am I," returned Susy.
Prudy said nothing.
"I didn't see him shake his feet," said Dotty, changing the subject; "and
the dust wouldn't come off if he did shake 'em."
"Have you any more Christmas money left, Dotty," said Jennie,
twirling her gold ring on her finger.
"O, yes, ever so much at home. And I shall soon have more," added
Dotty, with a great effort to be cheerful; "for people are always
dropping pins."
"I've got any quantity of scrip," pursued Jennie; "and I don't have to
work for it, either."
"O, dear," thought Dotty, "what's the use to be good? I 'sposed if I gave
away my money cheerfully, they'd all feel ashamed of themselves; but
they don't! I wish I had it back in my box, I do!"
CHAPTER II.
PLAYING KING AND QUEEN.
"What are you hunting for on your hands and knees, Alice?" said
grandmamma, next day.
"O, nothing, only pins, grandma; but I can't find any. Isn't this a
hidden-mist carpet?"
"No, dear; a hit-and-miss carpet is made of rags. But what do you want
of pins?"
"She has given away what Aunt Ria paid her for Christmas," said Prudy,
speaking for her; "she gave it all to the beggar."
"Yes, she did; one, two, free, four, nineteen, tenteen," said Katie; "and
the gemplum didn't love little goorls."
"Why, Alice! to that man who was here yesterday?"
Dotty was frowning at Prudy behind a chair. "Yes, 'm," she answered,
in a stifled voice.
"Were you sorry for him?"
"No, ma'am."
"Did you hear me say I did not believe he was in need of charity?"
"Yes, 'm."
Grandma looked puzzled, till she remembered that Alice had always
been fond of praise; and then she began to understand her motives.
"Did you suppose Jennie Vance and your sisters would think you were
generous?" asked she, in a low voice.
Dotty looked at the carpet, but made no reply.
"Because, if that was your reason, Alice, it was doing 'your alms before
men, to be seen of them.' God is not pleased when you do so. I told you
about that the other day."
Still the little girl did not understand. Her thoughts were like these:
"Grandma thinks I'm ever so silly! Prudy thinks I'm silly! But isn't
Jennie silly too? And O, she takes cake, all secret, out of her new
mother's tin chest. I don't know what will become of Jennie Vance."
Mrs. Parlin was about to say more, when Miss Flyaway, who had been
all over the house in two minutes, danced in, saying, "the Charlie boy"
had come!
It was little lisping Charlie Gray, saying, "If you pleathe, 'm, may we
have the Deacon to go to mill? And then, if we may, can you thpare uth
a quart 'o milk every thingle night? Cauthe, if you can't, then you
muthn't."
Deacon was the old horse; and as Mr. Parlin was quite willing he
should go to mill, Harry Gray came an hour afterwards and led him
away. With regard to the other request, Mrs. Parlin had to think a few
minutes.
"Yes, Charlie," said she, at last; "you may have the milk, because I
would like to oblige your mother; and you may tell her I will send it
every night by the children."
Now, Mrs. Gray was the doctor's wife. She was a kind woman, and
kept one closet shelf full of canned fruit and jellies for sick people; but
for all that, the children did not like her very well. Prudy thought it
might be because her nose turned up "like the nose of a tea-kettle;" but
Susy said it was because she asked so many questions. If the little
Parlins met her on the street when they went of an errand, she always
stopped them to inquire what they had been buying at the store, or took
their parcels out of their hands and felt them with her fingers. She was
interested in very little things, and knew how all the parlors in town
were papered and carpeted, and what sort of cooking-stoves everybody
used.
Dotty hung her head when her grandmother said she wished her to go
every night to Mrs. Gray's with a quart of milk.
"Must I?" said she. "Why, grandma, she'll ask me if my mother keeps a
girl, and how many teaspoons we've got in the house; she will, honestly.
Mayn't somebody go with me?"
"Ask me will I go?" said Katie, "for I love to shake my head!"
"And, grandma," added Dotty, "Mrs. Gray's eyes are so sharp, why,
they're so sharp they almost prick! And it's no use for Katie to go with
me, she's so little."
"O, I'm isn't much little," cried Katie. "I's growing big."
"I should think Prudy might go," said
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