Little Prudy

Copyright, 1891, by Rebecca S. Clarke.

You who have read of Prudy Parlin, in the Congregationalist and Little Pilgrim, and have learned to love her there, may love her better in a book by herself with pictures.
To you who never saw her before, we will introduce her now. It is easy to feel acquainted with Prudy; for she is, as you will find, a very talkative little lady.
There is no end of things which might be told of Susy, Grace, and Horace; and if you wish to hear more about them, you have only to wait a little while.
God is sending us another year as fresh and clean as the purest paper. Let us thank Him for it, and try to write it over with kind thoughts and good deeds; then it will be for all of us


I am going to tell you something about a little girl who was always saying and doing funny things, and very often getting into trouble.
Her name was Prudy Parlin, and she and her sister Susy, three years older, lived in Portland, in the State of Maine, though every summer they went to Willowbrook, to visit their grandmother.
At the very first of our story, Susy was more than six years old, and Prudy was between three and four. Susy could sew quite well for a girl of her age, and had a stint every day. Prudy always thought it very fine to do just as Susy did, so she teased her mother to let her have some patchwork, too, and Mrs. Parlin gave her a few calico pieces, just to keep her little fingers out of mischief.
But when the squares were basted together, she broke needles, pricked her fingers, and made a great fuss; sometimes crying, and wishing there were no such thing as patchwork.