Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Temper tantrums -- Juvenile fiction
"It's so queer," she thought, "that auntie should tell my mamma I've
been tol'ably good! Why, I haven't, I know I haven't: I've been tol'ably
bad!"
She looked up at her auntie in surprise, and at that moment there
entered into her small mind a doubt of Mrs. Eastman's truthfulness. It
was a very faint doubt, which she did not express even to herself. It
was almost incredible that a grown-up lady should tell the "thing which
is not," or even color the truth by so much as the shadow of a shade.
Still, when auntie had called Dotty a tol'ably good girl, she must have
known it was a mistake!
Dotty did not have a fever; but for several days she was not at all
well, and spent most of the time in her grandmamma's room, on the
lounge. It would have been a good opportunity for reflection, if Katie
had not been in the house. As it was, Dotty did think of her own conduct
for several minutes at a time, during the intervals when Katie was not
dancing attendance upon her. She decided never to disobey her mother
again, and said so. This, you remember, was nothing new; she had made
the same resolve fifty times before, and broken it as often.
Johnny, her little companion in naughtiness, escaped without so much as
a sore throat; but he suffered in another way. His father, learning of
his exploit upon the water, and being greatly incensed, punished him
severely. It was not often that Johnny was corrected, and this time he
was very indignant. He reflected that if it had not been for Dotty
Dimple his sin would not have been found out. Dotty had ceased to be a
"brick;" she was a tell-tale--a hateful, mean tell-tale; and he wished
she would go home and stay there.
"I'll pay her for this business," said Johnny, talking to his boots.
Just how he was going to "pay" his little cousin he did not know. As for
being sorry for his disobedience, I doubt if Johnny thought of such a
thing. He knew he had been in much peril, and now, while the remembrance
of the fright was still fresh in his mind, he was not likely to fall
into the same temptation again--that was all.
Johnny missed his little lively cousin in his out-of-door sports; but he
was so angry with her that he scarcely ever went up stairs to see her;
and when he did go, amused himself by putting his mouth down to her ear,
and crying,--
"E, for shame, Dot Parlin! Fore I'd run and tell!"
But Dotty did not know that her cousin Johnny was harboring such bitter
thoughts against her. She had a high temper herself; but anger did not
rankle in her heart for days and days, as it did in Johnny's. She was
not eager, like him, for revenge.
The Parlins were now making ready to go into their new hired house.
They were all longing for a place they could call "home."
During the few days, while they yet remained at Mrs. Eastman's, very few
events occurred which are worth recording. For one thing, Dotty's bird
died. She had loved it for its helplessness; but Angeline said,--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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