CHAPTER XI.
CRAZY DUCKLINGS.
When the family came home, Miss Polly had a most doleful story to tellabout Katie's experiment in the watering-trough, the child's illness,the explosion of the beer, and her own fright and "dreadful feelings."
Mrs. Parlin regretted the loss of the tea-pot; Miss Louise said she hadheard of "witches making tea," and perhaps this was the way they did it.
In return for Miss Whiting's laborious services in taking care of thechildren, Mrs. Parlin gave her various articles of food to carry home;for Polly had one room in Mr. Grant's house, which she was accustomedto call her home, though she did not stay there very much. Polly sighedher gratitude, put on her dark bonnet, and said, as she went away,--
"Now, Mrs. Parlin, if it should so happen that you should all go awayagain, don't fail to ask me to come and keep house. You have always beenso kind to me that I feel it a privilege to do any such little thing foryou."
But in her heart poor Polly thought it was anything but a "littlething," and it cost her a great effort to promise to undertake it again.Mrs. Parlin thanked Miss Polly very politely; but for her part shethought privately it would be a long while before they would, any ofthem, be willing to trust such a nervous person with the care of thechildren a second time.
"Good by, all," said Polly, going off with her double-covered basket onher arm; "remember me to Margaret when you write."
"What a funny thing to say!" remarked Prudy; "how can we remember peopleto anybody, or forget them to anybody either?"
"O, it was awful," said Dotty, linking arms with Prudy and walking heroff to the seat in the trees. "Miss Polly scared me so I don't believe Ishall ever be afraid of lightning again!"
Little Flyaway ran after them, holding her nipperkin of milk close toher bosom, to keep off the flies, as she thought.
"I was defful sick," said she; "and did I ask the Polly woman for thestawbollies? No, she was naughty; _I_ didn't want 'em. She gived mestawbollies and stawbollies."
Prudy had to hear over and over again the trials which both the childrenhad suffered. She had had a delightful time herself, as she always didhave, wherever she was. She told Dotty and Flyaway of severalinteresting events which had happened; but, best of all, she had broughtthem a quantity of beautiful shells, which they were to divide withRuthie. The brisk Ruth had come back again as energetic as ever. Itproved that her mother had not been so very ill, after all.
"Bless that Prudy's little white heart," said she, kissing her on bothcheeks; "she never forgets anybody but herself."
Ruthie did not praise children as a general thing; but she loved Prudyin spite of herself.
Aunt Maria had brought Dotty a beautiful doll. "Because," said she, "Iknew you would try to take good care of my little Katie."
"O, thank you ever so much, Aunt 'Ria," cried Dotty, handing the dollyat once to Prudy to be admired. But next minute her conscience prickedher. She had no right to a present. True, Katie ought to have knownbetter than to try to swim; still, as Dotty acknowledged,--
"I needn't have felt so sober, I s'pose, and then I should have takencare of her."
Dotty was learning to pay heed to these little pricks of conscience.Slowly and sadly she walked back to her Aunt Maria, who was standing onthe piazza training the clematis.
"I s'pose, auntie, you thought I took care of the baby; but I didn't. Ilet her swim. Miss Polly said _she_ had the 'blues,' and so did I."
Aunt Maria smiled. "Very well," said she; "then keep the doll as arecompense for the suffering you have endured. I hope you will not seetwo such gloomy days again during the summer."
"O, you darling auntie! May I keep the dolly?"
There was no sting now to mar Dotty's pleasure in her new possession.Her troubles seemed to be over; life was blossoming into beauty oncemore.
"Good news! Good news!" she cried, rushing into the house, her head,with its multitude of curl-papers, looking like a huge corn-ball. "Twoduckies have pecked out!"
"You don't say so!" said Susy, coolly. "High time, I should think!"
So thought the patient and astonished old hen, who had been wonderingevery day for a week if this wasn't an uncommonly "backward season." Butat last the eggs, like riches, had taken to themselves wings.
The soft, speckled creatures found plenty of admiring friends to welcomethem as they tried their first "peep" at the world. They did not seemuch of the world, however, for some time, it must be confessed, onaccount of the corn-meal dough which the children sprinkled into theireyes.
"We won't let you starve, our ony dony Ducky Daddleses," said Dotty.
"Our deenty doiny Diddleses," said Katie after her, running hither andthither like a squirrel.
It was a time of great satisfaction. Dotty regretted that Jennie Vancehad gone to Boston, for it would have been pleasant to see Jennieenvious. What were gold rings compared to ducklings? The blunt littlebeaks pecked out very fast. As soon as they were all out, except the twoeggs which were addled, the step-mother hen gathered her familytogether and went to house-keeping, gipsy fashion, in the back yard. Sheclucked to the ducklings, and they followed her, their little feet goingpat, pat, on the soft grass. A nice time they had, no doubt, eatingpicked-up dinners, with now and then a banquet of corn-meal dough. Therewere eleven ducklings, five for Dotty, five for Prudy, and one forKatie, the little girl with flying hair.
