Here come the Parlins and Cliffords again. They had been sent to bed andnicely tucked in, but would not stay asleep. They "wanted to see thecompany down stairs;" so they have dressed themselves, and come back tothe parlor. I trust you will pardon them, dear friends. Is it not acommon thing, in this degenerate age, for grown people to frown andshake their heads, while little people do exactly as they please?
Well, one thing is certain: if these children insist upon sitting up,they shall listen to lectures on self-will and disrespect to superiors,which will make their ears tingle.
Moreover, they shall hear of other people, and not always of themselves.Fly Clifford, who expects to be in the middle, will be somewhatoverwhelmed, like a fly in a cup of milk; for Grandma Read is to talkher down with her Quaker speech, and Aunt Madge with her story of thesummer when she was a child. It is but fair that the elders should havea voice. That they may speak words which shall come home to many littlehearts, and move them for good, is the earnest wish of
CHAPTER I. — THE LETTER
CHAPTER II. — THE UNDERTAKING
CHAPTER III. — THE FROLIC
CHAPTER IV. — "TAKING OUR AIRS"
CHAPTER V. — DOTTY HAVING HER OWN WAY
CHAPTER VI. — DOTTY REBUKED
CHAPTER VII. — THE LOST FLY
CHAPTER VIII. — "THE FRECKLED DOG"
CHAPTER IX. — MARIA'S MOTHER
CHAPTER X. — FIVE MAKING A CALL
CHAPTER XI. — "THE HEN-HOUSES"
CHAPTER XII. — "GRANNY"
CHAPTER XIII. — THE PUMPKIN HOOD
1. 'I Camed Down when I Was a Baby.'
Katie Clifford sat on the floor, in the sun, feeding her white mice. Shehad a tea-spoon and a cup of bread and milk in her hands. If she hadbeen their own mother she could not have smiled down on the littlecreatures more sweetly.
"'Cause I spect they's hungry, and that's why I'm goin' to give 'emsumpin' to eat. Shut your moufs and open your eyes," said she, wavingthe tea-spoon, and spattering the bread and milk over their backs.
"Quee, quee," squeaked the little mice, very well pleased when a drophappened to go into their mouths.
"What are you doing there, Miss Topknot," said Horace: "O, I see;catching rats."
Flyaway frowned fearfully, and the tuft of hair atop of