Dotty Dimple at Her Grandmothers | Page 9

that "voice" which speaks in
everybody's heart was saying,--
"Now, Dotty, be a good girl, a noble girl. Tell about drinking the milk
under the acorn tree."
"But I needn't," thought Dotty, clicking the door-latch! "it won't be a
fib if I just keep still."
"Yes, it will, Dotty Dimple!"
"What! When I squeeze my lips together and don't say a word?"
"'Twill be acting a fib, and you know it, Alice Parlin! I'm ashamed of
you! Take your fingers out of your mouth, and speak like a woman."
"I will, if you'll stop till I clear my throat.--O, Grandma," cried Dotty,
"I can't tell fibs the way Jennie Vance does! 'Twas we two did it, as true
as you live!"
"Did what, child? Who?"

"The milk."
"I don't understand, dear."
Dotty twisted the corner of her apron, and looked out of the window.
"Drank it--Katie and me--under the acorn tree."
"Yes, she did," chimed in Katie; "and 'twasn't nuffin but moolly's cow
milk, and her 'pilled it on my shoe!"
Grandmamma really looked relieved.
"So this accounts for it! But Dotty, how could you do such a thing?"
"I telled um not to," cried Katie, "but her kep' a-doin' an' a-doin'."
"Ruthie gives too much measure," replied Dotty, untwisting her
apron--"'most two quarts; and when Katie and I ask for some in our
nipperkins, Ruthie says, 'No,' she must make butter. I was just as thirsty,
grandma, and I thought Mrs. Gray never would care; I did certainly."
"Yes, gamma, we fought Mis Gay would care; did cerdily!"
"My dear Dotty," said Mrs. Parlin, "you had not the shadow of a right
to take what belonged to another. It was very wrong; but I really
believe you did not know how wrong it was."
Dotty began to breathe more freely.
"But you see, child," interposed Aunt Louise, "you have done a deal of
mischief; and I must go at once to Mrs. Gray's and explain matters."
Dotty was distressed at the thought of Mrs. Gray, whose nose she could
seem to see "going up in the air."
"Don't feel so sorry, little sister," said Prudy, as they walked off with
their arms about each other's waist; "you didn't do just right, but I'm
sure you've told the real white truth."

"So I have," said Dotty, holding up her head again; "and mother says
that's worth a great deal!"
CHAPTER IV.
DOTTY'S CAMEL.
Matters were soon set right with Mrs. Gray, who was sorry she had not
spoken frankly to Mrs. Parlin in the first place, instead of going secretly
to the neighbors and complaining that she did not receive her due
allowance of milk. Perhaps it was a good lesson for the doctor's wife;
for she ceased to gossip about the Parlins, and even took the pains to
correct the wrong story with regard to the pearl breastpin.
After this Dotty and Katie carried the milk as usual; only they never
stopped under the acorn tree any more to play "King and Queen." Not
that Dotty felt much shame. She held herself in high esteem. She knew
she had done wrong, but thought that by telling the truth so nobly she
had atoned for all.
"I am almost as good as the little girls in the Sunday school books,"
said she; "now there's Jennie Vance--I'm afraid she fibs."
Jennie called one day to ask Dotty and Flyaway to go to school with
her.
"Jennie," said Miss Dimple, gravely, as they were walking with Katie
between them, "do they ever read the Bible to you?"
"Yes; why?"
"O, nothing; only you don't act as if you know anything about it."
"I guess my mother is one of the first ladies in this town, Miss Dimple,
and she's told me the story of Joseph's coat till I know it by heart."
"Well," said Dotty, looking very solemn, "it hasn't done you any good,
Jennie Vance. Now, I learn verses every Sunday, and one is this: 'Lie

not one to another.' What think of that?"
Jennie's black eyes snapped. "I heard that before ever you did."
"Lie not one to another," repeated Dotty, slowly. "Now, I'm one, Jennie,
and you're another; and isn't it wicked when we tell the leastest speck
of a fib?"
"Of course 'tis," was the prompt reply; "but I don't tell 'em."
"O, Jennie, who told your step-mother that Charlie Gray was tied up in
a meal-bag? I'm afraid," said Dotty, laying her hand solemnly on little
Katie's head as if it had been a pulpit-cushion, and she a minister
preaching,--"I'm afraid, Jennie, you lie one to another."
"One to anudder," echoed Katie, breaking away and running after a
toad. Jennie knitted her brows. "It doesn't look very well for such a
small child as you are to preach to me,