ACORN HOLLOW.
"Oh, Aunt Elissa! stay with us and spend the evening, why can't you!" exclaimed Janie, Nelly, and Thanny, as the before-mentioned aunt entered their cheerful little parlor one evening, after being absent some time.
"Stay and spend the evening! Bless your dear souls! no. Haven't I got to go to the post office, and besides that, a hundred and one other errands to do?"
"Never mind the post office, Aunt Lissa. Where's my hat? I'll run there and back again in two minutes, and that will save you the trouble of going. And never mind the errands either; you can come over in the morning and do them; besides that we don't like to have our aunt going about these dark evenings—she might get lost, or something might catch her and carry her off, and then—"
"What then?"
"Why she wouldn't tell us any more stories."
"Away with you, you selfish things! that's as much as you care for me. Now I'll go right home."
"Oh don't, don't! Run Thanny and shut the door, while I hold her, and Nelly unties her bonnet. I don't care if she does scold."
"Go away! you wild birds. Haven't you been taught any better manners than this? Strange your mother will let you act so! but there she sits, sewing away as busily as ever, only looking up now and then, to smile, as if she didn't care at all. Fie! for shame! There goes my bonnet and shawl. Now Nelly, if you hide them, I'll never go over the hills with you again. I have a great mind not to speak a word to one of you."