CHAPTER XVII.
NUTTING.
One day, before her grandmother and aunt came, my fine mother, Garafelina, told me that she had been invited to a nutting, but as a nutting was so low a pastime, she had half a mind not to go. Her mother, however, told her, she would cut such a grand show, that she had better go; so she had consented, and was going to take me with her. The next morning my mother was up early, and awoke me, when the following conversation was held:—"Josey, my dear, I think you had better have on your silk dress, as I want you to make a grand show," said my mother. "But," said I, "hadn't I better wear another, as I may spoil it?" "Why, child, what can you be thinking of? don't you want to make a show?" "Yes, mother, but I had rather take comfort than make a show?" "Stop, do as I have bid you, and say no more about it." In the course of an hour my mother and I had got dressed, and as we descended to the dining-room, Garafelina's mother said to her, "My dear, the young misses and masters have all been waiting here some time, and I told them that you were not up yet, and so they waited." "Dear me! how sorry I am," said my mother, in her most affected tone, "to have given these young ladies and gentlemen the affliction of waiting for me." "Not at all," they politely replied. We now started, and as we got out of the door, my mother started back, and said, "Mercy on me! haven't you any carriage or barouche for us to ride in, I shall be so extremely and exceedingly fatigued?" However, they had not, and so we started along; Garafelina all the time lamenting that she had not got her "landau" with her, as she would die very soon. In an hour or so we got to the woods, where we sat down to rest ourselves. While thus resting, we heard a very loud screaming; and turning in the direction of the cry, there we saw my mother, Garafelina, screeching with all her might, "Oh save me, save me!" she cried. All the boys and girls ran to her, and asked her what was the matter. "Oh the spider, the spider!" she screamed, and upon looking, they found a very small spider on her dress, and she, instead of shaking it off, began to scream lustily. I thought my mother was very foolish to make so much ado about a little spider, but I did not tell her so. Garafelina being rid of the spider, began to gather the nuts, with the rest of the party. But then she tore her dress on a bramble-bush, and had her veil torn off by the boughs, which accidents made her so ill-humored, that they all secretly agreed never to invite her again. As they were going home, they saw a drove of cows before them, which made my mother run and scream like a maniac. One of the little girls said that they were her mother's cows, and that if they would come into the cow-yard, they could see them milked. None of the party hesitated but Garafelina, who said that she did not want to go into a dirty old cow-yard. Soon, however, she changed her mind, and went. I had seen cows milked at my mother's house, (I mean Agnes Earle's); but I enjoyed the scene before me very much. First, half of the girls tried, and then the other half; and then half of the boys, and then the other half. When it came Garafelina's turn, she went about it so awkwardly, that it made them all laugh. She spattered a shower of milk over upon her dress; the cow knocked her down; and when she got up, she was indeed a sight! Her dress and veil were torn, and spattered with dirt, and her dress was all covered with spots, where the milk had been spattered upon her. When she got home, she complained of the ill treatment she had received; and her mother said that she should never go again to a nutting.
When I went to sleep that night, I prayed that I might be delivered from such a mother, and be placed in the hands of a better one, who had more sense, and who was not so ill-humored and proud. Early next morning my mother told me sorrowfully, that her old aunt and grandmother were coming next week, for which I was quite as sorry as my mother, for I thought that I had enough of troubles.
CHAPTER XVIII.
AN OLD MAID AND A GRANDMOTHER.
In a week they arrived. The old maid was a quiddling thing, and the grandmother was always saying that she could never get over a cold; and then she would tell how she had got it. One day this aunt (her name was Betsy Harper) said to my mother, "Do make your doll's hair curl a little more to the front, and tie her shoe-string a little longer; and there! do fix her apron-string, I hate to see it touch the placket-hole." "Oh!" said her grandmother, "never mind, Betsy, if you had such a cold as I have got; I never can get rid of it." "Do stop," said Betsy. This aunt objected to my having my soup eaten so quick; she always allowed herself five minutes to have it eaten, and no more, nor less. Then I was to hold my spoon just so, and only to put half a spoonful in at a time, for she had known little girls (and she said, why not dolls as well as girls?) to be choked in taking a whole spoonful at a time. Nor must I take a quarter of a spoonful, as I would not have my soup eaten in five minutes. I am sorry to say that I often wished that this aunt was in the Red Sea, and not very near dry land; but I suppose that it was all meant for my good. One evening there was company, and one lady took me up, and said, "This is a beautiful doll." "But don't you think that she would be handsomer, if she had her hair curled a little closer, and if one of her nostrils was a little better shaped, and if one of her eyes was a little higher and blacker," said Betsy Harper. "I don't know, I'm sure," said the lady. At this moment Garafelina came up, and said, that if the lady would be pleased to accept of the doll, and carry it home to her little girl, that she would be very much obliged to her. The lady thanked Garafelina, and said that Amelia would be very much pleased with me. I hoped that my new mother would take good care of me, and love me very much. Whether she did or not, you will hear in the next chapter.
CHAPTER XIX.
ACCIDENTS.
"Amelia see what I have brought you," said Mrs. Joyce to her little girl.
"What is it mother?"