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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dotty Dimple At Home, by Sophie May
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Dotty Dimple At Home
+
+Author: Sophie May
+
+Release Date: May 8, 2008 [EBook #25396]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOTTY DIMPLE AT HOME ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by 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/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: JOHNNY'S REVENGE. Page 163.]
+
+[Illustration: Title Page]
+
+
+
+
+    _DOTTY DIMPLE STORIES._
+
+    DOTTY DIMPLE AT HOME.
+
+
+      BY SOPHIE MAY,
+
+AUTHOR OF "LITTLE PRUDY STORIES."
+
+
+      Illustrated.
+
+
+        BOSTON:
+    LEE AND SHEPARD.
+         1870.
+
+
+  Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by
+
+      LEE AND SHEPARD,
+
+  In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of
+  the District of Massachusetts.
+
+
+    ELECTROTYPED AT THE
+  BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY,
+    NO. 19 SPRING LANE.
+
+
+
+
+      _TO_
+
+_FLORENCE BICKNELL._
+
+
+
+
+    DOTTY DIMPLE STORIES.
+
+To be completed in six vols. Handsomely Illustrated.
+Each vol., 75 cts.
+
+  1. _DOTTY DIMPLE AT HER GRANDMOTHER'S._
+  2. _DOTTY DIMPLE AT HOME._
+  3. _DOTTY DIMPLE OUT WEST._
+  4. _DOTTY DIMPLE AT PLAY._
+  5. _DOTTY DIMPLE AT SCHOOL._
+  6. _DOTTY DIMPLE'S FLYAWAY._
+
+
+    BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
+
+    LITTLE PRUDY STORIES.
+
+Now complete. Six vols. 24mo. Handsomely Illustrated.
+In a neat box. Per vol., 75 cts. Comprising
+
+  _LITTLE PRUDY._
+  _LITTLE PRUDY'S SISTER SUSIE._
+  _LITTLE PRUDY'S CAPTAIN HORACE._
+  _LITTLE PRUDY'S COUSIN GRACE._
+  _LITTLE PRUDY'S STORY BOOK._
+  _LITTLE PRUDY'S DOTTY DIMPLE._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER PAGE
+
+   I. THE LION AND THE LAMB.         7
+
+  II. A SAD STORY.                  25
+
+ III. FIRE.                         40
+
+  IV. PLAYING HINDOO.               54
+
+   V. RUNNING WILD.                 68
+
+  VI. HOW IT ENDED.                 82
+
+ VII. TELLING OF IT.                98
+
+VIII. MAMMA AND "LITTLE ME."       112
+
+  IX. THE NEW HOME.                125
+
+   X. A SURPRISE.                  140
+
+  XI. JOHNNY'S REVENGE.            155
+
+
+
+
+DOTTY DIMPLE AT HOME.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE LION AND THE LAMB.
+
+
+Dotty Dimple, after a night of pleasant sleep, greeted herself in the
+morning with a groan. It was as if she had said,--
+
+"O, dear! _you_ here again, Dotty? Why didn't you sleep longer?"
+
+Prudy noticed the cloud on her sister's face in a moment; she saw she
+had "waked up wrong."
+
+Now I have never told you how peculiarly trying it was to live with
+Dotty Dimple. She seemed to have, at the same time, the nature of a lion
+and a lamb. When the lion raged, then her eyes blazed, and she looked
+as if she belonged in a menagerie; but when nothing occurred to rouse
+her wild temper, she was as gentle and tender as a little lamb frisking
+by its mother's side on a summer's day.
+
+Indeed, if I were to describe the loveliness of her manners, and the
+sweetness of her face, I ought to dip my pen in liquid sunshine;
+whereas, the blackest of ink would not be at all too dark to draw her
+picture when she was out of temper.
+
+In her earliest childhood it had been worse than it was now. Then she
+had not tried in the least to control herself, and the lion had had his
+own way. After one of her wild outbursts, she would follow her mother
+about the house, saying, in a soft, pleading voice,--
+
+"Say, mamma, is I your little comfort?"
+
+Before answering Dotty, the poor mother had to call to mind all the good
+things the child had ever said or done, and fancy how dreadful it would
+be to lose her. Then she would reply,--
+
+"Yes, Dotty, you are mamma's dear little girl; but mamma doesn't like
+your naughty, naughty ways."
+
+This failed to satisfy Miss Dimple. She would cry out again, in
+heart-broken tones,--
+
+"Is I your little comfort, mamma? _Is_ I?"
+
+So, sooner or later, Mrs. Parlin was obliged, for the sake of peace, to
+kiss the child, and answer, "Yes." Then, perhaps, for twenty-four hours
+the lion would be curled up, asleep, and out of sight in his den, and
+the lamb would be playfully frisking about the house, a pet for
+everybody.
+
+But often and often, when Susy and Prudy came in from school or play,
+they found their baby sister in disgrace, perched upon the wood-box in
+the kitchen, with feet and hands firmly tied. There she would sit,
+throwing out the loudest noise possible from her little throat. It was
+the young lion again, roaring in his cage.
+
+Prudy, though her heart swelled with pity, dared not say,--
+
+"Don't scream so, little sister! Please don't pound so with your feet!"
+
+For when the lion fits were on, it was always safest to let the unhappy
+child alone. Prudy, who had no more temper than a humming-bird, and
+Susy, who was only moderately fretful once in a while, were made very
+unhappy by Dotty's dreadful behavior. At such times as I describe, they
+even looked guilty, and cast down their eyes, for they could not help
+feeling their sister's conduct as a family disgrace. They never spoke to
+any one about it, and bore all her freaks with wonderful patience. When
+the little one plucked at their hair or ears, they said, pitifully,--
+
+"It's worse for her than it is for us. It makes her throat _so_ sore to
+scream so."
+
+They were especially careful never to provoke her to wrath. Perhaps, for
+the sake of peace, they yielded to her too much. If there was anything
+Dotty dearly loved, it was her own way; and the thing she most heartily
+despised was "giving up."
+
+At the time of which we now write she was no longer a mere baby, and her
+"reasons," as Prudy had said, were "beginning to grow." She was never
+placed on the wood-box now, with hands and feet tied; and as for
+pulling hair, she was ashamed of the practice.
+
+On this particular morning she had "waked up wrong." You all know what
+that means. Perhaps her dream stopped in the most interesting place, or
+perhaps some of the wonderful machinery of her body was out of order,
+and caused a twitching of the delicate nerves which lie under the skin.
+At any rate, when the cloudy sun peeped through the white curtains of
+Dotty's pleasant chamber, he found that little lady out of sorts.
+
+"There, now, how long have you been awake, Prudy? Why didn't you speak?"
+
+"O, it isn't anywhere near breakfast time, Dotty; Norah hasn't ground
+the coffee yet."
+
+"Then I should think she might! She knows I'm hungry, and that makes her
+be as slow as a board nail!--I'll tell you what I wish, Prudy. I wish
+the whole world was a 'normous cling-stone peach, so I could keep eating
+for always, and never come to the stone."
+
+"I don't know," replied Prudy, pleasantly. "I believe I'd rather have it
+a Bartlett pear--dead ripe."
+
+"H'm! You may have your old _Bartnot_ pears, Prudy Parlin; nobody wants
+'em but just you! The next sweet, juicy peach that comes into this house
+I'll eat it myself, 'cause you don't like peaches; you just said you
+didn't!"
+
+Prudy was considerate enough to make no reply. By living with Dotty, she
+had learned many lessons in "holding her peace."
+
+"Perhaps we'd better get up," suggested she, rubbing her eyes.
+
+Whereupon Dotty pursed her little red lips.
+
+"Let's play keep house," answered she, for the sake of being
+cross-grained.
+
+"Well, I don't care much," said Prudy, anxious to keep the peace.
+
+They proceeded to make a tent of the upper sheet, and converse upon the
+trials of this troublesome life, as Mr. and Mrs. Carter, the two heads
+of a family.
+
+"There's our Sammy," said Prudy, dolefully, "our poor Sammy. I don't
+see, Mrs. Carter, what we shall do with that boy. Within a day or two he
+has taken to stealing acorns!"
+
+"Acorns!" responded Dotty, in a tragic tone. "O, Mr. Carter, I _sejest_
+the best thing we can do is to stand him up in the sink, and pump water
+on him!"
+
+"I never thought of that, my dear wife! You are prob'bly
+correct!--prob'bly correct.--But what course _shall_ we pursue with Mary
+Ann, and Julia Ann, and Anna Maria? They all bite their finger
+nails--bite 'em down to the double-quick."
+
+"I would sejest, sejest--why don't you give those children some
+_proxitude_ of iron, my dear--through a knitting-needle? Hark!"
+continued she, as Prudy scratched the top of the tent with her
+forefinger. "There's a mouse in this house, Mr. Carter: you must set a
+trap as quick as you can spring!"
+
+"Very correct," replied the obedient husband, "very correct, Mrs.
+Carter. I'll call Jerusha to toast some cheese. Je-ru-_shay_!"
+
+"What do you mean by Jerusha, Mr. Carter? We haven't any in the house."
+
+"O, she is our chambermaid, my dear."
+
+"But I won't '_low_ her to be Jerusher, Mr. Carter!"
+
+"But, my dear wife, Jerusha is a proper name; it belongs to her."
+
+"No, it isn't a proper name either; it's a very _improper_ name, Prudy
+Parlin; and if you call her Jerusher so, I'll get us both _dis-vosed_!"
+
+Prudy saw it was useless to continue the game: Dotty was not in a mood
+to be satisfied. The two children arose and dressed themselves, Prudy
+taking peculiar care not to finish her own toilet first.
+
+"I'm going to tell you something," said Dotty, grimly, "but you mustn't
+tell mamma. I've made up my mind to be naughty!"
+
+"To be naughty?"
+
+"Yes, that's what I said--naughty! I'm tired all out o' bein' good!
+First thing I thought was, I'd be bad all day. I want to fret, and I'm
+going to fret!"
+
+"O, Do-otty! Dotty Di-imple!"
+
+"You needn't say anything, Prudy Parlin. You can talk as grand as a
+whale. But if I want to go and be naughty, _you_ can't help yourself!"
+
+Prudy's face took on a look of real distress. What this little queer
+mixture of a girl might do, if she really chose to be naughty, it was
+not pleasant to fancy.
+
+The two went down stairs together. As they entered the cheerful
+dining-room, the joyous sun burst into a round smile, as if he had
+thrown off his yesterday's vapors, and never meant to be low-spirited
+again. But Dotty looked foggier than ever.
+
+It was a delightful room. The wallpaper was the color of rich cream;
+the pictures were beautiful; the table, with its snowy cloth and white
+dishes, was pleasant to the eye; still, it was not so much the objects
+to be seen as it was the "air" of the room which made it seem so
+delightful. You knew at once, as you looked at the people who gathered
+around the table that morning, that they all loved one another; and
+family love makes any house seem like home.
+
+Grandma Read was there in her plain Quaker cap, with the nicely-starched
+kerchief crossed upon her bosom; Mr. Parlin in his drab dressing-gown,
+lined with crimson; Mrs. Parlin in a print wrapper, with a linen collar
+at the throat, her hair as smooth as satin; the three little girls all
+neatly dressed, and all happy but Dotty. Susy's mocking-bird hung in a
+cage by one of the windows, and "brother Zip" was lounging in an
+arm-chair, catching flies.
+
+After everybody was comfortably seated, and had said "Good morning,"
+then a "silent blessing," according to the custom of the Friends, was
+asked upon the food. All sat with folded hands, and eyes reverently
+fixed upon their plates. Dotty knew very well they were asking to be
+made thankful for the excellent breakfast before them. She repeated to
+herself several times the sentence she had been taught; for, in spite of
+her intention to be naughty, she dared not omit it. When Mr. Parlin
+began to pass the butter, she was still looking at her plate, and
+startled the whole family by saying aloud, "Amen!"
+
+Grandma looked at the little girl with surprise and disapproval. Dotty
+blushed painfully. She had not meant to be irreverent. Next moment she
+thought,--
+
+"Now they all s'pose I did that _to purpose_! I don't care if they do!
+I'll act worse'n that! I wonder what my father'd say if I should jump
+right up and down, and scream?"
+
+It certainly was not safe to try the experiment. Dotty contented herself
+by scowling at her dry toast.
+
+But after her father had gone away to his business, and her mother had
+begun to make preserves in the kitchen, she went down cellar, into the
+wash-room, and began to tease Norah. Norah, who was fond of the child,
+and in general very good-natured, was not in a mood this morning to be
+trifled with.
+
+"Indeed, Miss Flippet," said she, indignantly, "I shall put up with no
+more of your pranks! It's not your sister Prudy who would go to hidin'
+my soap, and me in a hurry!"
+
+"She likes Prudy best. I always knew she did, and everybody else,"
+thought Dotty, wrathfully,--"everybody else but me!"
+
+And the temper which had been smouldering all the morning blazed up
+hotly.
+
+"Call me Miss Flippet again, if you dare!" cried she, with battle-fires
+in her eyes. "What you s'pose the mayor'll do to you, miss? He'll put
+you in the lockup--yes, he will!"
+
+At this foolish speech Norah's mouth assumed a mocking smile, which
+added live coals to Dotty's wrath.
+
+"You mizzable Cath'lic girl! You--you--you--"
+
+Words were choked in the smoke and flame of her anger. I mean to say
+that dreadful "lion," which had not come out in his full strength for
+years, suddenly sprang up, and shook his mane. Dotty could not speak.
+She lost her reason. Her head was on fire. Her hands and feet began to
+fly out. She danced up and down. Her terrific screams brought her mother
+down in haste, to see what was the matter. Dotty's face was crimson; her
+eyes shining fiercely; her voice hoarse from screaming.
+
+"Indeed, ma'am," said Norah, really alarmed, "I've no means of knowing
+what's put her in such a way, ma'am."
+
+"She called me everything!" cried Dotty, getting her voice again. "I was
+Miss Flippet! I was all the wicked girls in this town!"
+
+Norah looked a little mortified. She knew her mistress was very
+"particular," and did not allow any one in her house to "call names."
+But just now Mrs. Parlin had no time to give Norah a mild reproof, her
+whole attention being devoted to the half-insane Dotty, whose most
+unusual exhibition of temper filled her with dreadful apprehensions.
+
+"Alas," thought the good mother, "is this child going to live over again
+those dreadful days of her babyhood? The Lord give me wisdom to know
+what to do with her!"
+
+Mrs. Parlin soon succeeded in quieting the turbulent Dotty; and deep
+silence fell upon the wash-room.
+
+"My dear little girl," said she, very gently, "I desire you to spend the
+rest of the morning alone. You need not talk or play with either of your
+sisters. You may _think_. When the bell rings you may come to dinner;
+and after dinner I would like to see you in the nursery."
+
+In half an hour Dotty had such a look of heartache in her face that
+Prudy longed to comfort her, only speech was forbidden. The little
+creature was out in the front yard, poking dirt with a stick, and
+secretly wondering if she could make a hole deep enough to lie down in
+and die.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A SAD STORY.
