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diff --git a/25396-h/25396-h.htm b/25396-h/25396-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ccc47f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/25396-h/25396-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3767 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Dotty Dimple at Home, by Sophie May. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + + + p.title { text-align:center; text-indent:0; + font-weight:bold; + line-height:1.5; margin-bottom:1em; + } + + p.titleleft { text-align: left; text-indent:0; + font-weight:bold; + line-height:1.5; + margin-top: 1.5em; + margin-bottom:1em; + } + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { text-align:center; + line-height:1.5; + clear: both; + } + + small { font-size:80%; } + big { font-size:140%; } + em { font-style:italic; } + strong { font-weight:normal; } + + .tnote {border: dashed 1px; margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; + } + + hr { width: 65%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + hr.hr2 {width: 50%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + hr.hr3 {width: 35%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + hr.hr4 {width: 20%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + + table { width:60%; padding: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + table.left { padding: 1em; margin-left: 0em; margin-right: auto;} + + .tocch { text-align: right; vertical-align: top;} + .tocpg {text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;} + .book {text-align: left; vertical-align: top; font-style: italic;} + + .f1 { font-size:smaller; } + + .img1 { border-style:solid; border-width:1px; border-color:#000000; } + + .sig { margin-left:25%; } + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot {margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .right {text-align: right;} + .left {text-align: left;} + .larger {font-size: larger;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .caption { text-align: center; + font-weight: bold; + font-size: smaller; + } + + .figcenter { margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; text-align: center;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +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: ISO-8859-1 + +*** 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.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img class="img1" src="images/dd01.jpg" alt="Johnny's Revenge. Page 163" width="400" height="583" /><br /> +<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">Johnny's Revenge.</span>—Page <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img class="img1" src="images/dd02.png" alt="Title Page" width="400" height="626" /> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p class="title"><i>DOTTY DIMPLE STORIES.</i></p> + +<hr class="hr3" /> + +<h1>DOTTY DIMPLE AT HOME.</h1> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="title"> +<big><span class="smcap">By</span> SOPHIE MAY,</big><br/> +<small>AUTHOR OF "LITTLE PRUDY STORIES."</small></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="title"> +Illustrated.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<div class="center">BOSTON:<br /> +LEE AND SHEPARD.<br /> +1870.</div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="center">Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by<br /> +BY LEE AND SHEPARD,<br /> +In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. +<br /> +<br /> +ELECTROTYPED AT THE<br /> +BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY,<br /> +NO. 19 SPRING LANE.<br /></div> + +<hr /> + +<p class="title"><i>TO</i><br /> +<br /> +<big><i>FLORENCE BICKNELL.</i></big> +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="title">DOTTY DIMPLE STORIES.</p> + +<p class="center">To be completed in six vols. Handsomely Illustrated.<br /> +Each vol., 75 cts.</p> + +<p class="sig"> +1. <i>DOTTY DIMPLE AT HER GRANDMOTHER'S.</i><br /> + +2. <i>DOTTY DIMPLE AT HOME.</i><br /> + +3. <i>DOTTY DIMPLE OUT WEST.</i><br /> + +4. <i>DOTTY DIMPLE AT PLAY.</i><br /> + +5. <i>DOTTY DIMPLE AT SCHOOL.</i><br /> + +6. <i>DOTTY DIMPLE'S FLYAWAY.</i></p> + +<hr class="hr3" /> + +<p class="title"><small>BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.</small></p> + +<p class="title">LITTLE PRUDY STORIES.</p> + +<p class="center">Now complete. Six vols. 24mo. Handsomely Illustrated.<br /> +In a neat box. Per vol., 75 cts. Comprising</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<i>LITTLE PRUDY.</i><br /> + +<i>LITTLE PRUDY'S SISTER SUSIE.</i><br /> + +<i>LITTLE PRUDY'S CAPTAIN HORACE.</i><br /> + +<i>LITTLE PRUDY'S COUSIN GRACE.</i><br /> + +<i>LITTLE PRUDY'S STORY BOOK.</i><br /> + +<i>LITTLE PRUDY'S DOTTY DIMPLE.</i><br /></p> + +<hr /> + +<p><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + + +<table summary="Contents"> +<tr><td class="tocch f1">CHAPTER</td><td></td><td></td><td class="tocpg f1">PAGE</td></tr> +<tr> + <td class="tocch">I.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">The Lion and the Lamb</a></span><a href="#CHAPTER_I">.</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">7</td></tr> +<tr> + <td class="tocch">II.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">A Sad Story</a></span><a href="#CHAPTER_II">.</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">25</td></tr> +<tr> + <td class="tocch"> III.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">Fire</a></span><a href="#CHAPTER_III">.</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">40</td></tr> +<tr> + <td class="tocch">IV.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">Playing Hindoo</a></span><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">.</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">54</td></tr> +<tr> + <td class="tocch">V.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">Running Wild</a></span><a href="#CHAPTER_V">.</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">68</td></tr> +<tr> + <td class="tocch">VI.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">How It Ended</a></span><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">.</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">82</td></tr> +<tr> + <td class="tocch"> VII.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><span class="smcap">Telling of It</span>.</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">98</td></tr> +<tr> + <td class="tocch">VIII.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><span class="smcap">Mamma and "Little Me</span>."</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">112</td></tr> +<tr> + <td class="tocch">IX.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">The New Home</a></span><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">.</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">125</td></tr> +<tr> + <td class="tocch">X.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">A Surprise</a></span><a href="#CHAPTER_X">.</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">140</td></tr> +<tr> + <td class="tocch">XI.</td> + <td> </td> + <td><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">Johnny's Revenge</a></span><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">.</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">155</td></tr> +</table> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p> +<h1>DOTTY DIMPLE AT HOME.</h1> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.<br/> +<small>THE LION AND THE LAMB.</small></h2> + +<p>Dotty Dimple, after a night of pleasant sleep, greeted herself in the +morning with a groan. It was as if she had said,—</p> + +<p>"O, dear! <em>you</em> here again, Dotty? Why didn't you sleep longer?"</p> + +<p>Prudy noticed the cloud on her sister's face in a moment; she saw she +had "waked up wrong."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,—<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Say, mamma, is I your little comfort?"</p> + +<p>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,—</p> + +<p>"Yes, Dotty, you are mamma's dear little girl; but mamma doesn't like +your naughty, naughty ways."</p> + +<p>This failed to satisfy Miss Dimple. She would cry out again, in +heart-broken tones,—</p> + +<p>"Is I your little comfort, mamma? <em>Is</em> I?"</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Prudy, though her heart swelled with pity, dared not say,—</p> + +<p>"Don't scream so, little sister! Please don't pound so with your feet!"</p> + +<p>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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>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,—</p> + +<p>"It's worse for her than it is for us. It makes her throat <em>so</em> sore to +scream so."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> and as for +pulling hair, she was ashamed of the practice.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"There, now, how long have you been awake, Prudy? Why didn't you speak?"</p> + +<p>"O, it isn't anywhere near breakfast time, Dotty; Norah hasn't ground +the coffee yet."</p> + +<p>"Then I should think she might! She knows I'm hungry, and that makes her +be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>"I don't know," replied Prudy, pleasantly. "I believe I'd rather have it +a Bartlett pear—dead ripe."</p> + +<p>"H'm! You may have your old <em>Bartnot</em> 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!"</p> + +<p>Prudy was considerate enough to make no reply. By living with Dotty, she +had learned many lessons in "holding her peace."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps we'd better get up," suggested she, rubbing her eyes.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span></p> + +<p>Whereupon Dotty pursed her little red lips.</p> + +<p>"Let's play keep house," answered she, for the sake of being +cross-grained.</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't care much," said Prudy, anxious to keep the peace.