many for her, and the tears came rolling quickly down her cheeks as she
gazed at the unfortunate waxen damsel below, with quivering lip. Tom
turned red and white alternately in silence for a moment, and then began
pouring forth apologies and regrets. He called himself all the imps
that ever were heard of for being so careless; he offered to go to New
York that very day to buy another doll, and have his hair well pulled
beside, if she only would forgive him, and say she didn't think he had
done it on purpose; and, in short, we had quite a little scene; when,
fortunately, there occurred to me a pleasant means of diverting the
minds of the party from the accident that had happened. So I laid down
my paper, as though I had not been listening, and said:
"Well, little people, I believe I have discovered all the news there is;
so what do you say to coming to a party I am thinking of giving in my
room?"
"A party!" cried the children, dropping the subject of the doll to look
at me; "why, we should like that very much. What sort of a party is it?"
"A reading party," I answered. "I have some papers I have been thinking
of reading to you, to get your opinion of them before I put them in a
book; and I shouldn't be surprised if there was a paper of candy in my
drawer besides."
"Why, do you write books?" asked Baby, opening her bright eyes very wide
indeed, as if to be certain what a real live author looked like.
"To be sure I do," I said, laughing. "Funny stories, and sad ones, too;
and some that are every word of them true, and others that are told me
by my friends; and you shall tell me whether they are true or not."
So we all made haste into my room--not the same I had when I first came,
but one on the front piazza, near Neighbor Nelly's. The papers I meant
were my own, Tom's, and the Fat Gentleman's stories, which I had brought
down with me, to look over and correct. The candy I had bought for Nelly
and Jimmy, as I told you, and forgotten all about to that moment. Little
Robby came trotting along just then, so we asked him to be of the party;
and Mrs. Lawson, looking out to see why we were in such a bustle, made
up the company.
I wish you could have been at Our Party that afternoon. We made a cosey
little group, I assure you. Mrs. Lawson sat by the table with her
sewing; Tom established himself close to my chair, and Nelly nestled by
my other side. Baby and Jimmy sat on hassocks, contrived from carpet
bags, at my feet; dear little Robby was lifted to my knee, and the
reading began. Oh, the laughter, and comical wonder, and blushes, when
my little neighbors found the stories were about them! Nelly burst out
with "Oh, Neighbor Oldbird!" and hid her face on my shoulder every time
there was some special praise of herself. Tom turned perfectly crimson
when we came to his story, and was in and out of his seat twenty times,
begging me to stop, during its progress, his splendid black eyes
glancing appealingly at me and Nelly by turns. I wouldn't spare him a
single word, however; and when I came to his declaration at the end,
concerning Nelly, there was a general shout of laughter.
"There's an eligible offer for you, Miss Nell," I said solemnly. "You'd
better take it into consideration!" and so on, until Mrs. Lawson begged
me to stop. She did not like to have ideas about marriage put into the
children's heads; and I, when I reflected, was very sorry I had been so
thoughtless. Tom bore my teasing manfully; but Nelly's face was rather
grave, as if she did not like such remarks to be made about her; so I
hurried on to the Fat Gentleman's story, and brought up at the end, and
then handed round the candy, amid general approbation.
How we all passed that evening together on the beach, and had a wildly
happy time; how we went in bathing the next day, and the next; and how,
on Wednesday afternoon, I bid a most reluctant good-by to my little
neighbors, I have not room to tell. I want to write how gladly we met
again in the city in the fall; how Tom did come to live in New York, and
favored us with his company as often as possible; how we chanced again
on the little girl whom we had met in the toy shop, and found her living
in a wretched tenement house in Cherry street, whence Mr. Lawson and I,
with some other friends, removed them in haste, and established them in
a nice little thread-needle store on one of the business avenues not far
from our street; but all this would take too long.
I must say, though, what a blessed change it has been for them,
particularly for poor little crippled Clara, who never fails to greet us
with a smile when we go there to see her, as she sits in her comfortable
arm-chair by the window, with her pet spaniel "Dandy" beside her. She is
always contented and cheerful, in spite of the sharp pain that often
racks her slender limbs; and as I look on her pale face, which is so
plainly not long for this earth, and think that now her suffering life
will end amid comfort and peace, I whisper to myself with a heart full
of love, "All this through thy sweet influence, dear
"NEIGHBOR NELLY!"
FOOTNOTE:
[A] Quarrelling.
CONCLUSION.
AND that was the end of the famous Sock Stories, which had afforded
George and Helen so much amusement during nearly three months; for it
took all that time for Aunt Fanny's daughter to write, and the children
to read them all. They could not tell which they liked the best; for it
so happened that the "Funny Little Socks" made their appearance just at
the time when some dear little cousins of theirs, only four or five
years old, had come to spend a week or two with them, which made baby
stories doubly welcome; and I don't know what the good and delightful
gentleman to whom the fifth book is dedicated will say about it, when he
sees his name at the front; but it was thought very appropriate by
Helen's papa; as the very best story in the book is all about
philosophers, grave and gay.
One thing in particular I am most happy to record; and that is, that the
good habits which keeping mamma's little code of rules had engendered,
were not broken off at the close of the readings; but instead, were
formed more lastingly with every week; until now every one who knows
George and Helen says, the first thing, "What good children they are!
and yet, they never have to be whipped, or shut up in a dark closet to
make them so." No! they are good from a higher motive than the dread of
punishment; for they are inspired with the sincere desire to make their
dear mother as happy as they can; and it would not surprise me at all if
Santa Claus, who is a very discerning old gentleman, were to put
something very nice indeed in both socks and stockings this
Christmas--in spite of the hard times!
And now, one last word, before Aunt Fanny's daughter bids you good-by,
little reader. She hopes and prays, in all sincerity, that she has
succeeded not only in amusing you, but in giving you some lessons which
will sink into your hearts for your real good. And if in the shadowy
train of personages who have moved before you in these Sock Stories,
there is one who has pleased you especially, from Colonel Freddy and
little tender-hearted Greta, to Little Mother and the Old Bachelor,
Neighbor Nelly, with her bright eyes and merry ways, or Gipsey, of the
cork-screw tail and yap! yap! bark, the knowledge of this fact will give
_her_ what she wishes for you all, a very
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
THE END OF THE SIXTH AND LAST BOOK.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Page 026, "anx" changed to "any" (him any more)
Page 32, "eat" changed to "ate" (We ate the)
Page 086, "found" changed to "fond" (fond of tops and marbles)
Page 126, "copmany" changed to "company" (made up the company)