ever go up stairs Cheerfully, when falls the dew; And with _yev'yence_[B] say my prayers-- This can 'ittle Luly do!
"GOD will help me, if I try; He good children loves to view; Dear Lord Jesus, from on high, _Pease_ tell Luly what to do!"
"Ah! that is a beautiful hymn," said the good minister. "Don't you knowany, Little Mother?"
"I am learning a beautiful hymn," said Kitty, "but I don't know ityet--not quite."
"No?" said Mr. Lacy. "Then I shall have to tell you something myself, Ideclare. Here, sit down beside me, and listen very attentively."
Now, what do you think the minister told them? "Some dreadful, dismalstory, full of dreadful, wicked children, who were sent to prison, Isuppose; or an account of how, if _they_ ever dared to run down stairs,or look out of the window, or sneeze in church, on Sundays, they neverwould get to Heaven!" perhaps you will say. Not a bit of it. He justtrotted Luly up and down on his knee, and told them these funny verses:
"Three little kittens from home ran away, Oh dear! oh dear! And did you not hear All that befell them on that day? Dilly, and Dolly, and Poppledy-polly-- Did you ever hear, in your life, of such folly!
"Out they ran from their mother's door, And skipped, and tripped, And danced, and dipped, Way down the road, where they'd ne'er been before! Dilly, and Dolly, and Poppledy-polly, Oh deary! what _will_ be the end of their folly?
"'Come let us go into this barn for mice!' 'Oh don't!' 'Oh stuff! I'm hungry enough To eat anything that is sav'ry and nice!' So quoth little Dolly and Poppledy-polly, While Dilly looked on, quite aghast at their folly!
"So in it they went, quite full of their fun, And stared, and glared, And meauoed, and scared The poor little mice till they made them all run! Dilly, and Dolly, and Poppledy-polly; For Dilly, I'm sorry to say, shared their folly.
"But, alas! while the kittens were hunting up mice, And munching, and crunching Their smoking-hot _lunching_, A boy came and caught them all up in a trice! Dilly, and Dolly, and Poppledy-polly; _Oh!_ OH! OH! what a shocking cli_max_ to their folly!
"Oh, how they struggled and mewed in their fright! And scratched, and snatched At the dismal old patched Bag they were thrust into, twisted up tight! Dilly, and Dolly, and Poppledy-polly; I warrant, they felt bad enough for their folly.
"Soon to a stranger house they came; 'Oh, ma'! oh, ma'! Now, only see _thar_!' Their captor cried out to an elderly dame; While Dilly, and Dolly, and Poppledy-polly Pricked up their ears, and lamented their folly.
"'What, have you brought in a parcel of cats? Go straight to the pond And get 'em all drowned!! I won't have them here, I can tell you; now s'cats!' Poor Dilly, and Dolly, and Poppledy-polly Set up a loud howl of distress at their folly!
"Off scampered the boy till he came to the bank Of a very deep pool; Oh, wasn't it _cruel_! And tossed in the bag!! To the bottom it sank!!! With Dilly (oh!), and Dolly (oh!), and Poppledy-polly (oh! oh!), And that was the end of their fun and their folly!"
MORAL.
"So, children, I solemnly beg and implore, Whatever you do, (And you're torments a _few_,) You'll never slip out of your dear mother's door; Or, like Dilly, and Dolly, and Poppledy-polly, You'll surely be made to repent of your folly!"
The children were very much amused with this woful history, bursting outlaughing without any kind of fail when Poppledy-polly, of comical memoryand name, was mentioned. Luly said, "Oh, me _yike_ that name! me want tocall Dody Popply-polly." This made Kitty laugh more than ever, and theyhad a great time chasing Dody round the hall, and catching her, to bawlin her ears "Poppledy-polly!" by way of kindly informing her that was tobe her new name.
Dody didn't seem to like it much, for she jumped out of Luly's arms witha squeal and a flourish of her long tail, and scampered off faster thanever each time. After watching them, and laughing for a while, Mr. Lacyrose to go, saying:
"Good-by, Little Mother; I must go and see some of the big mothers now.Don't forget me on any account, and tell your mamma, when she comeshome, that I approve your style of housekeeping very much indeed."
