Ester Ried | Page 4

dishes in it."
"O, bless your careful heart! I won't hurt it the least speck in the world.
Will I, Birdie?"
And she proceeded to wrap her tiny self in the long, wide apron.
"Not that pan, child!" exclaimed her mother "That's a milk-pan."
"O," said Sadie, "I thought it was pretty shiny. My! what a great pan.
Don't you come near me, Birdie, or you'll tumble in and drown yourself
before I could fish you out with the dish-cloth. Where is that article?
Ester, it needs a patch on it; there's a great hole in the middle, and it
twists every way."
"Patch it, then," said Ester, dryly.

"Well, now I'm ready, here goes. Do you want these washed?" And she
seized upon a stack of tins which stood on Ester's table.
"Do let things alone!" said Ester. "Those are my baking-tins, ready for
use; now you've got them wet, and I shall have to go all over them
again."
"How will you go, Ester? On foot? They look pretty greasy; you'll
slip."
"I wish you would go up stairs. I'd rather wash dishes all the forenoon
than have you in the way."
"Birdie," said Sadie gravely, "you and I musn't go near Auntie Essie
again. She's a 'bowwow,' and I'm afraid she'll bite."
Mrs. Ried laughed. She had no idea how sharply Ester had been tried
with petty vexations all that morning, nor how bitter those words
sounded to her.
"Come, Sadie," she said; "what a silly child you are. Can't you do any
thing soberly?"
"I should think I might, ma'am, when I have such a sober and solemn
employment on hand as dish-washing. Does it require a great deal of
gravity, mother? Here, Robin Redbreast, keep your beak out of my
dish-pan."
Minnie, in the mean time, had been seated on the table, directly in front
of the dish-pan.
Mrs. Ried looked around. "O Sadie! what possessed you to put her up
there?"
"To keep her out of mischief, mother. She's Jack Horner's little sister,
and would have had every plum in your pie down her throat, by this
time, if she could have got to them. See here, pussy, if you don't keep
your feet still, I'll tie them fast to the pan with this long towel, when

you'll have to go around all the days of your life with a dish-pan
clattering after you."
But Minnie was bent on a frolic. This time the tiny feet kicked a little
too hard; and the pan being drawn too near the edge, in order to be out
of her reach, lost its balance--over it went.
"O, my patience!" screamed Sadie, as the water splashed over her, even
down to the white stockings and daintily slippered feet.
Minnie lifted up her voice, and added to the general uproar. Ester left
the eggs she was beating, and picked up broken dishes. Mrs. Ried's
voice arose above the din:
"Sadie, take Minnie and go up stairs. You're too full of play to be in the
kitchen."
"Mother, I'm real sorry," said Sadie, shaking herself out of the great
wet apron, laughing even then at the plight she was in.
"Pet, don't cry. We didn't drown after all."
"Well! Miss Sadie," Mr. Hammond said, as he met them in the hall.
"What have you been up to now?"
"Why, Mr. Hammond, there's been another deluge; this time of
dish-water, and Birdie and I are escaping for our lives."
"If there is one class of people in this world more disagreeable than all
the rest, it is people who call themselves Christians."
This remark Mr. Harry Arnett made that same Saturday evening, as he
stood on the piazza waiting for Mrs. Holland's letters. And he made it
to Sadie Ried.
"Why, Harry!" she answered, in a shocked tone.
"It's a fact, Sadie. You just think a bit, and you'll see it is. They're no
better nor pleasanter than other people, and all the while they think

they're about right."
"What has put you into that state of mind, Harry?"
"O, some things which happened at the store to-day suggested this
matter to me. Never mind that part. Isn't it so?"
"There's my mother," Sadie said thoughtfully. "She is good."
"Not because she's a Christian though; it's because she's your mother.
You'd have to look till you were gray to find a better mother than I've
got, and she isn't a Christian either."
"Well, I'm sure Mr. Hammond is a good man."
"Not a whit better or pleasanter than Mr. Holland, as far as I can see. I
don't like him half so well. And Holland don't pretend to be any better
than the rest of us."
"Well," said Sadie, gleefully, "I dont know many good people. Miss
Molton is a Christian, but I guess