"A POST OFFICE LETTER."
The "far-off" feeling rather increased upon Dotty. It seemed to
her that she had never before reflected upon the immense distance which
lay between her and home. The house might burn up before ever she got
back. Prudy might have a lung fever, and mamma the "typo." It was
possible for Zip to choke with a bone, and for a thousand other dreadful
things to happen. And if Dotty were needed ever so much, she could not
reach home without travelling all those miles.
Then, what if one of the conductors should prove to be a "_non,_" and
she should never reach home at all, but, instead of that, should be
found lying in little pieces under a railroad bridge?
Sister Prudy had never troubled her head with such fancies. The dear God
would attend to her, she knew. He cared just as much about her one
little self as if she had been the whole United States. But Dotty did
not understand how this could be.
"I wish I hadn't come out West at all," thought she. "They're going to
take me up to Indi'nap'lis; and there I'll have to stay, p'raps a week;
for my father always has such long business! Dear, dear! and I don't
know but everybody's dead!"
Just as she had drawn a curtain of gloom over her bright little face,
and had buried both her dimples under it, and all her smiles, Uncle
Henry came home from his office, looking very roguish.
"Well, little miss, and what do you suppose I've brought you from up
town? Put on your thinking-cap, and tell me."
"Bananas? papaws? 'simmons? lemons? Dear me, what is it? Is it to eat or
wear? And have you got it in your pocket?"
Uncle Henry, who had had his hand behind him, now held it out with a
letter in it--a letter in a white envelope, directed, in clear, elegant
writing, to "Miss Alice B. Parlin, care of H.S. Clifford, Esq., Quinn,
Indiana."
There could be no mistake about it; the letter was intended for Dotty
Dimple, and had travelled all the way by mail. But then that title,
Miss, before the name! It was more than probable that the people all
along the road had supposed it was intended for a young lady!
[Illustration: DOTTY'S FIRST POST-OFFICE LETTER. _Page 162_.]
When the wonderful thing was given her, her "first post-office letter,"
she clapped her hands for joy.
"Miss? Miss?" repeated she, as Horace re-read the direction; for she was
not learned in the mysteries of writing, and could not read it for
herself.
"O, yes. _Miss_, certainly! If it was to me, it would be Mr."
"_Master_, you mean," corrected Grace.
"No, Horace, you are not Mr. yet!" said Dotty, confidently; "you've
never been married."
The next thing in order was the reading of the letter. Dotty tore it
open with a trembling hand. I should like to see another letter that
would make a child so happy as that one did! It was written by three
different people, and all to the same little girl. Not a line to Uncle
Henry or Aunt Maria, or Horace or Grace. All to Dotty's self, as if she
were a personage of the first importance.
Mamma began it. How charming to see "My dear little daughter," traced so
carefully in printed capitals! Then it was such a satisfaction to be
informed, in the sweetest language, that this same "dear little
daughter" was sadly missed. Dotty was so glad to be missed!
There was a present waiting for her at home. Mrs. Parlin was not willing
to say what it was; but it had been sent by Aunt Madge from the city of
New York, and must be something fine.
There were two whole pages of the clear, fair writing, signed at the
close, "Your affectionate mother, Mary L. Parlin."
Just as if Dotty didn't know what mother's name was!
Then Susy followed with a short account of Zip, and how he had stuck
himself full of burs. (He wasn't choked yet, thought Dotty; and that was
a comfort.) Then a longer account of the children's picnic at Deering's
Oaks.
Dotty sighed, and felt that fate had been rather cruel in depriving her
of that picnic.
"But I have had something better than that," said she, brightening;
"I've walked on an Ensmallment, and I have picked pecans."
But the best was to come. It was from Prudy.
"MY DEAR LITTLE DARLING SISTER: I want to see you more
than tongue can tell. Norah let Susy bake some biscuits last night,
because there wasn't anybody at home but mother, and grandma, and
Susy, and Norah, and me. But they were as tough as _sew leather_.
Susy forgot the creamor tartar, and soda, and salt. She wasn't to
blame.
"I'm so lonesome I can't wait to see my darling sister.
"Now I have some news to tell:--
"Mother is going to be married!
"You will think that is funny; but she is going to be married to
the same husband she was before.