After they had been alive two days, Prudy thought they ought to have abath; so she took the large iron pan which Ruth used for bakingjohnny-cakes, filled it with water, put the tiny creatures in, and badethem "swim," to Madam Biddy's great alarm. They did it well, though theywere as badly crowded as the five and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.
Katie wished the Charlie boy to see the ducklings, which were "vellydifrunt from a piggie;" but dear Charlie was very ill, and when thechildren went with the milk, they were not allowed to see him.
I may as well give you here the history of the ducklings.
The next morning after their "swim" there were only ten left, andDotty's lamentations could be heard all over the house. It was Katie'sodd one, she said, that was gone, the one with a black picture on hisback that looked like a clover. Next morning there were nine; and on thetenth day there was but one solitary duckling left to pipe out hissorrows all alone. The anguish of the children was painful to be behold.Dotty's grief affected her somewhat like the jumping toothache. Whocould have carried away those dear, dear little duckies?
Who indeed? About this time the unprincipled old cat was found in thecellar, wiping her lips and purring over a little soft, speckled down.
"It was you that did it, was it, you wicked mizzable kitty?" burst forththe bereaved Dotty behind the swinging broomstick. "I must strike youwith the soft end. I will! I will! If I'd known before that you'd eatlive duckies! O, pussy, pussy, when I've given you my own little boneson a plate with gravy!"
"Whose little bones did you say, my dear!" asked Abner.
"Chickens and turkeys, and so forth!" replied Dotty, dancing about inher rage.
"Why, dear little damsel, do I really understand you to say you eatchickens? Then you are as bad as the cat."
"Why, Abner!"
"And worse, for you have no claws."
"No claws?"
"No--have you? If you had, I should conclude they had been made to tearlittle birds and mice in pieces."
"Is that what kitty's claws were made for?"
"So I am told. The truth is, she behaves much better for a cat than youdo for a little girl."
Dotty scowled at her feet and patted them with the broom.
"And better than I do for a young man."
"But she ate my duckies--so there!"
"And Prudy's too," said Abner. "But Prudy doesn't beat her for it. Itisn't pleasant to see nice little girls show so much temper, Dotty. NowI'm going to tell you something; all those ducklings were a littlecrazy, and it didn't make much difference what became of them."
"Crazy?"
"Yes,
their minds were not properly balanced. There's one left, Ibelieve. I'm going to make a lunatic asylum for him, and put him in thisvery day."
Dotty calmed herself and watched Abner as he made a pen with highstakes, and set in one corner of it a pan of water for swimmingpurposes.
The "speckling," as she called him, was Dotty's own; and when he was putinto this insane hospital, all safe from the cat, his little mistresswas in a measure consoled.
"I am sorry he is crazy," said she; "but I s'pose the hen didn't hatchhim well. Maybe he'll get his senses by and by."
All this while dear little Charlie Gray was very ill. But I will tellyou more about him in another chapter.
CHAPTER XII.
"THE CHARLIE BOY."
Dotty heard of Charlie's illness every day; but, like all youngchildren, she thought very little about it. Some one said he was "aswhite as his pillow." Dotty was amazed, for she had never seen any oneas white as that. Then she heard her grandmother say she was "afraidCharlie would die."
"Die?" It sounded to Dotty like a word heard in a dream. She only knewthat people must die before they went to heaven, and when they died theywere very, very cold.
DOTTY IN THE SWING.--Page 189.]
One night, when she went with the milk, Mrs. Gray was weeping. Sheasked Dotty if she would like to see little Charlie "once more."
Dotty entered the darkened room with a strange feeling of awe. There helay, so still she hardly dared to breathe. Darling, darling Charlie!
But when she had touched the little hot hand and kissed the sweet wastedface, her heart grew lighter. What had made them think he was going toheaven? He did not look any more like an angel now than he had alwayslooked. His face was not as white as the pillow; no, indeed; and he wasnot cold; his lips were warmer than hers.
"He used to have three chins once," whispered Dotty, "darling Charlie!"
"You love my little Charlie--don't you, darling?" said Mrs. Gray; andthen she clasped Dotty in her arms and sobbed over her; but Charlie didnot seem to notice it.
"Yes, 'm, I do love him," said Dotty; "Prudy says he's the cunningestboy there is in this town."
And then she softly kissed Mrs. Gray's cheek, though she had neverkissed her before, and did not know why she was doing it now.
"When he gets well, won't you let him come to our house and playcroquet? We play it now with marbles, a teenty-tonty game, and thewickets are made of hairpins spread out wide."
Dotty spoke very low, and Charlie did not pay the least attention; butMrs. Gray sobbed still more, and held Dotty closer in her arms,saying,--
"_Don't_ talk so, dear!"
