FANNY HARLOW'S PARTY.
"Kiss me, little sister," said Prudy, "and let me go, for I must get
ready for the party."
"I know where you're goin'," said Dotty; "why can't I go too?"
Little did innocent Prudy dream of the queer thoughts which were chasing
one another in her little sister's brain. After she and Susy had gone,
and the house was quite still, Dotty stood at the window, looking down
street. It was a lovely day; the clouds were "softer than sleep."
"O, my suz!" said Dotty Dimple; "there they go, way off, way off, Susy
and Prudy. Bof of 'em are all gone. Nobody at home but me. Didn't ask me
to her party, Fanny Harlow didn't."
Dotty heaved a deep sigh, took her black baby out of its cradle, and
shook it with all her might.
"What you lookin' to me for, Phib? I wasn't a 'peakin' to you. I'm goin'
to cover you all up, Phib, so you won't hear me think."
Then Dotty looked out of the window again. "What a good little girl I
am," thought she, "not to be a cryin'! Prudy'd cry! There goes the
blacksmif's shop." Dotty meant the blacksmith. "His mother lets him go
everywhere. Everybody's mother lets 'em go everywhere."
A prettily dressed little girl passed the window.
"How do you do, little girl?" whispered Dotty, in a voice so low that
even the cat did not hear. "O, what a booful hat you've got! Would your
mamma make you wear a _rainy_ dress, like mine? No, she wouldn't. Your
mamma lets you go to parties all the days only Sundays. My mamma has
sticked me into the nursery, and nothin' but a dar'needle to sew with!
O, hum! And I haven't runned away since forever'n ever! They don't 'low
me to run away. Wish Fanny Harlow'd asked me to her party. I know why
she never! 'Cause she forgot I was born."
Presently there was a sound of little feet. Dotty was pattering up
stairs.
"Didn't know I was sewing with a dar'needle--did you, mamma? Mayn't I go
to Fanny Harlow's party?"
Mrs. Parlin was busy with visitors, and did not pay much heed to her
little daughter. So Dotty crept close to her mother's side, and buried
her roguish face behind her head-dress.
"Wish you'd please to punish me, mamma," said she; "punish me now; I'm
_a-goin_' to be naughty?"
Mrs. Parlin smiled, and reminded Dotty that it was not polite to whisper
in company. Then she went on talking with her friends, and Miss Dimple
slipped quietly out of the room.
"I know I don't ought to," mused the child; "I'm a-goin' to do wicked,
and get punished; but I _want_ to do wicked, and get punished. I've been
goody till I'm all tired up!"
Having made this decision, she went to Prudy's closet, and looked at the
dresses hanging wrong side outward on the pegs.
"This is a booful one," said she, pulling down a scarlet merino. She put
on the dress, forgetting, in her guilty haste, to take off her own blue
one.
"O, my suz! I never did see!" said Dotty, puffing and tugging in her
efforts to fasten the frock. "My mother must make Prudy's clo'es
bigger'n this; yes, she must. It chokes."
However, by dint of much hard work she succeeded in squeezing her round
little figure into the red merino, and fastening two of the buttons. "O,
hum!" sighed she; "this dress is so tight I shan't grow to-day!"
Dotty had a great admiration for her mother's purple breakfast shawl,
which she now threw over her little shoulders with tremulous delight.
Nono's Sunday bonnet she next laid her naughty hands upon. Very charming
was this bonnet in Dotty's eyes, as it was made of claret-colored silk,
and was all on fire inside with scorching red and yellow flames. It was
so huge and so deep that Dotty's small face under it looked as if it had
got lost in Mammoth Cave.
"Now I've got every single clo'es on me. Guess there won't anybody
think I'm a boy this time," mused she, giving a last glance at the
mirror; "there won't anybody laugh, and say, 'How d'ye do, my fine
little fellow?'"
Very well pleased with herself, Dotty dressed "brother Zip" in Prudy's
water-proof cloak, and they both stole out by the side door, without
being seen. But which way to go Dotty could not tell.
"Where _is_ the-girl-that-has-the-party's house?" thought she, under her
bonnet. "Well, it's by the stone lions, 'most up to the North Pole. Now,
Zippy, if we keep a-goin' we shall get there, and we'll see some girls
out by the door."
Zip wagged his faithful tail, which was quite hidden under the cloak,
and they both trudged on, Dotty's heart quivering with wicked delight.
She happened to go in the right direction, and at last did really reach
the "house by the stone lions." Several young girls were indeed playing
in the yard.
"What little image is that, traveling this way?" cried Florence Eastman,
holding up both hands.
"A beggar child, perhaps," replied Fanny Harlow. "'Sh! 'sh! don't
laugh!"
"I don't see anything but a walking bonnet," tittered one of the girls;
"don't it look like a chaise top? O, look, look! as true as you live,
that thing that's hopping along beside her is a dog!"
The little figure now approached very slowly, its head bent down, its
fingers in its mouth; though the girls saw nothing but a big, drooping
bonnet, a purple shawl, and a pair of tiny feet peeping out from a red
dress.
"I guess she came from Farther India," suggested Susy, that being the
most foreign land she could think of.
