FANNY HARLOW'S PARTY.
"Kiss me, little sister," said Prudy, "and let me go, for I must get ready for the party."
"I know where you're goin'," said Dotty; "why can't I go too?"
Little did innocent Prudy dream of the queer thoughts which were chasing one another in her little sister's brain. After she and Susy had gone, and the house was quite still, Dotty stood at the window, looking down street. It was a lovely day; the clouds were "softer than sleep."
"O, my suz!" said Dotty Dimple; "there they go, way off, way off, Susy and Prudy. Bof of 'em are all gone. Nobody at home but me. Didn't ask me to her party, Fanny Harlow didn't."
Dotty heaved a deep sigh, took her black baby out of its cradle, and shook it with all her might.
"What you lookin' to me for, Phib? I wasn't a 'peakin' to you. I'm goin' to cover you all up, Phib, so you won't hear me think."
Then Dotty looked out of the window again. "What a good little girl I am," thought she, "not to be a cryin'! Prudy'd cry! There goes the blacksmif's shop." Dotty meant the blacksmith. "His mother lets him go everywhere. Everybody's mother lets 'em go everywhere."
A prettily dressed little girl passed the window.
"How do you do, little girl?" whispered Dotty, in a voice so low that even the cat did not hear. "O, what a booful hat you've got! Would your mamma make you wear a rainy dress, like mine? No, she wouldn't. Your mamma lets you go to parties all the days only Sundays. My mamma has sticked me into the nursery, and nothin' but a dar'needle to sew with! O, hum! And I haven't runned away since forever'n ever! They don't 'low me to run away. Wish Fanny Harlow'd asked me to her party. I know why she never! 'Cause she forgot I was born."
Presently there was a sound of little feet. Dotty was pattering up stairs.
"Didn't know I was sewing with a dar'needle—did you, mamma? Mayn't I go to Fanny Harlow's party?"
Mrs. Parlin was busy with visitors, and did not pay much heed to her little daughter. So Dotty crept close to her mother's side, and buried her roguish face behind her head-dress.
"Wish you'd please to punish me, mamma," said she; "punish me now; I'm a-goin' to be naughty?"
Mrs. Parlin smiled, and reminded Dotty that it was not polite to whisper in company. Then she went on talking with her friends, and Miss Dimple slipped quietly out of the room.
"I know I don't ought to," mused the child; "I'm a-goin' to do wicked, and get punished; but I want to do wicked, and get punished. I've been goody till I'm all tired up!"
Having made this decision, she went to Prudy's closet, and looked at the dresses hanging wrong side outward on the pegs.
"This is a booful one," said she, pulling down a scarlet merino. She put on the dress, forgetting, in her guilty haste, to take off her own blue one.
"O, my suz! I never did see!" said Dotty, puffing and tugging in her efforts to fasten the frock. "My mother must make Prudy's clo'es bigger'n this; yes, she must. It chokes."
However, by dint of much hard work she succeeded in squeezing her round little figure into the red merino, and fastening two of the buttons. "O, hum!" sighed she; "this dress is so tight I shan't grow to-day!"
Dotty had a great admiration for her mother's purple breakfast shawl, which she now threw over her little shoulders with tremulous delight. Nono's Sunday bonnet she next laid her naughty hands upon. Very charming was this bonnet in Dotty's eyes, as it was made of claret-colored silk, and was all on fire inside with scorching red and yellow flames. It was so huge and so deep that Dotty's small face under it looked as if it had got lost in Mammoth Cave.
"Now I've got every single clo'es on me. Guess there won't anybody think I'm a boy this time," mused she, giving a last glance at the mirror; "there won't anybody laugh, and say, 'How d'ye do, my fine little fellow?'"
Very well pleased with herself, Dotty dressed "brother Zip" in Prudy's water-proof cloak, and they both stole out by the side door, without being seen. But which way to go Dotty could not tell.
"Where is the-girl-that-has-the-party's house?" thought she, under her bonnet. "Well, it's by the stone lions, 'most up to the North Pole. Now, Zippy, if we keep a-goin' we shall get there, and we'll see some girls out by the door."
Zip wagged his faithful tail, which was quite hidden under the cloak, and they both trudged on, Dotty's heart quivering with wicked delight.
She happened to go in the right direction, and at last did really reach the "house by the stone lions." Several young girls were indeed playing in the yard.
"What little image is that, traveling this way?" cried Florence Eastman, holding up both hands.
"A beggar child, perhaps," replied Fanny Harlow. "'Sh! 'sh! don't laugh!"
"I don't see anything but a walking bonnet," tittered one of the girls; "don't it look like a chaise top? O, look, look! as true as you live, that thing that's hopping along beside her is a dog!"
The little figure now approached very slowly, its head bent down, its fingers in its mouth; though the girls saw nothing but a big, drooping bonnet, a purple shawl, and a pair of tiny feet peeping out from a red dress.
"I guess she came from Farther India," suggested Susy, that being the most foreign land she could think of.