"How sorry you do feel to have him so sick! He won't grow up, I s'pose,if he can't play. When he stays in bed it makes him grow littler andlittler! Why, how little his neck is! It looks like a dandelion stem!"
"Don't, _don't_, dear child! Every word you say strikes right to myheart!"
Dotty looked up in Mrs. Gray's face with surprise. What had she saidthat was wrong? Perhaps she ought not to have talked about dandelions;she would not do it again.
"Dotty," said Mrs. Gray, looking sorrowfully towards the bed, "whenfathers and mothers are not very wise, and do not know very well how totake proper care of their families, sometimes the Saviour calls theirlittle children away."
Dotty knew what she meant now. She meant that Charlie was really goingto heaven.
"O, Mrs. Gray," said she, "how Prudy and I will feel!" She would havesaid more, but was afraid she should make another mistake.
She kissed the unconscious little sufferer good by, though still it allseemed like a dream. Was this the same boy who had tried to wash thepiggy? The same who had meal-bags tied to his feet?
"A long kiss is a heart-kiss," she repeated to herself; and somehow shewondered if Charlie couldn't take it to heaven with him. Then she walkedhome all alone with her thoughts.
Next day they told her Charlie was dead. Dotty sat on the sofa for along time without saying a word; then she went into the nursery, andstaid by herself for an hour or two. When she returned she had her newdoll in her arms, dressed in black. She wore a strip of black crapeabout her own neck, and had caught Flyaway long enough to put one uponher arm, as well as upon the knobs of the nursery doors.
"Prudy," said she, "it is polite to do so when we lose people we love.Charlie was my friend and Katie's friend, and we shall treat him withthe _respect_ of a friend."
"Yes," said Katie, skipping after a fly, "spec of a fend."
Dotty had never looked on death.
"You musn't be frightened, little sister," said Prudy, as they walkedhand in hand to Mrs. Gray's, behind the rest of their own family, on theday of the funeral. "Charlie is just as cold as marble, lying in acasket; but _he_ doesn't know it. The part of him that _knows_ is in abeautiful world where we can't see him."
"Why can't we see him?" said Dotty, peering anxiously into the sky.
"I don't know exactly why," replied Prudy, "but Grandma Read says Goddoesn't wish it. And He has put a seal over our eyes, so an angel couldstand right before us, and we shouldn't know it."
"Ah!" said Dotty in a low voice; and though she could see nothing, itseemed to her the air was full of angels.
"But I think likely Charlie can see us, Dotty, for the seal has beentaken off his eyes. O, it is beautiful to be dead!"
After this Dotty was not at all afraid when she touched the cold face inthe casket, for she knew Charlie was not there.
"It is beautiful to be dead!" said she next day to Katie. "Charlie isvery glad of it."
"Yes, he's in the ground-up,--in heaven!" said Katie in a dreamy way;for, in her small mind, she believed heaven was a place called "in theground-up," and that was all she cared about it.
"Yes, Charlie is in the ground," replied Dotty, "but he doesn't know it.That dog Pincher was put in the ground; but I think likely _he_ knew it,for his soul wasn't in heaven; and he hadn't any soul, not a real one."
"Well," said Katie, dancing out at the door, "when will the Charlie boycome back? I want um play."
"Why, Katie," said Dotty, in a tone of reproof, "haven't I told you heis all dead?"
"Well, YOU isn't dead--IS you? Less us go an' swing!"
The little girls ran out to the trees, and soon forgot all about theirold playmate. But, after this, whenever any one spoke of Charlie, Katiethought,--
"The Charlie boy's in the ground-up,--in heaven," and Dotty thought,--
"O, it is beautiful to be dead!"
* * * * *
For the present, we will leave them swinging under the tree at GrandmaParlin's; but if we see Miss Dimple again, she will have been spiritedaway to her own mother's home in the city of Portland.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
Page 4, the word "To" has been presumed as the original is unclear.
Page 17, "Jenny" changed to "Jennie" to conform to rest of text.(hands, Jennie Vance)
Page 23, "Vauce" changed to "Vance". (No, Jennie Vance)
Page 44, "Perphaps" changed to "Perhaps". (Perhaps there will be two)
Page 49, "pedler" changed to "peddler". (to a peddler)
Page 54, "Dt ty" changed to "Dotty". (Dotty twisted the)
Page 95, "arly" changed to "nearly". (must be nearly morning)
Page 122, "Jenny" changed to "Jennie" to conform to rest of text.(Jenny had asked)
Page 126, "Couisn" changed to "Cousin". (nothing about Cousin)
Page 126, "Couisin" changed to "Cousin". (Cousin Lydia wanted)
Page 137, "thurst" changed to "thrust". (thrust it through)
Page 158, "didn't" changed to "Didn't". (Didn't want 'em)
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