+
+
+After dinner, Mrs. Parlin was seated on the lounge in the nursery,
+looking very sad. Raising her eyes, she saw Dotty standing before her,
+twisting a corner of her apron. The child had entered as quietly as her
+own shadow, and her mother had not heard a footfall.
+
+"My dear little girl, I am going to tell you a story."
+
+"Yes, 'm."
+
+Dotty looked steadily at her finger-nails.
+
+"A true story about a child who let her temper run away with her."
+
+"Yes, 'm," replied Dotty again, giving her mother a view of her rosy
+right ear.
+
+Mrs. Parlin saw that Dotty was very much ashamed. Her face did not look
+as it had looked in the early morning. Then
+
+    "There was a hardness in her eye,
+    There was a hardness in her cheek:"
+
+now she appeared as if she would be very much obliged to the nursery
+floor if it would open like a trap-door and let her fall through, out of
+everybody's sight.
+
+"The little girl I am going to tell you about, Dotty, lived in this
+state. Her name was Harriet Snow. Her father and mother were both dead.
+She had occasional fits of temper, which were very dreadful indeed. At
+such times she would hop up and down and scream."
+
+Dotty tied the two corners of her apron into a hard knot. The story was
+rather too personal.
+
+"Was the little girl pretty?" said she, trying to change the subject.
+
+"Not very pretty, I think. Her skin was dark; her eyes were black, and
+remarkably bright. When I saw her, she was thirteen years old; and you
+may know, Dotty, that by that time her face could not well be very
+pleasant: temper always leaves its marks."
+
+Dotty looked at her little plump hands, as if she expected to see black
+spots on them.
+
+"Sometimes Harriet beat her head against the wall so violently that
+there seemed to be danger of her dashing her brains out."
+
+Dotty looked up quite bravely. This dreadful little girl was worse than
+_she_ had ever been! O, yes!
+
+"Wasn't she crazy, mamma?"
+
+Mrs. Parlin shook her head.
+
+"No, I am afraid not, dear. Only, when she allowed anger to stay in her
+heart, it made her feel blind and dizzy. Perhaps she was crazy for the
+time."
+
+Dotty hung her head again. She remembered how blind and dizzy she
+herself had felt while screaming at Norah that morning.
+
+"This little girl had no mother to warn her against indulging her
+temper. When she had the feeling of hate swelling at her heart, nobody
+told her what it was like. _You_ know what it is like, Dotty?"
+
+Dotty's chin drooped, and rested in the hollow of her neck.
+
+"I don't want to tell you, mamma."
+
+"Like _murder_, my child."
+
+Dotty shuddered, though she had known this before. Her mother had often
+read to her from the Bible, that "whosoever hateth his brother is a
+murderer."
+
+"Well, there was no one to love this poor Harriet; she was not lovable."
+
+"No, 'm, she was _hateable_!" remarked Dotty, anxious to say something;
+for if she held her peace, she was afraid her mother would think she was
+applying the story to herself.
+
+"There was no one to love her; so a woman took her, and was paid for it
+by the town."
+
+"Town? Town, mamma? A _town_ is _houses_."
+
+"She was paid for it by men in the town. I don't know whether this woman
+tried to teach Harriet in the right way or not. It may be she had so
+much to do that she thought it less trouble to punish her when she was
+naughty than to instruct her how to be good."
+
+"O, yes; I s'pose she struck her with a stick," said Dotty, patting her
+forefingers together--"just this way."
+
+"Harriet had the care of one of Mrs. Gray's children, a lively little
+boy about two years old."
+
+"Was he cunning? As cunning as Katie Clifford? Did he say, 'If you love
+me, you give me hunnerd dollars; and I go buy me 'tick o' canny'?"
+
+"Very likely he was quite as cunning as Katie. You would hardly think
+any one could get out of patience with such a little creature--would
+you, my daughter?"
+
+"No, indeed!" cried Dotty, eagerly, and feeling that she was on safe
+ground, for she loved babies dearly, and was always patient with them.
+
+"I don't know but Harriet was envious of Mrs. Gray's little boy, because
+he had nicer things to eat than she had."
+
+"Well, it ought to have nicer things, mamma, 'cause it hadn't any
+teeth."
+
+"And she got tired of running after him."
+
+"No matter if she did get tired, mamma; the baby was tireder than she
+was!"
+
+"And the parents think now it is very likely she was in the habit of
+striking him when nobody knew it."
+
+"What a naughty, wicked, awful girl!" cried Dotty, her eyes flashing.
+
+"She had a fiery temper, my child, and had never learned to control it."
+
+Dotty looked at her feet in silence.
+
+"The baby was afraid of his little nurse; but he could not speak to tell
+how he was abused; all he could do was to cry when he was left with
+Harriet. But one day Mrs. Gray was obliged to go away to see her sick
+mother. She charged Harriet to take good care of little Freddy, and give
+him some baked apples and milk if he was hungry."
+
+"With bread in?" suggested Dotty.
+
+"Yes, I suppose so. Then she kissed her baby. He put his arms around her
+neck, and cried to go too; but she could not take him."
+
+"I s'pose he cried 'cause he 'xpected that awful girl was a-going to
+shake him," said Dotty, indignantly.
+
+"I cannot tell you precisely what Harriet did to him; but when the
+father and mother got home, that darling boy was moaning in great pain.
+They sent for the doctor, who said his spine was injured, and perhaps he
+would never walk again; and, indeed, he never did."
+
+"O, mamma! mamma Parlin!"
+
+"Yes, my child; and it is supposed that Harriet must have hurt him in
+one of her fits of rage."
+
+Dotty's face had grown very white.
+
+"O, mamma, what did the folks do with Harriet?"
+
+"They took her to court, and tried her for abusing the little boy. They
+could not prove that she was really guilty, though everybody believed
+she was."
+
+"I know what 'guilty' means, mamma; it means _hung_."
+
+"No, dear; if she hurt the baby she was guilty, whether she was punished
+for it or not."
+
+"Well, she did it, I just know she did it!" exclaimed Dotty, greatly
+excited. "That little tinty boy!"
+
+"The judge pitied her for her youth and ignorance; so did the twelve men
+called the 'jury;' and she was allowed to go free."
+
+"Then did she 'buse somebody's else's baby, mamma?"
+
+"I hope not. The last I heard of her she was married to a negro
+fiddler."
+
+"O!"
+
+"Do you know why I have told you this sad story, my little daughter?"
+
+"'Cause, 'cause--Harriet beat her head against the door, and hurt a
+baby, and--and--married black folks!"
+
+Dotty was very pale, and there was a tear in her voice; still her mother
+could not be sure that her words had made much impression. She was
+afraid her long story had been "love's labor lost."
+
+But I believe it had not been. Not entirely, at least. Dotty thought of
+Harriet all the afternoon, and walked about the house with a demureness
+quite unusual.
+
+"O, Prudy!" said she, when they two were alone in the parlor, looking
+over a book of engravings, "I'm going to tell you something; 'twill
+make you scream right out loud, and your hair stick up!"
+
+[Illustration: "I'M GOING TO TELL YOU SOMETHING." Page 34.]
+
+"Don't," laughed Prudy, "I've just brushed my hair."
+
+"Once there was a girl, Prudy, lived in this state; and mother thinks
+she was just like me. But she wasn't, truly. She was homely; and her
+hair was black; and her mother was dead. The woman spatted her with a
+stick where she lived. And she didn't love the baby any at all, 'cause
+he had nicer things, you know; and I guess white sugar and verserves. So
+she stuck a _spine_ into him--only think! In his crib! So he never
+walked ever again! And his father and mother were gone away, and told
+her to give him baked apples and milk--with bread in!"
+
+"Why, that can't be true, Dotty Parlin!"
+
+"Yes, _indeed_! Certain true, black and blue. Guess my mother knows!"
+
+"What!" said Prudy, "just for baked apples and milk?"
+
+"Yes. Her name was Harriet."
+
+"What did you say she did it with, Dotty?"
+
+"Mamma said a _spine_. They took her to the court-house; but they didn't
+hang her, 'cause she--I've forgot what--but they didn't. They made her
+marry a black man--that's all I know!"
+
+"Well, there, how queer!" said Prudy, drawing a long breath. "If I was
+Harriet I'd rather have been hung. Was he all black?"
+
+"Yes, solid black. But I s'pose she didn't want to choke to death any
+more'n you do."
+
+"Dotty," said Prudy, with a meaning in her tone, "what do you suppose
+made mamma tell you that story?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+Dotty looked deeply dejected.
+
+"Little sister," continued Prudy, taking advantage of the child's
+softened mood, "don't you wish you didn't let yourself be so angry?"
+
+"Yes, I do, so there!" was the quick and earnest reply.
+
+Prudy was astonished. It was the first time this proud sister had ever
+acknowledged herself wrong.
+
+"Then, Dotty, what if you try to be good, and see how 'twill seem?"
+
+"Won't you tell anybody, Prudy?"
+
+"No, never."
+
+"Well, I _will_ be good! I can swallow it down if I want to."
+
+Observe what faith the child had in herself!
+
+Prudy clapped her hands.
+
+"There, don't you talk any more," added Miss Dimple, with a sudden sense
+of shame, and a desire to conceal her emotions. "Let's make pictures on
+the slate."
+
+Prudy was ready for anything; her heart was very light. She was too wise
+to remind Dotty of her new resolution; but she kept a journal, and that
+evening there was a precious item to make in it.
+
+I think, by the way, that Prudy's habit of keeping a journal was an
+excellent thing. She learned by the means to express her thoughts with
+some degree of clearness, and it was also an improvement to her
+handwriting.
+
+    "_July 2d._ My sister Dotty thinks, certain, positive, she _will_ be
+    a good girl; and this is the day she begins. But I shall not tell
+    anybody, for I promised, 'No, never.'
+
+    "My mother told her about a girl that almost killed a dear little
+    boy because they asked her to give him baked apples and milk. I
+    heard my father say to my mother that he thought the story pierced
+    Dotty like _a two-leg-ged_ sword. So I don't think she will ever get
+    angry again. Finis."
+
+Prudy always added the word "Finis" at the close of her remarks each
+day, considering it a very good ending.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+FIRE.
+
+
+For a few days after this, Dotty Dimple had little time to think of her
+new resolution. Nothing occurred to call forth her anger, but a great
+deal to fill her with astonishment and awe.
+
+The three little girls, for the first time in their lives, were learning
+a lesson in the uncertainty of human events. They had never dreamed that
+anything about their delightful home could ever change. If they thought
+of it at all, they supposed their dear father and mother, and their
+serene grandmamma Read, would always live, and be exactly as they were
+now; that their home would continue beautiful and bright, and there
+would be "good times" in it as long as the world stands.
+
+It is true they heard at church that it is not safe for us to set our
+affections too strongly upon things below, because they may fail us at
+any moment, and there is nothing sure but heaven. Still, like most
+children, they listened to such words carelessly, as to something vague
+and far away. It was only when they were left, in one short day, without
+a roof over their heads, that Susy sobbed out,--
+
+"O, Prudy, this world is nothing but one big bubble!"
+
+And Prudy replied, sadly,--
+
+"Seems more like shavings!"
+
+You all know how an innocent-looking fire-cracker set Portland ablaze,
+but you can have little idea of the terror which that woeful Fourth of
+July night brought to our three little girls.
+
+When I think of it now, I fancy I see them speeding up and down that
+departed staircase, trying to help the men carry water to pour on the
+roof. The earnestness of their faces is very striking as Susy brandishes
+a pail, Dotty a glass pitcher, and Prudy a watering-pot, in the delusive
+hope that they are making themselves useful.
+
+After this, when the children have had a troubled sleep, and wake in the
+morning to find the house actually on fire, the horror is something
+always to be remembered. Flames are already bursting out of some of the
+lower windows. It is no longer of any use to pour water. There is no
+time to be lost. Mrs. Parlin hurries the children down stairs, and out
+of the house, under their grandmother's protection.
+
+They thread their dismal way up town, through smoke and flame, Susy
+shedding tears enough to put out a common coal fire. It is, indeed, a
+bitter thing to turn their backs upon that dear old home, and know for a
+certainty that they will never see it again! In the place where it
+stands there will soon be a black ruin!
+
+"The fire is lapping and licking," says Prudy, "like a cat eating
+cream."
+
+"I hope it has a good time eating our house up!" cried Dotty, in wrath.
+
+Susy groans. Dotty thinks they are going to be beggars in rags and jags.
+Prudy, always ready with her trap to catch a sunbeam, says that after
+all there are other little girls in the world worse off than they are.
+Susy thinks not.
+
+"O, children, you are young and can't realize it; but this is awful!"
+
+Dotty tries to be more wretched than ever, to satisfy her eldest
+sister's ideas of justice. She sends out from her throat a sound of
+agony, which resembles a howl.
+
+Prudy's chief consolation is in remembering, as she says, that "God
+knows we are afire." Prudy is always sure God will not let anything
+happen that is _too_ dreadful. She has observed that her mother is calm;
+and whatever mamma says and does always approves itself to this second
+daughter.
+
+But Susy can only wring her hands in hopeless despair. She has helped
+save the books, still she "expects they will burn up, somehow, on the
+road." Her pony has been trotting about through the night; his hair is
+singed, and she "presumes it will strike in and kill him." The world
+is, to Susy's view, one vast scene of lurid horrors. If she couldn't
+cry, she thinks she should certainly die.
+
+But this strange night came to an end. Dreadful things may and do happen
+in this world, but, as a general rule, they do not last a great while.
+The fire did its work, and then stopped. It was fearful while it raged,
+and it left a pitiful wreck; still, as Mrs. Parlin said, it was "not so
+bad but it might have been worse." "Nothing," she always declared,
+"ought to make us really unhappy except sin."
+
+"And here we are, all alive," said she, with tearful eyes, as she tried
+to put her arms around the three little girls at once. "All alive and
+well! Let us thank God for that."
+
+"I guess I shan't cry _much_ while I have my blessed mother to hold on
+to," said Prudy, pressing her cheek against Mrs. Parlin's belt-slide.
+
+"Nor I neither," spoke up Dotty, very bravely, till a sudden spasm of
+recollection changed her tone, and she added, faintly, "If 'twasn't for
+my cunning little tea-set!"
+
+"I shouldn't care a single thing about the fire," sobbed Susy, "if it
+hadn't burnt _our_ house up, you know. You see it was where we _lived_.
+We had such good times in it, with the rooms as pleasant as you can
+think! Nothing in the world ever happened: and now that pony! O, dear,
+and my room where the sun rose! I don't know what's the matter with me,
+but _seems_ as if I should die!"
+
+"And me, too," sighed Dotty. "I just about know that man threw my
+tea-set into the Back Cove; and now we haven't any home!"
+
+"It is home where the heart is, children," said Mrs. Parlin, tenderly;
+but something choked her voice as she spoke.
+
+Though she was never known, either then or afterwards, to murmur, still
+it is barely possible she may have felt the loss of her precious home as
+much as even Susy did.
