLIN.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+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 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,'Oh, dear, dear, dear, I didn't know your hair was so
+     tender!' Altogether, she is the cunningest 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._
+
+
+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._
+
+
+LITTLE FOLKS ASTRAY
+
+
+     "This is a book for the little ones of the nursery or
+     play-room. 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._
+
+
+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. The 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.'"
+
+
+FLAXIE FRIZZLE
+
+
+     "Flaxie Frizzle is the successor of Dotty Dimple, Little
+     Prudy, Flyaway, and the other charming child creations of
+     that inimitable writer for children, Sophie May. There never
+     was a healthy, fun-loving child born into this world that,
+     at one stage or another of its growth, wouldn't be
+     entertained with Sophie May's books. For that matter, it is
+     not safe for older folks to look into them, unless they
+     intend to read them through. 'Flaxie Frizzle' will be found
+     as bright and pleasant reading as the others."--_Boston
+     Journal._
+
+
+FLAXIE'S DOCTOR PAPA
+
+
+     "Sophie May understands children. Her books are not books
+     about them merely. She seems to know precisely how they
+     feel, and she sets them before us, living and breathing in
+     her pages. Flaxie Frizzle is a darling, and her sisters,
+     brothers, and cousins are just the sort of little folks with
+     whom careful mothers would like their boys and girls to
+     associate. The story is a bright, breezy, wholesome
+     narrative, and it is full of mirth and gayety, while its
+     moral teaching is excellent."--_Sunday-School Times._
+
+
+FLAXIE'S LITTLE PITCHERS
+
+
+     "Little Flaxie will secure a warm place in the hearts of all
+     at once. Here is her little picture: Her name was Mary Gray,
+     but they called her Flaxie Frizzle, because she had light
+     curly hair that frizzled; and she had a curly nose,--that
+     is, her nose curled up at the end a wee bit, just enough to
+     make it look cunning. Her cheeks were rosy red, 'and she was
+     so fat that when Mr. Snow, the postmaster, saw her, he said,
+     "How d'ye do, Mother Bunch?"'"--_Boston Home Journal._
+
+
+FLAXIE'S TWIN COUSINS
+
+
+     "Another of those sweet, natural child-stories in which the
+     heroine does and says just such things as actual, live,
+     flesh children do, is the one before us. And, what is still
+     better, each incident points a moral. The illustrations are
+     a great addition to the delight of the youthful reader. It
+     is just such beautiful books as this which bring to our
+     minds, in severe contrast, the youth's literature of our
+     early days--the good little boy who died young and the bad
+     little boy who went fishing on Sunday and died in prison,
+     etc., to the end of the threadbare, improbable
+     chapter."--_Rural New Yorker._
+
+
+FLAXIE'S KITTYLEEN
+
+
+     "'Kittyleen'--one of the 'Flaxie Frizzle' series--is a
+     genuinely helpful as well as delightfully entertaining
+     story. The nine-year-old Flaxie is worried, beloved, and
+     disciplined by a bewitching three-year-old tormenter, whose
+     accomplished mother allows her to prey upon the neighbors.
+     'Everybody felt the care of Mrs. Garland's children. There
+     were six of them, and their mother was always painting
+     china. She did it beautifully, with graceful vines trailing
+     over it, and golden butterflies ready to alight on sprays of
+     lovely flowers. Sometimes the neighbors thought it would be
+     a fine thing if she would keep her little ones at home
+     rather more; but if she had done that she could not have
+     painted china.'"--_Chicago Tribune._
+
+
+FLAXIE GROWING UP
+
+
+     "No more charming stories for the little ones were ever
+     written than those comprised in the three series which have
+     for several years past been from time to time added to
+     juvenile literature by Sophie May. They have received the
+     unqualified praise of many of the most practical scholars of
+     New England for their charming simplicity and purity of
+     sentiment. The delightful story shows the gradual
+     improvement of dear little Flaxie's character under the
+     various disciplines of child-life and the sweet influence of
+     a good and happy home. The illustrations are charming
+     pictures."--_Home Journal._
+
+
+PENN SHIRLEY'S BOOKS
+
+
+PENN SHIRLEY'S STORIES
+
+FOR THE LITTLE ONES
+
+
+     "Miss Penn Shirley is a very graceful interpreter of
+     child-life. She thoroughly understands how to reach out to
+     the tender chord of the little one's feelings, and to
+     interest her in the noble life of her young companions. Her
+     stories are full of bright lessons, but they do not take on
+     the character of moralizing sermons. Her keen observation
+     and ready sympathy teach her how to deal with the little
+     ones in helping them to understand the lessons of life. Her
+     stories are simple and unaffected."--_Boston Herald._
+
+
+THE LITTLE MISS WEEZY SERIES
+
+Three volumes Illustrated Boxed, each 75 cents
+
+
+LITTLE MISS WEEZY
+
+
+     "One of the freshest and most delightful, because the most
+     natural, of the stories of the year for children is 'Little
+     Miss Weezy,' by Penn Shirley. It relates the oddities, the
+     mischief, the adventures, and the misadventures of a tiny
+     two-year-old maiden, full of life and spirit, and capable of
+     the most unexpected freaks and pranks. The book is full of
+     humor, and is written with a delicate sympathy with the
+     feelings of children which will make it pleasing to children
+     and parents alike. Really good child literature is not
+     over-plenty, despite the multitude of books that come daily
+     from the press; and it is pleasing to welcome a new author
+     whose first volume, like this one of Penn Shirley, adds
+     promise of future good work to actual present
+     merit."--_Boston Courier._
+
+
+LITTLE MISS WEEZY'S BROTHER
+
+
+     "This is a good story for young children, bringing in the
+     same characters as 'Little Miss Weezy' of last year, and
+     continuing the history of a very natural and wide-awake
+     family of children. The doings and the various 'scrapes' of
+     Kirke, the brother, form a prominent feature of the book,
+     and are such as we may see any day in the school or home
+     life of a well-cared-for and good-intentioned little boy.
