Flyaway was very much sleepier than either of her cousins, and really did not know where she was, or what she was doing. Lonnie Adams, a boy of Horace's age, tried to interest her. He made believe the old cat was a sheep, killed her with an iron spoon, and hung her up by the hind legs for mutton, all which Pussy bore like a lamb, for she had been killed a great many times, and was used to it. But it did not please Flyaway; neither did aunt Martha's collection of shells and pictures call forth a single smile. There was abeautiful clock in the parlor, and the pendulum was in the form of a little boy swinging; but Flyaway would not have cared if it had been a gallows, and the boy hanging there dead.
Uncle John took her on his knee, asked her what her name was, where she lived, and whom she loved best; but she only answered she "didn't know." She might have been Daniel in the lions' den, or Joseph in the pit, for all the difference to her.
"How very singular!" said aunt Martha. "I wish her mother would come. Do feel her pulse, John, and see if it is fever."
"Nothing of the kind," said uncle John, as the little one's head dropped on his shoulder. "Overcome by the heat; that's all. I'll just lay her down on the sofa."
When Mrs. Clifford came, she was surprised to find the child fast asleep. Shewould not have her wakened for dinner; so Flyaway missed her "secretary." But when it was three o'clock, and she still slept, Mrs. Clifford feared something was wrong, and decided to take her home. Uncle John had "Lightning Dodger" harnessed, and brought around to the door.
"Wake up, little daughter," said Mrs. Clifford; "we are going home now."
Flyaway looked around vacantly, her eyes as heavy as drenched violets.
"You must come again, and stay longer," said aunt Martha; "it is hardly polite not to let little girls have their dinners—do you think it is?"
"Yes 'm," replied Flyaway, faintly. She did not understand a word any one said; it all sounded as indistinct as the roaring of a sea-shell. By the time she was lifted into her mother's arms in the carriage, shewas nodding again. When they reached home she scarcely spoke, but, dropping upon the sofa, went on with her dreams. It was odd for Flyaway to take a nap in the daytime, and such a long one as this!
"It must be a very warm day," said Mrs. Parlin, "for Prudy and Dotty have been asleep too."
"Where did they go after they sold the rags?" asked Mrs. Clifford; "they all look pale."
"To a photograph saloon. Here are the tin-types they brought home to me," replied grandma, producing them from her pocket, with a gratified smile.
"Very good, mother—don't you think so? I would be glad to have as truthful a likeness of our little Katie; but she must be taken asleep. I wonder, by the way, if there wasn't something in the air of thesaloon which made the children all so languid?"
"Why, yes, Maria; very likely it was the ether. Now you speak of it, I am confident it must have been the ether."
"I knew just such an instance before," said Mrs. Clifford; "and that is why I happened to think of it now."
About four o'clock Flyaway came to her senses.
"Where's the wheelbarrel?" said she, rubbing her eyes.
"O, Horace came and took it," said Dotty. "Hasn't this been the queerest day!"
"You said you's goin' to take me to aunt Marfie's; why didn't you?"
"O, we did; we took you, you know."
"Dotty Dimpul, I shouldn't think you'd make any believe."
"I'm not 'making any believe'—am I, Prudy?"
"No, Fly, she isn't. We pulled you along,—don't you remember?—and you hung back, and said, 'Iamso tired.'"
"I don't 'member," said Flyaway, slowly and sadly. "I shouldn't thinkyou'dmake any believe, Prudy."
"We'll ask your mamma, then; she tells the truth. Aunt 'Riah, didn't we take Flyaway to aunt Martha's this morning, and didn't you go there too?"
"Certainly," said Mrs. Clifford; "but it wasn't much of a visit,—was it, darling!—when you slept most of the time, and didn't have a mouthful of dinner?"
Flyaway sighed heavily, and looked at her mother. "O, mamma! mamma!"
"What is it, dear?"
"O, mamma," repeated she, sorrowfully, "why did you say those words?"
"What words, darling?"
"Those naughty, naughty words, mamma." Flyaway's gentle eyes were afloat. She crossed the room, and knelt by Mrs. Clifford's chair, looking up at her with an expression of anguish.
"That man, he wasn't in the lions' den, that prayed so long and so loud, mamma."
"Well, dear."
"Hetelled a wrong story to me, mamma."
