RUNNING WILD.
You begin to see how the children were running wild at Mrs. Eastman's.
One morning Dotty climbed the hat-tree to get away from her cousin
Percy.
"Don't believe 'cousin Dimple' knows a hat-tree wasn't made for little
girls to sit on," said Percy.
"No, 'twas made to swing on," replied Dotty, tilting herself backward
and forward like a bird on a bough. "I'm going to stay here till
somebody carries me off pick-aback."
Percy, having nothing better to do, took his little cousin on his
shoulders, danced her about the hall and through the house, and finally
tossed her backward into a pile of shavings. Dotty sprang up, shook off
the shavings, and ran after Percy, laughing so boisterously that
Angeline said to the chambermaid,--
"I know of one person that will be glad when Mrs. Parlin gets back."
"And I know of another," replied Janey. "The child behaved like a lady
when she first came; but what can you expect in this house with those
boys?"
"How's that bird?" said Percy, as he and Dotty raced through the
kitchen. "Can he stand on both legs yet?"
"Yes, indeed! He could stand on _three_ legs if he had 'em. He's most
well--I must go and 'tend to him."--("I wonder what's going to happen
that's bad," thought she, as she fed the bird in her own chamber with
cream biscuit. "I hope it isn't a fire!")--"Why, Johnny Eastman, I
shouldn't think your mamma'd let you scream so loud!"
"Then you must hear the first time. Come, let's go out and have some
fun; mother's gone to Cumberland."
As if Johnny did not have fun all day, and every day, whether his mother
was at home or abroad!
"Prudy," said Dotty, "good by, for Johnny 'n' I are going down to the
beach to get some shells."
Prudy looked up from her writing.
"Don't go near the water," said she; then throwing her arms about her
little sister, she sang,--
"If you love me as I love you,
No knife shall cut our love in two."
"Well, I do," replied Dotty, with an affectionate hug, "and I sha'n't go
near the water."
"You won't forget?" said Prudy, anxiously. "You know mamma's as afraid
of the water as she can be."
"What are you after?" cried Angeline, half a minute afterwards. "Of all
the rummaging children!" At the same time she gave Dotty a nice cake
warm from the oven.
"I'm looking for my hat," said the little girl, shutting the sink door.
"Last time I saw it 'twas in a barrel somewhere."
But it happened to be in a hogshead.
"I think this is a real nice sort of world," thought Dotty, as she and
Johnny trudged off in the pleasant sunshine. "I do think, just to
myself--though I wouldn't say it out loud--that I'm as nice as anybody.
I don't know what Prudy'd do 'thout me; and I guess Susy'd cry her eyes
out!"
"What you thinking about?" said Johnny.
"O, 'bout a good many things! Let's run; it tires me to pieces to walk!"
"Look!" cried Johnny, "there's Mandoline!"
And such a pretty sight as bareheaded Mandoline presented! She was a
little Jewess, with such beauty, perhaps, as that of the women we read
about in the Bible. She had dark, wavy hair, like sea-foam with ink
tipped over in it. Her eyes were like gems; there was a brilliant color
in her cheeks, and her mouth was so sweet that
"Upon her lip the honey bee
Might build her waxen throne."
Dotty did not know why she liked Mandoline so well, but like her she
did. Mrs. Parlin was afraid Mandoline had not been taught to respect the
truth, and had often desired her little daughter not to play with the
beautiful Jewess.
But "Lina" went to Mrs. Eastman's, and Mrs. Eastman petted her. Dotty
thought it could not be wrong to associate with a little girl her auntie
liked so well.
"Come with us, Lina," said Johnny.
"Where are you going?"
"Going to make a Bunger Hill Monuement," replied
Dotty. "We know where the shells grow real thick."
"But I've lost my shaker. A dog's got it."
"O, no matter, _you_ don't care," said Dotty, in a grandmotherly tone,
"for _I_ won't let anybody laugh at you."
Lina yielded. The three children tripped along together, taking up
Freddy Jackson on the way--a deaf and dumb boy, who only knew when it
thundered by the jar he could feel. Everybody was kind to Freddy. Dotty
Dimple, with all her faults, was never known to be impatient with the
poor boy.
The children reached the sea-shore, which _was_ somewhere "near the
water," though Dotty had assured Prudy to the contrary. Shell-gathering
is more exciting work than picking strawberries in the country; for
strawberries are all very much alike, whereas shells present some
variety.
