|One morning Dora's mother was going away to the next town. She was
going to bring grandma for a visit.
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The carriage was waiting before she was quite ready. "Now I shall
not have time to finish my work," she said. "I will let you sweep the
sitting-room, Dora. You did it very nicely last week, and I know you
want to help me."
Dora was pouting because she could not go in the carriage with her
mother. She thought it was very cruel that she must stay at home when
she wanted to go so much. So she did not answer, but sat by the window
pouting till the carriage was gone. Then she said to herself, "I don't
feel like sweeping, and don't care how I do it. I think 't is too bad
that I can't go to ride!"
So she swept the sitting-room in a very heedless manner. She did not get
the dust-pan and take up the litter; she only brushed it together and
left it under the hearth-rug.
[Illustration: 9078]
When her mother came home she praised her for making the room so neat.
Grandma praised her too. She said, "I like to see children do their work
well. Then I feel sure they will do their work well when they are grown
up. I am glad if our little girl is going to be a good house-keeper."
[Illustration: 8078]
O, how Dora felt! She was so ashamed of what she had done. She felt
worse because they praised her. She kept thinking of the litter under
the hearth-rug. She was afraid some one would move the rug and see it.
She was unhappy all the rest of the day. When she went to sleep at night
she dreamed that she could not find the dust-pan.
She woke very early the next morning and went down stairs alone. She
found the dustpan and brushed up the litter as carefully as she could.
It seemed easy enough to do it now. She wished that she had done it
at first; then she would have deserved praise from her mother and
grandmother.
Dora remembered this for a long time. I am J not sure if she ever forgot
it; and it taught her a good lesson. She found that wrongdoing made her
very unhappy. When she grew older she learned to be a neat housekeeper.
--M. E. N. HATHEWAY