"My darling baby," said Mrs. Clifford, catching Flyaway in her arms, "do you think your own dear mother is telling you a wrong story this minute?"
"'Cause, 'cause, mamma, I didn't go to aunt Marfie's!"
"Yes, you did, my precious daughter; but you were asleep and dreaming. We brought you home in the carriage, and you didn't know it. Can't you believe it because I say so?"
Flyaway made no reply except to curl her head under Mrs. Clifford's arm, like a frightened chicken under its mother's wing. Mrs. Clifford looked troubled. She was afraid the little one could not be made to understand it. Horace came to her aid.
"Hold up your head, little Topknot, and hear brother talk. Once there were three little girls, and they all travelled round with a wheelbarrow. By and by they came to a man's house on wheels."
"Yes," said Flyaway, starting up; "I 'member."
"And the wee girl, with dove's eyes—"
"O, O, that's me!"
"She couldn't keep still, and couldn't get any picture."
"No,tin-tybe; 'cause—'cause—"
"And all the while there was something in the man's house they kept breathinginto their noses, and it made them grow sleepy."
"Just so?" asked Flyaway, sniffing.
"Yes; and by and by the little one with dove's eyes was as stupid as that woman you saw lying down in the street with the pig looking at her."
"Me? Was I adrunken?" said Flyaway, in a subdued tone.
"O, no," put in Dotty; "it wasn't whiskey, it waseither; and I didn't know much more than you did, Fly Clifford. That was why I lost your money, Prudy; I just about know it was."
Flyaway began to understand. The look of fear and distrust went out of her eyes, and she threw her arms round her mother's neck, kissing her again and again.
"'HapsI did go to aunt Marfie's, mamma;'hapsI was asleep!"
"That's right, Miss Topknot," cried Horace; "now your brother'll carry you pickaback."
A little while afterward Mrs. Clifford began a letter to her husband.
"I am going to tell papa about his little girl—that she is very well."
"O, no, you needn't, mamma," said Flyaway, laughing; "papa knows it. I was well at home."
"What shall I tell him, then?"
Flyaway thought a moment.
"Tell him all the folks doesn't tell lies," said she, earnestly; "only but the naughty folks tells lies."
So that was settled; and Flyaway decided to write off the whole story, and send to her father—a mixture of little sharp zigzags, curves, and dots. When Horace asked her what these meant, she said "shecouldn't 'member now; but papa would know."
There was another matter which troubled grandma Parlin somewhat. Dotty had gone to the store, after dinner, with two ten-cent pieces in her porte-monnaie. She had bought for herself some jujube paste, but in returning had lost the other dime.
"Grandma, do you think that is fair?" said Prudy. "She has lost my money, but she doesn't care at all; only laughs. I was going to put it with some more I had, and buy mother a collar."
"No, it is not right," replied grandma. "I will talk with her, and try to make her willing to give you some of hers in return."
Ah, grandma Parlin, you little knew what you were undertaking when you called Dotty Dimple into the back parlornext morning, and began to talk about that money! Children's minds are strange things. They are like bottles with very small necks; and when you pour in an idea, you must pour very slowly, a drop at a time, or it all runs over. Dotty did not know much more about money than Flyaway.
"My child," said her grandmother, "it seems you have lost something which belonged to Prudy."
Dotty looked up carelessly from the picture of a rose she held in her hand, which she meant to adorn with yellow paint.
"O, yes 'm; you mean that money."
"There are several things you don't know, Dotty; and one is, that you have no right to lose other people's things."
"No 'm."
"The money you dropped out of yourporte-monnaie, yesterday, was Prudy's, not yours; and what are you going to do about it?"
"Let me see; my mother'll come to-morrow; I'll ask her to give me some more."
"But is that right? Dotty lost the money; must not Dotty be the one to give it back?"
"O, grandma, I can't find it! The wind blew it away, or a horse stepped on it. I can't find it, certainly."
"No; but you have money of your own. You can give some of that to Prudy."
"Why-ee!" moaned Dotty. "Prudy's got ever so much. O, grandma, she has; and my box is so empty it can't but just jingle."
"But, my dear, that has nothing to do with the case. If Prudy has a great dealof money, you have no right to lose any of it. Don't you think you ought to give it back?"