"It will be a Crystal Wedding, because it is fifteen years.
"She invites you and father to come home to it; she couldn't have
it without father.
"You are going to be the bridesmaid! How queer! Mamma didn't think,
the first time she was married, that ever it would be _you_ that
would be her bridesmaid!
"From your dear, dear
"PRUDY."
"P.S. There will be wedding cake."
"P.S. No. 2. Johnny Eastman is going to be _bridegroom_, to stand
up, if he doesn't do anything naughty before. P.P."
The look of "mouldy melancholy" disappeared from Dotty's face entirely.
"A wedding! A _crystal_ wedding! What can that be? I didn't know my
father and mother would ever be married any more. Aunt 'Ria, were you
and Uncle Henry ever married any more?"
"This is a sort of make-believe wedding," replied Mrs. Clifford; "that
is all. And since you are to be bridesmaid, Dotty, I wonder if I cannot
find a pair of white slippers for you. I remember Grace had a pair some
years ago, which she has never worn."
[Illustration: THE WHITE SLIPPERS.--Page 167.]
The slippers were produced, and fitted perfectly. Dotty danced about,
embraced her auntie, made a great many wild speeches, and finally found
herself in her uncle's lap, kissing him and laughing aloud.
"I suppose now," said Mr. Clifford, "we cannot keep you much longer and
I am sorry, for it is very pleasant to have our little cousin here to
talk with us."
"I don't wan't um go 'way, I don't want um go 'way," spoke up little
Katie.
"But I _must_ go to meet my papa," returned Dotty, with a business air.
"I have to be at home to get ready for the wedding."
It was very pleasant to know people liked her to stay. She ran into the
kitchen, and said to Katinka,--
"O, Katinka, my papa and mamma are going to be married again! Do you
know I've got to start day after to-morrow?"
"So?" replied Katinka, not very much impressed. "I'm going to a party.
I must up stairs go, and make my hairs and shut my dress. Gute Nacht."
"I'm only going to stay one more day; aren't you sorry?" said Dotty to
broken-nosed Phebe, who came in from the pantry with a long face.
"Why, I reckoned you was going _to-morrow_," was Phebe's cool reply,
rolling the whites of her eyes to hide a twinkle of fun. She knew Dotty
expected her to say, "I am sorry;" but, though she really was sorry, she
would not confess it just then, because she was an inveterate tease.
Dotty felt a little chilled. She could not look into the future and see
the tomato pincushion Phebe was to give her, with the assurance that
"she liked her a heap; she was a right smart child, and not a bit stuck
up."
The day ended with Dotty's dear, dear letter under her pillow. She was
going to be very happy by and by; but just now she thought she was so
homesick that she should never go to sleep. She longed to see Prudy, and
hear her say, "O, you darling sister!"
Then that wedding! Those white slippers!
How they did all miss her at home! Such dear friends as she had, and
such beautiful things as were going to happen!
"But they are so good to me here! I've behaved so well they love me
dearly. If I go home, I can't stay here and have good times. I should be
happy if I was at my mother's house and out West too! Every time I'm
glad, then there's something else to make me sorry."
So, between a smile and a tear, Dotty Dimple passed into the beautiful
land of dreams; and the moon shone on a little face with a frown between
the eyes and a dimple dancing in each cheek.
What happened to her on her way home and afterward will be told in the
story of Dotty Dimple at Play.
[Illustration: SOPHIE MAY'S "LITTLE FOLKS" BOOKS.]
"The authoress of THE LITTLE PRUDY STORIES would be
elected Aunty-laureate if the children had an opportunity, for the
wonderful books she writes for their amusement. She is the Dickens of
the nursery, and we do not hesitate to say develops the rarest sort of
genius in the specialty of depicting smart little children."--_Hartford
Post_.
_LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS, BOSTON_.
COPYRIGHT, 1834, BY LEE & SHEPARD.
* * * * *
[Illustration: Portrait of Sophie May (Rebecca Sophia Clarke)]
The children will not be left without healthful entertainment and kindly
instruction so long as SOPHIE MAY (Miss Rebecca S. Clarke)
lives and wields her graceful pen in their behalf. MISS CLARKE
has made a close and loving study of childhood, and she is almost
idolized by the crowd of 'nephews and nieces' who claim her as aunt.