+
+For the present the family were to remain at Mr. Eastman's; and it was
+in the parlor chamber of that house that Mrs. Parlin and her three
+children were standing, glad to find themselves together once more,
+after the night of confusion.
+
+Grandma Read, who was as patient as her daughter, "tried to gather into
+stillness," and settle herself as soon as possible to her Bible. But the
+change from the Sabbath-like quiet of her old room to the confusion of
+this noisy dwelling must have tried her severely.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Eastman, and Mr. and Mrs. Parlin, were busy enough from
+morning till night, day after day, searching for missing goods, and
+aiding the sufferers from the fire. The Eastman mansion was left to the
+tender mercies of the five children--the Parlins, and Florence, and
+Johnny.
+
+Master Percy would probably look insulted if he were to be classed among
+the children. In his younger days he had had his share in ringing
+people's door-bells and then running away; now, in his maturer years, he
+did not scruple to tease little folks, when they could be "tickled with
+a straw" held under the chin, or when they were easily vexed, and
+answered him back with an angry word or a furious scowl. He liked to
+torture his "cousin Dimple." He said she shot out quills like a little
+porcupine. She was a "regular brick," almost as smart as Johnny, and
+that was saying a great deal; for Percy regarded the youthful Johnny as
+a very promising child. He was sorry to have him corrected for trifling
+follies. If Percy had had the care of him, the little fellow would not
+have lived long, for the older brother quite approved of such amusements
+as crossing pins on the railroad track, running under horses' feet,
+and walking on the dizzy roof of a house.
+
+Mr. Eastman was always very busy, and his wife had a deal of visiting to
+do, so it usually happened that Johnny had more liberty than was good
+for him.
+
+Mrs. Parlin knew this, and did not like to have Dotty thrown very much
+in his society, but just now it certainly could not be avoided; Dotty's
+constant desire to "get out doors and run somewhere" seemed to be fully
+gratified, for Johnny despised the inside of a house more than she did,
+and they both roamed about during the day like a couple of gypsies.
+
+Sometimes Prudy went with them, but their games were rather rough for
+her taste. Susy and Florence were generally together, painting with
+water-colors, pasting scrapbooks, and doing a variety of things in
+which they did not care to have Prudy join. The dear little girl might
+have been lonely, and possibly grieved, if she had been anything but a
+"bird-child." As it was, she sang when she had no one to talk with, and,
+whether the rain fell or the sun shone, always awoke with a smile, and
+found the world as beautiful as a garden.
+
+She amused herself by writing in her little red journal, which had come
+out of the fire unharmed. Here is her account of the tragedy:--
+
+    "_July 7th._ I ought to tell about the fire; but I can't write with
+    mother's pen any more than Zip can write with a sponge.
+
+    "I am so sorry, but a boy fired a cracker. He didn't mean to burn up
+    the city at all. He just touched it off for fun.
+
+    "There was going to be a procession, but I believe it didn't
+    _process_. I never saw anything whiz and crack so in all my life!
+    The fire danced and ran all over the city as if it was alive! It
+    burnt just as if it was glad of it. The trees are all black where
+    the green was scorched off. You wouldn't think it was summer. It
+    doesn't look like winter. Father says it looks like a graveyard.
+
+    "Dotty lost her tea-set. Susy thought she should faint away, but she
+    didn't--we couldn't find the camphor bottle. A man saved six eggs
+    and the pepper box.
+
+    "It was real too bad _grandma's_ room was burnt up! When I went into
+    grandma's room I used to feel just like singing. Mother says that
+    isn't so bad as wickedness. She says it is 'home where the heart
+    is.'
+
+    "Dotty hasn't had any temper for five days. Finis."
+
+Just about this time a letter came from Willowbrook, saying Mrs.
+Clifford was quite ill, and asking Mrs. Parlin to go to her. Aunt Louisa
+said it was fortunate that the children could stay at their aunt
+Eastman's. She did not know that Mrs. Parlin left them there very
+reluctantly, having her own private fears that her youngest daughter
+might fall into mischief.
+
+Dotty kissed her mother good by, and promised to be perfect; but Mrs.
+Parlin knew too well how the child's resolutions were apt to wither away
+for want of root.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+PLAYING HINDOO.
+
+
+"Johnny, Johnny, come to the window, quick!" said Dotty; "see this
+bird!"
+
+"I've seen birds before," replied her little cousin, coolly, and walking
+as slowly as possible.
+
+"But this one peeps as if he was hurt; see how he pecks to get in."
+
+"Don't you take him in!" exclaimed Angeline, the kitchen girl; "it's a
+bad sign to have birds come fluttering round a window."
+
+"What do you mean by a _sign_?" asked Dotty, who had never heard of any
+silly superstitions in her life.
+
+"Let him alone," cried Johnny, "or you'll die before the week's out,
+sure's you live!"
+
+Dotty laughed. "A bird can't make me die," said she, seizing the
+trembling little oriole, and holding him close to her bosom. "O, you
+birdie darling! Did your mamma go 'way off, and couldn't find a worm?
+Dotty'll be your mamma, so she will."
+
+She put him in a basket stuffed with rags, and hung over him tenderly
+for half an hour.
+
+"You're bringing down trouble, I'm afraid, child," said Angeline,
+gravely, as she walked back and forth, doing her work.
+
+Mrs. Parlin, away off at Willowbrook, was at that moment bathing Mrs.
+Clifford's forehead. I think she might have dropped the sponge in dismay
+if she had known what pernicious nonsense was finding its way into
+Dotty's ears.
+
+Just as Angeline was in the midst of a ghost story, Johnny rushed in
+again.
+
+"Come," said he, shaking Dotty by the shoulders, "let's go play poison."
+
+"O, no, Johnny. I'm hearing the nicest, awfullest story! And then it
+rains so, too!"
+
+"Doesn't, either. Only sprinkles. And when it sprinkles, it's a _sure_
+sign it isn't going to rain."
+
+"Who told you so?"
+
+"Your grandmother Read. She's a Quaker, and she can't lie. Come, Dot
+Parlin; if you don't like poison, come out and play soldier."
+
+"I don't want to play a single thing; so there, now, Johnny Eastman!"
+
+"Then you're a cross old party, miss."
+
+"I'm not a party at all. I'm only one girl."
+
+"O, Dotty!" called Prudy from the cellar-way; "take care! take care!"
+
+"So I am taking care," returned Dotty, stoutly. "For my own mother
+doesn't 'low me to go out doors and get rained on, and he knows it."
+
+It was coming, Prudy feared--her sister's naughty temper. She saw a
+shadow no larger than a man's hand; but it would not do to let it grow.
+She must brush it away at once.
+
+"Let's play something in the house," said she, quickly.
+
+"All right," returned Johnny; "only not sit down."
+
+"Yes, let's _do_ sit down," interposed Dotty, with a view to thwarting
+Johnny.
+
+"Suppose we play Hindoo," suggested Prudy, "if we can get Susy and
+Flossy into it."
+
+"Play what?"
+
+"Why, play we are Hindoos, and live away off in the Indian Ocean."
+
+"Fishes or sharks?" asked Johnny, growing interested.
+
+"O, _people_; and they act so queer. Mother played it with us once, when
+Susy had the toothache."
+
+The older girls were hard to be persuaded. They did not like to leave
+their shell-work; but they came at last.
+
+"Johnny shall be Joggo," said Susy; "that's a boy's name; Prudy will be
+'Drop of Honey,' and Flossy 'Young Beauty,' and Dotty 'Summer Moon,' and
+I 'Onno.'"
+
+"'Young Beauty' 's the prettiest," said Dotty; "if I can't play that,
+I'd rather stay with my birdie, and not play."
+
+"Why," cried Susy, "how foo--;" but catching Prudy's eye, she added,
+"you may as well be Young Beauty; Flossy wouldn't mind. But now I think
+of it, Prudy, we can't play school, for girls don't go to school in
+India."
+
+"Make believe you are boys, then," observed Johnny, whose interest in
+the game had flagged since he knew that Hindoos were not sharks.
+
+"We'll play it's six o'clock in the morning," continued Susy.
+
+"That isn't school time," remonstrated Dotty.
+
+"O, yes, it is, in India. I'm the teacher. Give me a stick, please."
+
+"Here's my old riding-whip," said Flossy, producing it from the
+wood-box. Things were tucked away in very queer places at Mrs.
+Eastman's.
+
+Susy tied a string about her waist for a girdle, stuck the whip into it,
+and began to march the floor with great dignity.
+
+"Now school has begun. You must all come in, and bow 'way down to the
+ground, and say, 'O, respected teacher, grant us knowledge.' They are
+very polite in India.--All but Prudy, she may stay behind and play
+truant."
+
+The three pupils came forward, touched their foreheads to the floor, and
+repeated the sentence as directed, Johnny rendering it,--
+
+"O, respectful Susy Parlin, don't you whip me!"--at the same time
+turning a somerset.
+
+"I forgot one thing," said the teacher, as her obedient pupils stood
+upright again, with flushed faces. "You ought to have brought me a
+present, every one of you, such as a fig of tobacco rolled up in a
+banana leaf, or--"
+
+"We didn't know you chewed," said Florence, laughing.
+
+"Now you take your seats. No, not there! On the floor! What do you
+suppose? You're in India, children. There are mats on the floor (we'll
+pretend)."
+
+The children seated themselves.
+
+"O, we ought to say a prayer to the Muse; but I can't remember what it
+is. No matter. Multiplication Table comes next. Mother says it's just
+the same thing in India that it is in America."
+
+The school repeated part of the table, making very absurd mistakes
+intentionally. Susy walked the floor like a general. "Angeline, please
+look up some more palm-leaf fans, and some splinters of wood."
+
+Angeline was the soul of good nature, and left her baking to hunt in the
+meal-room for the fans.
+
+"A pretty kind of school!" growled Johnny. "Don't they do anything out
+there in Hindoo but just fan themselves?"
+
+"O, we pretend these fans are green, just off the trees. We are studying
+arithmetic, all so fast, and ciphering on these leaves with
+reeds--(that's our splinters). Indian boys don't know what slates are.
+They think these leaves are good enough. They come off of the tallest
+palm trees. Fans don't grow in this country. Where did you ever see a
+leaf as broad as this?"
+
+"Poh, plenty of 'em in Kennebec County!" said Johnny, confidently.
+
+"Now," said the teacher, after a few moments of mock arithmetic, "now
+I've looked at my watch, and find it's seven o'clock. How _conscionable_
+late! And that Drop of Honey hasn't come to school yet! Joggo, you and
+Young Beauty go and bring her!"
+
+Prudy, who was sitting at a little distance, under a swing-table, eating
+ginger snaps, was suddenly seized upon by the two little Indian
+constables.
+
+"Why, what an idea!" said Prudy, with her mouth full; "I didn't know
+that was the way to play it."
+
+"Yes," said Susy, "truants must come to school. If they don't come they
+must be arrested."
+
+"Why, I've _been a-resting_ all the time," said Prudy, laughing.
+
+"Well, that doesn't make any difference, Miss Honey Drop," said Johnny,
+taking her by the shoulders, while Dotty dragged her feet. There was
+great laughing and scrambling, during which Prudy swallowed a crumb the
+wrong way, and was finally carried into school on a litter.
+
+"Now, I should judge," said the heartless teacher, looking sternly at
+the crimson-faced victim, "I should judge that this wicked creature
+ought to have a terrific whipping!"
+
+"That's so!" shouted Johnny; "we found Honey Drop top of a house, firing
+mud into a man's eyes."
+
+"Yes, so we did," said Dotty, fully restored to good humor, "black mud;
+Honey's a bad Nindian. If you can't whip her hard enough, Joggie will
+help."
+
+"There, now!" said the teacher, after dealing several "love-pats" with
+great pretended force; "now I should think 'twas time for school to be
+out. As you go by me, each of you, I must strike you just as many times
+as you were minutes late. Now go home, and eat rice for your dinners."
+
+"Well, I don't think it's much of a play, any way," said Johnny.
+
+"Who said it was?" retorted Florence. "Susy and I didn't want to come
+down; we did it just to please you."
+
+"Please _me_!" sniffed Johnny. "_I_ wanted to play poison, out in the
+yard!"
+
+"I do wish," thought Susy, privately, "that cousin Flossy would be more
+polite to little Johnny. I really think he wouldn't be so rude if she
+would treat him as a lady should."
+
+"There's another play we used to have," said Prudy, "where you sit round
+on the floor, right among the dishes, and eat your supper."
+
+"Well, I declare for it," said Angeline, "those people off there do need
+missionaries more than ever I thought they did."
+
+"Yes," replied Susy, "they tell such horrid stories to their little
+children. The children don't dare go out after dark, for they suppose
+there are demons up in the high trees, just ready to dart down and
+whisk them off."
+
+"Angeline tells just such stories her _own_ self," said Dotty.
+
+"Then she's a heathen," said Florence, who usually spoke the first
+thought that came into her head.
+
+"If that's the case," retorted Angeline, with dignity, "you'd better all
+walk out of this kitchen before you are entirely ruined."
+
+As Angeline was evidently in earnest, the children slowly took their way
+into the dining-room.
+
+"Are there real live ghosts, though, Susy?" asked Dotty, anxiously; "and
+if a bird comes to the window will you die?"
+
+"Why, no, indeed, child! Mother told me once, when I was right little,
+that I mustn't let people tell me such foolish stories. If Angeline
+talks so to you, you must stop your ears. Now, remember!"
+
+Dotty remembered; but she was not quite convinced. Those awful stories
+might be true, after all; perhaps Susy didn't know.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+RUNNING WILD.
+
+
+You begin to see how the children were running wild at Mrs. Eastman's.
+One morning Dotty climbed the hat-tree to get away from her cousin
+Percy.
+
+"Don't believe 'cousin Dimple' knows a hat-tree wasn't made for little
+girls to sit on," said Percy.
+
+"No, 'twas made to swing on," replied Dotty, tilting herself backward
+and forward like a bird on a bough. "I'm going to stay here till
+somebody carries me off pick-aback."
+
+Percy, having nothing better to do, took his little cousin on his
+shoulders, danced her about the hall and through the house, and finally
+tossed her backward into a pile of shavings. Dotty sprang up, shook off
+the shavings, and ran after Percy, laughing so boisterously that
+Angeline said to the chambermaid,--
+
+"I know of one person that will be glad when Mrs. Parlin gets back."
+
+"And I know of another," replied Janey. "The child behaved like a lady
+when she first came; but what can you expect in this house with those
+boys?"
+
+"How's that bird?" said Percy, as he and Dotty raced through the
+kitchen. "Can he stand on both legs yet?"
+
+"Yes, indeed! He could stand on _three_ legs if he had 'em. He's most
+well--I must go and 'tend to him."--("I wonder what's going to happen
+that's bad," thought she, as she fed the bird in her own chamber with
+cream biscuit. "I hope it isn't a fire!")--"Why, Johnny Eastman, I
+shouldn't think your mamma'd let you scream so loud!"
+
+"Then you must hear the first time. Come, let's go out and have some
+fun; mother's gone to Cumberland."
+
+As if Johnny did not have fun all day, and every day, whether his mother
+was at home or abroad!