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"Acorns!" responded Dotty, in a tragic tone. "O, Mr. Carter, I <em>sejest</em> +the best thing we can do is to stand him up in the sink, and pump water +on him!"</p> + +<p>"I never thought of that, my dear wife!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> You are prob'bly +correct!—prob'bly correct.—But what course <em>shall</em> we pursue with Mary +Ann, and Julia Ann, and Anna Maria? They all bite their finger +nails—bite 'em down to the double-quick."</p> + +<p>"I would sejest, sejest—why don't you give those children some +<em>proxitude</em> 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!"</p> + +<p>"Very correct," replied the obedient husband, "very correct, Mrs. +Carter. I'll call Jerusha to toast some cheese. Je-ru-<em>shay!</em>"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by Jerusha, Mr. Carter? We haven't any in the house."</p> + +<p>"O, she is our chambermaid, my dear."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But I won't '<em>low</em> her to be Jerusher, Mr. Carter!"</p> + +<p>"But, my dear wife, Jerusha is a proper name; it belongs to her."</p> + +<p>"No, it isn't a proper name either; it's a very <em>improper</em> name, Prudy +Parlin; and if you call her Jerusher so, I'll get us both <em>dis-vosed!</em>"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"To be naughty?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's what I said—naughty! I'm tired all out o' bein' good! +First<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> thing I thought was, I'd be bad all day. I want to fret, and I'm +going to fret!"</p> + +<p>"O, Do-otty! Dotty Di-imple!"</p> + +<p>"You needn't say anything, Prudy Parlin. You can talk as grand as a +whale. But if I want to go and be naughty, <em>you</em> can't help yourself!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It was a delightful room. The wallpaper was the color of rich cream; +the pictures were beautiful; the table, with its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>Grandma looked at the little girl with surprise and disapproval. Dotty +blushed painfully. She had not meant to be irreverent. Next moment she +thought,—</p> + +<p>"Now they all s'pose I did that <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span><em>to purpose!</em> 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?"</p> + +<p>It certainly was not safe to try the experiment. Dotty contented herself +by scowling at her dry toast.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> + +<p>"She likes Prudy best. I always knew she did, and everybody else," +thought Dotty, wrathfully,—"everybody else but me!"</p> + +<p>And the temper which had been smouldering all the morning blazed up +hotly.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>At this foolish speech Norah's mouth assumed a mocking smile, which +added live coals to Dotty's wrath.</p> + +<p>"You mizzable Cath'lic girl! You—you—you—"</p> + +<p>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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>"Indeed, ma'am," said Norah, really alarmed, "I've no means of knowing +what's put her in such a way, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"She called me everything!" cried Dotty, getting her voice again. "I was +Miss Flippet! I was all the wicked girls in this town!"</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Parlin soon succeeded in quieting the turbulent Dotty; and deep +silence fell upon the wash-room.</p> + +<p>"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 <em>think</em>. When the bell rings you may come to dinner; +and after dinner I would like to see you in the nursery."</p> + +<p>In half an hour Dotty had such a look<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.<br/> +<small>A SAD STORY.</small></h2> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"My dear little girl, I am going to tell you a story."</p> + +<p>"Yes, 'm."</p> + +<p>Dotty looked steadily at her finger-nails.</p> + +<p>"A true story about a child who let her temper run away with her."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, 'm," replied Dotty again, giving her mother a view of her rosy +right ear.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Parlin saw that Dotty was very much ashamed. Her face did not look +as it had looked in the early morning. Then</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"There was a hardness in her eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There was a hardness in her cheek:"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Dotty tied the two corners of her apron<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> into a hard knot. The story was +rather too personal.</p> + +<p>"Was the little girl pretty?" said she, trying to change the subject.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Dotty looked at her little plump hands, as if she expected to see black +spots on them.</p> + +<p>"Sometimes Harriet beat her head against the wall so violently that +there seemed to be danger of her dashing her brains out."</p> + +<p>Dotty looked up quite bravely. This dreadful little girl was worse than +<em>she</em> had ever been! O, yes!</p> + +<p>"Wasn't she crazy, mamma?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mrs. Parlin shook her head.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Dotty hung her head again. She remembered how blind and dizzy she +herself had felt while screaming at Norah that morning.</p> + +<p>"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. <em>You</em> know what it is like, Dotty?"</p> + +<p>Dotty's chin drooped, and rested in the hollow of her neck.</p> + +<p>"I don't want to tell you, mamma."</p> + +<p>"Like <em>murder</em>, my child."</p> + +<p>Dotty shuddered, though she had known this before. Her mother had often +read to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> her from the Bible, that "whosoever hateth his brother is a +murderer."</p> + +<p>"Well, there was no one to love this poor Harriet; she was not lovable."</p> + +<p>"No, 'm, she was <em>hateable!</em>" 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.</p> + +<p>"There was no one to love her; so a woman took her, and was paid for it +by the town."</p> + +<p>"Town? Town, mamma? A <em>town</em> is <em>houses</em>."</p> + +<p>"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."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span></p> + +<p>"O, yes; I s'pose she struck her with a stick," said Dotty, patting her +forefingers together—"just this way."</p> + +<p>"Harriet had the care of one of Mrs. Gray's children, a lively little +boy about two years old."</p> + +<p>"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'?"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed!" cried Dotty, eagerly, and feeling that she was on safe +ground, for she loved babies dearly, and was always patient with them.</p> + +<p>"I don't know but Harriet was envious of Mrs. Gray's little boy, because +he had nicer things to eat than she had."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, it ought to have nicer things, mamma, 'cause it hadn't any +teeth."</p> + +<p>"And she got tired of running after him."</p> + +<p>"No matter if she did get tired, mamma; the baby was tireder than she +was!"</p> + +<p>"And the parents think now it is very likely she was in the habit of +striking him when nobody knew it."</p> + +<p>"What a naughty, wicked, awful girl!" cried Dotty, her eyes flashing.</p> + +<p>"She had a fiery temper, my child, and had never learned to control it."</p> + +<p>Dotty looked at her feet in silence.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> baked apples and milk if he was hungry."</p> + +<p>"With bread in?" suggested Dotty.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I s'pose he cried 'cause he 'xpected that awful girl was a-going to +shake him," said Dotty, indignantly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"O, mamma! mamma Parlin!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, my child; and it is supposed that Harriet must have hurt him in +one of her fits of rage."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p> + +<p>Dotty's face had grown very white.</p> + +<p>"O, mamma, what did the folks do with Harriet?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I know what 'guilty' means, mamma; it means <em>hung</em>."</p> + +<p>"No, dear; if she hurt the baby she was guilty, whether she was punished +for it or not."</p> + +<p>"Well, she did it, I just know she did it!" exclaimed Dotty, greatly +excited. "That little tinty boy!"</p> + +<p>"The judge pitied her for her youth and ignorance; so did the twelve men +called the 'jury;' and she was allowed to go free."</p> + +<p>"Then did she 'buse somebody's else's baby, mamma?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I hope not. The last I heard of her she was married to a negro +fiddler."</p> + +<p>"O!"</p> + +<p>"Do you know why I have told you this sad story, my little daughter?"</p> + +<p>"'Cause, 'cause—Harriet beat her head against the door, and hurt a +baby, and—and—married black folks!"</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"O, Prudy!" said she, when they two were alone in the parlor, looking +over a book of engravings, "I'm going to tell you some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>thing; 'twill +make you scream right out loud, and your hair stick up!"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img class="img1" src="images/dd03.jpg" alt="I'm going to tell you something." width="400" height="548" /><br /> +<p class="caption"> <span class="smcap">I'm going to tell you something</span>.—Page 34.</p> +</div> + +<p>"Don't," laughed Prudy, "I've just brushed my hair."</p> + +<p>"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 <em>spine</em> 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!"</p> + +<p>"Why, that can't be true, Dotty Parlin!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, <em>indeed!</em> Certain true, black and blue. Guess my mother knows!