She is very remarkable for her neatness, and for the nice order in
which she keeps her room and her clothes. She has had a very pretty
little chamber all to herself since she was six years old; and you may
go into it at any time, and not find anything out of its place. If you
open any of her drawers, you will find everything laid out smoothly and
sorted. There is a separate place for her prayer-book, another for her
fan; and, as to her clothes, they are all doubled and folded in the
neatest manner.
At eight o’clock Miss Steady goes to _bed by herself_. She folds up
all her clothes very neatly, and puts them in a chair near the bed,
with her shoes and stockings always laid by her. She puts all her
chairs in order, places all her lesson-books and playthings carefully
in her closet, undresses her doll, and folds up her doll’s clothes,
and puts her to bed. After saying her prayers, she lays her every-day
prayer-book and Bible on the table, where she keeps it.
All this she does by herself; and when she is ready to get into bed,
she takes good care to place the extinguisher over her candle.
On Saturday night, she takes her clean clothes out of her drawer, and
puts them all in their places; and she can go in the dark, and get
anything she may happen to want. At any time, on any occasion, she
always knows where to lay her hand on anything. She is also exceedingly
polite.
She never asks questions out of order at breakfast or dinner-table.
She knows when little girls may speak. She knows there is a place for
her questions; by this means she never interrupts the conversation of
others.
When she comes home from school, she always puts away her books, and
her bonnet and shawl, and thus has never any trouble in hunting for
them, as many persons have.
It is, however, very different with Miss Thoughtless; for she is so
idle, and disorderly, and negligent, that sometimes she forgets to
clean her teeth in the morning, and would, I believe, forget to wash
her face sometimes, if she were not told of it.
Then, as to her playthings, they are all crammed together; what you
would call higgledy-piggledy, or scattered about in various places.
On one occasion her dolls were stuffed into the kitchen drawer, along
with greasy dusters, corks, black-lead, whiting, shoe-brushes, and
hearthstones.
Then, as to her clothes. At night she slips them off in a bunch, and
just as they came off, so they lie; sometimes on the floor, or they are
thrown on the bed.
Sometimes she leaves the candle burning after she gets to bed, and on
one occasion, she set her bed-curtains on fire.
She is continually calling out to Mary; “Mary, where is my bonnet?
Mary, have you seen my shawl?” Once or twice in the morning she came
down stairs with only one stocking on, because she could not find the
other. She had gone to bed with her stockings over her heels, and one
had got wrapped up in the bed-clothes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account