+
+"Prudy," said Dotty, "good by, for Johnny 'n' I are going down to the
+beach to get some shells."
+
+Prudy looked up from her writing.
+
+"Don't go near the water," said she; then throwing her arms about her
+little sister, she sang,--
+
+    "If you love me as I love you,
+    No knife shall cut our love in two."
+
+"Well, I do," replied Dotty, with an affectionate hug, "and I sha'n't go
+near the water."
+
+"You won't forget?" said Prudy, anxiously. "You know mamma's as afraid
+of the water as she can be."
+
+"What are you after?" cried Angeline, half a minute afterwards. "Of all
+the rummaging children!" At the same time she gave Dotty a nice cake
+warm from the oven.
+
+"I'm looking for my hat," said the little girl, shutting the sink door.
+"Last time I saw it 'twas in a barrel somewhere."
+
+But it happened to be in a hogshead.
+
+"I think this is a real nice sort of world," thought Dotty, as she and
+Johnny trudged off in the pleasant sunshine. "I do think, just to
+myself--though I wouldn't say it out loud--that I'm as nice as anybody.
+I don't know what Prudy'd do 'thout me; and I guess Susy'd cry her eyes
+out!"
+
+"What you thinking about?" said Johnny.
+
+"O, 'bout a good many things! Let's run; it tires me to pieces to walk!"
+
+"Look!" cried Johnny, "there's Mandoline!"
+
+And such a pretty sight as bareheaded Mandoline presented! She was a
+little Jewess, with such beauty, perhaps, as that of the women we read
+about in the Bible. She had dark, wavy hair, like sea-foam with ink
+tipped over in it. Her eyes were like gems; there was a brilliant color
+in her cheeks, and her mouth was so sweet that
+
+    "Upon her lip the honey bee
+    Might build her waxen throne."
+
+Dotty did not know why she liked Mandoline so well, but like her she
+did. Mrs. Parlin was afraid Mandoline had not been taught to respect the
+truth, and had often desired her little daughter not to play with the
+beautiful Jewess.
+
+But "Lina" went to Mrs. Eastman's, and Mrs. Eastman petted her. Dotty
+thought it could not be wrong to associate with a little girl her auntie
+liked so well.
+
+"Come with us, Lina," said Johnny.
+
+"Where are you going?"
+
+"Going to make a Bunger Hill Monuement," replied
+Dotty. "We know where the shells grow real thick."
+
+"But I've lost my shaker. A dog's got it."
+
+"O, no matter, _you_ don't care," said Dotty, in a grandmotherly tone,
+"for _I_ won't let anybody laugh at you."
+
+Lina yielded. The three children tripped along together, taking up
+Freddy Jackson on the way--a deaf and dumb boy, who only knew when it
+thundered by the jar he could feel. Everybody was kind to Freddy. Dotty
+Dimple, with all her faults, was never known to be impatient with the
+poor boy.
+
+The children reached the sea-shore, which _was_ somewhere "near the
+water," though Dotty had assured Prudy to the contrary. Shell-gathering
+is more exciting work than picking strawberries in the country; for
+strawberries are all very much alike, whereas shells present some
+variety.
+
+But in this instance it was very dull business, for the reason that
+there were no shells to be found. They had all become weary of groping
+about in the sand, when Johnny looked at the bay, and observed a boy
+coming towards them, rowing a boat.
+
+"Hilloa, there!" shouted the boy.
+
+"Hilloa!" responded Johnny. "If that isn't Sol Rosenberg!" (This was
+Mandoline's brother.) "Where you going, Sol?"
+
+"Nowhere particular. Get in and go too?"
+
+"Yes," said Johnny, "Fred Jackson and I. Fred can steer as straight's a
+needle. I'll paddle, you know."
+
+"Girls too," added Solomon, gallantly.
+
+With one accord the children walked eagerly towards the boat, which, by
+this time, Solomon had moored against the beach. All but Dotty.
+
+"Are you old enough, Solly Rosenberg, old enough and know enough not to
+drown us all to pieces?"
+
+Young Solomon laughed.
+
+"If I can't manage a small concern like this!"
+
+"But four, and one more, make _five_, Solly!"
+
+"You don't say so! Well, I could carry sixteen, if they were all such
+little snips as you are!"
+
+"Dot Parlin thinks she weighs as much as two tons," said Johnny, in an
+irritating tone.
+
+"I'm dreadful 'fraid," murmured the little Jewess, shaking the wayward
+hair out of her magnificent eyes; "but I'll go if you will, Dotty
+Dimple."
+
+Dotty shoved her feet into the sand and reflected.
+
+"My mamma is afraid of the water; but then she was upset in a scursion,
+and that's why she's afraid."
+
+"What kind of thing is a _scursion_?" asked Johnny.
+
+"A Sabbath school picnic. And she wasn't upset either, only she 'xpected
+to be."
+
+"Come on!" called Solly. "All aboard!"
+
+"But my mamma said it wasn't safe!"
+
+"No, she didn't. She never saw this boat; she doesn't know whether it's
+safe or not."
+
+"Doesn't it leak a single speck, Solly Rosenberg? It looks wet."
+
+"Pshaw! That's where the waves come in; it's as tight as the bark to a
+tree."
+
+Dotty was becoming very eager to go. It sometimes did seem, when she
+really wished to do any particular thing, that she wished it more than
+any one else.
+
+"But, O dear! my mamma doesn't 'low me to sail."
+
+This was spoken sorrowfully; but there was a little wavering in the
+tone. Dotty had taken the first false step; she had listened to the
+voice of temptation, and every persuasive word of Solly's left her
+weaker than it had found her.
+
+"My mamma doesn't _ever_ 'low me to sail."
+
+"You _couldn't_ sail in a wherry if you were to try," said Johnny.
+"Come, Sol, don't stop to bother: who wants girls? They just spoil the
+fun."
+
+"For shame!" said the more polite Solomon, drawing himself up and
+looking very manly; "the girls shall go if they want to. Only just round
+the curve."
+
+Dotty liked Solly at that moment very much. She looked at her
+ill-mannered little cousin with royal disdain, and walked slowly and
+cautiously on towards the boat. Lina followed at a little distance.
+_Her_ mother had also forbidden her to go on the water, and had declared
+that Solomon was too young to manage a boat; but neither Lina nor her
+brother had very tender consciences. If they did wrong things, and
+nobody knew it, it was all very well; but if they were found out--ah!
+then was the time to be sorry! Dotty's conscience had been much better
+educated than theirs: it gave her plenty of warning, which she would not
+heed, and tried to stifle by talking.
+
+"It isn't a sail boat. When my mamma went in the scursion, then it was a
+sail boat, and the wind whistled so the sails shook dreadfully. My mamma
+never talked to me about wherries; she didn't ever say I mustn't go in a
+wherry."
+
+While Dotty was still talking, she entered the boat, the last of the
+five. She seated herself, but was annoyed to find her dainty gaiters
+sinking into a pool of dirty water. She lifted her feet, but could not
+keep them up. Well, perhaps she shouldn't have the sore throat after
+all; she couldn't help it now if she did have it. At any rate she was
+determined not to complain, when Solly had been so very polite.
+
+"Isn't this prime?" said Johnny, as they launched out upon the water.
+
+The motion was certainly pleasant, and for a few moments Dotty was quite
+delighted, thinking over and over again,--
+
+"Mamma won't care; it's nothing but a wherry, and the wind doesn't
+blow."
+
+Then she suddenly remembered her promise to Prudy, not to go "anywhere
+near the water."
+
+"And I never thought I should. I never s'posed I should see Solly
+Rosenberg. I didn't know he was in this city. Prudy'd like it just as
+well as I do, if she was in here, and knew 'twas a wherry."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+HOW IT ENDED.
+
+
+Yes, no doubt Prudy would have liked it if her mother had approved; for
+then she could have gone with a clear conscience, and also without fear.
+But Prudy had suffered in her short life a great deal of what we call
+"discipline," and had learned pretty thoroughly the lesson of obedience.
+She knew it is never of the least use for little girls, or any one else,
+to expect to be happy in the wrong way.
+
+    "Straight is the line of duty,
+    Curved is the line of beauty;
+    Follow one, and thou shalt see
+    The other ever following thee."
+
+This means, when put into child's English, that if we try above
+everything else to have a good time, we never have it; but if we try
+first of all to do right, then the good time will come of itself. Dotty
+certainly had not tried to do right: now we will see if that beautiful
+"curved line" of happiness followed her.
+
+She was very young, or she would have known better than to trust herself
+on the ocean with a little boy like Solly Rosenberg, even if her mother
+had not forbidden it: but Dotty was rash; her bold spirit never feared
+danger.
+
+If she, or any of the rest of the party, had only looked at the sky! But
+if they had, I dare say they would have made nothing of it. There were
+clouds scudding about up there like shadowy sail-boats, and the sun had
+to fight his way through them, till by and by he gave it up entirely,
+and never so much as peeped out. By that time it was decidedly bad
+weather; the light had to be sifted through heavy gray curtains.
+
+This made such a difference with the appearance of everything! The
+world, which had looked, an hour ago, so gay and light-hearted, was now
+rather gloomy. The waves, instead of sparkling, only foamed and bubbled;
+indeed they grew larger every moment, for the wind was blowing a gale.
+The white sea-gulls hovered over the bay, flapping their wings; and
+Dotty had never liked sea-gulls. She began to grow a very little uneasy.
+
+"It was naughty for _us_ to come," thought she, anxious to divide the
+sin with her companions; "_we_ ought to have minded our mothers."
+
+If the sky had continued fair, it may be Dotty would not have felt so
+guilty, though you and I know the weather had nothing to do with the
+sin; disobedience is disobedience always, whether it rains or shines.
+
+The little Jewess grew very pale, said she was dizzy, and wished to
+change places with Dotty.
+
+"Keep still, can't you, girls?" cried Johnny; "if you fuss round so the
+boat'll be sure to upset."
+
+Johnny looked as dignified as if he had navigated ships across the
+Atlantic Ocean over and over again; but then, alas! his arms were so
+little! I suppose his paddle had nearly as much effect as if it had been
+an iron spoon; and he probably knew as much about boating as he did
+about the dead languages. Solly and Freddy were several years older, and
+considerably wiser; but the wisdom of all these five children, if it
+had been compounded together, would not have amounted to the wisdom of
+the three wise men of Gotham who went to sea in a bowl.
+
+"O, dear!" screamed Dotty.
+
+"O, dear! dear! _dear!_" cried Lina; "the water rolls in over the top!"
+
+"Can't you steer for the shore, Solly Rosenbug?" said Dotty.
+
+"You hadn't oughter made us come," sobbed Lina.
+
+Johnny joined the mournful chorus.
+
+"There goes my hat! You were in pretty business knocking it off my head,
+Dot Dimple!"
+
+"I never; and I didn't mean to," replied Dotty, too much subdued to
+retort with her usual spirit.
+
+"Fish it out with the paddle," remarked Solly, coolly.
+
+This was intended as a joke, for the hat was already bounding far, far
+away over the waste of waters. Dotty knew she should always be accused
+of losing it, though in her secret soul she was sure the wind had blown
+it off. But a new hat, as we all know, is a mere trifle when we have
+gone to sea in a bowl! The first thing we think of is how to get home.
+
+"Ahem!" ejaculated Solly, at last, "if you are really afraid, Lina, I
+suppose we'd better go ashore!"
+
+Lina clapped her hands. "O, do! do! do!"
+
+"Yes, indeed," said Dotty; "and, Solly, don't you bump _too_ hard
+against the shore, 'cause 'twould spill us out."
+
+It was very easy to talk about touching the shore: all the difficulty
+lay in being able to do it. Not that it was so very distant; indeed, it
+was in full sight, "so near, and yet so far!" If the wind had only been
+quiet, instead of "cracking its cheeks!" But, as it was, the boat rocked
+fearfully, and seemed to be blowing directly away from the land.
+
+Solly and the deaf and dumb boy looked at each other with eyes which
+seemed to say,--
+
+"The thing is coming to a pretty pass! Only you and I to manage this
+craft, and we neither of us know what we are about! But we'll keep a
+stiff upper lip, and make believe we do!"
+
+"Why, Solly Rosenbug!" said Dotty, catching her breath, "you're going
+just the other way!"
+
+"O, Solly Rosenberg," echoed Lina, "you're going the wrong way! There's
+the shore, off there!"
+
+"Well, well," said Solly, his "stiff upper lip" very white, "we're
+coming round to it after a while: you just sit still."
+
+"Yes," said Johnny, puffing very hard, and churning the foam with his
+paddle, as if he were whipping eggs with a beater, "yes, girls, _we_
+shall row round to it after a while, _if_ you'll only keep still!"
+
+I dare say Johnny thought the most of this commotion was made by his
+paddle. He was quite as consequential, in his way, as the fly who sat on
+a wagon-wheel, and said to the wagon, as it rattled down hill, "What a
+noise we make!"
+
+"We wouldn't put for the shore at all," continued Johnny, "if it wasn't
+for you girls."
+
+At that moment a remarkably high wave leaped over the side of the boat,
+and wet Johnny to the skin.
+
+"Just enough wind to make it pleasant!" gasped the little fellow.
+
+"O, dear! O, dear!" sighed the girls, in despair.
+
+"Ugh! how my arms ache!" groaned Johnny, stopping to rub them. "Guess I
+wouldn't say much if I was nothing but a girl, and didn't have to
+paddle!"
+
+"O, you needn't fuss with that paddle any longer, Johnny Eastman," said
+Solly, who had hitherto paid no heed to the little boy's vigorous but
+useless struggles; "you just drop it; it doesn't amount to anything."
+
+"What! what!" cried Johnny, looking very much insulted. "How are you
+ever going to get ashore without ME, I'd like to know?"
+
+All this while the boys were growing crimson in the face from the
+gigantic efforts they made, and the girls very pale with fright. Solly
+kept repeating,--
+
+"Don't you be afraid, girls!" but his voice faltered as he said it; and
+as for Freddy Jackson, the trembling of his mute lips was as eloquent as
+speech. The two boys might put on what blustering airs they pleased--it
+all amounted to nothing; there was more power in the wind than in the
+muscles of their small arms. The boat would not go near the shore:
+anywhere else but there. The sky grew more and more threatening, and the
+wind increased in force.
+
+"We're going to be drow--drow--drownded!" screamed Dotty; "and I told
+you so: I knew it before! O, if Susy was here with a shingle!"
+
+"We're going to be drownded!" cried Lina; "and, Solly Rosenberg, you
+hadn't oughter made me come!"
+
+"And you told an awful, wicked story," struck in Dotty, "for, Solly
+Rosenberg, you said you's old enough to row, and you're nowhere near
+old enough; and, O! O! O! you don't know how. And I'll tell my father!
+And he'll never know where I am! And my mother's gone away to aunt Maria
+Clifford's, and I'm going to be dead when she gets back! And you won't
+_try_ to row! _Susy_ could row if she was here, and had a shingle. But
+Susy isn't here, and hasn't any shingle! O! O!"