Nothing to us can ever be quite so delightfully charming as were the
'Dotty Dimple' and the 'Little Prudy' books to our youthful
imaginations, but we have no doubt the little folks of to-day will find
the story of 'Flaxie Frizzle' and her young friends just as fascinating.
There is a sprightliness about all of MISS CLARKE'S books that
attracts the young, and their purity, their absolute _cleanliness_,
renders them invaluable in the eyes of parents and all who are
interested in the welfare of children."--_Morning Star_.
"Genius comes in with 'Little Prudy.' Compared with her, all other
book-children are cold creations of literature; she alone is the real
thing. All the quaintness of children, its originality, its tenderness
and its teasing, is infinite uncommon drollery, the serious earnestness
of its fun, the fun of its seriousness, the naturalness of its plays,
and the delicious oddity of its progress, all these united for dear
Little Prudy to embody them."--_North American Review_.
SPECIMEN CUT TO "LITTLE PRUDY'S FLYAWAY SERIES."
[Illustration: PRUDY KEEPING HOUSE.]
"'My, what a fascinating creature,' said the Man in the Moon, making an
eye-glass with his thumb and fore-finger, and gazing at the lady
boarder. 'Are you a widow woman?'"
* * * * *
LITTLE GRANDMOTHER.
"Grandmother Parlen when a little girl is the subject. Of course that
was ever so long ago, when there were no lucifer matches, and steel and
tinder were used to light fires; when soda and saleratus had never been
heard of, but people made their pearl ash by soaking burnt crackers in
water; when the dressmaker and the tailor and the shoemaker went from
house to house twice a year to make the dresses and coats of the
family."--_Transcript_.
* * * * *
LITTLE GRANDFATHER.
"The story of Grandfather Parlen's little boy life, of the days of knee
breeches and cocked hats, full of odd incidents, queer and quaint
sayings, and the customs of 'ye olden time.' These stories of SOPHIE
MAY'S are so charmingly written that older folks may well amuse
themselves by reading them. The same warm sympathy with childhood, the
earnest naturalness, the novel charm of the preceding volumes will be
found in this."--_Christian Messenger_.
* * * * *
MISS THISTLEDOWN.
"One of the queerest of the Prudy family. Read the chapter heads and you
will see just how much fun there must be in it. 'Fly's Heart,' 'Taking a
Nap,' 'Going to the Fair,' 'The Dimple Dot,' 'The Hole in the Home,'
'The Little Bachelor,' 'Fly's Bluebeard,' 'Playing Mamma,' 'Butter
Spots,' 'Polly's Secret,' 'The Snow Man,' 'The Owl and the
Humming-bird,' 'Tales of Hunting Deer,' and 'The Parlen Patchwork.'"
* * * * *
ILLUSTRATION TO "LITTLE PRUDY'S FLYAWAY SERIES"
[Illustration: LITTLE GRANDMOTHER.]
"She played in the old garret, with Dr. Moses to attend her dolls when
they were sick."
* * * * *
[Illustration: SIX VOLUMES: PER VOLUME, 75 CENTS.]
FLAXIE FRIZZLE. TWIN COUSINS.
DOCTOR PAPA. FLAXIE'S KITTYLEEN.
LITTLE PITCHERS. FLAXIE GROWING UP.
* * * * *
ILLUSTRATION TO "FLAXIE FRIZZLE SERIES."
[Illustration]
"The next day it rained so hard 'the water couldn't catch its breath'
but the Little Pitchers were eager to go to school."
* * * * *
FLAXIE FRIZZLE.
"FLAXIE FRIZZLE is the successor of the Dotty Dimple, Little
Prudy, Flyaway, and the other charming child creations of that
inimitable writer for children, SOPHIE MAY. There never was a
healthy, fun-loving child born into this world that, at one stage of
another of its growth, wouldn't be entertained with SOPHIE
MAY'S books. For that matter, it is not safe for older folks to
look into them, unless they intend to read them through. FLAXIE
FRIZZLE will be found as bright and pleasant reading as the
others."--_Boston Journal_.