Dotty now gave a loud knock at the gate, and peeped in between the bars.
In doing so she had to push back the chaise-top, and the little girls
had a full view of her face.
"O, Dotty Dimple Parlin!" screamed her sisters, in dismay.
Fanny Harlow hastened to open the gate.
"Where did you come from, you naughty thing?" whispered Susy, with a
crimson face.
Dotty's sole answer was a violent sneeze, which burst off two buttons,
the only ones which fastened the scarlet merino.
"I've broke my dress," said Dotty, calmly.
The little girls were greatly amused, but Dotty eyed them with such a
gaze of lofty disdain that they kept their faces as straight as
possible.
"Poor thing," said cousin Florence; "how tired you must be! Don't you
want to sit right down in this iron chair?"
Dotty's bright eyes flashed. "Don't you pity _me_, Flossy! Now 'top it!"
"How shall we ever get her home?" thought the two older sisters, in
alarm; for they saw by the motion of Dotty's elbows, that she had made
up her mind to queen it over the whole company.
"Look here, Dotty," said Prudy, going up to her, and kissing her; "did
mother say you might come, darling?"
Dotty rubbed off the kiss, and made no answer.
"Don't you think 'twould be a nice plan," whispered Prudy, "for me and
Susy to draw you home in a little carriage? And I'll ask mother to
forgive you."
"O, yes," said Susy, in an agony of mortification; "now do!"
Dotty looked as unmoved as one of the stone lions, and took no notice of
the request.
"What made they put two trees 'side that one tree?" asked she, by way of
changing the subject.
"Now, Dotty, you will go, that's a little love," said Susy, wringing her
hands. "Only think, if you don't you'll lose five kisses to-night, and I
dare say mamma will punish you, too."
"There's a man goin' by--old all over, and a white whisker. Who is it?"
inquired Dotty, changing the subject again. "The whisker looks like
snow, 's if his chin's cold!"
"Never mind the man," returned Prudy. "If you'll go I'll spend my five
cents, and buy you some pep'mints."
"I'd rather have pickled limes," said Dotty thoughtfully.
"So you shall," cried eager Susy; "and you'll be the sweetest little
pet, and ride home like a lady."
"So I will," said Dotty, serenely, "when I've had my supper."
Susy's face fell. If the little piece of obstinacy would stay, she
_would_; and Mrs. Harlow politely declared they should all be delighted.
But how would she behave at the table? Her manners were as yet unformed;
she needed line upon line and precept upon precept. It was dreadful to
think of her taking supper at one of the nicest houses in the city, in
that dress, and without her watchful mother too! It was a severe trial
to Susy. Prudy was also distressed, but her "sky-like spirit" brightened
again speedily.
The little girls all crowded about Dotty, begging her to join in their
games; but she said it would "hurt her big bonnet," which she could not
be persuaded to take off, because she fancied it added something to her
importance.
Fanny Harlow brought out a picture book for the little runaway.
"I'm afraid she'll tear it," said careful Prudy.
Dotty looked at her sister with a withering glance, and, in her
eagerness to prove that she knew how to handle books, suddenly tore one
of the leaves. She was surprised and mortified; but her self-esteem was
not easily crushed.
"There, Prudy," said she, pertly; "what made you let me do it for? You
_said_ I'd tear it!"
Mrs. Harlow hastened supper, fearing that Mrs. Parlin might be anxious
about her little daughter. Dotty was placed between her two sisters.
Susy pinned a napkin about the child's neck, and in a whisper begged to
be allowed to spread her bread and butter for her. Dotty had worn the
air of a princess royal all the afternoon; but now, seated in a high
chair, and surrounded by a group of admiring little girls, she felt
like a crowned queen. Taking her bread in both hands, she crumbed it
into her goblet of milk, and began to dip it out with the handle of her
fork. The girls looked on and smiled, and Dotty gave a little purr of
satisfaction.
"Everybody'll think mother doesn't teach her good manners," thought poor
Susy, hardly knowing whether she ate bread or ashes.
"Dear, dear," said Prudy to herself; "Dotty may die some time, and then
I should be sorry, and cry. I'll keep thinking of that, so I can bear
her awful actions better."
The little princess, from her throne in the high chair, did very rude
things; such as coughing and blowing crumbs into her plate, drumming
with her feet, and beating time with her fork and spoon. When bread was
offered, she said,--
"I don't like _baker's_ bread. I like _daily_ bread."
But this was all the remark she made during the whole meal. At last she
ceased eating, coughing, and drumming: there was a "flash of silence."
Everybody looked up. Dotty's eyes were closed, and her head was swaying
from side to side, like a heavy apple stuck on a knitting needle--she
was fast asleep.
She was wheeled home in a small carriage, followed by a guard of all the
girls. Next day she was duly punished by being tied to the bedpost with
the clothes-line.
"I wish her _reasons_ would begin to grow," sighed Prudy. "I never can
feel happy when Dotty gets into a fuss."
"I've been thinking it all over," replied Susy, "and I've made up my
mind that God allows her to mortify you and me. You know we must have
some kind of a trial, or we shouldn't grow gentle and sweet tempered."
"As mother is," added Prudy.