THE LITTLE TEACHER.
At last Dotty's "reasons" did begin to grow. Her mother was too wise and kind to allow her to have her own naughty way; and by the time she was four years old she had very few "temper days," and seemed to be growing quite lovely.
But her sisters were troubled because she had not yet learned to read. Prudy remembered how ashamed she herself had felt when she first set out in earnest to go to school. For some time after her lameness she was so delicate that no pains had been taken to teach her to read.
"My little sister must never be so stupid as I was," thought Prudy, uneasily.
Sometimes visitors inquired if Miss Dotty knew her letters, and poor Prudy blushed with shame when Mrs. Parlin calmly replied that she did not.
"I'm sure mother feels mortified," thought Prudy; "but she holds up her head, and tries to make the best of it. I'll not say a word to anybody, but I mean to teach my little sister my own self!"
So one Wednesday afternoon, when Susy was away, Prudy called Dotty into the nursery, and shut the door.
"What you want me of?" asked the child.
"I want to tell you something nice. Don't you wish you knew your A, B, C's, darling? There, that's what it is."
Dotty shook her head three or four times, and looked down at the carpet.
"Why, Dotty Dimple, you oughtn't to do so. You must answer when a question is asked. Wouldn't you like to learn your letters, like a goody girl, so you can read the nice books? Now be polite, and speak."
"I don't want to be polite, and speak, nor I don't want to learn my letters, like a goody gell; so there!" replied Dotty, seizing the kitty, and wrapping her in a shawl.
"O, Dotty Dimple!" said Prudy, in a tone of deep distress; "how old you're getting to be! just think!"
"I'm four years old, and I weigh four pounds," answered Dotty, drawing out her little cab, and throwing the muffled kitty into it, as if she had been a roll of cloth.
"O, my stars, Dotty, I can't bear to have you talk so."
Dotty tucked in the kitty's tail, and drew the carriage about the room, to give "Pusheen" an airing. "Pusheen" was her kitty's name in Irish.
"You can't think how dreadful it is, Dotty, to grow up and not know anything!"
Dotty turned a short corner. Pusheen had a fall; down came the little cab, kitty and all.
"To grow up and not know anything," continued Prudy. "O, it's enough to break anybody's heart!"
"Be you goin' to cry?" said Dotty, in a soft voice, kneeling, and peeping up into Prudy's eyes, with some curiosity.
Prudy was obliged to smile but hid her face in the sofa-pillow, and hoped Dotty did not see her. She found she must hit upon some other plan. Dotty could not be made to feel the terrors of growing up a dunce.
"Now, little sister," said she, "if you'll let me be your teacher, and keep school here in the nursery—"
"O, hum! A little gell keep school! Would you send me to the bottom of the foot?"
"O, no! I'll do something for you—let's me see!"
"Well, what?" cried Dotty, her eyes sparkling like blue gems; "what'll you do for me, Prudy?"
Prudy thought a minute. Meanwhile the muffled kitty slowly freed herself from the shawl, and slyly leaped to the top of the bureau, out of reach of her little mistress.
"O, Prudy," said Dotty, dancing about; "do something quick."
"Listen, dear! Will you promise to learn to read if I'll tell you a story about every single letter there is on your blocks?"
"How long a story? As long as this room? Yes, I'll promige," cried Dotty, with a gleeful laugh. "Go get the stories, and tell 'em this minute!"
"Now we'll begin," said Prudy, no less delighted, pouring the blocks out of the box upon the floor. "I'll ring the little tea-bell, and call the school to order. The school means you, and you must walk in and take your seat."
"Yes, if you'll let me sit in the rocking-chair!"
"O, but that is mine, because I'm the teacher."
"Then I'm goin' off into the kitchen," said Dotty, loftily, "and I don't know as I'll come back. I won't promige."
"O, take the rocking-chair!" replied Prudy quickly. "I'll sit on the ottoman; it's just as good. Glad you spoke of it, Dotty; 'twouldn't be proper for the teacher to rock. Hark! now I tingle the bell. School's begun!"
Dotty walked along, and very demurely seated herself in the big chair.
"Here," said Prudy, showing her a block, "is your first letter; guess what the picture means, and I'll tell you the name of the letter."
"That?" said Dotty, glancing at it; "that's a monkey; what you s'pose?"
