Aunt Madge's Story

nor the day after. I ceased from the wickedness of telling lies, just as I had sto

The flowers and trees seemed glad to see me, and I knew the hens and cows were, and old Deacon Pettibone, the horse. I resumed my old busines

llen," said I, "for you don't want to run and jump; and folks

ear to me as A B C. And after all my suffering, she wou

ppened to me," said I, waving my thimble-finger

dent in her life, and was naturally ashamed of not having a single scar or bruise on her little white body, not so much as a wart or pimple to s

her self-esteem. "Your mamma never has to put mustard pace on your feet,

Whiting has 'em so she can't but just see out of her eyes. But that isn't like hurting a place on you so bad your mother doesn't das

, and I had the l

three-cornered seat in the trees, trying to squeeze herdsgrass, to see which wou

e; "but how we shall miss her l

was going back and forth, d

ut I shan't have her dresses to mend. I

ther off, and I did not hear

found out something," whispered I, startin

o cousin Lyd

o you

houldn't have to mend my dresses? Th

u'll be a better gir

r her say she pitied poor cousin Lydia? Well, it's because

er house, if 'twill make

u say that; its because

n't. Who'd I ha

Jane

'm

e Foster; you think she's

said she kept her hair sm

e drooping of my little friend's mouth. "You can play with them while I'm gone

ek against mine, and we sat a while, thinking how dearly we did love each other. Then we sa

going anyw

's going over yonder," said h

ybody going

id Abner, dryly, as he began to wre

'Ria, from the side door. "Come into t

n kept from me till the last possible moment, for when I was excited about anythin

aken so much pains to get such a naughty girl ready. I had been told I might stay till after apple-gathering, and I was glad, for I wanted to make Fel as lonesome as she had

wing dearer every minute, especially mother, I had my

ther," remarked Ned, "a

ou see

y just then, for my brave laugh

me back to-morrow; but you can do as you please, Totty-wax-you can co

tely, of a stray tear,

ill take the c

been laid to one corner of Willowbrook, and I had never taken a car in my life; had never seen one; di

, "did you say the cars? I s'posed cousin Lydia would come in a wago

r the Deacon's back. Did you ever

keep still, he often asked me if I ever heard what a small bird, cal

r my acc

se when I

ie, the wh

thing woul

felt remarkably humble for me. I had been thinking so much about the ha

woodbines creeping over it, and Boston pinks growing by the front door-stone. There was a red barn and barnyard on one side of the house, and a woodshed on the other; and in front

her in a black dress and double-frilled cap. Then there were her husband's tw

and I might pick pigweed to "green" it, and tansy to give it a fine taste. So I should almost make the cheese myself; what would my mother say to that? Then there were the beehives, which were filling with honey, and some la

, I shouldn't see mother for as much as a month! A new and dreadful feeling swept over me, as i

She asked me if I was homesick. I thought not; I only wanted to see my mother, and I felt bad "right here," laying my

, and a barrel of kittens out in the barn. I felt a little better at d

e, did not show any to me. She seemed to be always talking privacy with her sister, or with cousin Lydia, and always sendi

out in the barn and hu

to go, and couldn't answer back. The neighbors' children were few and far between; and though I strolled about for hours behind cousin Jo

, I never should get tired of looking

ed into the stall a while, just to see if sh

t all done. First, I picked the pigweed and tansy, or how could she have made the cheese? Then she strained some mil

atch it a few minutes, and you will see it grow

was drained dry enough, she let me cut it up in the chopping-tray, and she mixed the two curds together, the green and the white, salted them, and put them in that cunning hoop, and then set the hoop in the cheese-press, turned a crank, and weighed it down with a flatiron. There, that is the way to make

cousin Lydia covered it with tissue paper, and oiled it, and set it in a safe, and every day she oiled it again, and turne