* * * * *
FLAXIE'S DOCTOR PAPA
"SOPHIE MAY understands children. Her books are not books about
them merely. She seems to know precisely how they feel, and she sets
them before us, living and breathing in her pages. Flaxie Frizzle is a
darling, and her sisters, brothers, and cousins are just the sort of
little folks with whom careful mothers would like their boys and girls
to associate. The story is a bright, breezy, wholesome narrative, and it
is full of mirth and gayety, while its moral teaching is
excellent."--_Sunday School Times_.
* * * * *
FLAXIE'S LITTLE PITCHERS
"Little Flaxie will secure a warm place in the hearts of all at once.
Here is her little picture. Her name was Mary Gray, but they called her
Flaxie Frizzle, because she had light curly hair that frizzled; and she
had a curly nose,--that is, her nose curled up at the end a wee bit,
just enough to make it look cunning. Her cheeks were rosy red, 'and she
was so fat that when Mr. Snow, the postmaster, saw her, he said, "How
d'ye do, Mother Bunch?"'"--_Boston Home Journal_.
* * * * *
SPECIMEN OF CUT TO "FLAXIE FRIZZLE SERIES."
[Illustration]
"By and by the colts came to the kitchen window, which was open, and put
in their noses to ask for something to eat. Flaxie gave them pieces of
bread."
* * * * *
FLAXIE'S TWIN COUSINS.
"Another of those sweet, natural child-stories in which the heroine does
and says just such things as actual, live, flesh children do, is the one
before us. And what is still better, each incident points a moral. The
Illustrations are a great addition to the delight of the youthful
reader. It is just such beautiful books as this which bring to our
minds, in severe contrast, the youth's literature of our early days--the
good little boy who died young and the bad little boy who went fishing
on Sunday and died in prison, etc., etc., to the end of the threadbare,
improbable chapter."--_Rural New Yorker_.
* * * * *
FLAXIE'S KITTYLEEN.
"KITTYLEEN--one of the Flaxie Frizzle series--is a genuinely
helpful as well as delightfully entertaining story: The nine-year-old
Flaxie is worried, beloved, and disciplined by a bewitching
three-year-old tormenter, whose accomplished mother allows her to prey
upon the neighbors. 'Everybody felt the care of Mrs. Garland's children.
There were six of them, and their mother was always painting china. She
did it beautifully, with graceful vines trailing over it, and golden
butterflies ready to alight on sprays of lovely flowers. Sometimes the
neighbors thought it would be a fine thing if she would keep her little
ones at home rather more; but, if she had done that, she could not have
painted china.'"--_Chicago Tribune_.
* * * * *
FLAXIE GROWING UP.
"No more charming stories for the little ones were ever written than
those comprised in the three series which have for several years past
been from time to time added to juvenile literature by SOPHIE
MAY. They have received the unqualified praise of many of the most
practical scholars of New England for their charming simplicity and
purity of sentiment. The delightful story shows the gradual improvement
of dear little Flaxie's character under the various disciplines of
child-life and the sweet influence of a good and happy home. The
illustrations are charming pictures."--_Home Journal_.
* * * * *
ILLUSTRATION TO "FLAXIE GROWING UP."
[Illustration]
"Laughing was the very mainspring of life at Camp Comfort; but the girls
had never laughed yet as they did now, to see Buttons in full swing
preparing to cook a pie."
* * * * *
PENN SHIRLEY'S STORIES
FOR THE LITTLE ONES
Miss Penn Shirley is a very graceful interpreter of child-life. She
thoroughly understands how to reach out to the tender chord of the
little one's feelings, and to interest her in the noble life of her
young companions. Her stories are full of bright lessons, but they do
not take on the character of moralizing sermons. Her keen observation
and ready sympathy teach her how to deal with the little ones in helping
them to understand the lessons of life. Her stories are simple and
unaffected.--_Boston Herald_.
THE LITTLE MISS WEEZY SERIES
Three volumes Illustrated Boxed, each 75 cents
LITTLE MISS WEEZY
One of the freshest and most delightful, because the most natural of the
stories of the year for children, is "Little Miss Weezy," by Penn
Shirley. It relates the oddities, the mischief, the adventures, and the
misadventures of a tiny two-year-old maiden, full of life and spirit,
and capable of the most unexpected freaks and pranks. The book is full
of humor, and is written with a delicate sympathy with the feelings of
children, which will make it pleasing to children and parents alike.