+
+All these sentences Dotty thrust out, one after another, having little
+idea what she said, only conscious of an overwhelming terror and an
+impulse to keep talking.
+
+Suddenly poor Solly Rosenberg dropped his oar, exclaiming,--
+
+"There, it's of no use; my arms are giving out!"
+
+Freddy Jackson held out a few moments longer, then dropped his oar also,
+with a look of utter hopelessness.
+
+[Illustration: IN THE BOAT. Page 93.]
+
+"Why don't you keep a pullin', boys?" said Johnny, dipping in his
+useless little paddle.
+
+The boat whirled about like an egg-shell, completely at the mercy of the
+waves. If your papa and mamma had seen it, they would have said there
+was the last of Dotty Dimple. But, on second thought, you may be sure it
+was not the last of her; for if she was going to be drowned in the sixth
+chapter, I should never have written this book.
+
+It was a wonderful mercy that the five rash children _were_ spared; but
+life is full of just such mercies; and of course I knew all the while
+what was coming, or I could not have written so cheerfully.
+
+_What_ was coming?
+
+"I see something," shouted Dotty, "ever so far off! It isn't a gull!"
+
+"It's a sail! a sail!" cried Solly, and took to his oars again.
+
+"A sail! a sail!" thought Freddy Jackson, though he could not say it;
+and he steered once more, with courage renewed; though, as to that
+matter, it would have been just as well if they had kept still.
+
+By the time the sail-boat came up to the wherry, the children were
+thoroughly drenched and sobered. A more subdued set of little sailors
+the captain had never seen.
+
+"Well, now," said he, patting the little girls on the head, "I had a
+fine lecture made up for you crazy chickens; but you are all so meek,
+that I reckon I'll just take you on board, and not scold you till I get
+you ashore."
+
+It was the narrowest escape! and they all knew it. The "foolish
+chickens" hid their heads, and made mental resolves that they would
+never, never venture out of sight of land again without some older
+person to take care of them.
+
+"Don't you tell my father, now," said Johnny to Dotty, as they went
+home, dripping like a pair of sea-bathers.
+
+"Nor don't you tell mine, nor Susy, nor Prudy, neither."
+
+"We shall have to make up some kind of a story," added Johnny,
+reflectively. "I don't know but we reached over too far after
+sea-shells, didn't we, and fell into the bay? _You_ did (say), and I got
+in after you, and pulled you out by your hair."
+
+"Why, Johnny!"
+
+"Well, then, you didn't; _I_ fell in, and you pulled _me_ out--by the
+boots; only my boots would have come off, though, they're so big!"
+
+"O, Johnny Eastman!"
+
+Dotty had stopped short in the road, and was looking at her cousin with
+an expression of mingled pity and scorn.
+
+"Then make up something better to suit yourself."
+
+"I don't make up stories, I just hope I don't," returned Dotty,
+squeezing the skirt of her dress indignantly.
+
+"But," said Johnny, "they'll know it wasn't all rain-water."
+
+"Then I shall tell the whole, whole truth," exclaimed Miss Dimple,
+setting her feet down so firmly that the water made a gurgling noise in
+her boots. "I'll tell how you boys teased us girls to go."
+
+"O, ho, Dot Dimple! that's as much of a story as pulling out by the
+hair! _I_ didn't want you to go. I tried to stop it."
+
+"Yes, I know it, and that was why I went," said Dotty, gravely! "I
+wasn't going to have you say I mus'n't! If you'd been _willing_, I
+shouldn't have gone a step."
+
+By this time they had reached Mr. Eastman's gate.
+
+"You tell if you dare!" said Johnny. And, after that, Dotty never
+thought any longer of trying to conceal a single item of their
+remarkable adventure. Since Johnny had dared her, she would _certainly_
+tell.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+TELLING OF IT.
+
+
+Dotty saw her father through the window. She had not supposed it was
+dinner-time. Her head, which she had just been tossing so proudly, was
+suddenly lowered, and she entered the house with "faint-footed fear,"
+and stole noiselessly up stairs, leaving wet tracks on the elegant
+carpet. She did not wish to meet her father while she was in such a
+plight.
+
+"O, Prudy!" she called out, "something has happened!"
+
+But Prudy was not within hearing. Angeline had given her permission to
+peel the potatoes for dinner, and she was now in the kitchen, quite
+unconscious of her little sister's forlorn situation. Hatless Johnny had
+crept around by the back door, and put himself under the care of Jane,
+the chambermaid. Janey was very kind-hearted, and withal a little
+weak-minded. She had often helped Johnny out of his predicaments,
+receiving in return plenty of kisses and sugar-plums.
+
+But who was going to help Dotty? She did not know where to look for dry
+garments; for, since her mother went away, her own clothes, and those of
+her two sisters, had been tossed together in sad confusion. She did not
+like to go to Susy, for Susy would probably scold; and Dotty, just now,
+was so uncomfortable, and her nerves had been so terribly racked, that
+she thought she could bear anything better than to be blamed.
+
+"O, dear! where in this world was Prudy?"
+
+She fidgeted about, trying to find she knew not what. Then she
+remembered she had herself locked the trunk, to hide away some almond
+candy from the other girls. Where she had put the key she did not know.
+
+The dinner-bell rang, and still Prudy did not appear.
+
+"I believe she does it _to purpose_," thought Miss Dimple, pulling out
+the bureau drawers in great haste, and scattering their contents right
+and left.
+
+"Seem's if I should freeze, but I don't s'pose she cares. I don't want
+any dinner. If Prudy'd bring me up a piece of pudding, I'd eat it; but
+she won't, nor pie either."
+
+By this time Dotty had nearly forgotten that all her misery was the
+result of her own misconduct. She would remember it by and by with
+renewed shame; but, just now, she had somehow shifted the blame upon
+innocent Prudy, forgetting that that dear little sister did not even
+know she was in the house.
+
+"And I sha'n't eat any supper," continued the shivering Dotty. "I wonder
+how many dinners and suppers 'twould take to starve folks to death?
+Prudy said she loved me; but if she does, why don't she come up here,
+and get me some clean clothes?"
+
+Meanwhile, at the dinner-table down stairs, there were three places
+empty. Mrs. Eastman had gone to Cumberland, and Susy told her father
+that Johnny and Dotty were away somewhere at play. It was such a
+careless household, and the meals were so irregular, that Mr. Parlin had
+several times missed Dotty at table. He did not pay any more attention
+than usual to her absence to-day, but thought, with a feeling of
+relief,--
+
+"Her mother will soon be at home, and then I shall feel very much easier
+about Alice and the other children."
+
+If Mr. Parlin had only known that Dotty was shivering up stairs in wet
+clothes, he might not have lingered so long over his ice-cream. As it
+was, he chatted leisurely with Mr. Eastman, put on his hat, and walked
+away, saying to Susy, in a low voice, as he passed her in the hall,--
+
+"My daughter, while I am so busy, and your mother is gone, I wish you
+would pay more attention to your little sister Alice. I am really afraid
+she is running wild."
+
+"Yes, sir," replied Susy, with a swift pang of conscience; for she now
+recollected that it was seldom she even knew where Dotty was, her mind
+being wholly absorbed by play and fancy-work.
+
+At this moment Johnny appeared, fresh from a bath, and dressed in a
+clean suit.
+
+"Where is Dotty?" asked Susy, rather surprised by Johnny's tidy array.
+
+"Dot? O, she's in the house somewhere. She came home when I did."
+
+Johnny spoke very carelessly. He was anxious that no one should suppose
+anything unusual had occurred.
+
+Susy and Prudy went up stairs in search of their missing sister. They
+found her in her own room, sitting down disconsolately in the middle of
+the floor.
+
+"Why, Dotty Dimple, where have you been? How _did_ you get so wet?"
+
+No answer.
+
+"Have you been trying to swim?" laughed Prudy, going up and stroking her
+forehead.
+
+"Prudy Parlin, why didn't you come up here before?" was the sudden
+response. "I called you and called you.--Where'd you put my clo'es?"
+
+"Why, Dotty, dear, I didn't know you were in the house; and I never
+touched your clothes."
+
+"Yes, you did. I can't find the key. I'm going to freeze. You don't
+care. You never brought me a speck of pudding. I'm sick, and going to
+have the sore throat. I wouldn't eat it now if the mayor was right in
+this room--so there!"
+
+Nothing could exceed the dreariness of Dotty's tone. Susy, though by no
+means unfeeling, could scarcely refrain from laughing at the child's
+unreasonableness; but Prudy, who "was exceeding wise" in reading the
+heart, knew that Dotty's anger was not very real; that it was partly
+assumed to hide her wretchedness. Therefore patient Prudy resolved to
+bear with the sharp words, believing Dotty would be pleasant by and by,
+when she felt comfortable.
+
+After some delay in hunting, she and Susy dressed the child in fresh
+clothes. Then Dotty consented to eat a little dinner, and go into her
+grandma Read's room, to sit on the lounge.
+
+"This little girl doesn't look well," said grandma Read, the first
+moment; "her cheeks are altogether too red. Where has thee been to-day,
+Alice?"
+
+"Been down to the beach, picking shells, grandma," replied Dotty,
+looking hard at the carpet.
+
+"O, where are the shells?" said Prudy.
+
+"I'm sure I don't know; I didn't find any. I didn't come back the same
+way I went," replied Dotty, twirling her favorite lock of hair over her
+finger.
+
+"Didn't come back the same way?"
+
+"No, I went wherrying."
+
+"Wherrying?" repeated Prudy.
+
+"Yes, that's what I said."
+
+"Prudence, what does thee suppose the child means?" said grandma Read,
+taking off her spectacles, and fixing her kind eyes steadily upon Dotty
+Dimple.
+
+"Wherrying in a wherry," answered Dotty, dryly.
+
+"Does thee mean in a boat?"
+
+"Why no, grandma. It looks like a boat, but it isn't; it's a wherry."
+
+"Who allowed thee to go on the water?"
+
+"Nobody."
+
+"Did thee think thee was doing right?"
+
+"No'm."
+
+"Who rowed the boat?"
+
+"Some boys--two--and Johnny, grandma."
+
+"Hasn't thy mother told thee not to go on the water?"
+
+"She said I mus'n't sail, and I never. I _wherried_."
+
+"Why, Dotty Parlin," said Prudy, "you'll scare me so I'll never get my
+breath again! You didn't go off on that bay with some boys?"
+
+"Yes, I did," replied Dotty, trying to look defiant. "_You_ wouldn't
+have dared to, Prudy."
+
+"Thee may get in my lap, Alice, and tell me all about it," said grandma
+Read, laying down her knitting-work.
+
+Dotty curled herself into a little heap in her grandmother's arms.
+
+"My head aches," said she, "and I love to lay it against your soft
+_kerjif_."
+
+"Well, dear, so thee may. Now, tell me what made thee go on the water?"
+
+"'Cause, 'cause, grandma, Solly Rosenbug asked me to go, and Johnny
+tried to make me _not_ go. I asked Solly was he old enough, and knew
+enough, and he said he did; but he didn't any such thing. And grandma,
+there it was, right in the middle of the solid water! And began to spin
+and dance round. We couldn't stop it from dancing; the more we held on,
+the quicker it went. Way up and down, grandma, and the rain raining, and
+our feet all sopping, and pouring right into that wherry like a--a
+catara-duct. They were all afraid but me, and I was awful afraid too.
+You see I thought we should tip right over, and I didn't want to be
+drowned, and couldn't swim."
+
+"Why, Dotty, how you make me tremble!" cried Prudy.
+
+"The way Johnny paddled!" continued Dotty, triumphantly. "Solly _said_
+he couldn't. I could have paddled better, only I didn't dare to."
+
+"_You_ paddle!"
+
+"No, I didn't. The wind blew me so I couldn't; 'twas much's ever I kept
+in the wherry. I had to hold on to Lina, too; she was just as 'fraid!"
+
+Here grandma Read pressed Dotty close to her heart, as if she wished to
+make sure the child was really alive.
+
+"'He gave his angels charge concerning thee,'" murmured she. "Tell me,
+child, how thee ever got to the shore."
+
+"O, the captain took us in a sail-boat! He called us crazy chickens, but
+said he didn't scold. I was the first one that saw the sail; and then
+Solly rowed us to it, and it took us in, just as wet as ever was. Johnny
+lost that paddle. So we got home; and, O, how my head aches!"
+
+"What a strange, strange child to tell a story!" said grandma Read,
+shaking her head. "But I've seen thee before. I understand thy odd ways.
+Thee is deeply ashamed of such wicked conduct--that I am very sure. Thee
+must be aware, Alice, that it is only by the Lord's mercy thee is safe
+on dry land, instead of being drowned in the depths of the sea."
+
+Dotty shuddered, and curled her crimson face more closely against the
+white kerchief.
+
+"But I will not chide thee now. Thy mother will do what is right and
+proper when she comes home. But now thee must have a bowl of ginger tea,
+and go straight to bed."
+
+Dotty made no objection. Indeed she was glad to find herself tucked
+warmly under blankets and coverlets, for she was still chilly, and her
+head grew worse continually. It was also a great relief to her that she
+had told the whole story. She knew her father would be sorely
+displeased; but he had never punished her in his life, and it was not
+likely he would do it now, while her head ached so dreadfully.
+
+She wasn't going to tell anybody how sorry she was; but she had made up
+her mind to this--that she would never _look_ at salt water again as
+long as she lived.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+MAMMA AND "LITTLE ME."
+
+
+"O, dear!" thought Dotty, as she lay through the long afternoon, wakeful
+and feverish, "I should think there was a drum inside o' my head, and
+somebody was pounding on it,--tummy, tum, tum."
+
+Grandma had said it was best to leave her alone, in the hope that she
+might fall asleep. But the sleep would not come, though dreams did, one
+after another, like pictures in a panorama.
+
+When she shut her eyes, she could see a little red boat rocking on the
+water like a cradle; then a great wave would dash against it, and turn
+it over, with all its passengers. The screaming sea-gulls seemed to be
+looking far down into the water in search of the sinking children; but
+the children could not look up to see the gulls, for their eyes were
+closed, and they were "drowned in the depths of the sea."
+
+Dotty tried to shut out these horrid pictures. If her dear mamma were
+only here to talk to her, and lay a cool hand on her head--that mamma
+she had just disobeyed! Then Dotty repeated some verses she had learned
+long ago:--
+
+    "At night my mamma comes up stairs,--
+    She comes to hear me say my prayers;
+    And while I'm kneeling on her knee,
+    She always kisses little me."
+
+When it came to the last line the poor child buried her face in the
+pillow. Papa was good, and grandma was good; but there was no one like
+anybody's own mamma, after all.
+
+"'She always kisses little me,'" murmured Dotty. "'She _always_ kisses
+little me.' She gives me twenty kisses when I go to bed, 'cept when I'm
+naughty, and then I don't have but ten."
+
+Dotty counted the number of knobs on the bureau drawers, and then went
+on:--
+
+"I think if I was in my mamma's place, and had _me_ to take care of, I'd
+throw me out of the window; I wouldn't keep such a girl!"