But in this instance it was very dull business, for the reason that
there were no shells to be found. They had all become weary of groping
about in the sand, when Johnny looked at the bay, and observed a boy
coming towards them, rowing a boat.
"Hilloa, there!" shouted the boy.
"Hilloa!" responded Johnny. "If that isn't Sol Rosenberg!" (This was
Mandoline's brother.) "Where you going, Sol?"
"Nowhere particular. Get in and go too?"
"Yes," said Johnny, "Fred Jackson and I. Fred can steer as straight's a
needle. I'll paddle, you know."
"Girls too," added Solomon, gallantly.
With one accord the children walked eagerly towards the boat, which, by
this time, Solomon had moored against the beach. All but Dotty.
"Are you old enough, Solly Rosenberg, old enough and know enough not to
drown us all to pieces?"
Young Solomon laughed.
"If I can't manage a small concern like this!"
"But four, and one more, make _five_, Solly!"
"You don't say so! Well, I could carry sixteen, if they were all such
little snips as you are!"
"Dot Parlin thinks she weighs as much as two tons," said Johnny, in an
irritating tone.
"I'm dreadful 'fraid," murmured the little Jewess, shaking the wayward
hair out of her magnificent eyes; "but I'll go if you will, Dotty
Dimple."
Dotty shoved her feet into the sand and reflected.
"My mamma is afraid of the water; but then she was upset in a scursion,
and that's why she's afraid."
"What kind of thing is a _scursion_?" asked Johnny.
"A Sabbath school picnic. And she wasn't upset either, only she 'xpected
to be."
"Come on!" called Solly. "All aboard!"
"But my mamma said it wasn't safe!"
"No, she didn't. She never saw this boat; she doesn't know whether it's
safe or not."
"Doesn't it leak a single speck, Solly Rosenberg? It looks wet."
"Pshaw! That's where the waves come in; it's as tight as the bark to a
tree."
Dotty was becoming very eager to go. It sometimes did seem, when she
really wished to do any particular thing, that she wished it more than
any one else.
"But, O dear! my mamma doesn't 'low me to sail."
This was spoken sorrowfully; but there was a little wavering in the
tone. Dotty had taken the first false step; she had listened to the
voice of temptation, and every persuasive word of Solly's left her
weaker than it had found her.
"My mamma doesn't _ever_ 'low me to sail."
"You _couldn't_ sail in a wherry if you were to try," said Johnny.
"Come, Sol, don't stop to bother: who wants girls? They just spoil the
fun."
"For shame!" said the more polite Solomon, drawing himself up and
looking very manly; "the girls shall go if they want to. Only just round
the curve."
Dotty liked Solly at that moment very much. She looked at her
ill-mannered little cousin with royal disdain, and walked slowly and
cautiously on towards the boat. Lina followed at a little distance.
_Her_ mother had also forbidden her to go on the water, and had declared
that Solomon was too young to manage a boat; but neither Lina nor her
brother had very tender consciences. If they did wrong things, and
nobody knew it, it was all very well; but if they were found out--ah!
then was the time to be sorry! Dotty's conscience had been much better
educated than theirs: it gave her plenty of warning, which she would not
heed, and tried to stifle by talking.
"It isn't a sail boat. When my mamma went in the scursion, then it was a
sail boat, and the wind whistled so the sails shook dreadfully. My mamma
never talked to me about wherries; she didn't ever say I mustn't go in a
wherry."
While Dotty was still talking, she entered the boat, the last of the
five. She seated herself, but was annoyed to find her dainty gaiters
sinking into a pool of dirty water. She lifted her feet, but could not
keep them up. Well, perhaps she shouldn't have the sore throat after
all; she couldn't help it now if she did have it. At any rate she was
determined not to complain, when Solly had been so very polite.
"Isn't this prime?" said Johnny, as they launched out upon the water.
The motion was certainly pleasant, and for a few moments Dotty was quite
delighted, thinking over and over again,--
"Mamma won't care; it's nothing but a wherry, and the wind doesn't
blow."
Then she suddenly remembered her promise to Prudy, not to go "anywhere
near the water."
"And I never thought I should. I never s'posed I should see Solly
Rosenberg. I didn't know he was in this city. Prudy'd like it just as
well as I do, if she was in here, and knew 'twas a wherry."