"O, Prudy, I wish you"d hush! I"ve got the earache."
"Ah, well!" thought the gentle teacher, with a sigh; "I"ll try again, some other day. I"ll not give it up. Grandma says, "Time and patience make the mulberry leaf into satin." I don"t know what that means, only it"s something about _perseverance_."
CHAPTER VII.
BOTH SIDES OF A STORY.
The little school was not resumed for some time. Not that Prudy had forgotten it, by any means; but the next Sat.u.r.day she had visitors, and the following Wednesday an exciting event occurred. It concerned Susy"s pony. Percy Eastman said he was called Wings "because he hadn"t any feet." Susy was vexed at this remark, and Prudy, taking her part, said, "Percy is such a _pert_ boy;" adding next moment, "What _is_ pert?"
But Percy only meant that the pony sadly needed some new shoes; and this was very true.
Now it happened that Mr. Parlin, being too busy to go himself, sent Eddy Johnson and Charley Piper with Wings to the blacksmith"s shop. It seemed to Susy that the boys were gone a long while, for it was Wednesday afternoon, and she was impatient for a ride. She sat down to practise a little, but her mind was out of doors, and the unwilling piano seemed crying out to be let alone.
"I can"t play," said Susy, decidedly; "and that"s the truth."
At that moment a sweet little voice was heard, singing, "John"s Brown buddy;" and Dotty Dimple"s head and shoulders were thrust into the room.
"I"ve broked it," said she; "I"ve broked it all to smash."
"Broke what, for pity"s sakes?"
"Your teapot," replied Dotty, in a very cheerful voice.
"O, I never did, in all my life, see such a child," wailed Susy. "What made you go and meddle with my dear little gold-edged tea-set?"
Dotty looked like an injured lamb, brushed the wayward hair out of her eyes, and gazed wistfully into her sister"s face.
"Is I your little comfort, Susy? Is I your little comfort?"
"No," cried Susy, wavering between a smile and a tear; "no, indeed! To think of _your_ being a comfort! O, my stars!"
"Well, then," continued the little one, in a soothing, cooing tone, "then I never broked it; it broked itself!"
So saying, she produced from the depths of her pocket the fragments of the gilt-edged toy. They were past the healing power even of Spalding"s glue, that was certain. At the painful sight, poor Susy"s patience flew into as many pieces as the teapot.
"O, you naughty, naughty thing, to say it broke itself!"
"Then it didn"t," replied the little culprit, not a whit dismayed. "Then "twas Prudy. We was playing "thimble-coop." _She_ broked it all to smash!"
"O, mother," said Susy, running out to the kitchen; "Dotty"s making up fibs as fast as she can speak! You"ll have to shut her up in the closet."
"Not so fast, my dear. Let us wait till we hear both sides of the story."
And, as it turned out, Dotty really did not deserve to be punished for wrong stories. She and Prudy had each a.s.sisted in breaking the teapot; one had knocked it off the bureau, and the other had stepped on it. But Dotty, who gloried in "a fuss," had begged to be the one to tell Susy the startling news. She wished to see her eyes flash, and hear her expressions of surprise. She knew that, however angry Susy might be, there was one magical sentence which would always her to terms: "Dotty"ll go out doors, "out her hat, get cold, have the _coop_, and DIE!"
At the bare mention of such a fearful thing, Susy"s anger was sure to cool at once. This time Dotty varied her method a little.
"See," said she, looking out of the window; "the boys has came."
Of course that was the last of Susy"s thoughts about the teapot. She rushed out of doors bareheaded, followed by Dotty. Eddy Johnson was just hitching Wings to a post near the gate.
"Have they _shoed_ him?" said Susy.
"_Shoed_ him? I should think they had; all of that," replied Eddy, indignantly.
"Booted him, more like," muttered Charley Piper, in the same tone.
"Why, what do you mean, boys?" said Susy, patting the pony, and gazing tenderly into his eyes.
"O, we don"t mean anything, as I know of. You must run into the house and ask your mother to come out here," said Eddy, mysteriously.
"Why, it"s my own pony, that my own father gave me, and if there"s anything the matter with it I should think you might tell," cried Susy, her voice shaking with a vague dread of some terrible mishap.
"Well, may be there isn"t anything ails him," returned Eddy, coolly. "I never said there was; but your mother"ll know!"
"O, Dotty Dimple, run into the house this very minute, please to,"
exclaimed Susy, "and ask mother--if she"s combing her hair, or _anything_--to come right out here as quick as she can run, and not wait! O, dear, dear, dear! Why, Dotty Dimple Parlin! you haven"t started yet! Quick! quick! quick!"
Dotty, who had only waited to be spoken to the second time, now ran in such haste that she stumbled on the piazza steps; but, nothing daunted, jumped up and went on, delighted to know that this time something had probably happened. She startled her mother, and called her away from her toilet, with the sudden cry that the boys and pony were "most killed.
At the same time she had the pleasure of throwing Prudy into a panic,--dear little Prudy, who had been for the last five minutes searching her treasures in the hope of finding some toy which would replace Susy"s teapot.
Prudy and Dotty appeared at the gate in a very brief s.p.a.ce; Prudy with her mouth in the shape of the letter O, and Mrs. Parlin not far off, in the act of fastening her breastpin.
"Well, boys, what is it?" said the good lady, smiling. "I hardly think anything very serious has happened, either to you or the pony."
"_You_ tell," said Eddy to Charley; "I _da.s.sn"t_. The blacksmith"s man may be mad if I do. But he"s abused this hoss, though," continued Eddy, not waiting to let Charley speak for him; "he"s abused him awfully! It"s right up and down mean; and three of us boys seen him!"
Susy clasped her hands, and performed a "stamp-act" on the pavement.
"See there," said Eddy, pointing triumphantly to Wings" left hind leg; "see that--will you?"
True enough, there were two or three small wounds, out of which was oozing thick dark blood. Susy looked as if her heart was breaking, but not a word did she speak.
"Pete Grimes did that with his hobnail, cowhide boots!" said Eddy, sternly.
"With his hammer, you _mean_," interposed Charley.
"With his _boot_, sir," persisted Eddy, with increasing eloquence.
"Didn"t I see him, me and Dan Murphy? Didn"t we stand there by the coal-bin, sir? He booted him well, Mis" Parlin. I"ll tell you where he did it; here on the left side, ma"am. Look where the hair sticks up!
Pooty well mauled--ain"t he, ma"am? Pete swore at him, too. Never heard such talk--did you, Charley?"
"No, ma"am, I never did," replied Master Charley, addressing Mrs.
Parlin, who fancied she could detect on Wings" glossy hide the marks of a boot, though there were no traces of the wicked oaths.