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What!" said Prudy, "just for baked apples and milk?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Her name was Harriet."</p> + +<p>"What did you say she did it with, Dotty?"</p> + +<p>"Mamma said a <em>spine</em>. 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!"</p> + +<p>"Well, there, how queer!" said Prudy, drawing a long breath. "If I was +Harriet I'd rather have been hung. Was he all black?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, solid black. But I s'pose she didn't want to choke to death any +more'n you do."</p> + +<p>"Dotty," said Prudy, with a meaning in her tone, "what do you suppose +made mamma tell you that story?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I don't know."</p> + +<p>Dotty looked deeply dejected.</p> + +<p>"Little sister," continued Prudy, taking advantage of the child's +softened mood, "don't you wish you didn't let yourself be so angry?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do, so there!" was the quick and earnest reply.</p> + +<p>Prudy was astonished. It was the first time this proud sister had ever +acknowledged herself wrong.</p> + +<p>"Then, Dotty, what if you try to be good, and see how 'twill seem?"</p> + +<p>"Won't you tell anybody, Prudy?"</p> + +<p>"No, never."</p> + +<p>"Well, I <em>will</em> be good! I can swallow it down if I want to."</p> + +<p>Observe what faith the child had in herself!</p> + +<p>Prudy clapped her hands.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"<i>July 2d.</i> My sister Dotty thinks, certain, positive, she <em>will</em> be a +good girl; and this is the day she begins. But I shall not tell anybody, +for I promised, 'No, never.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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 <em>a +two-leg-ged</em> sword. So I don't think she will ever get angry again. +Finis."</p></div> + +<p>Prudy always added the word "Finis" at the close of her remarks each day, considering it a very good ending.</p> + +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.<br /> +<small>FIRE.</small></h2> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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,—</p> + +<p>"O, Prudy, this world is nothing but one big bubble!"</p> + +<p>And Prudy replied, sadly,—</p> + +<p>"Seems more like shavings!"</p> + +<p>You all know how an innocent-looking fire-cracker set Portland ablaze, +but you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> can have little idea of the terror which that woeful Fourth of +July night brought to our three little girls.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> down stairs, and out +of the house, under their grandmother's protection.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>"The fire is lapping and licking," says Prudy, "like a cat eating +cream."</p> + +<p>"I hope it has a good time eating our house up!" cried Dotty, in wrath.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p> + +<p>"O, children, you are young and can't realize it; but this is awful!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <em>too</em> dreadful. She has observed that her mother is calm; +and whatever mamma says and does always approves itself to this second +daughter.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I guess I shan't cry <em>much</em> while I have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> my blessed mother to hold on +to," said Prudy, pressing her cheek against Mrs. Parlin's belt-slide.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't care a single thing about the fire," sobbed Susy, "if it +hadn't burnt <em>our</em> house up, you know. You see it was where we <em>lived</em>. +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 <em>seems</em> as if I should die!"</p> + +<p>"And me, too," sighed Dotty. "I just about know that man threw my +tea-set<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> into the Back Cove; and now we haven't any home!"</p> + +<p>"It is home where the heart is, children," said Mrs. Parlin, tenderly; +but something choked her voice as she spoke.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> confusion of +this noisy dwelling must have tried her severely.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Parlin knew this, and did not like to have Dotty thrown very much +in his society, but just now it certainly could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>She amused herself by writing in her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> little red journal, which had come +out of the fire unharmed. Here is her account of the tragedy:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"<i>July 7th.</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"There was going to be a procession, but I believe it didn't <em>process</em>. +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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"It was real too bad <em>grandma's</em> 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.'</p> + +<p>"Dotty hasn't had any temper for five days. Finis."</p></div> + +<p>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 pri<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>vate fears that her youngest daughter +might fall into mischief.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br /> +<small>PLAYING HINDOO.</small></h2> + +<p>"Johnny, Johnny, come to the window, quick!" said Dotty; "see this +bird!"</p> + +<p>"I've seen birds before," replied her little cousin, coolly, and walking +as slowly as possible.</p> + +<p>"But this one peeps as if he was hurt; see how he pecks to get in."</p> + +<p>"Don't you take him in!" exclaimed Angeline, the kitchen girl; "it's a +bad sign to have birds come fluttering round a window."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by a <em>sign?</em>" asked Dotty, who had never heard of any +silly superstitions in her life.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Let him alone," cried Johnny, "or you'll die before the week's out, +sure's you live!"</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>She put him in a basket stuffed with rags, and hung over him tenderly +for half an hour.</p> + +<p>"You're bringing down trouble, I'm afraid, child," said Angeline, +gravely, as she walked back and forth, doing her work.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p> + +<p>Just as Angeline was in the midst of a ghost story, Johnny rushed in +again.</p> + +<p>"Come," said he, shaking Dotty by the shoulders, "let's go play poison."</p> + +<p>"O, no, Johnny. I'm hearing the nicest, awfullest story! And then it +rains so, too!"</p> + +<p>"Doesn't, either. Only sprinkles. And when it sprinkles, it's a <em>sure</em> +sign it isn't going to rain."</p> + +<p>"Who told you so?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I don't want to play a single thing; so there, now, Johnny Eastman!"</p> + +<p>"Then you're a cross old party, miss."</p> + +<p>"I'm not a party at all. I'm only one girl."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p> + +<p>"O, Dotty!" called Prudy from the cellar-way; "take care! take care!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Let's play something in the house," said she, quickly.</p> + +<p>"All right," returned Johnny; "only not sit down."</p> + +<p>"Yes, let's <em>do</em> sit down," interposed Dotty, with a view to thwarting +Johnny.</p> + +<p>"Suppose we play Hindoo," suggested Prudy, "if we can get Susy and +Flossy into it."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Play what?"</p> + +<p>"Why, play we are Hindoos, and live away off in the Indian Ocean."</p> + +<p>"Fishes or sharks?" asked Johnny, growing interested.</p> + +<p>"O, <em>people</em>; and they act so queer. Mother played it with us once, when +Susy had the toothache."</p> + +<p>The older girls were hard to be persuaded. They did not like to leave +their shell-work; but they came at last.</p> + +<p>"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.'"</p> + +<p>"'Young Beauty' 's the prettiest," said Dotty; "if I can't play that, +I'd rather stay with my birdie, and not play."</p> + +<p>"Why," cried Susy, "how foo—;" but catching Prudy's eye, she added, +"you may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>"Make believe you are boys, then," observed Johnny, whose interest in +the game had flagged since he knew that Hindoos were not sharks.</p> + +<p>"We'll play it's six o'clock in the morning," continued Susy.</p> + +<p>"That isn't school time," remonstrated Dotty.</p> + +<p>"O, yes, it is, in India. I'm the teacher. Give me a stick, please."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>Susy tied a string about her waist for a girdle, stuck the whip into it, +and be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>gan to march the floor with great dignity.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The three pupils came forward, touched their foreheads to the floor, and +repeated the sentence as directed, Johnny rendering it,—</p> + +<p>"O, respectful Susy Parlin, don't you whip me!"—at the same time +turning a somerset.</p> + +<p>"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—"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p> + +<p>"We didn't know you chewed," said Florence, laughing.</p> + +<p>"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)."</p> + +<p>The children seated themselves.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>Angeline was the soul of good nature, and left her baking to hunt in the +meal-room for the fans.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p> + +<p>"A pretty kind of school!" growled Johnny. "Don't they do anything out +there in Hindoo but just fan themselves?"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Poh, plenty of 'em in Kennebec County!" said Johnny, confidently.</p> + +<p>"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 <em>conscionable</em> +late! And that Drop of Honey hasn't come to school yet! Joggo, you and +Young Beauty go and bring her!