"O, no, grandma—I don't; because she doesn't need it! I wish she'd givemeten cents, for I do need it; I haven't but a tinty, tonty mite."
Here Dotty threw herself on the sofa, the picture of despair. Grandma was perplexed. Had she been pouring ideas into Dotty's mind too fast? What should she say next?
"My dear little girl, suppose Prudy should lose some of your money—what then?"
"I shouldn't like it at all, grandma. Don't let her go to my box—will you?"
"Selfish little girl!" said grandma, looking keenly at Dotty's troubled face. "Youwould expect Prudy to return every cent, if she were in your place."
"Because—because—grandma—"
"Yes; and when I explain your duty to you, you don't understand me. You would understand if you were not so selfish!"
Dotty winced.
"Don't come to me again, and complain of Jennie Vance."
Dotty could not meet her grandmother's searching gaze: it seemed to cut into her heart like a sharp blade.
"Am I as bad as Jennie Vance? Yes, just us bad; and grandma knows it. But then," said she aloud, though very faintly, "Prudy needn't have put it in my porte-monnaie; she might have known I'd lose it."
"Dotty, I am not going to say any more about it now. You may think it over to-day, and decide for yourself whether you are following the Golden Rule. Or, if you choose, you may wait and talk with your mother."
"Yes 'm." Dotty was glad to escape into the kitchen.
Flyaway sat on the kitchen floor, feeding Dinah with a roasted apple. As often as Dinah refused a teaspoonful, she put it into her own mouth, saying, with a wise nod, "My child, she's sick; hasn't anyappletite."
Out of doors it was raining heartily. It seemed as if the "upper deep" was tipping over, and pouring itself into the lap of the earth.
"O, Ruthie," sighed Dotty Dimple, "my mother won't come while it's such weather. Do you s'pose 'twill ever clear off?" [Blank Page]
Flyaway and Dinah.Flyaway and Dinah.
"Yes, I do," replied Ruth, trimming a pie briskly; "it only began last night at five."
"Why, Ruthie Dillon! it began three weeks ago, by the clock! Don't you know that day I couldn't go visiting? Only sometimes it stops a while, and then begins again."
"If you're going to have the blues, Miss Dotty, I'll thank you kindly just to take yourself out of this kitchen. Polly Whiting is here, and she is as much as a body can endures in this dull weather."
"It's pitiful 'bout the rain, Dotty; but you mustn't scold when God sended it," said Flyaway, dropping the feeble Dinah, and pursuing her cousin round the room with a pin. In a minute they were both laughing gayly, till Flyaway caught herself on her little rocking-chair, and "gotatornin her apron." That ended the sport.
"What shall I do to make myself happy?" said Dotty, musingly; for she wished to put off all thought of Prudy's money. "I should like to roll out some thimble-cookies, but Ruthie hasn't much patience this morning. I never dare do things when her lips are squeezed together so."
But Flyaway dared do things. She took up the kitty, and played to her on the "music," till Ruth's ears were "on edge." After this the harmonica fell into a dish of soft soap, and in cleaning it with ashes and a sponge, the holes became stopped.
"It won'tmuseno more," said Flyaway, in sad surprise, blowing into the keys in vain. Ruth loved the little child too well to say she was glad of it.
Flyaway's next dash was into the sinkcupboard, where she found a wooden bowl of sand. This she dragged out, and filling her "nipperkin" with water, carried them both to Ruth, saying, in her sweet, pleading way,—
"Ifyou please, Ruthie, will you tellhowGod does when he takes the 'little drops of water and little grains of sand,' and makes 'the mightyoshum' with um, 'andthe pleasant land'?"
Ruthie had no answer but a kiss and a smile.
"There, away with you into the nursery, both of you. I know Polly Whiting is lonesome without you."
Off went the children, Flyaway "with a heart for any fate," but Dotty still oppressed by the shadow of the ten-cent piece.
"If I don't give it to Prudy, will I bedishonest? Will I be as bad as Jennie Vance?"
When they entered the nursery, Miss Polly was standing before the mirror, arranging her black cap, and weaving into her collar a square black breast-pin, which aunt Louise said looked like a gravestone. Flyaway peeped in too, placing her smooth pink cheek beside Miss Polly's wrinkled one.
"I don't look alike, Miss Polly," said she; "and you don't look alike too."