"Good-by, Mr. Lacy," said Kitty. "Thank you for your funny story."
"Tank 'ou--funny 'tory!" repeated Luly after her sister.
Mr. Lacy lifted the little thing up to his shoulder, and held her therea minute, saying, "Good-by, Poppledy-polly! I hope, when I come again,you will know another hymn to say."
Luly didn't like much to be called Poppledy-polly, and she said, withan air of considerable displeasure, "My name Luly May;" but when theminister kissed her, and called her "his little lamb," she relented, andcooed, "Me _yove_ 'ou, miniter!'
Then something quite sorrowful happened; for two great tears gathered inthe minister's eyes, and came slowly rolling down his kind face. Ah! hethought of his own little pet lamb, who once lisped, too, "Me yove 'ou;"who said so now to the dear Jesus; and with that last thought camecomfort. Floy was only "sleeping"--and setting little Luly gently down,Mr. Lacy laid a hand on each childish head, saying, "God bless you, mylittle lambs," and went quietly away. The children watched him driveoff, and then capturing Dody once more--by the end of her tail thistime--Kitty popped her in her apron; and lugged her up stairs intriumph.
There they found Wawa, sitting on the floor, with an immense pair ofscissors held in both hands, and an expression of extreme horror on hisface. Mary had left the room, and Kitty, running up to her baby brother,pulled away the scissors in a great fright, exclaiming, "Why, Wawa!where did you get those?"
Wawa stared astonished for a moment, his great blue eyes opened verywide indeed; then he bubbled out, "On yer fore (floor); yook! Gawow allpoil!" (spoiled); and poor Wawa puckered up his little rosy mouth,and began to cry most piteously.
KITTY POPPED HER INTO HER APRON]
Luly popped on the floor beside him in a minute, and pulling his curlyhead down on her breast, she murmured, "There--don't _c'y_, never_matter_, dear _bedder_--s'eel get well!" while Kitty lifted up poorGawow, who was indeed in a pitiable condition. Walter had ornamented herface with several deep digs of the scissors, which made her look as ifshe had been to the wars and come home with a number of bullet holes inher. Then, not satisfied with this--what does that monkey Wawa do butrip up her whole body from the neck to the waist, and shake out everybit of the bran all over the carpet! leaving the wretched Gawow withnot the least particle of insides.
Did you ever hear of such a piece of mischief? But then Walter was sucha little fellow--not quite two years old; of course he didn't mean to doanything wrong, and nobody thought of blaming him; so Kitty called Maryto come and sweep up the bran, and Luly and Walter were soon happilyengaged in stuffing Gawow with rags, making her look as good as new--oras good as old, I might say; for she was such a direful object in thefirst place, that it seemed as though she must have been bought in thatcondition, and never could have been otherwise; after which theydressed her in her very best bonnet and frock, and treated her to a nicedance in the garden, all taking hold of hands; until Mary looked out ofthe window and called them to come up to dinner.
Kitty was old enough, now, to dine with the grown folks, and behavedlike a perfect little lady, too; but on this occasion she was going totake early dinner in the nursery.
She and Luly helped Mary pull out the nursery table, and set the threelittle plates upon it. Walter's dinner was some mashed potato, with justa tiny mite of chicken among it, minced very fine, and made into anelegant hill on his plate, and a "wishing bone" to suck. Luly had thesame, only with more chicken; and Kitty cut up her own wing and slice ofbreast, with her particular knife and fork, as nice as you please.
There was a great deal of merriment over the dinner, when Wa
lter wouldlook away just as Mary gave him a spoonful of potato, watching her outof the corner of his eye, though, and then bob round again and say"Feed!" just as she had put it down, thinking he didn't want any more.Then he insisted on making Gawow taste the wishing bone, and poked itinto both her eyes in succession, as if that was the usual way forpeople to eat things. After they had finished the chicken and potato,they had some nice custard pudding; and when dinner was over, Kittywent right to the wash stand and _cleaned her teeth_, while Luly held upher mouth to have Mary brush her little pearly teeth. Do you always dothis, little