The Apple Dumpling and Other Stories for Young Boys and Girls | Page 8

all up!"
said the Little, Small, Wee Bear, in his little, small, wee voice.
Upon this the Three Bears, seeing that some one had entered their
house, and eaten up the Little, Small, Wee Bear's breakfast, began to
look about them. Now the little old Woman had not put the hard

cushion straight when she rose from the chair of the Great, Huge Bear.
"=SOMEBODY HAS BEEN SITTING IN MY CHAIR!="
said the Great, Huge Bear, in his great, rough, gruff voice.
And the little old Woman had squatted down the soft cushion of the
Middle Bear.
"SOMEBODY HAS BEEN SITTING IN MY CHAIR!"
said the Middle Bear, in his middle voice.
And you know what the little old Woman had done to the third chair.
"Somebody has been sitting in my chair, and has sate the bottom of it
out!"
said the Little, Small, Wee Bear, in his little, small, wee voice.
[Illustration]
Then the Three Bears thought it necessary that they should make
further search; so they went up stairs into their bed-chamber. Now the
little old Woman had pulled the pillow of the Great, Huge Bear, out of
its place.
"=SOMEBODY HAS BEEN LYING IN MY BED!="
said the Great, Huge Bear, in his great, rough, gruff voice.
And the little old Woman had pulled the bolster of the Middle Bear out
of its place.
"SOMEBODY HAS BEEN LYING IN MY BED!"
said the Middle Bear, in his middle voice.
And when the Little, Small, Wee Bear came to look at his bed, there

was the bolster in its place; and the pillow in its place upon the bolster;
and upon the pillow was the little old Woman's ugly, dirty head,--which
was not in its place, for she had no business there.
"Somebody has been lying in my bed,--and here she is!"
said the Little, Small, Wee Bear, in his little, small, wee voice.
The little old Woman had heard in her sleep the great, rough, gruff
voice of the Great, Huge Bear; but she was so fast asleep that it was no
more to her than the roaring of wind, or the rumbling of thunder. And
she had heard the middle voice of the Middle Bear, but it was only as if
she had heard some one speaking in a dream. But when she heard the
little, small, wee voice of the Little, Small, Wee Bear, it was so sharp,
and so shrill, that it awakened her at once. Up she started; and when she
saw the Three Bears on one side of the bed, she tumbled herself out at
the other, and ran to the window. Now the window was open, because
the Bears, like good, tidy Bears, as they were, always opened their
bed-chamber window when they got up in the morning. Out the little
old Woman jumped; and whether she broke her neck in the fall; or ran
into the wood and was lost there; or found her way out of the wood,
and was taken up by the constable and sent to the House of Correction
for a vagrant as she was, I cannot tell. But the Three Bears never saw
anything more of her.

ABOUT MINDING QUICKLY.
Emma was one day sitting by the fire, on a little stool. She was trying
to cut a mouse out of a piece of paper. She had a pair of scissors, with
round ends. Her mother had given her these scissors for her own,
because they were safer for her to use than scissors with pointed ends.
Presently, her Mother said, "Come here to me, Emma."
"Wait a minute, Mother," said Emma.
"Do you know," said her Mother, "that it was naughty for you to say

that?"
"Why, you can wait a little minute," said Emma; "I am very busy. Don't
you see that I am making a mouse?"
"Emma," replied her Mother, "do you know that I ought to punish you,
because you do not mind?"
"I am coming directly," cried Emma, dropping her scissors and her
paper mouse, and running up to her Mother.
Her Mother took her up on her lap, and said, "My little girl, this will
never do. You must learn to come at once when you are called; you
must obey quickly. If you continue in this very naughty habit of not
minding until you are told to do a thing two or three times, you will
grow up a very disagreeable girl, and nobody will love you."
Emma looked up mournfully into her Mother's face, and said, "Mother,
I will try to do better."
She was a good-tempered child, and was seldom cross or sullen; but
she had this one bad habit, and it was a very bad habit indeed--she
waited to be told twice, and sometimes oftener, and