Certainly not; no more alike than a blush-rose bud and a dried apple.
"What makes the red go out of folks' cheeks when they grow old, and the wrinkles crease in, like the pork in baked beans?" queried Dotty.
"I couldn't tell you," replied the good lady, giving a pat to her cap, and settlingthe bows carefully; "but if you had asked how I happened to grow old before my time, I should say I'd had such a hard chance through life, and trouble always leaves its mark."
"Does it? O, dear! I have trouble,—ever so much; will it quirk my face all up, like yours?"
"You have trouble, Dotty Parlin? Haven't you found out yet that the lines have fallen to you in pleasant places?"
"I don't know what you mean by lines," said Dotty, thinking of fish-hooks; "but when it rains, and folks want me to do things that are real hard, then why, I'm blue, now truly."
"Then we're blue, now truly," added Flyaway by way of finish.
"What would you do, children, if you were driven about, as I used to be, frompost to pillar, with no mother to care for you?"
"If I hadn't no mamma, I could go barefoot, like a dog," said Flyaway, brightening with the new idea; "I could paddle in the water too, and eat pepnits."
"O, child! But what if you had neither father nor mother?"
"Then," said Flyaway coolly, "I should go to some house where therewasa father'n mother."
"Why, you little heartless thing! But that is always the way with children; their parents set their lives by them, but not a 'thank you' do they get for their love! Try a pinch," continued she, offering her snuff-box to the little folks, who both declined. This Polly thought was strange. They must like snuff if they followed the natural bent of their noses.
"Yes, Katie, as I was saying, you little know how your mother loves you."
"Yes um, I do. She loves me more 'n the river, and the sky, and the bridge. My papa loves me too, only but he don'tsaynuffin' 'bout it."
"Yes, yes; just so," said Miss Polly, who talked to the simplest infants just as she did to grown people. "One of these days you will look back, and see how happy you are now, and be sorry you didn't prize your parents while you had them."
Flyaway rested her rosy cheek on Polly's knee, and watched the gray knitting-work as it came out of the basket. She did not understand the sad woman's words, but was attracted by her loving nature, and liked to sit near her, a minute at a time, and have her hair stroked.
"There, now," said Dotty, "you are knitting, Miss Polly; and it's so lonesome all round the house, with mother not coming till to-morrow, that I should think you might tell—well, tell an anecdote."
"I don't know where to begin, or what to say," replied Polly, falling into deep thought.
"I just believe she does sigh at the end of every needle," mused Dotty; "I'm going to keep 'count. That's once."
"Please, Miss Polly, tell ananny-goat," said Flyaway, dancing around the room. "Please, Miss Polly, and I'll kiss you a pretty little kiss."
"Twice," whispered Dotty.
"Well, I'll tell you something that will pass for an anecdote, on condition that you call meauntPolly; that name warms my heart a great deal better thanMissPolly."
"Three!" said Dotty aloud. "We will, honestly, if we can think of it, aunt Polly.—Four."
"Le'me gwout for the sidders, first," said busy Flyaway.
"There, aunt Polly, you forgot it that time! You sprang up quick to shut the door, and forgot it."
"Forgot what?"
"You didn't sigh at the end of your needle."
"Why, Dotty, how you do talk! Any one would suppose, by that, I was in the habit of sighing! I have a stitch in my side, child, and it makes me draw a long breath now and then; that's all."
Flyaway was back again,
"With step-step light, and tip-tap slightAgainst the door."
"With step-step light, and tip-tap slightAgainst the door."
"Come in," said Dotty, "and see if you can keep still two whole minutes; but I know you can't."
Miss Polly let her work fall in her lap, and drew up the left sleeve of her black alpaca dress. "Do you see that scar, children?"
It was just below the elbow,—an irregular, purple mark, about the size of a new cent.
"Why, Miss—why, aunt Polly!"
"I've got one on me too," said Flyaway, pulling at her apron sleeve; "Hollis did it with the tongs."
"It can't be; not a scar like mine."
"Bigger 'n' larger 'n' yours; only but I can't find it," said Flyaway, carefully twisting around her dainty white arm, which Polly kissed, and said was as sweet as a peach. "Bigger 'n' larger 'n' yours. Where'sit gone to? O, I feegot—'twas on mysleeve, and I never put it on to-day."