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Why, what an idea!" said Prudy, with her mouth full; "I didn't know +that was the way to play it."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Susy, "truants must come to school. If they don't come they +must be arrested."</p> + +<p>"Why, I've <em>been a-resting</em> all the time," said Prudy, laughing.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Now, I should judge," said the heartless<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> teacher, looking sternly at +the crimson-faced victim, "I should judge that this wicked creature +ought to have a terrific whipping!"</p> + +<p>"That's so!" shouted Johnny; "we found Honey Drop top of a house, firing +mud into a man's eyes."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't think it's much of a play, any way," said Johnny.</p> + +<p>"Who said it was?" retorted Florence.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> "Susy and I didn't want to come +down; we did it just to please you."</p> + +<p>"Please <em>me!</em>" sniffed Johnny. "<em>I</em> wanted to play poison, out in the +yard!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well, I declare for it," said Angeline, "those people off there do need +missionaries more than ever I thought they did."</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> high trees, just ready to dart down and +whisk them off."</p> + +<p>"Angeline tells just such stories her <em>own</em> self," said Dotty.</p> + +<p>"Then she's a heathen," said Florence, who usually spoke the first +thought that came into her head.</p> + +<p>"If that's the case," retorted Angeline, with dignity, "you'd better all +walk out of this kitchen before you are entirely ruined."</p> + +<p>As Angeline was evidently in earnest, the children slowly took their way +into the dining-room.</p> + +<p>"Are there real live ghosts, though, Susy?" asked Dotty, anxiously; "and +if a bird comes to the window will you die?"</p> + +<p>"Why, no, indeed, child! Mother told me once, when I was right little, +that I mustn't let people tell me such foolish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> stories. If Angeline +talks so to you, you must stop your ears. Now, remember!"</p> + +<p>Dotty remembered; but she was not quite convinced. Those awful stories +might be true, after all; perhaps Susy didn't know.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.<br /> +<small>RUNNING WILD.</small></h2> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Don't believe 'cousin Dimple' knows a hat-tree wasn't made for little +girls to sit on," said Percy.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Percy, having nothing better to do, took<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> 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,—</p> + +<p>"I know of one person that will be glad when Mrs. Parlin gets back."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"How's that bird?" said Percy, as he and Dotty raced through the +kitchen. "Can he stand on both legs yet?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed! He could stand on <em>three</em> 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,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> 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!"</p> + +<p>"Then you must hear the first time. Come, let's go out and have some +fun; mother's gone to Cumberland."</p> + +<p>As if Johnny did not have fun all day, and every day, whether his mother +was at home or abroad!</p> + +<p>"Prudy," said Dotty, "good by, for Johnny 'n' I are going down to the +beach to get some shells."</p> + +<p>Prudy looked up from her writing.</p> + +<p>"Don't go near the water," said she; then throwing her arms about her +little sister, she sang,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"If you love me as I love you,<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span><span class="i0">No knife shall cut our love in two."</span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Well, I do," replied Dotty, with an affectionate hug, "and I sha'n't go +near the water."</p> + +<p>"You won't forget?" said Prudy, anxiously. "You know mamma's as afraid +of the water as she can be."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"I'm looking for my hat," said the little girl, shutting the sink door. +"Last time I saw it 'twas in a barrel somewhere."</p> + +<p>But it happened to be in a hogshead.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> 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!"</p> + +<p>"What you thinking about?" said Johnny.</p> + +<p>"O, 'bout a good many things! Let's run; it tires me to pieces to walk!"</p> + +<p>"Look!" cried Johnny, "there's Mandoline!"</p> + +<p>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</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Upon her lip the honey bee<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Might build her waxen throne."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Come with us, Lina," said Johnny.</p> + +<p>"Where are you going?"</p> + +<p>"Going to make a Bunger Hill Monuement," replied +Dotty. "We know where the shells grow real thick."</p> + +<p>"But I've lost my shaker. A dog's got it."</p> + +<p>"O, no matter, <em>you</em> don't care," said Dotty, in a grandmotherly tone, +"for <em>I</em> won't let anybody laugh at you."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The children reached the sea-shore, which <em>was</em> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> Johnny looked at the bay, and observed a boy +coming towards them, rowing a boat.</p> + +<p>"Hilloa, there!" shouted the boy.</p> + +<p>"Hilloa!" responded Johnny. "If that isn't Sol Rosenberg!" (This was +Mandoline's brother.) "Where you going, Sol?"</p> + +<p>"Nowhere particular. Get in and go too?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Johnny, "Fred Jackson and I. Fred can steer as straight's a +needle. I'll paddle, you know."</p> + +<p>"Girls too," added Solomon, gallantly.</p> + +<p>With one accord the children walked eagerly towards the boat, which, by +this time, Solomon had moored against the beach. All but Dotty.</p> + +<p>"Are you old enough, Solly Rosenberg, old enough and know enough not to +drown us all to pieces?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p> + +<p>Young Solomon laughed.</p> + +<p>"If I can't manage a small concern like this!"</p> + +<p>"But four, and one more, make <em>five</em>, Solly!"</p> + +<p>"You don't say so! Well, I could carry sixteen, if they were all such +little snips as you are!"</p> + +<p>"Dot Parlin thinks she weighs as much as two tons," said Johnny, in an +irritating tone.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Dotty shoved her feet into the sand and reflected.</p> + +<p>"My mamma is afraid of the water; but then she was upset in a scursion, +and that's why she's afraid."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What kind of thing is a <em>scursion?</em>" asked Johnny.</p> + +<p>"A Sabbath school picnic. And she wasn't upset either, only she 'xpected +to be."</p> + +<p>"Come on!" called Solly. "All aboard!"</p> + +<p>"But my mamma said it wasn't safe!"</p> + +<p>"No, she didn't. She never saw this boat; she doesn't know whether it's +safe or not."</p> + +<p>"Doesn't it leak a single speck, Solly Rosenberg? It looks wet."</p> + +<p>"Pshaw! That's where the waves come in; it's as tight as the bark to a +tree."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"But, O dear! my mamma doesn't 'low me to sail."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"My mamma doesn't <em>ever</em> 'low me to sail."</p> + +<p>"You <em>couldn't</em> 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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Dotty liked Solly at that moment very much. She looked at her +ill-mannered little cousin with royal disdain, and walked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> slowly and +cautiously on towards the boat. Lina followed at a little distance. +<em>Her</em> 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.</p> + +<p>"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."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Isn't this prime?" said Johnny, as they launched out upon the water.</p> + +<p>The motion was certainly pleasant, and for a few moments Dotty was quite +delighted, thinking over and over again,—</p> + +<p>"Mamma won't care; it's nothing but a wherry, and the wind doesn't +blow."</p> + +<p>Then she suddenly remembered her promise to Prudy, not to go "anywhere +near the water."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br /> +<small>HOW IT ENDED.</small></h2> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Straight is the line of duty,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Curved is the line of beauty;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Follow one, and thou shalt see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The other ever following thee."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"It was naughty for <em>us</em> to come," thought she, anxious to divide the +sin with her companions; "<em>we</em> ought to have minded our mothers."</p> + +<p>If the sky had continued fair, it may be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>The little Jewess grew very pale, said she was dizzy, and wished to +change places with Dotty.</p> + +<p>"Keep still, can't you, girls?" cried Johnny; "if you fuss round so the +boat'll be sure to upset."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"O, dear!" screamed Dotty.</p> + +<p>"O, dear! dear! <em>dear!</em>" cried Lina; "the water rolls in over the top!"</p> + +<p>"Can't you steer for the shore, Solly Rosenbug?" said Dotty.</p> + +<p>"You hadn't oughter made us come," sobbed Lina.</p> + +<p>Johnny joined the mournful chorus.</p> + +<p>"There goes my hat! You were in pretty business knocking it off my head, +Dot Dimple!"</p> + +<p>"I never; and I didn't mean to," replied Dotty, too much subdued to +retort with her usual spirit.