Little Prudys Dotty Dimple | Page 2

up and give her a good hugging, but stood in mortal fear of the nurse. There was something awful about Mrs. Fling: Prudy presumed it was the wart on her nose.
When the children were outside the door, and grandma had closed it gently, they seated themselves on the upper step of the staircase, and began to talk over this strange affair.
"Don't you know what made me cry in there?" said Prudy. "The baby isn't only a girl, and that's why I cried."
For the moment Prudy fancied she was telling the truth.
Susy laughed. "Just to think of our keeping a boy in THIS house, Prudy Parlin!"
"O, no! course not!" returned her little sister, quickly; "we wouldn't keep a boy."
"You see," argued Susy, "it's boys that fires all the popguns, and whistle in your ears, and frighten you. Why, if this was a brother, we couldn't but just live! What made you cry for a brother, Prudy?"
"Poh, I didn't! I wouldn't have him for nothin' in my world! I'm glad God sended a girl, and that's what made me laugh."
"It seems so queer to think of it Prudy, I don't know what to do with myself, I declare."
"Well, I know what _I'm_ goin' to do. I'll give her my red pocket-dress. She's come clear down from God's house, and this is a drefful cold world."
Susy knew that little Prudy's heart must be overflowing with sisterly love to the baby, or she would not be willing to give her the pocket-dress.
"She can tuck her candy in it," pursued Prudy; "'tisn't a believe-make, you know; there's a hole clear through. She can tuck her candy in, and her pyunes and pfigs, and teenty apples. Oho!"
"'Twill be as mother says about giving her your dress, Prudy; but we shall be glad to see you kind to the new sister," said Susy, who was fond of giving small lectures to Prudy. "We ought to be kind to her, for God sent her down on purpose. Of course it will be ME that will take the most care of her; but maybe they'll let you watch her sometimes when she's asleep. Don't blow open her eyes any more, Prudy; that's very naughty. If we do just as we ought to, and are kind to her, she'll be a comfort, and grow up a lady!"
"O, will she?" asked Prudy, a little sadly. "I thought when she growed up she'd be a gemplum, like papa."
"What an idea! But that's just as much sense as you little bits o' children have! When you don't know about anything, Prudy, you may come and ask _me_; I'm most six."
The new baby was very wonderful indeed. The first thing she did was to cry; the next was to sneeze. Prudy wished "all the people down street, and all the ladies that lived in the whole o' the houses, could see the new sister." Her heart swelled with pride when admiring ladies took the unconscious little creature in their arms, saying, "Really, it is a remarkably pretty child. What starry eyes! What graceful little fingers! Isn't her mouth shaped like Prudy's?"
Mrs. Parlin did not approve of cradles, and the nurse had a fashion of rolling the baby in a blanket and laying her down in all sorts of places. One day little Prudy flung herself into the big rocking chair, not noticing the small bundle which lay there, under a silk handkerchief.
It was feared at first that the baby was crushed to death; but when she was heard to cry, Mrs. Parlin said, "We have great cause for thankfulness. So far as I can judge, it is only her nose that is broken!"
But the doctor pronounced the baby's bones as sound as ever.
"It is only little Miss Prudy whose nose is out of joint," added he.
Prudy ran to look in the glass, but could not see anything the matter with her nose, or anything that looked like "a joint." But after this she was as careful as a child of her heedless age can be, not to injure her tender sister. She never again saw a silk handkerchief without shaking it to make sure there was not a baby under it.
It was a long while before the friends could decide upon a name for this beautiful stranger.
"For my part I have no choice," said Mr. Parlin, "and only one remark to make; call the child by her right name, whatever it may be, for I am very much opposed to pet names, of all sorts."
After every one else had spoken, Mrs. Parlin suggested that she would like to call the baby Alice Barrow, in honor of a dear friend, now in heaven.
She grew to be a fair, fat baby; and while her teeth were pricking through, like little pointed pearls, Susy's front teeth were