Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Country life -- Juvenile fiction; Siblings -- Juvenile fiction
It was like walking into a labyrinth to dispose of the contents of that
table-cloth. How to put away the pencils and the rubber, when the
drawing-box was lost; how to collect all the cookey-crumbs and wandering
needles, that slipped out of your finger as fast as you took hold of them;
where on earth to put those torn geography leaves, that wouldn't stay in
the book, and couldn't be thrown away; where _was_ the cork to the
inkstand? and how should she hang up the riding-whip, with the string
gone? These were questions that might well puzzle a more systematic mind
than Gypsy's. However, in due time, the room was restored to an order that
was delightful to see,--for, if Gypsy made up her mind to a thing, she
could do it thoroughly and skilfully,--and she returned to the bureau
drawer. This drawer was a fair specimen of the rest of Gypsy's drawers,
shelves, and cupboards, and their name was Legion. Moreover, it was an
"upper drawer," and where is the girl that does not know what a delicate
science is involved in the rearranging of these upper drawers? So many
laces, and half-worn collars that don't belong there, are always getting
in; loose coppers have such a way of accumulating in the crevices; all
your wandering pins and hair-pins make it a rendezvous by a species of
free-masonry utterly inexplicable; then your little boxes fit in so
tightly, and never have room to open, and are always getting their covers
caught when you shut the drawer, and, when you try to keep them down, you
pinch your fingers so.
Please to imagine, O orderly readers! who keep every pin in its proper
place, the worst looking upper drawer that your horrified eyes ever
beheld, and you will have some idea of this drawer of Gypsy's.
There were boxes large, and boxes small, boxes round, square, and oblong;
boxes with covers (only two), and boxes without; handkerchiefs,
under-sleeves, collars,--both clean and soiled,--laces and ribbons, and
bows and nets; purses and old gloves, a piece of soap, a pile of letters,
scratched and scattering jewelry, a piece of dried cake, several fans all
covered with dust, and nobody knew what not, in the lower strata, out of
sight.
Gypsy sat and looked at it for about two minutes in utter despair. Then
she just turned the whole thing bottom upwards in a great heap on the
floor, and began to investigate matters, with her cheeks very red.
Presently, the family down stairs heard a little scream. Winnie stamped up
to see what was the matter.
"Why, I've found my grammar!" said Gypsy. "It's the one in marble covers I
lost ever--ever so long ago, and had to get a new one. It was right down
at the bottom of the drawer!"
Pretty soon there was another little scream, and Gypsy called down the
chimney:
"Tom Breynton! What do you think? I've found that dollar bill of yours you
thought I'd burnt up."
After awhile there came still another scream, a pretty loud one this time.
Mrs. Breynton came up to see what had happened.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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