</p> + +<p>"Fish it out with the paddle," remarked Solly, coolly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Ahem!" ejaculated Solly, at last, "if you are really afraid, Lina, I +suppose we'd better go ashore!"</p> + +<p>Lina clapped her hands. "O, do! do! do!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed," said Dotty; "and, Solly, don't you bump <em>too</em> hard +against the shore, 'cause 'twould spill us out."</p> + +<p>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;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>Solly and the deaf and dumb boy looked at each other with eyes which +seemed to say,—</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"Why, Solly Rosenbug!" said Dotty, catching her breath, "you're going +just the other way!"</p> + +<p>"O, Solly Rosenberg," echoed Lina, "you're going the wrong way! There's +the shore, off there!"</p> + +<p>"Well, well," said Solly, his "stiff upper<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> lip" very white, "we're +coming round to it after a while: you just sit still."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Johnny, puffing very hard, and churning the foam with his +paddle, as if he were whipping eggs with a beater, "yes, girls, <em>we</em> +shall row round to it after a while, <em>if</em> you'll only keep still!"</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>"We wouldn't put for the shore at all," continued Johnny, "if it wasn't +for you girls."</p> + +<p>At that moment a remarkably high wave leaped over the side of the boat, +and wet Johnny to the skin.</p> + +<p>"Just enough wind to make it pleasant!" gasped the little fellow.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span></p> + +<p>"O, dear! O, dear!" sighed the girls, in despair.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"What! what!" cried Johnny, looking very much insulted. "How are you +ever going to get ashore without <strong><small>ME</small></strong>, I'd like to know?"</p> + +<p>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,—</p> + +<p>"Don't you be afraid, girls!" but his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"We're going to be drownded!" cried Lina; "and, Solly Rosenberg, you +hadn't oughter made me come!"</p> + +<p>"And you told an awful, wicked story," struck in Dotty, "for, Solly +Rosenberg, you said you's old enough to row, and you're<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> 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 +<em>try</em> to row! <em>Susy</em> could row if she was here, and had a shingle. But +Susy isn't here, and hasn't any shingle! O! O!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Suddenly poor Solly Rosenberg dropped his oar, exclaiming,—</p> + +<p>"There, it's of no use; my arms are giving out!"</p> + +<p>Freddy Jackson held out a few moments longer, then dropped his oar also, +with a look of utter hopelessness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img class="img1" src="images/dd04.jpg" alt="In the Boat." width="400" height="587" /><br /> +<p class="caption"> <span class="smcap">In the Boat</span>.—Page 93.</p> +</div> + +<p>"Why don't you keep a pullin', boys?" said Johnny, dipping in his +useless little paddle.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It was a wonderful mercy that the five rash children <em>were</em> 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.</p> + +<p><em>What</em> was coming?</p> + +<p>"I see something," shouted Dotty, "ever so far off! It isn't a gull!"</p> + +<p>"It's a sail! a sail!" cried Solly, and took to his oars again.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> sight of land again without some older +person to take care of them.</p> + +<p>"Don't you tell my father, now," said Johnny to Dotty, as they went +home, dripping like a pair of sea-bathers.</p> + +<p>"Nor don't you tell mine, nor Susy, nor Prudy, neither."</p> + +<p>"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? <em>You</em> did (say), and I got +in after you, and pulled you out by your hair."</p> + +<p>"Why, Johnny!"</p> + +<p>"Well, then, you didn't; <em>I</em> fell in, and you pulled <em>me</em> out—by the +boots; only my boots would have come off, though, they're so big!"</p> + +<p>"O, Johnny Eastman!"</p> + +<p>Dotty had stopped short in the road, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> was looking at her cousin with +an expression of mingled pity and scorn.</p> + +<p>"Then make up something better to suit yourself."</p> + +<p>"I don't make up stories, I just hope I don't," returned Dotty, +squeezing the skirt of her dress indignantly.</p> + +<p>"But," said Johnny, "they'll know it wasn't all rain-water."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"O, ho, Dot Dimple! that's as much of a story as pulling out by the +hair! <em>I</em> didn't want you to go. I tried to stop it."</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> you'd been <em>willing</em>, I +shouldn't have gone a step."</p> + +<p>By this time they had reached Mr. Eastman's gate.</p> + +<p>"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 <em>certainly</em> +tell.</p> + +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br /> +<small>TELLING OF IT.</small></h2> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"O, Prudy!" she called out, "something has happened!"</p> + +<p>But Prudy was not within hearing. Angeline had given her permission to +peel the potatoes for dinner, and she was now in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p> + +<p>"O, dear! where in this world was Prudy?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The dinner-bell rang, and still Prudy did not appear.</p> + +<p>"I believe she does it <em>to purpose</em>," thought Miss Dimple, pulling out +the bureau drawers in great haste, and scattering their contents right +and left.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>By this time Dotty had nearly forgotten that all her misery was the +result of her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> He did not pay any more attention +than usual to her absence to-day, but thought, with a feeling of +relief,—</p> + +<p>"Her mother will soon be at home, and then I shall feel very much easier +about Alice and the other children."</p> + +<p>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,—</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," replied Susy, with a swift pang of conscience; for she now +recollected that it was seldom she even knew where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> Dotty was, her mind +being wholly absorbed by play and fancy-work.</p> + +<p>At this moment Johnny appeared, fresh from a bath, and dressed in a +clean suit.</p> + +<p>"Where is Dotty?" asked Susy, rather surprised by Johnny's tidy array.</p> + +<p>"Dot? O, she's in the house somewhere. She came home when I did."</p> + +<p>Johnny spoke very carelessly. He was anxious that no one should suppose +anything unusual had occurred.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Why, Dotty Dimple, where have you been? How <em>did</em> you get so wet?"</p> + +<p>No answer.</p> + +<p>"Have you been trying to swim?" laughed Prudy, going up and stroking her +forehead.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Dotty, dear, I didn't know you were in the house; and I never +touched your clothes."</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Been down to the beach, picking shells, grandma," replied Dotty, +looking hard at the carpet.</p> + +<p>"O, where are the shells?" said Prudy.</p> + +<p>"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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Didn't come back the same way?"</p> + +<p>"No, I went wherrying."</p> + +<p>"Wherrying?" repeated Prudy.</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's what I said."</p> + +<p>"Prudence, what does thee suppose the child means?" said grandma Read, +taking off her spectacles, and fixing her kind eyes steadily upon Dotty +Dimple.</p> + +<p>"Wherrying in a wherry," answered Dotty, dryly.</p> + +<p>"Does thee mean in a boat?"</p> + +<p>"Why no, grandma. It looks like a boat, but it isn't; it's a wherry."</p> + +<p>"Who allowed thee to go on the water?"</p> + +<p>"Nobody."</p> + +<p>"Did thee think thee was doing right?"</p> + +<p>"No'm."</p> + +<p>"Who rowed the boat?"</p> + +<p>"Some boys—two—and Johnny, grandma."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Hasn't thy mother told thee not to go on the water?"</p> + +<p>"She said I mus'n't sail, and I never. I <em>wherried</em>."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I did," replied Dotty, trying to look defiant. "<em>You</em> wouldn't +have dared to, Prudy."</p> + +<p>"Thee may get in my lap, Alice, and tell me all about it," said grandma +Read, laying down her knitting-work.</p> + +<p>Dotty curled herself into a little heap in her grandmother's arms.</p> + +<p>"My head aches," said she, "and I love to lay it against your soft +<em>kerjif</em>."</p> + +<p>"Well, dear, so thee may. Now, tell me what made thee go on the water?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p> + +<p>"'Cause, 'cause, grandma, Solly Rosenbug asked me to go, and Johnny +tried to make me <em>not</em> 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."</p> + +<p>"Why, Dotty, how you make me tremble!" cried Prudy.</p> + +<p>"The way Johnny paddled!" continued<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> Dotty, triumphantly. "Solly <em>said</em> +he couldn't. I could have paddled better, only I didn't dare to."</p> + +<p>"<em>You</em> paddle!"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>Here grandma Read pressed Dotty close to her heart, as if she wished to +make sure the child was really alive.</p> + +<p>"'He gave his angels charge concerning thee,'" murmured she. "Tell me, +child, how thee ever got to the shore."</p> + +<p>"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!