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LITTLE PRUDY'S
DOTTY DIMPLE
_By_
SOPHIE MAY
NEW YORK
HURST & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
[Illustration]
DEDICATION.
TO
Little Nelly Clarke.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. DOTTY'S BABYHOOD 7
II. THE BONE MAN 31
III. DOTTY'S VERSES 36
IV. THE NESTLINGS 52
V. FANNY HARLOW'S PARTY 65
VI. THE LITTLE TEACHER 83
VII. BOTH SIDES OF A STORY 98
VIII. THE WATER-KELPIE 117
IX. BROTHER ZIP 137
X. DR. PRUDY 154
XI. BUYING A BROTHER 173
XII. A WEDDING 189
DOTTY DIMPLE.
CHAPTER I.
DOTTY'S BABYHOOD.
Alice was the youngest of the Parlin family. When Grandma Read called
the children into the kitchen, and told them about their new little
sister, Susy danced for joy; and Prudy, in her delight, opened the
cellar door, and fell down the whole length of the stairs. However, she
rolled as softly as a pincushion, and was not seriously hurt.
"But you can't go into mother's room," said Susy, "you're crying so
hard."
"Poh!" replied three-years-old Prudy, twinkling off the tears; "yes, I
can neither. I won't go _crying_ in! I didn't hurt me velly bad. I'm
weller now!"
So she had the first peep at the wee dot of a baby in the nurse's arms.
"O, dear, dear," said she, "what shall I do? I _are_ so glad! I wish I
could jump clear up to the _sky_ of this room! How do you do, little
sister?"
The baby made no reply.
"Why! don't you love me? This is _me_: my name's Prudy. I've got a red
pocket dress;--Santa Claw bringed it."
Still the little stranger paid no heed,--only winked her small, bright
eyes, and at last closed them entirely.
"O, my stars! she don't hear the leastest thing," sobbed Prudy, glad of
an excuse to cry again. "She can't hear the leastest mite of a thing!
Where's the holes in her ears gone to? O, dear, dear!"
It seemed to Susy that this was the happiest day of her life. She stole
up to her mother and kissed her. "O, mamma," said she, "wasn't God good
to send this little sister?--Why, I'm crying," added Susy, greatly
surprised: "what do you suppose makes me cry, when I'm happy all
over--clear to the ends of my fingers?"
"Yes, your eyes are sprinklin' down tears, but you're laughing all over
your face; and so 'm I," said little Prudy, delighted to see some one
else as foolish as herself.
"Susan, I hope thee'll receive this new sister as a gift from God," said
grandma Read, wiping her spectacles.
"It seems so funny," said Susy, gently stroking the baby's face; "so
funny for me to have a new sister."
"Now you've tolled a story, Susy Parlin; she was sended to me,--isn't I
the littlest?" cried bruised and battered Prudy, shaking with another
tempest of tears, and kissing the baby violently.
"O, mamma! O, grandma," said Susy, clasping her hands in alarm, "don't
let her kiss that soft baby so hard! She'll draw the blood right
through her cheeks."
The nurse who was a smiling woman, with a wart on her nose, began to
frown a little, and grandma Read, patting Prudy's head, whispered to her
that if she did not stop crying she must leave the room, as the noise
she made disturbed her mother.
"Then I'll--I'll be--just as good as a lady, and I won't kiss her no
more," replied little Prudy between her sobs, at the same time prying
open baby's mouth with her busy fingers.
"Why, where's her teef? When you goin' to put in her teef?"
"O," said Susy, in an ecstasy, "isn't she such a velvet darling? What
cunning little footsie-tootsies! Shaped just like a flatiron! But I
haven't seen her eyes yet."
"There, look now," said Prudy, puffing in the baby's face; "her eyes has
came! I've _blowed_ 'em open."
"O, fie, Miss Prudy," said the nurse, biting her lips; "now you'll
certainly have to leave the room. It's not safe for you to come near
this tiny bit of a baby. Nobody ever knows what you are likely to do
next."
Little Prudy hung her head in great dismay.
"Then, if she goes, I'll have to go too, or there'll be a fuss," sighed
Susy, stroking the baby's hair, which was as soft as a mouse's fur.
Both children cast a lingering look at the bewitching little figure, so
daintily wrapped in a fleecy blanket. Prudy felt tempted to snatch her
up and give her a good hugging, but stood in mortal fear of the nurse.
