"Now, Susy Parlin, you told me to cry! She did, mamma. She said if I'd cry she'd give me a piece of her doughnut."
Susy blushed; and her mother looked at her, and said, "I would like to see you alone a little while, Susy."
Then Mrs. Parlin had a talk with Susy in the parlor, and told her how wrong it was to deceive, and how she must take the care of her little sister, and set her good examples.
Susy said she would do as well as she could.
"But, mamma, if you are willing, I'd rather not sit with Prudy, now, certainly. She says such queer things. Why, to-day she said she had grandma's rheumatism in her back, and wanted me to look at her tongue and see if she hadn't. Why, mother, as true as I live, she shut up her eyes and put out her tongue right there in school, and of course we girls couldn't help laughing!"
"Well, perhaps she'd better sit by herself," replied Mrs. Parlin, smiling. "I will speak to the teacher about her carrying her knitting-work—that may keep her out of mischief."
Now it happened that grandma Read had taken a great deal of pains to teach Prudy to knit;—but such a piece of work as the child made of it!
The first time she carried the thing which she supposed was going to be a stocking, the A B C scholars looked very much surprised, for none of them knew how to knit.
Prudy said, "Poh, I know how to do it just as easy!"
But in trying to show them how smart she could be, she knit so fast that she dropped a stitch every other moment.