Teddy: Her Book / A Story of Sweet Sixteen

Spring's hands are always full of rosy flowers, Unopened buds to deck each field and tree. We love and watch them through the long, sweet hours, Not for the buds, but what the buds will be. Life's hands are full of buds. She comes on singing, With radiant eyes, across Youth's golden gate; We smile to see the burden she is bringing, And for the Summer are content to wait.
The five McAlisters were gathered in the dining-room, one rainy night in late August. In view of the respective dimensions of the family circle and the family income, servants were few in the McAlister household, and division of labor was the order of the day. Old Susan had cleared away the table and brought in the lamp; then she retired to the kitchen, leaving the young people to themselves.
Hope was darning stockings. She had one of Hubert's socks drawn on over her hand, which showed, white and dainty, through the great, ragged hole. Hubert sat near her with little Allyn on his knee, tiding over a crisis in the young man's temper by showing him pictures in the dilapidated Mother Goose which had done duty for successive McAlisters, from seventeen-year-old Hope down.
Stop kicking brother, he commanded, as Allyn lifted up his voice and his heels in vigorous protest against things in general, and the approach of the sandman in particular. Listen, Allyn,—
'There was a little man, And he had a little gun, And his bullets were made of lead, lead, lead.'
Theodora appeared on the threshold of the great china closet, where she was washing the cups and plates. She had a dish-cloth in one hand and three or four spoons in the other.
You don't put enough emphasis into it, Hu, she said mockingly. This is the way it should sound, like this,—
'There was a little cow, And it had a little calf, And it wouldn't ever go to bed, bed, bed.'
Never mind, Allyn, sister will come in a few minutes and put your nightie on. Oh, Babe, I wish you'd hurry and put away these dishes.
But Babe, baptismally known as Phebe, was engaged in tickling Allyn's toes, with the praiseworthy intention of making him kick the harder. Accordingly, she was deaf to the voice of Theodora, who was forced to put away the cups herself. She did it with a bumping impatience, grumbling the while.