+     There are several quite pleasing full-page
+     illustrations."--_The Dial._
+
+     "We should like to see the person who thinks it 'easy enough
+     to write for children' attempt a book like the 'Miss Weezy'
+     stories. Excepting Sophie May's childish classics, we don't
+     know of anything published as bright as the sayings and
+     doings of the little Louise and her friends. Their pranks
+     and capers are no more like Dotty Dimple's than those of one
+     bright child are like another's, but they are just as 'cute'
+     as those of the little folks that play in your yard or
+     around your neighbor's doorsteps."--_Journal of Education._
+
+
+LITTLE MISS WEEZY'S SISTER
+
+
+     "It is one of the best of the series, and will please every
+     child who reads it. It is brought out just at the holiday
+     time, and is brimful of good things. Every character in it
+     is true to nature, and the doings of a bright lot of
+     children, in which Miss Mary Rowe figures conspicuously,
+     will entertain grown folks as well as little ones."
+
+     "It is a thoroughly clever and delightful story of
+     child-life, gracefully told, and charming in its blending of
+     humor and pathos. The children in the book are real
+     children, and the pretty plot through which they move is
+     fully in harmony with the characters. The young ones will
+     find it a storehouse of pleasant things pleasantly related,
+     and a book that will appeal at once to their sentiments and
+     sympathies."--_Boston Gazette._
+
+     "A book that will hold the place of honor on the nursery
+     bookshelf until it falls to pieces from much handling is
+     'Little Miss Weezy's Sister,' a simple, yet absorbing story
+     of children who are interesting because they are so real. It
+     is doing scant justice to say for the author, Penn Shirley,
+     that the annals of child-life have seldom been traced with
+     more loving care."--_Boston Times._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+Sophie May's Complete Works
+
+
+LITTLE FOLKS' BOOKS
+Illustrated. Per Volume, 75 cents
+
+
+_LITTLE PRUDY'S CHILDREN_
+Wee Lucy
+Wee Lucy's Secret
+Jimmy Boy
+Jimmy, Lucy, and All
+Kyzie Dunlee
+Lucy in Fairyland
+
+_LITTLE PRUDY STORIES_
+Little Prudy
+Little Prudy's Sister Susy
+Little Prudy's Captain Horace
+Little Prudy's Cousin Grace
+Little Prudy's Story Book
+Little Prudy's Dotty Dimple
+
+_DOTTY DIMPLE SERIES_
+Dotty Dimple at Her Grandmother's
+Dotty Dimple Out West
+Dotty Dimple at School
+Dotty Dimple at Home
+Dotty Dimple at Play
+Dotty Dimple's Flyaway
+
+_LITTLE PRUDY FLYAWAY SERIES_
+Little Folks Astray
+Prudy Keeping House
+Aunt Madge's Story
+Little Grandmother
+Little Grandfather
+Miss Thistledown
+
+_FLAXIE FRIZZLE STORIES_
+Flaxie Frizzle
+Doctor Papa
+Little Pitchers
+Twin Cousins
+Flaxie's Kittyleen
+Flaxie Growing Up
+
+_THE QUINNEBASSET SERIES_
+Six volumes. Illustrated. Per volume, $1.25
+The Doctor's Daughter
+Quinnebasset Girls
+In Old Quinnebasset
+Our Helen
+The Asbury Twins
+Janet; A Poor Heiress
+
+HER FRIEND'S LOVER. Cloth, $1.00
+PAULINE WYMAN. Illustrated. Cloth, $1.25
+JOY BELLS. Illustrated. Cloth, $1.25
+
+ANY VOLUME SOLD SEPARATELY
+Illustrated Catalogue sent by mail postpaid
+
+Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., Boston
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Prudy, by Sophie May
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE PRUDY ***
+
+***** This file should be named 24711.txt or 24711.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/7/1/24711/
+
+Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, David Edwards, and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+(This file was produced from images generously made
+available by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.