"O, certainly, Mr. Parlin; certainly, sir," replied the Jewess, smiling very sweetly, and trying to pat Dotty"s head, which was in such violent motion that she only succeeded in touching the end of her nose. No one who had looked at Mrs. Rosenberg at that moment would have suspected her of being a vixen. She was sure Mr. Parlin would pay her handsomely if she kept his daughter there for a day or two; and the prospect of a little money always made the poor woman very amiable.
"Thank you, madam," said Mr. Parlin, gently disengaging himself from Dotty. "When you are tired of my little daughter, will you please let me know? Goodnight, Mrs. Rosenberg; good-night, Alice."
And, before Dotty had time to scream again, he was gone.
For a moment she stood quite still, gazing at the door-latch; then rushed out into the darkness, calling, "Papa, papa!" But Mrs. Rosenberg laid her strong hands upon her, and brought her back.
"So your mother didn"t say you might come? I thought it was queer. Hush!
hush! Don"t go into fits, child. There are no bears in this house, and nothing will hurt you."
Mrs. Rosenberg"s manner was much kinder than it had been before; and with a child"s quick insight, Dotty perceived that her father"s coming had wrought the change.
"I want to go home! I want to go home!" cried she, with another pa.s.sionate outburst. "O, take me--do! They won"t send for me, never! Take me, and I"ll give you--O, Mrs. Rosenberg, I"ll give you--"
For a little while there was quite a scene at the little grocery, and it repented Mandoline that she had ever hidden Dotty"s hat. The trundle-bed waked up at both ends and screamed; the black and tan dog, who slept under the counter in the store, barked l.u.s.tily; the parrot in the blue cage called out, "Quit that! quit that!" and Mrs. Rosenberg was afraid a policeman would come in to inquire the cause of the uproar. She pattered about in a pair of her husband"s cotton-velvet slippers, and tucked all her little ones into bed again, very much as if they had been clothes in a boiler, which she was forcing down with a stick. She was a woman who would be obeyed; and Dotty, finding it of no use to hold out against fate, went up stairs at last, and lay down beside Mandoline on the "pin-feathers."
This stolen visit had turned out quite, quite different from her antic.i.p.ations. Instead of a delightful supper of some mysterious Jewish cookery, she had been drinking gall and wormwood. That Lina would not let her go--THAT was the gall; that her father made her stay--THIS was the wormwood.
"She is a tough piece," sighed Mrs. Rosenberg, as she laid her weary limbs to repose; "I didn"t know, one while, but she"d get away in spite of me. I wonder what her father"ll pay me. He seems to think this is a house of correction. Her mother won"t be likely to let her stay more than one day. I"ll have on the best table-cloth for breakfast; and along in the forenoon I"ll fetch out some macaroni cakes and lager beer; that"ll coax her up, I guess."
Just then Mrs. Rosenberg down stairs and Dotty Dimple up stairs both fell asleep. One dreamed of running away and being chased by a dog with a hat on his head, who barked "Good-night" as fiercely as a bite. The other dreamed of money and brown sugar. And all the while the rats were treating themselves to nibbles of wood; but n.o.body heard them. Be careful, old rats! Your teeth have done mischief before now! The night wore on to the wee small hours, when a loud noise like a cannon startled Mrs. Rosenberg; or was she dreaming? The house was shaken to its very foundation, as if by an earthquake, and the room was full of smoke. She was just running for the children, when the building fell together with a crash, the roof was blown off into the street, the windows were shivered to atoms, and tongues of flame leaped madly up from the ruins.
What did it mean? She was so stunned by the shock that she scarcely cared whether one of her children was spared or not; she only thought in her stupor that Mr. Parlin would not pay her for Dotty"s lodging if the child was blown to pieces.
"I know how it happened," said she, twitching at her own hair to arouse herself. "Just as Abraham always said; the rats have been nibbling matches in the store; they"ve burned a hole through the floor, and set fire to that keg of gunpowder. Yes, that"s it!"
CHAPTER VII.
PLAYING PRISONER.
I know how it happened, too. It came of eating sausages. Mrs. Rosenberg, after she was fairly awake, felt so uncomfortable and oppressed that she went up stairs to see if the children were safe. Really, I do suppose those little human souls were precious to her, after all.
There lay Mandoline and Dotty side by side on the buffalo skins; and the Jewish mother stood in her short night-dress, with a tallow candle in her hand, and gazed at them tenderly. That horrible dream had stirred the fountain of love in her heart They made a beautiful picture, and there was no stain of evil in their young faces. It seems as if the angel of Sleep flies away with loads of naughtiness, for he always leaves sleeping children looking very innocent. But, alas! he brings back next morning all he carried away, for the little ones wake up with just as bad hearts as ever.
"What sweet little creeters!" said Mrs. Rosenberg, bending over and kissing them both; "just like seraphims right out of the clouds."