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Dotty shuddered, and curled her crimson face more closely against the +white kerchief.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Dotty made no objection. Indeed she was glad to find herself tucked +warmly under blankets and coverlets, for she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>She wasn't going to tell anybody how sorry she was; but she had made up +her mind to this—that she would never <em>look</em> at salt water again as +long as she lived.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br /> +<small>MAMMA AND "LITTLE ME."</small></h2> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 pas<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>sengers. 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."</p> + +<p>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:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"At night my mamma comes up stairs,—</span> +<span class="i0">She comes to hear me say my prayers;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And while I'm kneeling on her knee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She always kisses little me."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> was no one like +anybody's own mamma, after all.</p> + +<p>"'She always kisses little me,'" murmured Dotty. "'She <em>always</em> 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."</p> + +<p>Dotty counted the number of knobs on the bureau drawers, and then went +on:—</p> + +<p>"I think if I was in my mamma's place, and had <em>me</em> to take care of, I'd +throw me out of the window; I wouldn't keep such a girl!"</p> + +<p>Dotty had great satisfaction in scolding herself when she was all alone. +It was a way she had of "doing her own punishing."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> once dreamed that her mother had come, and was +bending over the bed, actually "kissing little me."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"Why, Katie Clifford, is that you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, this is me!" replied Katie, with a voice as sweet as a wind-harp. +"You didn't know <em>I</em> was comin'. You turned your face away: you wouldn't +look to me!"</p> + +<p>"I s'pose I was asleep, Katie. You didn't mean to sit down on my head, +<em>did</em> you, darling?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I did meant to. But you is sick. Folks mus'n't talk."</p> + +<p>"No," replied Dotty, smiling, "when folks are sick they mustn't talk."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well," said Katie, putting her finger on her lip, "<em>they is!</em>"</p> + +<p>"O, Katie!" cried Dotty, a new idea seizing her, "where's mother? Did +she come with you?"</p> + +<p>Katie shook her head.</p> + +<p>"My dee mamma velly sick."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know; but where's <em>my</em> mamma? Did she come with you in the +cars?"</p> + +<p>Katie shook her head again.</p> + +<p>"Who did come with you, then? You didn't come alone?"</p> + +<p>"No, there was folks."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"My darling child," said she, hugging and kissing her just as tenderly +as if she had never been "wherrying." "You'd better<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> lie down again, and +let me bathe your head."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"O, mamma," said she, "you do make me feel better. It felt a while ago +as if they were beating drums in there."</p> + +<p>"Is your neck stiff, dear?"</p> + +<p>Katie thrust her little prying fingers under Dotty's chin, tickling her, +of course.</p> + +<p>"No, auntie," said she, "'tisn't any stiff, her neck isn't."</p> + +<p>"But it's sore, mother. Not so sore, though, as it was when Jennie Vanee +and I got caught in the thunder and lightning."</p> + +<p>After she had said this, Dotty blushed, for the words recalled to her +mind another<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> act of disobedience. No wonder she had thought herself +such a naughty girl, fit only to be thrown out of the window!</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"A tolerably good child."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> times wondered before, if these bitter +experiences she was suffering would ever have the effect to make her a +better child.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> 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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Johnny, her little companion in naughtiness, escaped without so much as +a sore<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"I'll pay her for this business," said Johnny, talking to his boots.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +into the same temptation again—that was all.</p> + +<p>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,—</p> + +<p>"E, for shame, Dot Parlin! Fore I'd run and tell!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The Parlins were now making ready to go into their new hired house.</p> + +<p>They were all longing for a place they could call "home."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span></p> + +<p>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,—</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br /> +<small>THE NEW HOME.</small></h2> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"O, I'm so glad!" replied Prudy.</p> + +<p>"I'll never take another bird into the window," continued Dotty; "it's +almost as bad as a ghost."</p> + +<p>"You never saw a ghost, Dotty. Nobody ever did."</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed; Angeline has seen 'em as thick as spatter! They come when +you're asleep, and there don't anybody know it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe it," said Prudy, stoutly; "my mother told me 'twasn't +true."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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. <em>I</em> don't want to see any or hear any."</p> + +<p>"I do, though!" cried Dotty. "I shouldn't<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"And <em>me!</em> What <em>is</em> um?" said wee Katie, toddling in with her mouth +full of candy.</p> + +<p>"There, there!" cried Dotty Dimple, "you've been a-listening, Johnny +Eastman."</p> + +<p>"Don't care! 'Tisn't so bad as being a tell-tale, Miss!" said Johnny, +ending the sentence in a naughty tone.</p> + +<p>"Why, Johnny, you mus'n't say that!"</p> + +<p>"Why, Johnny," echoed Katie, "you <em>musser</em> say <em>that!</em>"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Say what?"</p> + +<p>"Say <em>Miss</em>."</p> + +<p>The children all laughed at this.</p> + +<p>"Come, little ones," said Mr. Parlin, appearing at the door, "put on +your hats; we are ready to start."</p> + +<p>Prudy clapped her hands—an action which cousin Percy did not consider +very polite.</p> + +<p>"It shows," said he, "how glad you are to leave us."</p> + +<p>"O, but we are going <em>home</em>, you know, Percy! Only think of having a +home to go to!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The new house was not in the least like the old one. Susy was always +bewailing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"But it's better than nothing," said Prudy, who, for one, was heartily +tired of visiting.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Katie does," laughed Susy.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Of course it is, mamma," replied all the children.</p> + +<p>"'Course, indeed, it is!" said Katie, try<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>ing to pull up the carpet in +her search for a lost three-cent piece.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Like what?"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"I'm glad we brought so many flowers from aunt Eastman's," said Susy, +brightening; "now we'll trim all the rooms."</p> + +<p>"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."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"A very brilliant idea, my daughter. Your part will be the looking on, I +suppose."</p> + +<p>"And what'll <em>I</em> 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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Dotty obeyed at once. She was always glad to wear that white delaine +with the scarlet spots.</p> + +<p>The whole family were so very busy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"How nice!" said Prudy, rubbing her hands. "Sometimes I don't much care +if our house was burnt up."</p> + +<p>"Nor I either," said Dotty. "This house has got a good deal the best +places to hide in."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Parlin smiled, in her sweet, contented way. She was thinking how +many blessings we can all find in our lot if we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"Dotty," said she, "you may run up and ask grandmother if she will dare +drink any coffee to-night."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Why, grandma," said Prudy, "it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> wouldn't be nice here a bit, only the +room has got <em>you</em> in it!"</p> + +<p>"Bless thy little heart, Prudence! It will be nice enough here to-morrow +night. I wouldn't have thy mother touch it to-day."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"Sthop!" cried Katie. "<em>I</em>'s talking. Cake, and verjerves, and f'owers, +and butter!"</p> + +<p>"And Susy's been practising the 'Blue Violet's Carol,'" said Prudy.</p> + +<p>"Yes, her packus, uncle Ed'ard!"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"An' vindegar canny," struck in Katie.</p> + +<p>"O, hush, now!" whispered Dotty, cov<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>ering the child's mouth with her +handkerchief.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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,—</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Please tell it, if it's a story, papa," said the children.