"You're a droll child, not to know the difference between scars and dirt! When I was almost as young and quite as innocent, that wicked little boy bit me, and I shall carry the marks of his teeth to my grave." With another lingering glance at the purple mark, Polly drew down her sleeve, sighed, and began to knit again.
"Was it the woman's child that made you dig, that you told about last summer?"
"Yes; I was a bound girl."
"Bound to what?" Dotty was trying to drown the remembrance of Prudy's ten cents; so she wished to keep Miss Polly talking.
"Bound to Mrs. Potter till I was eighteen years old. Her husband kept public house. They made a perfect slave of me. WhenI was twelve years old I had to milk three cows, besides spinning my day's work on the flax-wheel. And very often all I had for supper was brown bread and skim milk. I didn't have any grandfather's house to go to, with a seat in the trees, and a boat on the water, and a swing, and a summer house, and acrocky-set(croquet set). Not I!"
Flyaway was cutting paper dolls with all speed, but her sweet little face was drawn into curves of pity.
"Too bad! Naughty folks to give youskilmick."
"I had to scour all the knives too. I did it by drawing them back and forth into a sand-bank back of the house. This Isaac I speak of was a lazy boy, and very unkind to me; but his mother wouldn't hear a word against him. One day I brushed atraveller's coat, and got a silver quarter for my trouble. I thought everything of that quarter. I had never had so much money before in my life. I had half a mind to put it in the Savings Bank; 'and who knows,' thought I, 'but I can add more to it, one of these days, and buy my time.'"
"Why, Miss Polly, I didn't know you couldbuytime!"
"But you knew you could throw it away, I suppose," said Polly, with a sad smile. "What I mean is this: I wanted to pay Mrs. Potter some money, so I could go free before I was eighteen."
"Then you would beunbound, aunt Polly."
"Yes; but one day Isaac found my money,—I kept it in an old tobacco-box,—and, just to hector me, he kept tossing it up in the air, till all of a sudden it fellthrough a crack in the floor; and that was the last I saw of it."
"HERE HE IS!""HERE HE IS!"
"What a naughty, careless boy!"
After Dotty had said this, she blushed.
"Naughty, careless boy!" echoed Flyaway. "Here he is!" holding up a paper doll shaped very much like a whale, with the fin divided for legs, the ears of a cat, and the arms of a windmill. "Here he is!"
"He didn't look much like that," said Polly, laughing. "He had plenty of money of his own, and I tried to make him give me back a quarter; but do you believe he wouldn't, not even a ninepence? And when I teased him, that was the time he bit my arm."
"He oughtn't to bitted your arm, course, indeed not!"
"But, aunt Polly," faltered Dotty, whose efforts to forget the ten-cent piece hadproved worse than useless, "but it didn't do Isaac any good to lose your money down a crack."
"No, it was sheer mischief."
"And if it doesn't do folks any good to lose things, you know, why, what's the use—to—to—go and get his own money to pay it back with?—Isaac I mean."
"What do you say, Dotty Parlin? You, a child that goes to Sabbath school! Don't you know it is a sin to steal a pin? And if we lose or injure other people's things, and don't make it up to them, we're as good as thieves."
"As good?"
"As bad, then."
"But s'posin'—s'posin' folks lose things when theydon'ttoss 'em up in the air, and don't mean to,—the wind, you know, or a kind of an accident, Miss Polly,—"
"Well?"
"And s'posin' I didn't have any more money 'n I wanted myself, and Prudy had the most—H'm—"
"Well?"
"Then it isn't as bad as thieves; now is it? She's got the most. Prudy's older 'n I am—"
"Honesty is honesty," said Miss Polly, firmly, "in young or old. If you've lost your sister's money, you must make it up to her."
"O, must I, Miss Polly? Such a tinty-tonty mite of money as I've got,—only sixty-five cents."
"Honesty is honesty," repeated Miss Polly, "in rich or poor."
"Dear me! will my mother say so, too?"
"Your mother is on the right side, Dotty. The Bible tells us to 'deal justly.'There's nothing said there about excusing poor folks."
"O, dear! do you s'pose the Bible expects me to pay Prudy Parlin ten cents, when it just blew out of my hands, and didn't do me a speck of good?"