Softly, madam! If a drop of tallow should fall on them from that candle, they might take to themselves wings and fly away. That was what Cupid did in the fairy story, and you are in fairy-land yourself, Mrs. Rosenberg; you are still half asleep.
She looked at Mandoline"s perfect little hand, lying outside the patchwork quilt.
"It doesn"t seem, now," murmured the mother, with a tear in her eye, "that I could ever whack them pretty fingers with a thimble. I do believe if I wasn"t pestered to death with everything under the sun to do, I might be kind o" half-way decent."
Perhaps the poor woman told the truth; I think she did.
Then, as she stood there, she breathed a little prayer without any words,--not for herself--for she did not suppose G.o.d would hear _that_,--but for her children that she "banged about" every day of their lives.
She was not really a Jewess, for she had no religion of any sort, and never went to church; but I am sure of one thing: little overworked Mandoline would have loved her mother better if she had known she ever prayed for her at all.
In the morning, Mrs. Rosenberg was just as hard and sharp as ever; she could not stop to be pleasant. Dotty longed to get away; but she was an exile from her own dear home; whither could she turn?
It was a cold morning, and the children ran down stairs half dressed and shivering. Dotty spread out her stiff, red fingers before the cooking-stove like the sticks of a fan. "O, hum!" thought she, drearily, "I wish I could see the red coals in our grate. My mamma wouldn"t let me go to the table with such hair as this. Prudy"d say "twas "harum scarum."
But I can"t brush it with a tooth-comb, "thout any gla.s.s--so there!"
Dotty"s curly hair looked quite as respectable as Mandoline"s. Mrs.
Rosenberg was far too busy to attend to her children"s heads. They might be rough on the outside, and full of mischief inside; but she could not stop to inquire.
"What a dreadful nice breakfast!" remarked Judith, rubbing her hands, and accidentally hitting little Jacob, who forthwith spilled some mola.s.ses on the clean table-cloth, and had his ears boxed in consequence.
It was very evident that this meal was a much better one than usual--a sort of festival in honor of Dotty Dimple: Dutch cheese and pickles, mince-pie and gingerbread, pepper-boxes and green and yellow dishes, were mixed up together as if they had been stirred about with a spoon.
Dotty had not intended to eat a mouthful; but after her light supper of the night before, she was really hungry, and, in spite of her best resolves, the fish-hash and corncake gradually disappeared from her plate.
After breakfast she felt more resigned, and armed herself to meet her fate. Mrs. Rosenberg graciously allowed Mandoline to lay aside her tedious knitting, and give her undivided attention to her guest. Dotty had no heart for play.
"Seems as if I should choke in this house," said she; "let"s go out and breathe."
The air inside the house was rather stifling from a mixture of odors, and soon the grocery began to fill with loud-talking men and boys; but not the least of Dotty"s troubles was the black and tan dog, who seemed to have just such a temper as Mrs. Rosenberg, and would certainly have scolded if he had had the gift of speech.
The two little girls went out to walk; but it was not a pleasant street where the grocery stood, and Dotty hurried on to a better part of the town. They fluttered about for two or three hours, as aimless as a couple of white b.u.t.terflies. Just as they were turning to go back to the dismal little grocery, which Dotty thought was more like a lock-up than ever, they met Mr. and Mrs. Parlin riding out in a carriage.
[Ill.u.s.tration: DOTTY AND THE BLACK-AND-TAN DOG.]
Dotty felt a sudden tumult of joy and shame, but the joy was uppermost.
She rushed headlong across the street, swinging her arms and startling the horse, who supposed she was some new and improved kind of windmill, dressed up in a little girl"s clothes.
"O, my darling mamma, my darling mamma!"
To her surprise, the horse did not stop. He only p.r.i.c.ked up his ears, and looked with displeasure at the windmill, but kept along as before.
"Mamma, mamma, I say!"
Her mother never even looked at her, but turned her gaze to the blackened trees, the heaps of ruin along the pavement.
"O; papa! O, stop, papa! It"s me! It"s Dotty!"
Mr. Parlin bent on his runaway daughter a glance of indifference, and called out, in pa.s.sing,--
"What strange little girl is this, who seems to know us so well? It _looks_ like my daughter Alice. If it is, she needn"t come to my house to-day; she may go and finish her visit at Mrs. Rosenberg"s."
Then the horse trotted on,--indeed, he had never paused a moment,--and carried both those dear, dear people out of sight.
What did they mean? What had happened to Dotty Dimple, that her own father and mother did not know her?
She looked down at the skirt of her dress, at her gaiters, at her little bare hands, to make sure no wicked fairy had changed her. Not that she suspected any such thing. She understood but too well what her father and mother meant. They knew her, but had not chosen to recognize her, because they were displeased.