The Apple Dumpling and Other Stories for Young Boys and Girls | Page 9

many times she
made her kind Mother very unhappy.
For a few days after this Emma remembered what her Mother had said
to her, and always came the first time she was called. She came
pleasantly, for it is very important to mind pleasantly, and did
everything she was told to do immediately; and her Mother loved her
dearly, and hoped she was quite cured of her naughty ways.
But I am very sorry to have to say that a time came when Emma
entirely forgot her promise. You shall hear how it happened.
One morning Emma's Mother said to her, "Emma, it is time for you to
get up, and put on your stockings and shoes."
Emma did not move. She lay with her eyes wide open, watching a fly

on the wall, that was scrubbing his thin wings with his hind legs.
"Did you hear me, Emma? Put on your stockings and shoes!"
Emma got up very slowly. She put one foot out of bed, and then looked
again at the fly. This time he was scrubbing his face with his fore legs.
So she sat there, and said to herself, "I wonder how that funny little fly
can stay upon the wall. I can't walk up the wall as the fly can. What a
little round black head he has got!"
"Emma!" said her Mother, and this time she spoke in a very severe
tone.
Emma started, and put her other foot out of bed, and took up one of her
stockings.
Her Mother got out of her bed, which was close to Emma's crib, and
began to dress herself. When she was dressed, she looked round, and
saw Emma, with one stocking half on, and the other rolled up in a little
ball, which she was throwing up in the air.
Her Mother was angry with her. She went up to her, and took her
stocking away from her, and told her to get into bed again; for if she
would not dress herself when her Mother bid her, she should be
punished by being made to lie in bed. She shut up the window shutters,
and took all the books out of the room, and telling Emma not to get up
until she gave her leave, she went down stairs to breakfast.
Now children don't like to be in bed in the daytime,--at least I have
never heard of any one that did; and Emma was soon tired of lying in a
dark room wide awake, with nothing to do, and no pleasant thoughts,
for she could think of nothing but her naughty behaviour. So this was a
very severe punishment, and she began to cry, and wish she had
minded quickly, and then she would have been down stairs, where the
sun was shining brightly into the windows. She would have been sitting
in her chair, with her dear little kitten in her lap, and a nice bowl of
bread and milk for her breakfast. She always saved a little milk in the
bottom of the bowl for Daisy her kitten, and after she had done, she

would give the rest to Daisy. So you see that Emma lost much pleasure
by not minding quickly; and, what was worse than all, she had
displeased her Mother, and made her unhappy.
Oh, how weary she got! how she longed to get up! She did not dare to
disobey her Mother, and she lay in her crib a long, long time, and
thought she never could be so naughty again.
At last her Mother came into the room. She opened the shutters, and
said, "Emma, you may get up and put on your stockings and shoes."
Emma jumped up quickly, and had them on in two minutes, and then
she took off her night-gown and put on her day-clothes, which hung
over the back of the chair by her crib, and went to her Mother to have
them fastened, for she could not fasten them herself. Her Mother
fastened her clothes, and then, taking her little girl's hand, she said,
"My dear little Emma, you have made me feel very unhappy this
morning. I do not like to punish you, but it is my duty to try to cure you
of all your naughty ways, and it is your duty to try to overcome them. If
you do not, some day you may meet with some terrible misfortune, like
that which happened to a boy I used to know when I was young. I will
tell you the story. This boy, like you, grieved his parents often, by not
minding quickly; and he suffered for it in a way that he will never
forget as long as he lives. He was one day standing on the steps of