"Why, Dotty, you surprise me! Any one would think you were brought up a heathen! If you were a small child I could understand it."
"I knew I should have to do it," moaned Dotty.
"I advise you to lose no time about it, then; that is the cause of your blues, I guess. We can't be happy out of the line of our duty," sighed Miss Polly, who regarded herself as a pattern of cheerfulness.
"I'll tell you what I'm going to do," said Dotty, resolutely; "I'm going right off to pay that money to Prudy, and then I'll be in the line of my duty."
Prudy scorned to take the ten cents. "Did you think your 'middle-aged' sister would do such a thing, when she has more money than you have, Dotty Dimple? If you're only sorry, that's all I ask. I didn't like to have you laugh, as if you didn't care."
"But, Prudy, I want to be honest."
"And so you have been, dear child," said grandma Parlin, with an approving smile. "If Prudy chooses now to give you the money, receive it as a present, and say, 'Thank you.'"
"O, thank you, Prudy Parlin, over and over, and up to the moon," cried Dotty, throwing her arms around her kind sister's neck. "I'll never lose anything of yours again; no, never, never!"
This lesson was laid away on a shelf in Dotty's memory. Close beside it was another lesson, still more wholesome.
"Dotty Dimple isn't the best girl that ever lived. She had to be talked to and talked to, before she was willing to do right. She isn't any better than Jennie Vance, after all. Why did she pray that naughty prayer, just to make Jennie feel bad? God must have thought it was very strange!"
Grandma saw that Dotty's "blues" were dissolving like a morning mist; still she knew the child was in need of patchwork, and told her so.
"Let us all take our work," said she, "and sit together in the nursery, so we may forget the dull weather."
Grace brought her piqué apron down stairs to make, Susy her tatting, Prudy a handkerchief, Dotty a square of patchwork, while Flyaway danced about for a needle and thread.
"What a happy group!" said Mrs. Clifford, looking up from her sewing. She had forgotten Polly Whiting, who was mournfully toeing off a sock for Horace, while he sat on the floor, at her feet, mending her double-covered basket.
"Why, Katie, darling," said Grace, "what are you doing with that beautiful ribbon?"
"Aunt Louise said I might make a bag, Gracie—"
"Seems to me aunt Louise lets you do everything; I shouldn't want you to spoil that ribbon."
"They shan't bother my little Topknot," said Horace, with a sweep of his thumb. "She is going to have all my clothes to make bags of, when she grows up."
Flyaway, who knew she had a good right to the ribbon, pressed her eyelids together slowly.
"If I's Gracie," said she, severely, "I'd make aprons; if I's mamma I'd sew dresses; if I's Flywer, I'd do just's I want to."
And then she went on sewing; without any thimble.
"Girls, have you guessed yet why a wheelbarrow is like a potato?"
"No, Horace; why is it?"
"O, I was in hopes you could tell. I don't know, I am sure. It is as much as I can do to make up a conundrum, without finding out the answer."
The children laughed at this, but noneof them so loud as Flyaway, who thought her brother the wisest, wittiest, and noblest specimen of boyhood that ever lived.
"How our needles do fly!" said Dotty, merrily.
She was a neat and swift little seamstress, even superior to Prudy.
"See," said Flyaway to Horace; "I work faster 'n my mamma, 'cause she's got a big dress to work on: of course she can't sew so quick as I can on a little bag."
"Prudy can sew better and faster than I can," said Dotty, with a sudden gush of humility.
"Why, Dotty Dimple, I don't think so," returned Prudy, quite surprised.
"Neither do I," said aunt Maria; "I am afraid our little Dotty is hardly sincere."
Dotty's head drooped a little. "I knowit, auntie; I do sew the nicest; but I was afraid it wouldn't be polite if I told it just as it was, and Prudy so good to me, too."
"If she is good, is that any reason why you should tell her a wrong story?" remarked the plain-spoken Susy, giving a twitch to her tatting-thread.
"Children," said Mrs. Clifford, laughing, "do you remember those hideous green goggles I wore a year ago?"
"O, yes 'm," replied Grace; "they made your eyes stick out so! Why, you looked like a frog, ma', more than anything else."
"Well, a certain lady of my acquaintance was so polite as to tell me my goggles were very becoming."
"O, ma, who could it have been?"