+
+Dotty had great satisfaction in scolding herself when she was all alone.
+It was a way she had of "doing her own punishing."
+
+Presently, while engaged in the soothing business of calling herself
+names, she dropped off to sleep. She dreamed of red wherries and "white
+waves;" but never once dreamed that her mother had come, and was
+bending over the bed, actually "kissing little me."
+
+"Poor thing," said Mrs. Parlin to herself, "if she doesn't have a
+settled fever I shall be thankful. Will the time ever come when my
+little daughter will learn to obey her mother?"
+
+Mrs. Parlin stole out of the room very softly; but a sly little rogue,
+observing that she left the creaking door a little ajar, watched an
+opportunity, and stole in on her "tipsy toes." It was "wee Katie." Mrs.
+Parlin had brought her home, to keep her out of the way of Mrs.
+Clifford, who was still quite ill.
+
+The first thing which roused Dotty to consciousness was a feeling of
+suffocation. O, was she in the bay? Was she drowning? Something lay very
+close over her mouth; but it was not water: in fact it was a pillow;
+and on the pillow sat little Katie with her whole weight. But being a
+very restless child, it is not likely she would have remained in that
+position long enough to strangle her cousin, even if Dotty had not
+thrown up her arms and released herself suddenly.
+
+"Why, Katie Clifford, is that you?"
+
+"Yes, this is me!" replied Katie, with a voice as sweet as a wind-harp.
+"You didn't know _I_ was comin'. You turned your face away: you wouldn't
+look to me!"
+
+"I s'pose I was asleep, Katie. You didn't mean to sit down on my head,
+_did_ you, darling?"
+
+"Yes, I did meant to. But you is sick. Folks mus'n't talk."
+
+"No," replied Dotty, smiling, "when folks are sick they mustn't talk."
+
+"Well," said Katie, putting her finger on her lip, "_they is_!"
+
+"O, Katie!" cried Dotty, a new idea seizing her, "where's mother? Did
+she come with you?"
+
+Katie shook her head.
+
+"My dee mamma velly sick."
+
+"Yes, I know; but where's _my_ mamma? Did she come with you in the
+cars?"
+
+Katie shook her head again.
+
+"Who did come with you, then? You didn't come alone?"
+
+"No, there was folks."
+
+By this time Dotty had sprung out of bed, and was rushing out of the
+room to learn whether her mother had come. Mrs. Parlin met her at the
+door.
+
+"My darling child," said she, hugging and kissing her just as tenderly
+as if she had never been "wherrying." "You'd better lie down again, and
+let me bathe your head."
+
+Dotty sprang into bed instantly. She was glad her mother had asked her
+to do something, so she might prove her desire to obey. She liked the
+touch of those cool fingers on her forehead.
+
+"O, mamma," said she, "you do make me feel better. It felt a while ago
+as if they were beating drums in there."
+
+"Is your neck stiff, dear?"
+
+Katie thrust her little prying fingers under Dotty's chin, tickling her,
+of course.
+
+"No, auntie," said she, "'tisn't any stiff, her neck isn't."
+
+"But it's sore, mother. Not so sore, though, as it was when Jennie Vanee
+and I got caught in the thunder and lightning."
+
+After she had said this, Dotty blushed, for the words recalled to her
+mind another act of disobedience. No wonder she had thought herself
+such a naughty girl, fit only to be thrown out of the window!
+
+"What sort of a child has Dotty been since I have been gone?" asked Mrs.
+Parlin of Mrs. Eastman, as they both sat by the bedside.
+
+Mrs. Eastman stroked the sheet with her white, jewelled hand before she
+replied. She was thinking how the little girl had turned the house
+upside down, and, as she believed, made Johnny more mischievous than
+ever; so she hesitated a moment.
+
+"A tolerably good child."
+
+This was all Mrs. Eastman could say; and it was as much as Mrs. Parlin
+had dared hope. She knew how Johnny and Dotty encouraged each other in
+rude behavior. She looked at her beautiful little daughter with pain,
+and wondered, as she had many times wondered before, if these bitter
+experiences she was suffering would ever have the effect to make her a
+better child.
+
+Dotty did not understand the tender, regretful glance of her mother's
+eyes. She was not as yet very well acquainted with the English language,
+and did not know what "tolerably" meant; she supposed it meant
+"remarkably."
+
+"It's so queer," she thought, "that auntie should tell my mamma I've
+been tol'ably good! Why, I haven't, I know I haven't: I've been tol'ably
+bad!"
+
+She looked up at her auntie in surprise, and at that moment there
+entered into her small mind a doubt of Mrs. Eastman's truthfulness. It
+was a very faint doubt, which she did not express even to herself. It
+was almost incredible that a grown-up lady should tell the "thing which
+is not," or even color the truth by so much as the shadow of a shade.
+Still, when auntie had called Dotty a tol'ably good girl, she must have
+known it was a mistake!
+
+Dotty did not have a fever; but for several days she was not at all
+well, and spent most of the time in her grandmamma's room, on the
+lounge. It would have been a good opportunity for reflection, if Katie
+had not been in the house. As it was, Dotty did think of her own conduct
+for several minutes at a time, during the intervals when Katie was not
+dancing attendance upon her. She decided never to disobey her mother
+again, and said so. This, you remember, was nothing new; she had made
+the same resolve fifty times before, and broken it as often.
+
+Johnny, her little companion in naughtiness, escaped without so much as
+a sore throat; but he suffered in another way. His father, learning of
+his exploit upon the water, and being greatly incensed, punished him
+severely. It was not often that Johnny was corrected, and this time he
+was very indignant. He reflected that if it had not been for Dotty
+Dimple his sin would not have been found out. Dotty had ceased to be a
+"brick;" she was a tell-tale--a hateful, mean tell-tale; and he wished
+she would go home and stay there.
+
+"I'll pay her for this business," said Johnny, talking to his boots.
+
+Just how he was going to "pay" his little cousin he did not know. As for
+being sorry for his disobedience, I doubt if Johnny thought of such a
+thing. He knew he had been in much peril, and now, while the remembrance
+of the fright was still fresh in his mind, he was not likely to fall
+into the same temptation again--that was all.
+
+Johnny missed his little lively cousin in his out-of-door sports; but he
+was so angry with her that he scarcely ever went up stairs to see her;
+and when he did go, amused himself by putting his mouth down to her ear,
+and crying,--
+
+"E, for shame, Dot Parlin! Fore I'd run and tell!"
+
+But Dotty did not know that her cousin Johnny was harboring such bitter
+thoughts against her. She had a high temper herself; but anger did not
+rankle in her heart for days and days, as it did in Johnny's. She was
+not eager, like him, for revenge.
+
+The Parlins were now making ready to go into their new hired house.
+
+They were all longing for a place they could call "home."
+
+During the few days, while they yet remained at Mrs. Eastman's, very few
+events occurred which are worth recording. For one thing, Dotty's bird
+died. She had loved it for its helplessness; but Angeline said,--
+
+"You needn't be sorry. What did I tell you when you took that bird into
+the window? I knew something would happen; but didn't know as it would
+be a boat-wreck exactly."
+
+Dotty, and even Prudy, had received some very foolish ideas from
+Angeline. The Portland fire had affected the Parlin family in more ways
+than one; and it would be long before the three little girls would
+settle into their usual quiet habits again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE NEW HOME.
+
+
+"Prudy," said Dotty, "you needn't say that word 'wherrying' to me any
+more. Mamma said there mus'n't anybody tease me about that, because
+I've--I've repented it all up."
+
+"O, I'm so glad!" replied Prudy.
+
+"I'll never take another bird into the window," continued Dotty; "it's
+almost as bad as a ghost."
+
+"You never saw a ghost, Dotty. Nobody ever did."
+
+"Yes, indeed; Angeline has seen 'em as thick as spatter! They come when
+you're asleep, and there don't anybody know it. I shouldn't dare open
+my eyes in the night. They're wrapped in a sheet, all white, and their
+eyes snap like fire. Angeline says they do."
+
+"I don't believe it," said Prudy, stoutly; "my mother told me 'twasn't
+true."
+
+"P'r'aps mamma doesn't wake up in the night," said Dotty, "and p'r'aps
+the ghosts never come where she is. Why, Prudy, they're made out o'
+nothing! If you stick a knife into 'em it goes right through, and don't
+touch their blood, for they haven't got any blood. They don't care for
+knives--they're just like bubbles."
+
+"I don't believe it," replied Prudy, again. "I think it's wicked. My
+mother wouldn't like it if she knew how much you sat in Angeline's lap
+and talked about ghosts. _I_ don't want to see any or hear any."
+
+"I do, though!" cried Dotty. "I shouldn't be afraid--the leastest
+speck. I'd go right up to 'em, and, said I, 'How do you do, sir?' And
+then they would melt like a wink. It blows 'em right out the moment you
+speak."
+
+"Does it, though?" said Johnny, who had been listening at the door. "You
+don't say so! Call me when you see your ghostses, and let me talk to 'em
+too."
+
+"And _me_! What _is_ um?" said wee Katie, toddling in with her mouth
+full of candy.
+
+"There, there!" cried Dotty Dimple, "you've been a-listening, Johnny
+Eastman."
+
+"Don't care! 'Tisn't so bad as being a tell-tale, Miss!" said Johnny,
+ending the sentence in a naughty tone.
+
+"Why, Johnny, you mus'n't say that!"
+
+"Why, Johnny," echoed Katie, "you _musser_ say _that_!"
+
+"Say what?"
+
+"Say _Miss_."
+
+The children all laughed at this.
+
+"Come, little ones," said Mr. Parlin, appearing at the door, "put on
+your hats; we are ready to start."
+
+Prudy clapped her hands--an action which cousin Percy did not consider
+very polite.
+
+"It shows," said he, "how glad you are to leave us."
+
+"O, but we are going _home_, you know, Percy! Only think of having a
+home to go to!"
+
+"It isn't the burnt one, though," remarked Dotty, as she danced off the
+door-step; "and I 'spect I'll never see that darling little tea-set any
+more."
+
+The new house was not in the least like the old one. Susy was always
+bewailing the contrast. She did not like the wallpaper; the carpets
+were homely; the rooms were, some of them, too large, and the door-yard,
+certainly, too small.
+
+"But it's better than nothing," said Prudy, who, for one, was heartily
+tired of visiting.
+
+"I think," said Mrs. Parlin, smiling, "this is a very good opportunity
+for my little daughters to learn to make the best of everything. We
+cannot have the old house, so we will try not to long for it. We never
+wish for the moon, you know."
+
+"Katie does," laughed Susy.
+
+"We cannot have the old home again, so we will make the new one as happy
+as we can. Isn't that the best way?"
+
+"Of course it is, mamma," replied all the children.
+
+"'Course, indeed, it is!" said Katie, trying to pull up the carpet in
+her search for a lost three-cent piece.
+
+"I'm glad father's dressing-gown and slippers didn't get scorched," said
+Prudy; "and the piano sounds as sweetly as ever it did. It sounds to me
+just as if there was a family in there, living inside."
+
+"Like what?"
+
+"O, you know there are four parts playing at once, and it seems as if it
+was a man and his wife, and two children, all singing together!"
+
+"I'm glad we brought so many flowers from aunt Eastman's," said Susy,
+brightening; "now we'll trim all the rooms."
+
+"That is right," said Mrs. Parlin. "This is the first night in the new
+house: let us make it as cheerful as we can for dear papa. Susy, you may
+as well practise that new tune he likes so well."
+
+"O, mamma," said Prudy, "I'll tell you what I'll do! I'll make some
+vinegar candy!--if you'll boil it, you know, and pull it."
+
+"A very brilliant idea, my daughter. Your part will be the looking on, I
+suppose."
+
+"And what'll _I_ do?" queried Dotty, twisting the inevitable lock of
+front hair; "if papa would only give me some money, I'd go and buy him a
+present."
+
+"The wisest thing you can do just now, dear, is to wash that berry-stain
+off your lips; then you may bring me a fresh ruffle to baste in the neck
+of this dress."
+
+Dotty obeyed at once. She was always glad to wear that white delaine
+with the scarlet spots.
+
+The whole family were so very busy during the afternoon, that they
+forgot to feel any regrets for the old home. The furniture had been
+brought and arranged some time before, and the most Mrs. Parlin expected
+to do to-day was to make the house as pleasant as possible. Susy was
+allowed to attend to the flowers; the three others looked on, and
+watched Mrs. Parlin, while she made vinegar candy, filled some tarts
+with jelly, and helped Norah set the supper-table.
+
+"How nice!" said Prudy, rubbing her hands. "Sometimes I don't much care
+if our house was burnt up."
+
+"Nor I either," said Dotty. "This house has got a good deal the best
+places to hide in."
+
+Mrs. Parlin smiled, in her sweet, contented way. She was thinking how
+many blessings we can all find in our lot if we only look for them. Not
+that she would ever have known about the "nice places to hide in" if the
+children had not mentioned them.
+
+"Dotty," said she, "you may run up and ask grandmother if she will dare
+drink any coffee to-night."
+
+Prudy and Dotty tripped up the broad staircase, which wound about so
+much that Prudy said it twisted her like a string. Katie ran after them,
+catching her breath.
+
+There sat the dear grandmamma, knitting some winter stockings for Prudy.
+There were no curtains at the windows, and the August sunshine fell on
+her calm face, bathing it with warm light. The carpet had not been put
+down yet, and the children's feet made a hollow sound on the bare floor.
+
+"Why, grandma," said Prudy, "it wouldn't be nice here a bit, only the
+room has got _you_ in it!"
+
+"Bless thy little heart, Prudence! It will be nice enough here to-morrow
+night. I wouldn't have thy mother touch it to-day."
+
+"I've got a gamma to my house," said Katie, passing her little fingers
+over Mrs. Read's white kerchief; "but um don't have hang-fiss on um
+neck."
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Read, in reply to the children's question, "tell your
+mother I will take some coffee to-night, and she is very kind to
+inquire."
+
+On the whole, the supper that evening was quite a success. Mr. Parlin
+had come home from business, tired and sad. It was not pleasant for him
+to turn his steps towards that part of the town: he missed his old home
+more than ever. But when he entered the strange house, the lonely look
+left his face; for there in the hall stood his wife and children,
+awaiting him with smiles of welcome.
+
+"O, papa!" said Dotty, springing into his arms, while her sisters seized
+him by the coat-sleeves, "you ought to have a birthday to-night, we've
+got such a splendid supper!"
+
+"Sthop!" cried Katie. "_I_'s talking. Cake, and verjerves, and f'owers,
+and butter!"
+
+"And Susy's been practising the 'Blue Violet's Carol,'" said Prudy.
+
+"Yes, her packus, uncle Ed'ard!"
+
+"And I'll read the paper to you if your eyes ache," went on Prudy; "and
+we are going to be just as happy, papa!"
+
+"An' vindegar canny," struck in Katie.
+
+"O, hush, now!" whispered Dotty, covering the child's mouth with her
+handkerchief.