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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 <em>so</em> unworthy! I only wish the potatoes was froze!'"</p> + +<p>The children laughed.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"She didn't want the potatoes frozed,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I should say they freeze their potatoes," thought Mrs. Read.</p> + +<p>She meant that, instead of trying to improve matters, they only made +them worse.</p> + +<p>After supper, just as the Parlins were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> 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?</p> + +<p>I will tell you in the next chapter.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.<br /> +<small>A SURPRISE.</small></h2> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Is Miss Susy Parlin at home?" said one of them.</p> + +<p>"And Miss Prudy?" added another.</p> + +<p>"She is—I mean they are. Will you please walk in?"</p> + +<p>As Norah spoke, she swung open the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> 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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span></p> + +<p>Flyaway went up first to one, and then to another, with the question,—</p> + +<p>"Did you <em>came</em> to see <em>me?</em>"</p> + +<p>The two heads of the family retreated, Mr. Parlin saying to his wife as +they went,—</p> + +<p>"When you and I were children, we had our parties in the afternoon; but +this is a new fashion, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It did occur to Susy that this was a great pity; and, indeed, it is +quite probable, Mrs. Parlin would not have left the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> house if she could +have foreseen how much her presence would be needed.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> might as well have worn her calico wrapper as this +beautiful white delaine, for all the notice they took of her dress.</p> + +<p>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,—</p> + +<p>"She was real mean to run and tell! I'll pay her for that—won't I, +though?"</p> + +<p>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."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p> + +<p>The guests were talking of having a few tableaux and charades, like some +they had seen arranged by their older sisters.</p> + +<p>"I don't care anything about their old tolly-blows—do you, Johnny?" +said Dotty. "Let's play 'I spy'—you and I."</p> + +<p>"No, you don't catch me playing high spy with such a cross party as you +are, Dot Dimple."</p> + +<p>"I wish you'd stop calling me a 'cross party' the whole time, Johnny +Eastman," replied Dotty, shaking her elbows.</p> + +<p>Just then Susy came, and whispered a few words in her ear.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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-<em>you</em>-tifully!"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"O, but they wouldn't!"</p> + +<p>"Of course they would, Prudy Parlin. And I should fall right into the +tolly-blow—that's where I should fall to."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Don't you speak again, Percy, or I'll scream my throat right in two!"</p> + +<p>"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?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Now cry," said Percy; "cry just as if you had soap in your eyes."</p> + +<p>"Ee! Ee!" wailed Katie, loudly.</p> + +<p>"No, cry <em>weak</em>; cry just as you did when you were a baby."</p> + +<p>"I don't 'member when I was a baby, 'twas so <em>many</em> years ago," sighed +Flyaway.</p> + +<p>But she practised crying again, and succeeded very well, Dotty all the +while looking on in grim displeasure.</p> + +<p>Susy was the mamma; and when the folding-doors opened upon the scene +"Cry,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> she was sitting in a rocking-chair, admiring her child, a +remarkably well-grown baby, two months old.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"She is a girl," replied Mrs. Susy, kissing the big bundle, "and weighs +twenty-nine pounds, three inches."</p> + +<p>Susy meant "ounces."</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span></p> + +<p>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,—</p> + +<p>"I wish I didn't be to Portland! O, I wish I didn't be to Portland!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"And a shaker," suggested one of the girls. "I didn't know before that +Susy Parlin had such a bad sister."</p> + +<p>This was too much. Dotty's head was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.<br /> +<small>JOHNNY'S REVENGE.</small></h2> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"And, O dear!" thought Susy, "they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> won't know she was born so, and +can't help it."</p> + +<p>For that this was the case, Susy firmly believed.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The games went on as usual, and were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"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 +<em>I</em> was.</p> + +<p>"Prudy thought I ought to be a baby. Percy thought so. He said, 'I +devise you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> to let that child alone.' I'm going to let <em>him</em> alone! All +the time! Did I want to fall off that yardstick, right into the +tolly-blow?</p> + +<p>"There's Prudy: she can be good; it doesn't hurt her. It hurts <em>me</em> to +be good; it tires me all up.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> they'll +hunt all over the house; and I shall keep my head in my apron, and won't +say a word.</p> + +<p>"Then Prudy'll say, 'O, my darling sister Dotty! How sweet and good she +was!'</p> + +<p>"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"!'"</p> + +<p>Dotty sighed as she pictured to herself Percy's conscience-stricken +face.</p> + +<p>"And that girl that called me a bad sister—how <em>she'll</em> feel! And +Johnny—I guess Johnny won't say 'cross party' any more!</p> + +<p>"Grandma—why, grandma'll read the Bible. And O, such a time!</p> + +<p>"That Angeline girl will remember how she rocked that darling Dotty, and +told me stories."</p> + +<p>Dotty was seized with a sudden shivering.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>The current of her thoughts was changed as soon as she remembered those +unknown ghosts of Angeline's description.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Dotty began to feel very uncomfortable. There was no longer the +slightest satisfaction in the thought of frightening the family.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> She +was frightened herself, and with the worst kind of fear—the fear of the +supernatural.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The silence seemed to grow deeper. Dotty could hear her heart beat.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> the jam poured down her neck in +a thick stream.</p> + +<p>"My beautiful white dress with the red spots! Who put that dirty thing +in my way? Smells like purserves. They ought to be ashamed!"</p> + +<p>Dotty tried bearing her weight on both feet, and found she could walk.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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,—</p> + +<p>"Where's the <em>out?</em>"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Was it—was it—a truly, truly <em>ghost?</em> 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?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>No answer.</p> + +<p>"Nobody but me and Percy," said Johnny, pulling Dotty's ears to attract +her attention.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Only a jack-o'-lantern, you dear little ducky," cried Percy.</p> + +<p>"A pumpkin, you goosie," said Johnny.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Look, dear, here's the pumpkin. Holes cut out for eyes. A gash for the +mouth. A candle stuck in."</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"Johnny was angry with you," went on Percy, rather nervously; "he said +he wanted to tease you. I brought the pumpkin from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>Dotty continued to moan.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"That won't do, boy! Throw on a quartful! Hurry!"</p> + +<p>Johnny promptly obeyed. Dotty gasped for breath, and uttered a scream. +Percy felt encouraged.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></p> + +<p>"More, Johnny; the whole pailful. We'll have her out of this +double-quick—"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Why, uncle Edward," stammered Percy, "'twas a—"</p> + +<p>"Why, auntie," cried Johnny, "'twas only a pumpkin. She went and was +afraid of a pumpkin!"</p> + +<p>The cause of this direful affright, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"'Twas blazing a-fire, mamma. He lighted it to plague me—Johnny did."</p> + +<p>"I'm ever so sorry, auntie," said Percy, and his regretful face said as +much as his words.</p> + +<p>"Johnny scared me to death," broke in Dotty; "and then he pumped water +on me all over—Johnny did."</p> + +<p>"I'll never do so again," said Percy, shamed by the look of reproach in +his uncle's face.</p> + +<p>"See that you remember your promise,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> my boy. You have run a great risk +to-night."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>"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:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>Sept. 5th.</i>—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.</p> + +<p>"I <em>told</em> 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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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."</p></div> + + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img class="img2" src="images/ad01.png" alt="Advert for Oliver Optic's Magazine" width="400" height="667" /> +</div> + +<h2><small>OLIVER OPTIC'S MAGAZINE,</small><br/> +<big><span class="smcap">Our Boys And Girls</span></big></h2> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><b>The only Original American Juvenile Magazine published once a Week.