"I prefer not to give you her name. I appreciated her kind wish to please me, but I could not think her sincere."
"O, Susy," said Grace, "if you could have seen those goggles! A little basket for each eye, made of green wire, like a fly cover! Ma, did you ever believe a word that lady said afterwards?"
"Flatterers are not generally to be trusted," replied Mrs. Clifford. "Flyaway, that is the fourth needle you have lost."
Here was another lesson for Dotty's memory-shelf. "I must not say things that are not true, just to be polite. It is flattering and wicked; and besides that, people always know better."
It was a quiet, busy, cheerful day. Dotty forgot to complain of the weather. Just before supper Flyaway jumped down from her grandpapa's knee, where she had been talking to him through his "conversation-tube," and ran to the window.
"Why, 'tisn't raining," cried she; "true's I'm walking on this floor 'tisn't raining!"
Dotty clapped her hands, and watched the sun coming out like pure gold, and turning the dark clouds into silver.
"We were patient and willing for it to rain," said she; "but of course that wasn't why it cleared off."
And it wasn't why Flyaway lost her thumb-nail, either. She lost that—or half of it—in the crack of the door. The poor little thumb was very painful, and had to be put in a cot.
"It wearies me," said Flyaway; "it makes me afraid I shan't ever have a nail on there again."
Her mother assured her she would. The same God who calls up the little blades of grass out of the ground could make a finger-nail grow.
"Will He?" said Flyaway, smiling through tears; "but 'haps He'll forget howit looks. Musn't I save a piece of my nail, mamma, and lay it up on the shelf, so He can see it, and make the other one like it?"
Mrs. Clifford put the nail in her jewel-box, and I dare say it may be there to this day.
Just as Flyaway, in her nightie, was having a frolic with Grace, there was a sound of wheels. The stage, which Horace called the "Oriole" because it had a yellow breast, was rolling into the yard.
"It's my mother—my mother," cried the three Parlins together.
Yes, and who was that little girl getting down just after her? Her hat covered her eyes. "It isn't Tate Penny!" Why, to be sure it was! There was her dimpled chin; and if that wasn't proof enough, there was the wart on her thumb!
To think such a glorious thing as this could happen to Dotty! and she not the best girl in the world either! A visit from her bosom friend! "Aunt 'Ria, do you understand? Aunt Louise? Gracie? This isTate Penny!"
"Who asked her to come? How did she happen to be with mamma, the same day, in the same cars?"
Well, grandma Parlin invited her to come. "When one lives in an India-rubber house," she said, "a few people more or less make no difference at all. She wished Dotty's 'nipperkin' of happiness to be full for once."
And it was: it ran over. There were joyful days for the next fortnight. I could never draw the picture of them with my pen, even if I had the paper left to put it on. They kept house under the trees;they baked their food in a brick oven Horace made; they gave a party; they had boat rides; they had swings; they never went into the house unless it rained; they were never cross to one another, or rude to Jennie Vance; it was like living in fairy-land.
It was a glorious summer. I almost wish it had not come to an end; though, in that case, I suppose I should never have stopped telling about it. By and by vacation was over, and Tate went off in the same stage with the Parlins. You could never guess what she and Dotty each put so carefully into their bosoms, to keep "forever." It was a splinter of the dear old barn where they had had such good times jumping!
Three weeks afterwards the "Oriole" drove up to grandpapa Parlin's again, andthis time for the Cliffords. Flyaway danced into it like a piece of thistle-down. Everybody threw good-by kisses, and the stage rattled away.
And after that, dears, as Flyaway will say to her grandchildren, "things went into a mist." And this is all I have to tell you about the Parlins, the Cliffords, and the Willowbrook home.
1.DOTTY DIMPLE AT HER GRANDMOTHER'S.2.DOTTY DIMPLE AT HOME.3.DOTTY DIMPLE OUT WEST.4.DOTTY DIMPLE AT PLAY.5.DOTTY DIMPLE AT SCHOOL.6.DOTTY DIMPLE'S FLYAWAY.
LITTLE PRUDY.LITTLE PRUDY'S SISTER SUSIE.LITTLE PRUDY'S CAPTAIN HORACE.LITTLE PRUDY'S COUSIN GRACE.LITTLE PRUDY'S STORY BOOK.LITTLE PRUDY'S DOTTY DIMPLE.