"What is it?" whispered Patty. "O, _what_ is it?" Linda covered her face with the sheet, and whispered, trembling all over,-- "I _guess_ Freddy's sick." "No, no, no," cried Patty; "hear how loud he talks!" "O, but he's very sick," repeated Linda. They heard him in the next chamber, kicking against the wall, and saying dreadful words, such as Patty had never heard before--words which made her shiver all over as if she was cold. "Is it 'cause he is sick?" said she to Linda. Linda thought it was. Next morning, bright and early, Patty had to run home to help Moses turn out the cows; there were nine of them, and it took two, besides the dog Towler, to get them to pasture. She told her mother what she had heard in the night, and her mother looked very sober; but Rachel spoke up quickly,-- "I'll tell you, Patty, what makes Fred Chase have such sick turns; he drinks too much brandy." "Yes," said big brother John; "that fellow keeps a bottle in his room the whole time." "Is it his mamma's bottle?" asked Patty; for it flashed over her all at once that perhaps that was the reason Mrs. Chase didn't have a bottle to cry into, because Fred kept it up in his room--full of brandy. Nobody knew what she meant by asking "if it was his mamma's bottle;" so no one answered; but Mrs. Lyman said,-- "You see, Patty, it can't be very pleasant at Linda's house, even if she does have calico dresses that stand alone." "It don't _quite_ stand alone, mamma." "And I hope you won't cry again, my daughter, for pretty things like hers." "No, I won't mamma.--Is that why Linda's mother 'feels bad round her heart,' 'cause Freddy drinks out of the bottle?" "Yes, dear, it makes Mrs. Chase very unhappy." "Then I'm sorry, and I won't ever cry to have things like Linda any more." "That is right, my child; that's right!--Now, darling, run and help Moses turn out the cows." CHAPTER X. MASTER PURPLE. I think it was the next winter after this that Patty had that dreadful time in school. If she had known what was coming, she would not have been in such a hurry for her shoes. Mr. Piper came in the fall, after he had got his farm work done, to "shoe-make" for the Lymans, beginning with the oldest and going down to the youngest; and he was so long getting to Patty that she couldn't wait, and started for school the first day in a pair of Moses's boots. O, dear; but such a school as it was. Timothy Purple was the worst teacher that ever came to Perseverance. He was very cruel, but he was cowardly too; for he punished the helpless little children and let the large ones go free. I have no patience with him when I think of it!