Really good child literature is not over-plenty, despite the multitude
of books that come daily from the press; and it is pleasing to welcome a
new author whose first volume, like this one of Penn Shirley, adds
promise of future good work to actual present merit.--_Boston Courier_.
* * * * *
SPECIMEN ILLUSTRATION FROM "LITTLE MISS WEEZY."
[Illustration]
Copyright, 1886, by LEE & SHEPARD.
* * * * *
LITTLE MISS WEEZY'S BROTHER
This is a good story for young children, bringing in the same characters
as "Little Miss Weezy" of last year, and continuing the history of a
very natural and wide-awake family of children. The doings and the
various "scrapes" of Kirke, the brother, form a prominent feature of the
books, and are such as we may see any day in the school or home life of
a well-cared-for and good-intentioned little boy. There are several
quite pleasing full-page illustrations.--_The Dial_.
We should like to see the person who thinks it "easy enough to write for
children," attempt a book like the "Miss Weezy" stories. Excepting
Sophie May's childish classics, we don't know of anything published as
bright as the sayings and doings of the little Louise and her friends.
Their pranks and capers are no more like Dotty Dimple's than those of
one bright child are like another's, but they are just as "cute" as
those of the little folks that play in your yard or around your
neighbor's doorsteps.--_Journal of Education_.
* * * * *
LITTLE MISS WEEZY'S SISTER
"It is one of the best of the series, and will please every child who
reads it. It is brought out just at the holiday time, and is brimful of
good things. Every character in it is true to nature and the doings of a
bright lot of children, in which Miss Mary Rowe figures conspicuously,
will entertain grown folks as well as little ones."
It is a thoroughly clever and delightful story of child life, gracefully
told, and charming in its blending of humor and pathos. The children in
the book are real children, and the pretty plot through which they move
is fully in harmony with the characters. The young ones will find it a
storehouse of pleasant things pleasantly related, and a book that will
appeal at once to their sentiments and sympathies.--_Boston Gazette_.
A book that will hold the place of honor on the nursery bookshelf until
it falls to pieces from such handling is "Little Miss Weezy's Sister," a
simple, yet absorbing story of children who are interesting because they
are so real. It is doing scant justice to say for the author, Penn
Shirley, that the annals of child-life have seldom been traced with more
loving care.--_Boston Times_.
* * * * *
SPECIMEN ILLUSTRATION FROM "LITTLE MISS WEEZY'S SISTER."
[Illustration]
Copyright, 1830, by Lee and Shepard.
* * * * *
SOPHIE MAY'S COMPLETE WORKS.
[Illustration of books mentioned]
Drone's Honey. A Novel. $1.50.
_THE QUINNEBASSET SERIES_.
6 Volumes. Illustrated. Per Vol. $1.50.
The Doctor's Daughter. Our Helen. The Asbury twins.
Quinnebasset Girls. Janet; a Poor Heiress.
* * * * *
_LITTLE PRUDY STORIES_.
6 Volumes. Illustrated. Per Vol. 75 cts.
Little Prudy. Little Prudy's Cousin Grace.
Little Prudy's Sister Susie. Little Prudy's Story Book.
Little Prudy's Captain Horace. Little Prudy's Dotty Dimple.
* * * * *
_DOTTY DIMPLE SERIES_.
6 Volumes. Illustrated. Per Vol. 75 cts.
Dotty Dimple at Her Grandmother's. Dotty Dimple at Home.
Dotty Dimple Out West. Dotty Dimple at Play.
Dotty Dimple at School. Dotty Dimple's Flyaway.
* * * * *
_LITTLE PRUDY FLYAWAY SERIES_
6 Volumes. Illustrated. Per Vol. 75 cts.
Little Folks Astray. Aunt Madge's Story. Little Grandfather.
Prudy Keeping House. Little Grandmother. Miss Thistledown.
* * * * *
_FLAXIE FRIZZLE STORIES_
6 Volumes. Illustrated. Per Vol. 75 cts.
Flaxie Frizzle. Little Pitchers. Flaxie's Kittyleen.
Doctor Papa. Twin Cousins. Flaxie Growing Up.
* * * * *
LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS, BOSTON.