+
+The whole house was fragrant with flowers, and had such a festive
+appearance, that Mr. Parlin kept exclaiming, "Ah, indeed!" and stroking
+his beard. Prudy said she always knew when papa was pleased, for then he
+always "patted his whiskers."
+
+The table was very attractive, and everybody had a fine appetite. After
+Mr. Parlin had drank a cup of delicious coffee, he no longer remembered
+that he was tired. He looked upon the merry group around him, and said
+to his wife,--
+
+"I see, my dear, you are disposed to make the best of our misfortunes.
+But, after all, you are not quite as meek as one old lady I heard of
+once."
+
+"Please tell it, if it's a story, papa," said the children.
+
+"Not much of a story; only there were two old women who lived by
+themselves, and were so very poor that they had nothing in the world to
+eat but potatoes and salt. One day a friend went to see them, and when
+he sat down to their humble meal of roasted potatoes, he was moved with
+pity, and told them he was very sorry to see them so poor.
+
+"Then one of the old ladies rolled up her eyes, and said, 'I was just
+a-thinkin', neighbor, that this meal is altogether too good for us,
+we're _so_ unworthy! I only wish the potatoes was froze!'"
+
+The children laughed.
+
+"But I shouldn't like that old lady, though. I know how she looked: it
+was just this way," said Prudy, drawing down her mouth, and looking
+cross-eyed.
+
+"She didn't want the potatoes frozed," added Dotty; "for if she did,
+she might have laid 'em out doors all night, and they'd have freezed as
+hard as a stick."
+
+Grandma Read had a thought just then, though she did not express it. She
+was thinking what a contrast this cheerful family presented to another
+"burnt-out" family, who had this very day moved into a house across the
+street. The mother she had seen from the window, and she looked
+perfectly discouraged. The children were fretful, and it seemed as if
+they were all trying, with one accord, to see which could do most to
+make the new home disagreeable.
+
+"I should say they freeze their potatoes," thought Mrs. Read.
+
+She meant that, instead of trying to improve matters, they only made
+them worse.
+
+After supper, just as the Parlins were sitting down for a quiet
+evening, the door-bell rang furiously, and shook for a minute
+afterwards, as if it were in an ague-fit. Who had come to break up the
+family harmony?
+
+I will tell you in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+A SURPRISE.
+
+
+Norah went to the door, hardly expecting to find any one there; for when
+the bell pealed in that violent manner, it was often some roguish boy
+who rang it, and then ran away. But this time, to her amazement, there
+stood on the door-step and in the yard as many as twenty boys and girls.
+
+"Is Miss Susy Parlin at home?" said one of them.
+
+"And Miss Prudy?" added another.
+
+"She is--I mean they are. Will you please walk in?"
+
+As Norah spoke, she swung open the parlor door, too much "fluttered,"
+as she afterwards said, to announce the arrival in due form. The guests
+poured in with all speed. Susy sprang up as suddenly as if the piano
+stool were exploding; but what to say she did not know, and stood still
+in dumb surprise. Prudy caught her by the skirts, and whispered, "Good
+evening;" but nobody heard it. Dotty Dimple, not in the least abashed,
+was about to do the honors, when Mr. and Mrs. Parlin came forward, and
+relieved her of the trouble. They greeted the little people very
+cordially, and gave them a pleasant welcome to the new house. Then Mrs.
+Parlin directed her daughters to carry away the hats and sacques of the
+young misses; and by the time this ceremony was over, the stiffness had
+somewhat worn away, and Susy and Prudy could breathe more freely.
+
+Flyaway went up first to one, and then to another, with the question,--
+
+"Did you _came_ to see _me_?"
+
+The two heads of the family retreated, Mr. Parlin saying to his wife as
+they went,--
+
+"When you and I were children, we had our parties in the afternoon; but
+this is a new fashion, I suppose."
+
+"It is the first time our little girls have ever received company in the
+evening," replied Mrs. Parlin. "I do hope these children will not stay
+late. It happens that I have made a large quantity of vinegar candy, but
+not enough, I think, for the whole company."
+
+"Very well," said Mr. Parlin; "and now, as the little people seem to be
+doing very nicely, suppose we go out for a walk, and call at a
+confectioner's on our way home."
+
+Susy felt very much flattered by this surprise party. It gave her an
+assurance that she was held in kind remembrance by her schoolmates, many
+of whom had been "burnt out," and knew exactly how to sympathize with
+her.
+
+But Susy's satisfaction was by no means complete. In the first place,
+Katie would not go to bed, and could not be persuaded to leave the room
+any longer than just to bring in her ragged black Dinah, and the
+yellow-and-white kitten.
+
+Dinah was passed around the room to be pitied. There was a mustard
+plaster on her chest, applied that day by Dotty, in order to break up a
+lung fever. Dinah's ankle, which was really broken, had been "set" and
+mended with a splinter, and was waiting for a new bone to grow. Percy
+Eastman, the oldest boy present, said,--
+
+"Well, cousin Dimple, you and Flyaway do take extra care of Miss Dinah!
+If you should lose her, you can't have anything to reflect upon."
+
+Susy did not so much mind the laughter at Dinah's expense; for, although
+such a hideous black baby was not suitable for genteel society, still it
+was Katie who was exhibiting it, and Katie was pardonable for the
+weakness. The trying question was, What would the child do next? There
+was nothing certain about Flyaway except her uncertainty. Susy was about
+to appeal to her mother to take the little one away, when she heard the
+hall door open and shut; her father and mother had gone out for their
+walk.
+
+It did occur to Susy that this was a great pity; and, indeed, it is
+quite probable, Mrs. Parlin would not have left the house if she could
+have foreseen how much her presence would be needed.
+
+And after all it was Dotty Dimple, and not Flyaway, who made the whole
+trouble. Flyaway was under every one's feet, it is true, and sat down in
+the middle of the floor to comb and brush the kitty's head; but then she
+never for a moment lost her temper: it was Dotty, the girl old enough to
+know better, who was cross and disagreeable.
+
+I am sorry to record this of Dotty, and so I will try to make a little
+excuse for her. She was not well. She had hardly felt like herself since
+that unfortunate boat-ride. She was sleepy and tired, and ought to have
+gone to bed at eight o'clock--the usual hour. Then, again, the guests
+were nearly all older than herself, and paid very little attention to
+her. She thought she might as well have worn her calico wrapper as this
+beautiful white delaine, for all the notice they took of her dress.
+
+There was only one child present of Dotty's own age,--Johnny
+Eastman,--and if he would only have played cat's cradle with her, all
+might have gone well. But Johnny had not forgotten the severe correction
+his father had given him in the stable with a horsewhip. Every time he
+looked at his little cousin, the thought arose,--
+
+"She was real mean to run and tell! I'll pay her for that--won't I,
+though?"
+
+Percy had promised to aid him in his revenge; and you will presently
+learn what this was to be. Percy liked "cousin Dimple" very well; he was
+only putting a wicked scheme into his little brother's head "just for
+the fun of the thing."
+
+The guests were talking of having a few tableaux and charades, like some
+they had seen arranged by their older sisters.
+
+"I don't care anything about their old tolly-blows--do you, Johnny?"
+said Dotty. "Let's play 'I spy'--you and I."
+
+"No, you don't catch me playing high spy with such a cross party as you
+are, Dot Dimple."
+
+"I wish you'd stop calling me a 'cross party' the whole time, Johnny
+Eastman," replied Dotty, shaking her elbows.
+
+Just then Susy came, and whispered a few words in her ear.
+
+"No, I won't be hung! I'm sure I won't be hung!" cried Dotty, who was by
+this time very much out of sorts.
+
+"O, Dotty! what makes you act so? We've got a charade, 'Crisis.' Half of
+us are going to play it for the other half to guess. We only want to
+weigh you, with a yardstick through an old shawl; that's all. Come, let
+us pin you up; there's a goody girl."
+
+"I don't want to be a goody girl. I'm too big to be goody. If you want a
+baby to make believe with, why don't you take Flyaway? She's littler
+than me."
+
+"There, there!" said Prudy, coming to the rescue, "you needn't do a
+single thing, Dotty, if you don't want to. We didn't know but you'd like
+to play be weighed, you can squeal so be-_you_-tifully!"
+
+"I know I can squeal just like a rubber doll; but s'posin' they should
+let me fall off the yardstick--where'd I go to then?"
+
+"O, but they wouldn't!"
+
+"Of course they would, Prudy Parlin. And I should fall right into the
+tolly-blow--that's where I should fall to."
+
+"O, pshaw!" exclaimed Percy, coming into the corner where his cousins
+stood; "if cousin Dimple has got into one of her contrary fits, it's of
+no use teasing. You might as well try to move the side of the house."
+
+This cutting speech was all that was needed to complete Dotty's ill
+humor. Did she remember any longer her promise not to get angry, but to
+swallow her temper right down? No, indeed; she forgot everything but her
+own self-will.
+
+"Don't you speak again, Percy, or I'll scream my throat right in two!"
+
+"Girls, I advise you to let that child alone," said her cousin, with a
+look of supreme contempt. "Let's try Flyaway; she's a little darling.
+Here, Flyaway, are'n't you willing to be pinned up in a shawl if we'll
+give you a whole cent?"
+
+"Course, indeed, so!" replied the little one, tossing her kitten across
+a chair, and into the fireplace. "But you mus' gi' me mucher'n that! Gi'
+me hunnerd cents!"
+
+No answer was made to this, except to dress the child in a ruffled cap
+and long clothes, and pin her into a plaid shawl.
+
+"Now cry," said Percy; "cry just as if you had soap in your eyes."
+
+"Ee! Ee!" wailed Katie, loudly.
+
+"No, cry _weak_; cry just as you did when you were a baby."
+
+"I don't 'member when I was a baby, 'twas so _many_ years ago," sighed
+Flyaway.
+
+But she practised crying again, and succeeded very well, Dotty all the
+while looking on in grim displeasure.
+
+Susy was the mamma; and when the folding-doors opened upon the scene
+"Cry," she was sitting in a rocking-chair, admiring her child, a
+remarkably well-grown baby, two months old.
+
+"Just the image of his papa, Mrs. Pettibone!" cried Florence Eastman,
+rushing in, in the character of an old lady, her head adorned with a
+scoop bonnet. "Let me look at the precious little creature! Yes, just
+the image of his papa! I said so before I ever set eyes on him. He's two
+months of age, you say, and how many teeth?"
+
+"She is a girl," replied Mrs. Susy, kissing the big bundle, "and weighs
+twenty-nine pounds, three inches."
+
+Susy meant "ounces."
+
+Then followed a chat between herself and a few little old ladies
+concerning catnip and "pep'mint" tea; after which the wonderful baby was
+held up by the yardstick to be weighed.
+
+Flyaway had not expected to be suspended so high in the air. She forgot
+the baby-like cry she had been practising, and screamed out in terror,--
+
+"I wish I didn't be to Portland! O, I wish I didn't be to Portland!"
+
+As this was a very long speech for a baby two months old, the audience
+were taken by surprise, and laughed heartily. Poor little Flyaway was
+lifted out of the shawl, and kissed over and over again. She had not
+played properly, it is true, but she had intended to do right, and was
+applauded for her good intentions.
+
+Dotty saw and heard the whole. She was sorry she had refused the part,
+and she put her fingers in her mouth, and sulked, because little Flyaway
+had been stealing the praise she might have received herself.
+
+After both syllables of the charade had been acted and guessed, then the
+other half of the company took their turn, and attempted to arrange a
+tableau. There was a deal of confusion. No one knew exactly what ought
+to be done. They were to have a Goddess of Liberty, and finally decided
+to dress her in an embroidered window curtain, with a shield on her
+breast made of a blue box cover, striped with yellow silk. Dotty was
+selected as goddess, on account of her superior beauty.
+
+"But my mamma never 'lows me to wear window curtains, and I sha'n't be a
+tolly-blow 'thout I can wear my white dress with red spots, and a big
+bosom-pin in!"
+
+"And a shaker," suggested one of the girls. "I didn't know before that
+Susy Parlin had such a bad sister."
+
+This was too much. Dotty's head was on fire. She caught the girl by the
+shoulder, and shook her as if she had been a breadth of dusty carpeting;
+then ran away.
+
+Which way she went she did not heed, and never stopped till she came to
+a dark pantry, which had been made without any windows, on purpose to
+keep out flies. The unhappy child threw herself, out of breath, upon the
+floor of this closet, her heart beating high with rage and shame.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+JOHNNY'S REVENGE.
+
+
+Dotty's cross behavior had entirely spoiled the pleasure of the evening
+for her two sisters. They felt, as they had felt years before, when they
+saw her, a mere baby, perched upon the wood-box, with her hands and feet
+tied--they felt that it was a family disgrace.
+
+All these little boys and girls, who had never known before what Dotty's
+temper was, knew all about it now; they would talk of it to one another;
+they would go home and tell of it, and remember it forever and ever.
+
+"And, O dear!" thought Susy, "they won't know she was born so, and
+can't help it."
+
+For that this was the case, Susy firmly believed.
+
+"I've got it written in my journal," thought Prudy, "how she promised to
+swallow it down; but Dotty isn't well, and that's the reason she can't
+remember."
+
+Both the sisters knew that Dotty had left the parlors, and they were
+very glad of it. They did not attempt to follow her. They did not know
+precisely where she had gone, but presumed she was pouting somewhere.
+That there could be danger of any sort for the poor child in that house
+they never dreamed. Neither did Mr. or Mrs. Parlin dream it, or they
+would have walked home a little faster from their visit to the white
+tents on Green Street.
+
+The games went on as usual, and were quite as amusing to the guests as
+if they had not been very poor ones indeed. Susy and Prudy need not have
+feared that the little people would not have a good time; the "surprise
+party" was a perfect success, and Dotty's ill-humor made no one unhappy
+but her sensitive sisters. Meanwhile the wretched child was lying on the
+pantry floor, thinking very confused thoughts.
+
+"I wish I was dead. No I don't. I'm too wicked. But I wasn't any
+wickeder 'n that girl. She said Susy Parlin had a bad sister. What made
+her say that? She knew I'd hear. I'm glad I shook her. No, I'm sorry. It
+was murder--the Bible says so. Johnny murdered too--murdered me. He
+called me a 'cross party.' That was a story. Johnny's wickeder 'n ever
+_I_ was.
+
+"Prudy thought I ought to be a baby. Percy thought so. He said, 'I
+devise you to let that child alone.' I'm going to let _him_ alone! All
+the time! Did I want to fall off that yardstick, right into the
+tolly-blow?
+
+"There's Prudy: she can be good; it doesn't hurt her. It hurts _me_ to
+be good; it tires me all up.
+
+"And here it is, as dark as a pickpocket." (Dotty raised her head and
+took a survey.) "Why, the moon can't get here, nor the sun. Is this down
+cellar? No, I didn't see any stairs. Where did I go to when I came? I
+walked right on the floor. What floor? Was it the dining-room, or was it
+out doors? I didn't look at it to see.
