Men may seem to be very good when they are really very bad, though people almost always find out such persons. Katy was just as wicked, just as envious, when her sister thought she was kind and loving, as she was on that Christmas morning, when the doll was found in the chamber.
You will be surprised and sorry when you see just how wicked her envy made her. I shall tell you about it in the next chapter, and I hope it will lead you to drive any such feeling from your own hearts.
[Ill.u.s.tration: What Katy did.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Nellie and Katy in their room.]
IV.
Lady Jane and Miss Dolly were kept in the lower drawer of the bureau, for they were very fine young ladies, and Mrs. Green wished to have them kept clean and nice.
One day, about two weeks after Miss Dolly was given to Nellie, both she and Katy had been playing with the dolls. When the bell rang for tea, they ran downstairs; but before they went they put the dolls in the drawer. As they were in a hurry, they were not very careful, and the dresses of both the dolls were sadly tumbled.
Mrs. Green, who was in the room, saw in what manner Miss Dolly and Lady Jane had been thrown into the drawer; and before she went down to tea, she took them both out, smoothed down their dresses, and put them back in a more proper manner.
Katy and Nellie had had some talk about their dolls; and the envious girl had said hers was better than her sister"s. Nellie did not dispute with her about it, but she saw that Katy had not got over that bad feeling yet.
The children ate their suppers, and not a word more was said about the dolls; but Katy looked very sour. She was thinking about Miss Dolly"s eyes, and wishing Lady Jane"s eyes would move like the other"s.
She finished her supper, and ran upstairs again. By this time it was quite dark in the room where the dolls were kept, and Nellie and her mother wondered why she went upstairs at that late hour.
Katy was still thinking of those eyes. She thought her aunt Jane was real mean not to buy her such a doll; and then she was very sorry that Flora"s mother had bought it for her sister.
While she was thinking these wicked thoughts she went to the bureau, and opened the lower drawer. It was so dark she could hardly see the dolls, but she took out one of them.
"Your dolly shall not be better than mine any longer," said she to herself.
As she said this, she took the scissors from the work basket on the bureau, and finding one of the eyes with her fingers, she struck one of the points right into it. Then she turned the scissors, so as entirely to destroy the eye. Not content with this, she spoiled the other eye in the same manner.
"Now your doll isn"t so good as mine, anyhow," said she to herself, as she put the poor spoiled lady back into the drawer.
I would not have a little girl feel as she felt then for all the world. Her heart was full of envy and wickedness. To gratify her ill feeling she had thrust the scissors into the eyes of the doll.
She knew how badly her sister would feel, but she did not care for this. Now Lady Jane was the best doll, and she did not care for anything else.
She staid in the room but a few moments. Closing the drawer, she hastened downstairs, and took a seat by the fire. She tried to look as though nothing had happened; but she was sour and sullen, for she felt that she had done a very naughty act.
"Come, Katy, let us go upstairs and play with the dollies again,"
said Nellie, when she had got through with her supper.
"I don"t want to," replied she, without even looking at her sister.
"Do come, Katy."
"I tell you I don"t want to," snarled she.
"You can bring your dolly downstairs, and play with her here, Nellie," said her mother.
"May I, mother?"
"You may--take a light with you."
"I don"t want any light, mother; I can find her just as well in the dark;" and away she ran to get the doll.
Don"t you think Katy trembled then? She did tremble, like a leaf, and wished she had not done the naughty deed. In a moment Nellie would return with poor Miss Dolly, whose eyes had been spoiled with the scissors. She did not think it would be found out so soon, and she could not think what to say before the doll came down.
She felt just as though she should sink through the floor, when Nellie came into the room with the doll in her arms. There would be an awful time in a moment, and her father and mother would want to know who had spoiled Miss Dolly"s eyes.
They knew she had been upstairs since tea, and they would charge her with the naughty act. She meant to deny it, for those who are wicked enough to do such things are almost always wicked enough to lie about them.
"Now won"t you and I have a nice time, Dolly?" said Nellie, as she rushed into the sitting room, with the doll in her arms, "Come, Katy, let"s play Dolly is the Queen of England."
"I don"t want to play."
"Well--won"t you make me a crown for her?"
"I can"t."
Katy was waiting for her sister to find out the mischief that had been done, and she dreaded the moment when she should do so. She did not dare to look at her, for fear her looks might betray her.
"You shall be queen without any crown," said Nellie, as she placed the doll on the table. "This pincushion shall be your throne.
There, you look just like a queen--don"t she, mother?"
"I think she does," replied Mrs. Green, with a smile. "I hope she will be as good as Queen Victoria."
"She will, mother--only she ought to have a crown."
"I have got a piece of gilt paper upstairs, and I will make her one. I"m going up in a minute."
Katy, not daring to look yet, did not know what to think of this talk. How could the doll look like a queen when her eyes had been punched out with the scissors? It was very strange to her, and she stole a glance at the queenly Miss Dolly on the table.
There she was, seated on her pincushion throne, just as if nothing had happened. Her eyes were just as bright as ever, and as Nellie bent her body, she moved them as well as ever she could.
Katy did not know what to make of it. She had certainly driven the scissors into the eyes of the doll as hard as she could; but there was Miss Dolly as good as new. She could not explain it, and it was of no use to try.
Mrs. Green brought down the scissors, and cut out the crown. Then Miss Dolly certainly looked like a queen, and Nellie spent a very pleasant hour with her majesty, till it was time for her to go to bed.
Katy was very unhappy. She had not done what she meant to do, and she was filled with doubt. But she did not have to wait long to find out what she had done. When Mrs. Green went upstairs with the children, Miss Dolly had to be put to bed first, for she was a queen.
When the bureau drawer was opened, what do you think they saw?
There lay Lady Jane, with both of her eyes punched out!
Katy burst into tears when she saw that her doll was entirely spoiled. Then she found that she had made a mistake. In the darkness she had punched out the eyes of Lady Jane instead of Miss Dolly. This is the way that wicked people often punish themselves instead of others.
Her mother had changed the places of the dolls in the drawer, and this was the reason why Katy had made the mistake. Don"t you think it served her right?