</b></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="title">EDITED BY OLIVER OPTIC,<br/> +Who writes for no other juvenile publication—who contributes +each year<br/> +<big>FOUR SERIAL STORIES!</big></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center">The cost of which in book form would be $5.00—<em>double the subscription +price of the Magazine!</em></p> + +<p class="center">Each number (published every Saturday) handsomely illustrated.</p> + +<hr class="hr4" /> + +<p class="center">Among the regular contributors, besides <span class="smcap">Oliver Optic</span>, are</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<b>SOPHIE MAY</b>, author of "Little Prudy and Dotty Dimple Stories."<br /> +<b>ROSA ABBOTT</b>, author of "Jack of all Trades," &c.<br /> +<b>MAY MANNERING</b>, author of "The Helping-Hand Series," &c.<br /> +<b>WIRT SIKES</b>, author of "On the Prairies," &c.<br /> +<b>OLIVE LOGAN</b>, author of "Near Views of Royalty," &c.<br /> +<b>REV. ELIJAH KELLOGG</b>, author of "Good Old Times," &c.<br /> +</p> + +<hr class="hr4" /> + +<p>Each number contains 16 pages of Original Stories, Poetry, +Articles of History, Biography, Natural History, Dialogues, Recitations, +Facts and Figures, Puzzles, Rebuses, &c.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Oliver Optic's Magazine</span> contains more reading matter than +any other juvenile publication, and is the <em>Cheapest and the Best</em> +Periodical of the kind in the United States.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Terms, in Advance.</span>—Single Subscriptions, One Year, $2.50; +One Volume, Six Months, $1.25; Single copies, 6 cents. Three +copies, $6.50; Five copies, $10.00; Ten copies (with an extra +copy <em>free</em>), $20.00.</p> + +<p>Canvassers and local agents wanted in every State and Town, +and liberal arrangements will be made with those who apply to +the Publishers.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Any boy or girl who will write to the Publishers, shall receive +a specimen copy by mail free.</p> + +<p class="right"><i>LEE & SHEPARD, Publishers, Boston.</i></p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img class="img2" src="images/ad02.png" alt="Advert for Oliver Optic's Magazine" width="400" height="666" /> +</div> + +<h2><small>OLIVER OPTIC'S MAGAZINE.</small></h2> + +<hr class="hr4" /> + +<h3><big>THE ORATOR.</big></h3> + +<p>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</p> + +<p class="center"><b>26 ILLUSTRATED EXERCISES IN ELOCUTION EACH YEAR!</b></p> + +<hr class="hr4" /> + +<h3><big>DIALOGUES.</big></h3> + +<p>This usually neglected feature of Magazines receives particular +attention in "<span class="smcap">Our Boys and Girls.</span>" The best writers of Dialogues have +been secured, and Oliver Optic's Magazine will give</p> + +<p class="center"><b>26 Original Dialogues Each Year!</b></p> + +<hr class="hr4" /> + +<h3><big>A YEAR'S VOLUME.</big></h3> + +<p>The volume for the year 1867 contained three Serial Stories by <span class="smcap">Oliver +Optic</span>, 35 Poems, 39 Speeches for Declamation, 26 Original Dialogues, 68 +Stories by other authors, 1212 Puzzles, 158 Illustrated Rebuses, &c.</p> + + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img class="img2" src="images/ad03.png" alt="Advert for Oliver Optic's Magazine" width="400" height="671" /> +</div> + +<h2>OLIVER OPTIC'S MAGAZINE.<br/> +<big>HEAD-WORK.</big></h2> + +<p class="center"><small>CONTAINING</small><br/> +<br/> +<b>GEOGRAPHICAL REBUSES, PUZZLES, SYNCOPATIONS, GEOGRAPH'L +QUESTIONS, PROVERBIAL ANAGRAMS, ENIGMAS, +CHARADES AND NUMERICAL PUZZLES,</b></p> + +<p class="center">Contributed by the subscribers and rendered unusually attractive +by original features</p> + +<p class="center">NOT TO BE FOUND IN ANY OTHER MAGAZINE.</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img class="img2" src="images/ad04.png" alt="Advert for Oliver Optic'sBooks" width="400" height="668" /> +</div> + +<h2>OLIVER OPTIC'S BOOKS.</h2> + +<p class="center">Each series in a neat box. Sold in sets or separately.</p> + +<p class="titleleft"><big>Young America Abroad.</big></p> + +<p>A Library of Travel and Adventure in Foreign Lands. 16mo. +Illustrated by Stevens, Perkins, and others. Per vol., $1.50.</p> + +<table class="left" summary="Young America Abroad books"> +<tr><td class="book">OUTWARD BOUND.</td><td class="book">SHAMROCK AND THISTLE.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="book">RED CROSS.</td><td class="book">DIKES AND DITCHES.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td> Others in Preparation.</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="titleleft"><big>Starry Flag Series.</big></p> + +<p>Illustrated. Per volume, $1.25. Comprising:</p> + +<table class="left" summary="Starry Flag books"> +<tr><td class="book">THE STARRY FLAG.</td><td class="book">BREAKING AWAY.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="book">SEEK AND FIND.</td><td align="left"> Others in preparation.</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="titleleft"><big>The Soldier Boy Series.</big></p> + +<p>Three vols., illust., in neat box. Per vol., $1.50. Comprising:</p> + +<table class="left" summary="The Soldier Boy books"> +<tr><td class="book">THE SOLDIER BOY.</td><td class="book">THE YOUNG LIEUTENANT.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="book">FIGHTING JOE.</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="titleleft"><big>The Sailor Boy Series.</big></p> + +<p>Three vols., illust., in neat box. Per vol., $1.50. Comprising:</p> + +<table class="left" summary="The Sailor Boy books"> +<tr><td class="book">THE SAILOR BOY.</td><td class="book">THE YANKEE MIDDY.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="book">BRAVE OLD SALT.</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="titleleft"><big>Woodville Stories.</big></p> + +<p>Uniform with Library for Young People. Six vols. 16mo. Each volume +handsomely illustrated, and complete in itself, or +in sets in neat boxes. 16mo. Per vol., $1.25.</p> + +<table class="left" summary="Woodville books"> +<tr><td class="book">RICH AND HUMBLE.</td><td class="book">IN SCHOOL AND OUT.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="book">WATCH AND WAIT.</td><td class="book">WORK AND WIN.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="book">HOPE AND HAVE.</td><td class="book">HASTE AND WASTE.</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="titleleft"><big>Famous "Boat-Club" Series.</big></p> + +<p>Library for Young People. Handsomely illustrated. Six vols., +in neat box. Per vol., $1.25. Comprising:</p> + +<table class="left" summary="Boat-club books"> +<tr><td class="book">THE BOAT CLUB.</td><td class="book">ALL ABOARD.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="book">NOW OR NEVER.</td><td class="book">TRY AGAIN.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="book">POOR AND PROUD.</td><td class="book">LITTLE BY LITTLE.</td></tr> +</table> + + +<p class="titleleft"><big>Riverdale Story Books.</big></p> + +<p class="center">Six vols., profusely illustrated from new designs by Billings. +In neat box. Cloth. Per vol., 45 cts. Comprising:</p> + +<table class="left" summary="Riverdale books"> +<tr><td class="book">LITTLE MERCHANT.</td><td class="book">PROUD AND LAZY.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="book">YOUNG VOYAGERS.</td><td class="book">CARELESS KATE.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="book">DOLLY AND I.</td><td class="book">ROBINSON CRUSOE, JR.</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="titleleft"><big>Flora Lee Story Books.</big></p> + +<p>Companions to the above. Profusely illust'd from new designs +by Billings. In neat box. Cloth. Per vol., 45 cts. Comprising:</p> + +<table class="left" summary="Flora Lee books"> +<tr><td class="book">CHRISTMAS GIFT.</td><td class="book">THE PICNIC PARTY.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="book">UNCLE BEN.</td><td class="book">THE GOLD THIMBLE.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="book">BIRTHDAY PARTY.</td><td class="book">THE DO-SOMETHINGS.</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="titleleft"><big>The Way of the World.</big></p> + +<p> By <span class="smcap">William T. Adams</span> (Oliver Optic). 12mo. $2.00.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>Sold by all Booksellers and Newsdealers, or sent by mail post-paid +on receipt of price.</p> + +<table summary="Publisher's address block"> +<tr><td><b>LEE AND SHEPARD, Publishers,</b></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap"> 149 Washington Street, Boston.</span></td></tr> +</table> + + +<div class="tnote"> + +<p><b>Transcriber's Notes:</b></p> + + +<p>Inconsistent hyphenation of words in original text has been retained +(afire, a-fire).</p> + +<p>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).</p> + +<p>Page 9, missing close quote inserted. (mamma? _Is_ I?")</p> + +<p>Page 35, misplaced apostrophe fixed. ('twill)</p> + +<p>Page 42, "woful" changed to "woeful". (that woeful Fourth of July)</p> + +<p>Page 46, word after comma starts with uppercase. Original text retained. +(she added, faintly, "If 'twasn't)</p> + +<p>Page 56, missing close quote inserted. (cross old party, miss.")</p> + +<p>Page 73, unusual spelling of "Monuement" retained. (make a Bunger Hill +Monuement)</p> + +<p>Page 144, word after comma starts with uppercase. Original text +retained. (The trying question was, What would the child)</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dotty Dimple At Home, by Sophie May + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOTTY DIMPLE AT HOME *** + +***** This file should be named 25396-h.htm or 25396-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/3/9/25396/ + +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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