"O, no! it's pretty near a monkey, not quite: it's what we call an ape."
"A nape!" echoed Dotty, pointing at it, and laughing. "O, my! you don' know nothin' at all but just—do you, Prudy Parlin? Funny gell to keep school! Didn't you never see a monkey? I've seen 'em dancing tummy-tum-tum, and a man making music with a little mite of a churn."
"Well, perhaps this is a monkey, and ape is its baby name," said Prudy, doubtfully.
"Got a face like a dried apple—hasn't he?" said the young pupil, admiringly. "Rally round the flag, boys!"
"Hush! You mustn't sing in school. The name of this letter is A. Look at it ever so long, and say it over."
"A, A, A," repeated Dotty, to the tune of "John Brown."
Prudy took courage. "All right, only you mustn't sing. I couldn't speak the letter better myself than you do, so soon. A stands for ape."
"No, for monkey."
The little teacher yielded the point. She had begun her school with plenty of love and patience.
"Now tell a story," said Dotty, settling herself in the chair.
"Can't you say 'please'?" suggested Prudy, mildly. "'Please' is but a little word, and 'thank you' is not long."
"Well, please, and thank you,—'bout a ape."
"I know a real nice one. Once there was a monkey—"
"No, a ape."
"Well, a ape, then. But I didn't start right. Once Mr. 'Gustus Allen sailed round the world."
"O, he went in one of those ships that go puffing out of the bay. And he had a little ape, named Jacky."
"How did you know? You wasn't there."
"O, he told me about it. He was the brightest little creature, Jacky was. When he was cold, Mr. Allen used to tuck him right in his bosom. Sometimes he got into mischief, he knew so much."
"Did he know as much as Zip? Did he ever talk in meetin'?"
"No, he couldn't bark the way Zip did at the lecture, but he chattered, as we do when our teeth are cold. When he'd been doing mischief he'd run round the floor of the ship, wagging his head the way I do now, as if he was as innocent as a whole lot of kittens. Why, he acted as you did, Dotty, when you was a little girl, and picked the inside out of that custard pie."
"Ahem!" said Dotty. "I guess you think you're talkin' to somebody else, Prudy Parlin! I don't like your story; wish you'd stop."
"But I was going to tell you how Jacky got sick, and there were ever so many more monkeys on board—"
"On what board?"
"On the ship. And they took care of Jacky, and brought him his supper as if they were folks."
"What did he have for supper?"
"O, nuts and things, on a wooden plate."
"I wish I was a monkey!"
"O, Dotty Dimple, that's a horrid speech!"
"Then I don't want to be a monkey; I want to be a ape. I wish I could go puffing round the world in a ship."
"Well, Dotty, this isn't keeping school. What letter have you learned?"
"I didn't learn a letter; I learned a story. You're a funny gell to keep a story-school!"
Prudy held up the block.
"O, that picked thing? You called it a ape!"
"Why, Dotty Parlin! that's A."
"A what?"
"I said A," repeated Prudy, with emphasis, "only just A."
"Why, 'tisn't A nothing—is it?"
"Dear me," thought Prudy, "I don't see how folks do keep school. I'm getting just as hungry—and cross!"
When Dotty had learned A so well that she knew it at a glance, her teacher proceeded to the next letter, which stood on the block for a bat. Dotty said the picture looked "like Zip with an umbrella over him."
After the second story, she was tired of the business.
"Look out the window, Prudy. See that whale! O, you April fool!"
The young sister sighed over her sister's light-minded behavior. When they came to C, which stood for cat, Dotty seized her kitty and tried to feed her with lozenges. But Pusheen turned away her head with a gesture which signified,—
"Candy isn't fit to touch. I'd eat a mouse with you, with pleasure."
"Talk," said Dotty; "say 'thank you,' Pusheen! No, indeed, you needn't do it; I's just in fun. God didn't give you any teef to talk with, Pussy; so you can't talk."
"Now, Dotty, this next letter is D."
"O, Prudy, I wish you'd hush! I've got the earache."
"Ah, well!" thought the gentle teacher, with a sigh; "I'll try again, some other day. I'll not give it up. Grandma says, 'Time and patience make the mulberry leaf into satin.' I don't know what that means, only it's something about perseverance."