There was something awful about Mrs. Fling: Prudy presumed it was the
wart on her nose.
When the children were outside the door, and grandma had closed it
gently, they seated themselves on the upper step of the staircase, and
began to talk over this strange affair.
"Don't you know what made me cry in there?" said Prudy. "The baby isn't
only a _girl_, and that's why I cried."
For the moment Prudy fancied she was telling the truth.
Susy laughed. "Just to think of our keeping a boy in THIS
house, Prudy Parlin!"
"O, no! _course_ not!" returned her little sister, quickly; "_we_
wouldn't keep a boy."
"You see," argued Susy, "it's boys that fires all the popguns, and
whistle in your ears, and frighten you. Why, if this was a brother, we
couldn't but just live! What made you cry for a brother, Prudy?"
"Poh, I didn't! I wouldn't have him for nothin' in my world! I'm glad
God sended a girl, and that's what made me _laugh_."
"It seems so queer to think of it Prudy, I don't know what to do with
myself, I declare."
"Well, I know what _I'm_ goin' to do. I'll give her my red
pocket-dress. She's come clear down from God's house, and this is a
drefful cold world."
Susy knew that little Prudy's heart must be overflowing with sisterly
love to the baby, or she would not be willing to give her the
pocket-dress.
"She can tuck her candy in it," pursued Prudy; "'tisn't a believe-make,
you know; there's a hole clear through. She can tuck her candy in, and
her pyunes and pfigs, and teenty apples. Oho!"
"'Twill be as mother says about giving her your dress, Prudy; but we
shall be glad to see you kind to the new sister," said Susy, who was
fond of giving small lectures to Prudy. "We ought to be kind to her,
for God sent her down on purpose. Of course it will be ME that
will take the most care of her; but maybe they'll let you watch her
sometimes when she's asleep. Don't blow open her eyes any more, Prudy;
that's very naughty. If we do just as we ought to, and are kind to her,
she'll be a comfort, and grow up a lady!"
"O, will she?" asked Prudy, a little sadly. "I thought when she growed
up she'd be a gemplum, like papa."
"What an idea! But that's just as much sense as you little bits o'
children have! When you don't know about anything, Prudy, you may come
and ask _me_; I'm most six."
The new baby was very wonderful indeed. The first thing she did was to
cry; the next was to sneeze. Prudy wished "all the people down street,
and all the ladies that lived in the whole o' the houses, could see the
new sister." Her heart swelled with pride when admiring ladies took the
unconscious little creature in their arms, saying, "Really, it is a
remarkably pretty child. What starry eyes! What graceful little fingers!
Isn't her mouth shaped like Prudy's?"
Mrs. Parlin did not approve of cradles, and the nurse had a fashion of
rolling the baby in a blanket and laying her down in all sorts of
places. One day little Prudy flung herself into the big rocking chair,
not noticing the small bundle which lay there, under a silk
handkerchief.
It was feared at first that the baby was crushed to death; but when she
was heard to cry, Mrs. Parlin said, "We have great cause for
thankfulness. So far as I can judge, it is only her _nose_ that is
broken!"
But the doctor pronounced the baby's bones as sound as ever.
"It is only little Miss Prudy whose nose is out of joint," added he.
Prudy ran to look in the glass, but could not see anything the matter
with her nose, or anything that looked like "a joint." But after this
she was as careful as a child of her heedless age can be, not to injure
her tender sister. She never again saw a silk handkerchief without
shaking it to make sure there was not a baby under it.
It was a long while before the friends could decide upon a name for this
beautiful stranger.
"For my part I have no choice," said Mr. Parlin, "and only one remark to
make; call the child by her right name, whatever it may be, for I am
very much opposed to pet names, of all sorts."
After every one else had spoken, Mrs. Parlin suggested that she would
like to call the baby Alice Barrow, in honor of a dear friend, now in
heaven.
She grew to be a fair, fat baby; and while her teeth were pricking
through, like little pointed pearls, Susy's front teeth were dropping
out. Then she grew to be a toddling child; and while she was learning to
walk, Prudy was beginning to sew patchwork. For time does not stand
still; it passed, minute by minute, over the heads of Susy, Prudy, and
Alice, as well as all the rest of the world. And soon it brought an end
to Alice's babyhood.