+
+"This is a 'cuddy.' There's ever so many 'cuddies' in this house to hide
+in. I've gone and hid. Nobody'll ever find me. My father'll say, 'Why,
+where's that child?' And my mother'll say, 'I don't know.' And they'll
+hunt all over the house; and I shall keep my head in my apron, and won't
+say a word.
+
+"Then Prudy'll say, 'O, my darling sister Dotty! How sweet and good she
+was!'
+
+"And they'll think I'm dead! And Susy'll cry out loud, and tell Percy,
+and he'll say, 'O, how sorry I am I said "I devise you to let that child
+alone"!'"
+
+Dotty sighed as she pictured to herself Percy's conscience-stricken
+face.
+
+"And that girl that called me a bad sister--how _she'll_ feel! And
+Johnny--I guess Johnny won't say 'cross party' any more!
+
+"Grandma--why, grandma'll read the Bible. And O, such a time!
+
+"That Angeline girl will remember how she rocked that darling Dotty, and
+told me stories."
+
+Dotty was seized with a sudden shivering. The stories came back to her
+mind vividly. If Angeline had told her simple little tales of every-day
+life, Dotty might have forgotten them; but, like all children, she had
+an active imagination, and anything marvellous or horrible made a deep
+impression.
+
+The current of her thoughts was changed as soon as she remembered those
+unknown ghosts of Angeline's description.
+
+"All white, wrapped in a sheet. Put a knife through, and they don't know
+it. No blood, no bones, no anything. Go through a keyhole. Will they,
+though? Prudy don't believe it. Am I anywhere near a keyhole? I don't
+know. I've gone and hid, and I can't find myself. I'm somewhere, but I
+don't know where."
+
+Dotty began to feel very uncomfortable. There was no longer the
+slightest satisfaction in the thought of frightening the family. She
+was frightened herself, and with the worst kind of fear--the fear of the
+supernatural.
+
+"I can't see the leastest thing, and I can't hear anything, either.
+Ghosts don't make any noise. May be there are some in this house: been
+locked up, and the man didn't know it."
+
+The silence seemed to grow deeper. Dotty could hear her heart beat.
+
+"My heart thumps like a mouse in the wall. I'm going to get out of this
+place. I feel as if there's a ghost in here. It creeps all over me. I
+can't get my breath."
+
+Dotty rose cautiously; but she had been lying so long in a cramped
+position that both her feet were asleep. While trying to recover her
+balance she caught at something, which proved to be a glass jar of
+raspberry jam. The cover came off, and the jam poured down her neck in
+a thick stream.
+
+"My beautiful white dress with the red spots! Who put that dirty thing
+in my way? Smells like purserves. They ought to be ashamed!"
+
+Dotty tried bearing her weight on both feet, and found she could walk.
+
+"But I've whirled round three or four times. I didn't ever know which
+way to go, and now I'm sure I don't know so well as I did in the first
+place. If I step any more, perhaps I'll step into some molasses."
+
+Dotty's meditations were becoming more confused than ever. Now it was
+not only ghosts, but jam and jelly which went to make up the terrors of
+the situation. But she was growing desperate. She groped right and left,
+saying to herself,--
+
+"Where's the _out_?"
+
+At last she came to the door, which she had unconsciously closed when
+she entered the pantry. She opened it, and her eyes were greeted with
+light. It was the moon shining in at the kitchen windows.
+
+Her fears vanished. She was just wondering whether to return to the
+parlor in a forgiving spirit, or to stay away and make everybody
+unhappy, when a strange, horrible object met her view,--not white, but
+yellow.
+
+Was it--was it--a truly, truly _ghost_? O, it must be a ghost on fire!
+It hadn't any sheet round it. Nothing was to be seen but a hideous head
+peeping in at the window. No man ever looked like that. No man ever had
+such a mouth. It was as deep as a cave, and all ablaze. Somebody had
+gone and swallowed a stove; somebody had come to do--do--O, what had he
+come to do?
+
+"It's a yellow ghost!" thought Dotty. "I didn't know they had such a
+kind. Angeline never said so. But its eyes are just like her ghosts'
+eyes--going to burn you up!"
+
+These thoughts darted through Dotty's mind like lightning-flashes. At
+the same time she gave one loud, terrified scream, and fell forward upon
+the floor. She did not rise, she did not speak, she seemed scarcely to
+breathe. The shock had partially stunned her.
+
+"Why, Dotty--Dotty Dimple!" exclaimed Percy, rushing in at the back
+door, and seizing his little cousin by the shoulders. "Look up here,
+darling! 'Twas nobody but me!"
+
+No answer.
+
+"Nobody but me and Percy," said Johnny, pulling Dotty's ears to attract
+her attention.
+
+"Only a jack-o'-lantern, you dear little ducky," cried Percy.
+
+"A pumpkin, you goosie," said Johnny.
+
+No reply, but a sudden choking, followed by convulsive sobs. Whether the
+child heard and understood what was said to her, Percy could not
+determine. He was old enough to know that a sudden and powerful shock is
+always more or less dangerous. He redoubled his efforts.
+
+"Look, dear, here's the pumpkin. Holes cut out for eyes. A gash for the
+mouth. A candle stuck in."
+
+"Smart girl!" ejaculated Johnny, who was too young and ignorant to see
+anything but amusement in the whole affair. "Smart girl, scared of a
+pumpkin!"
+
+"Johnny was angry with you," went on Percy, rather nervously; "he said
+he wanted to tease you. I brought the pumpkin from our house. I'm
+sorry. Look up, Dimple, see what it is! Don't be afraid. Laugh, or if
+you can't laugh, cry. Here's my handkerchief."
+
+Dotty continued to moan.
+
+Percy caught her up in his arms. "Any pump in the house? Johnny, get
+some water somewhere, quick! and then run for the camphor bottle."
+
+Percy was at his wit's end. He ran round and round, with the little girl
+in his arms. She had life enough to cling to his neck. Johnny saw a pail
+of water, dipped a tea-strainer into it, and dashed two drops in
+Dotty's face.
+
+"That won't do, boy! Throw on a quartful! Hurry!"
+
+Johnny promptly obeyed. Dotty gasped for breath, and uttered a scream.
+Percy felt encouraged.
+
+"More, Johnny; the whole pailful. We'll have her out of this
+double-quick--"
+
+Just as Percy had extended his little cousin on the floor, and Johnny
+had poured enough water over her to soak every thread of her clothing,
+there was a sound of foot-steps. Mr. and Mrs. Parlin were coming in at
+the back door.
+
+"What does this mean?" they both exclaimed, very much alarmed, as might
+have been expected. There lay their little daughter, screaming and
+gurgling, her mouth full of water, her dress stained with the raspberry
+jam, which was easily mistaken for blood.
+
+"Why, uncle Edward," stammered Percy, "'twas a--"
+
+"Why, auntie," cried Johnny, "'twas only a pumpkin. She went and was
+afraid of a pumpkin!"
+
+The cause of this direful affright, the lighted jack-o'-lantern, was
+lying face upward on the floor, the candle within it smoking and
+dripping with tallow. One glance explained the whole mystery.
+
+But by this time there seemed to be no further cause for anxiety with
+regard to Dotty. She gathered herself together, sat upright, and began
+to scold.
+
+"'Twas blazing a-fire, mamma. He lighted it to plague me--Johnny did."
+
+"I'm ever so sorry, auntie," said Percy, and his regretful face said as
+much as his words.
+
+"Johnny scared me to death," broke in Dotty; "and then he pumped water
+on me all over--Johnny did."
+
+"I'll never do so again," said Percy, shamed by the look of reproach in
+his uncle's face.
+
+"See that you remember your promise, my boy. You have run a great risk
+to-night."
+
+No one supposed, at the time, that Dotty had received a serious injury;
+but she did not sleep off the effects of her fright. She was remarkably
+pale next morning, and declined her breakfast. She had not been well for
+some time, but she had not trembled as now at the opening and shutting
+of a door. It was plain that her nerves had been quite unstrung.
+
+Days passed, and still she did not seem quite like herself. Her father
+told the family physician she was not well, and asked what it was best
+to do with her. The doctor said he thought she only needed time enough,
+and she would recover her "tone."
+
+"I have an idea," said Mr. Parlin to his wife some days after this. "If
+you approve, I believe I'll take the child West with me, next time I go
+there on business. I took Prudy once, and it is no more than fair that
+the other children should have their turn."
+
+"We will see," said Mrs. Parlin; and so it was left. The subject was
+never mentioned before Dotty; but here is what Prudy said of it in her
+journal:--
+
+    "_Sept. 5th._--I think my little sister Dotty will go out West to
+    see aunt Maria, &c.; but anybody mus'n't ever tell her of it. She is
+    very pale, they poured so much water over her that night, and she
+    thought it was a yellow ghost.
+
+    "I _told_ her it was very, very wrong to sit in Angeline's lap and
+    hear her talk so. We mus'n't believe anything for certain except
+    Bible stories.
+
+    "She has had temper, and shook Ada Farley. But that was before she
+    was frightened by the ghost, so she couldn't get her breath; and she
+    won't do it again. Finis."
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Advertisement for Oliver Optic's Magazine]
+
+            OLIVER OPTIC'S MAGAZINE,
+
+
+              OUR BOYS AND GIRLS
+
+
+The only Original American Juvenile Magazine published once a Week.
+
+
+             EDITED BY OLIVER OPTIC,
+
+Who writes for no other juvenile publication--who contributes each year
+
+              FOUR SERIAL STORIES!
+
+
+The cost of which in book form would be $5.00--_double the subscription
+price of the Magazine_!
+
+Each number (published every Saturday) handsomely illustrated.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Among the regular contributors, besides OLIVER OPTIC, are
+
+  =SOPHIE MAY=, author of "Little Prudy and Dotty Dimple Stories."
+  =ROSA ABBOTT=, author of "Jack of all Trades," &c.
+  =MAY MANNERING=, author of "The Helping-Hand Series," &c.
+  =WIRT SIKES=, author of "On the Prairies," &c.
+  =OLIVE LOGAN=, author of "Near Views of Royalty," &c.
+  =REV. ELIJAH KELLOGG=, author of "Good Old Times," &c.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Each number contains 16 pages of Original Stories, Poetry, Articles of
+History, Biography, Natural History, Dialogues, Recitations, Facts and
+Figures, Puzzles, Rebuses, &c.
+
+OLIVER OPTIC'S MAGAZINE contains more reading matter than any other
+juvenile publication, and is the _Cheapest and the Best_ Periodical of
+the kind in the United States.
+
+TERMS, IN ADVANCE.--Single Subscriptions, One Year, $2.50; One Volume,
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+
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+arrangements will be made with those who apply to the Publishers.
+
+A handsome cloth cover, with a beautiful gilt design, will be furnished
+for binding the numbers for the year for 50 cts. All the numbers for
+1867 will be supplied for $2.25. Bound vols., $3.50.
+
+Any boy or girl who will write to the Publishers, shall receive a
+specimen copy by mail free.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+      _LEE & SHEPARD, Publishers, Boston._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Advertisement for Oliver Optic's Magazine]
+
+            OLIVER OPTIC'S MAGAZINE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                  THE ORATOR.
+
+In this department, of particular interest to schools, Exercises in
+Declamation are selected, and marked for delivery, illustrated by
+engraved figures. This is an original feature, not to be found in any
+other Magazine, giving the subscriber
+
+  26 ILLUSTRATED EXERCISES IN ELOCUTION EACH YEAR!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                  DIALOGUES.
+
+This usually neglected feature of Magazines receives particular
+attention in "OUR BOYS AND GIRLS." The best writers of Dialogues have
+been secured, and Oliver Optic's Magazine will give
+
+        26 ORIGINAL DIALOGUES EACH YEAR!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+               A YEAR'S VOLUME.
+
+The volume for the year 1867 contained three Serial Stories by OLIVER
+OPTIC, 35 Poems, 39 Speeches for Declamation, 26 Original Dialogues, 68
+Stories by other authors, 1212 Puzzles, 158 Illustrated Rebuses, &c.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Advertisement for Oliver Optic's Magazine with a rebus]
+
+            OLIVER OPTIC'S MAGAZINE.
+
+
+                  HEAD-WORK.
+
+                  CONTAINING
+
+  GEOGRAPHICAL REBUSES, PUZZLES, SYNCOPATIONS, GEOGRAPH'L
+      QUESTIONS, PROVERBIAL ANAGRAMS, ENIGMAS,
+        CHARADES AND NUMERICAL PUZZLES,
+
+
+Contributed by the subscribers and rendered unusually attractive by
+original features
+
+    NOT TO BE FOUND IN ANY OTHER MAGAZINE.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Advertisement for Oliver Optic's Books]
+
+            OLIVER OPTIC'S BOOKS.
+
+Each series in a neat box. Sold in sets or separately.
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+
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+  _BREAKING AWAY._
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+
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+
+Three vols., illust., in neat box. Per vol., $1.50. Comprising:
+
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+  _FIGHTING JOE._
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+
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+
+Three vols., illust., in neat box. Per vol., $1.50. Comprising:
+
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+
+
+=Woodville Stories.=
+
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+
+Each volume handsomely illustrated, and complete in itself, or
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+
+  _RICH AND HUMBLE._
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+  _WORK AND WIN._
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+
+
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+
+Library for Young People. Handsomely illustrated. Six vols.,
+in neat box. Per vol., $1.25. Comprising:
+
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+  _ALL ABOARD._
+  _TRY AGAIN._
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+
+
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+
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+  _CARELESS KATE._
+  _ROBINSON CRUSOE, JR._
+
+
+=Flora Lee Story Books.=
+
+Companions to the above. Profusely illust'd from new designs
+by Billings. In neat box. Cloth. Per vol., 45 cts. Comprising:
+
+  _CHRISTMAS GIFT._
+  _UNCLE BEN._
+  _BIRTHDAY PARTY._
+  _THE PICNIC PARTY._
+  _THE GOLD THIMBLE._
+  _THE DO-SOMETHINGS._
+
+
+=The Way of the World.=
+
+By WILLIAM T. ADAMS (Oliver Optic). 12mo. $2.00.
+
+
+Sold by all Booksellers and Newsdealers, or sent by mail post-paid
+on receipt of price.
+
+        LEE AND SHEPARD, Publishers,
+            149 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+
+Inconsistent hyphenation of words in original text has been retained
+(afire, a-fire).
+
+Inconsistent or unusual spelling of contractions in the original text
+has been retained (sha'n't and shan't, mus'n't and musn't, are'n't).
+
+Page 9, missing close quote inserted. (mamma? _Is_ I?")
+
+Page 35, misplaced apostrophe fixed. ('twill)
+
+Page 42, "woful" changed to "woeful". (that woeful Fourth of July)
+
+Page 46, word after comma starts with uppercase. Original text retained.
+(she added, faintly, "If 'twasn't)
+
+Page 56, missing close quote inserted. (cross old party, miss.")
+
+Page 73, unusual spelling of "Monuement" retained. (make a Bunger Hill
+Monuement)
+
+Page 144, word after comma starts with uppercase. Original text
+retained. (The trying question was, What would the child)
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dotty Dimple At Home, by Sophie May
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOTTY DIMPLE AT HOME ***
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