A Sweet Little Maid | Page 2

but 'deed I didn't mean to, Miss Dimple; I wisht it had been my old black foot."
"I wish it had," sobbed Dimple. "Oh, I am bleeding all to nothing! Take me to mamma, Bubbles!"
Bubbles stooped down and, being a little larger and stronger, managed to carry her to the house.
Dimple's mamma was horrified when they appeared at her door. Bubbles in war-paint and feathers, carrying the little barefooted girl, from whose foot blood was dropping on the floor.
"What on earth is the matter? Oh, Dimple! Oh, Bubbles! What have you been doing?"
But Bubbles was so overcome by terror, and Dimples by the sight of the blood, that neither could explain till the foot was washed and bandaged.
Then poor Bubbles flung herself on the floor and begged not to be sent to the orphan asylum.
"You ridiculous child," said Dimple's mamma. "Of course you ought to be careful, but it is not your fault any more than Dimple's. She should not have sent you for the hatchet. I am very sorry for my little Dimple; it is not so very serious, but she will not be able to walk for several days. Next time you want to play Indian, do without a hatchet. Put on your frock, Bubbles, and go into the kitchen, for I'm sure I heard Sylvy call you."
Bubbles went meekly out and Dimple was soon asleep on the sofa.
Bubbles' real name was Barbara. She was the child of a former servant who went away, leaving her, when she was about five years old, with Mrs. Dallas; as the mother never came back, and no one could tell of her whereabouts, Bubbles gradually became a fixture in Dimple's home.
Dimple, when she was just beginning to talk, tried hard to say Barbara, but got no nearer to it than Bubbles, and Bubbles the little darkey was always called.
Dimple herself was called so from the deep dimple in one cheek. Every one knew her by her pet name, and most persons forgot that her name ever was Eleanor.
She and Bubbles were devoted comrades. Bubbles would cheerfully have let Dimple walk over her and never forgot to call her Miss Dimple, thereby expressing her willingness to serve her.
Dimple was the dearest little girl in the world, but considering Bubbles her special property, made her do pretty much as she pleased, and her most dreadful threat was to send her to the orphan asylum.
She had once said, "Mamma, if you hadn't let Bubbles stay here, where would you have sent her?"
"To the orphan asylum, I suppose," her mamma answered; and Bubbles, hearing it, was ever after in mortal terror of the place, for Dimple gave her a graphic description of it, telling her she would never have anything to eat but mush and milk.
Dimple's foot did not get well as fast as she expected, and the little girl found it rather tiresome to lie on a lounge all day, although her mamma read to her, and tried to amuse her. Bubbles, too, was as obedient a nurse as could be, and, because she had been the cause of the accident, considered it her first and only duty to wait on Dimple.
"Mamma," said Dimple, "for a colored girl, Bubbles is the nicest I ever saw; but indeed, I should like a white girl to play with, just for a change. Couldn't you get me one?"
"Perhaps so," said her mamma. "We will see what can be done."
"Good-bye, little girl," said her papa the next morning. "I am going away and will not be back till to-morrow. What shall I bring you? A new doll?"
"Oh, please, papa; and papa a white girl if you can get one that is real nice, something the same kind of girl that I am."
"A girl like you would be hard to find, I think," said he, laughing, "but I'll inquire around and see if there is one to be had."
Bubbles looked very sober all day, and rolled her eyes around at Dimple in such a reproachful way that finally she said:
"I know just what you think, Bubbles. You believe I am going to send you to the orphan asylum and get a white girl, but I am not at all. If I get a white girl I shall want you all the same, because you will have to wait on her too."
Bubbles' face lighted up, as she said,
"'Deed, cross my heart, Miss Dimple, I didn't fo' sure think yuh was gwine to send me off, but I tuck and thought yuh was conjurin' up somethin' agin me."
"Why, Bubbles, I wouldn't do such a thing, unless you were out and out bad. It has been such a long day," she said, turning to her mamma. "When will it be to-morrow?"
Mrs. Dallas drew up a little table, and Bubbles brought Dimple's best set