Dotty now gave a loud knock at the gate, and peeped in between the bars. In doing so she had to push back the chaise-top, and the little girls had a full view of her face.
"O, Dotty Dimple Parlin!" screamed her sisters, in dismay.
Fanny Harlow hastened to open the gate.
"Where did you come from, you naughty thing?" whispered Susy, with a crimson face.
Dotty's sole answer was a violent sneeze, which burst off two buttons, the only ones which fastened the scarlet merino.
"I've broke my dress," said Dotty, calmly.
The little girls were greatly amused, but Dotty eyed them with such a gaze of lofty disdain that they kept their faces as straight as possible.
"Poor thing," said cousin Florence; "how tired you must be! Don't you want to sit right down in this iron chair?"
Dotty's bright eyes flashed. "Don't you pity me, Flossy! Now 'top it!"
"How shall we ever get her home?" thought the two older sisters, in alarm; for they saw by the motion of Dotty's elbows, that she had made up her mind to queen it over the whole company.
"Look here, Dotty," said Prudy, going up to her, and kissing her; "did mother say you might come, darling?"
Dotty rubbed off the kiss, and made no answer.
"Don't you think 'twould be a nice plan," whispered Prudy, "for me and Susy to draw you home in a little carriage? And I'll ask mother to forgive you."
"O, yes," said Susy, in an agony of mortification; "now do!"
Dotty looked as unmoved as one of the stone lions, and took no notice of the request.
"What made they put two trees 'side that one tree?" asked she, by way of changing the subject.
"Now, Dotty, you will go, that's a little love," said Susy, wringing her hands. "Only think, if you don't you'll lose five kisses to-night, and I dare say mamma will punish you, too."
"There's a man goin' by—old all over, and a white whisker. Who is it?" inquired Dotty, changing the subject again. "The whisker looks like snow, 's if his chin's cold!"
"Never mind the man," returned Prudy. "If you'll go I'll spend my five cents, and buy you some pep'mints."
"I'd rather have pickled limes," said Dotty thoughtfully.
"So you shall," cried eager Susy; "and you'll be the sweetest little pet, and ride home like a lady."
"So I will," said Dotty, serenely, "when I've had my supper."
Susy's face fell. If the little piece of obstinacy would stay, she would; and Mrs. Harlow politely declared they should all be delighted. But how would she behave at the table? Her manners were as yet unformed; she needed line upon line and precept upon precept. It was dreadful to think of her taking supper at one of the nicest houses in the city, in that dress, and without her watchful mother too! It was a severe trial to Susy. Prudy was also distressed, but her "sky-like spirit" brightened again speedily.
The little girls all crowded about Dotty, begging her to join in their games; but she said it would "hurt her big bonnet," which she could not be persuaded to take off, because she fancied it added something to her importance.
Fanny Harlow brought out a picture book for the little runaway.
"I'm afraid she'll tear it," said careful Prudy.
Dotty looked at her sister with a withering glance, and, in her eagerness to prove that she knew how to handle books, suddenly tore one of the leaves. She was surprised and mortified; but her self-esteem was not easily crushed.
"There, Prudy," said she, pertly; "what made you let me do it for? You said I'd tear it!"
Mrs. Harlow hastened supper, fearing that Mrs. Parlin might be anxious about her little daughter. Dotty was placed between her two sisters. Susy pinned a napkin about the child's neck, and in a whisper begged to be allowed to spread her bread and butter for her. Dotty had worn the air of a princess royal all the afternoon; but now, seated in a high chair, and surrounded by a group of admiring little girls, she felt like a crowned queen. Taking her bread in both hands, she crumbed it into her goblet of milk, and began to dip it out with the handle of her fork. The girls looked on and smiled, and Dotty gave a little purr of satisfaction.
"Everybody'll think mother doesn't teach her good manners," thought poor Susy, hardly knowing whether she ate bread or ashes.
"Dear, dear," said Prudy to herself; "Dotty may die some time, and then I should be sorry, and cry. I'll keep thinking of that, so I can bear her awful actions better."
The little princess, from her throne in the high chair, did very rude things; such as coughing and blowing crumbs into her plate, drumming with her feet, and beating time with her fork and spoon. When bread was offered, she said,—
"I don't like baker's bread. I like daily bread."
But this was all the remark she made during the whole meal. At last she ceased eating, coughing, and drumming: there was a "flash of silence."
Everybody looked up. Dotty's eyes were closed, and her head was swaying from side to side, like a heavy apple stuck on a knitting needle—she was fast asleep.
She was wheeled home in a small carriage, followed by a guard of all the girls. Next day she was duly punished by being tied to the bedpost with the clothes-line.
"I wish her reasons would begin to grow," sighed Prudy. "I never can feel happy when Dotty gets into a fuss."
"I've been thinking it all over," replied Susy, "and I've made up my mind that God allows her to mortify you and me. You know we must have some kind of a trial, or we shouldn't grow gentle and sweet tempered."