Oliver Optic

“ I do not wonder that they don’t like you, either. You may call it rude, but the girls can never like you while you try to make servants of them.”
“Why, Mrs. Lee!” exclaimed Josephine.
“You may be surprised, but I have seen you send Flora upon a dozen errands in half an hour.”
[92] “I have asked her to do something for me very often, perhaps; but I only asked it as a favor.”
“One should not ask too many favors. Now let me give you a rule, which I hope you will follow. Never ask others to do for you what you can just as well do yourself. You will have to ask many favors of your friends ”

“ Flora’s request that they consented you should go. Josephine, you have got a bad habit, which I hope you will cure before long.”
“A bad habit, ma’am?” said Josephine, looking up at Mrs. Lee, as though she thought it very strange that she should have a bad habit.
“Yes, my child. I noticed it when you first came here. It has made you very unpopular [90] with your playmates. When I went to the picnic this afternoon, I found that nearly all the girls were glad you had left them. They all said Katy and Jenny had done just right in leaving you.” ”

“ Even Katy Green, who was not very well acquainted with the New York miss, could not resist this appeal, and she accordingly climbed over the fence and got two or three of the apples which she found on the ground.
As Katy had said, the apples were not fit to eat, and [40] they were thrown away. They had gone but a little farther before Josephine saw some more apples, which looked very nice.
“I am sure those apples are ripe. See how red they are. I know they are ripe,” said she.
“Those are Baldwin apples. They are not fit to eat till winter comes,” replied Katy. ”

“ During the summer vacation, one year, Josephine and Edward Brown spent a month with Flora Lee and her brother. The visitors were distant relations, and lived in the city of New York.
[8] Josephine was a pretty little girl, but she had a very bad habit which made for her a great many enemies. It is a common fault, not only among children, but among grown-up people, and which often makes others dislike them. ”

“ When they reached the spot, Josephine sat down on a rock. Her companions tried to make her help them pick the leaves; [66] but she said she was so tired she could not possibly do any thing.
In a very short time the body of the wagon was filled with leaves, and the girls were ready to return to the picnic grounds.
“We are going, Josephine; are you ready?” asked Jenny.
“I can’t go yet. I am tired almost to death.”
“We told you you would [67] be; but you would come,” said Katy. ”

“ I have another story to tell of Josephine and her friends, which will still further illustrate her fault, and show how she was cured of it.
A few days after the fishing excursion, Flora’s mother said she might have a picnic party in the woods on the other side of the river. To add to the pleasure of the [32] occasion, Mr. Lee had a tent put up in the woods, and erected a swing for the children.
The boys and girls were delighted with the plan, and Flora and Frank invited all the children in the neighborhood to join the party. ”

“ Come, quick.”
“I don’t feel able to walk back,” sighed Josephine.
“Don’t you, indeed?”
“I am sure I can’t.”
[68] “What are you going to do—stay here all night?”
“Couldn’t you draw me back on the wagon? There is room enough for me on top of the leaves.”
The girls made no reply; but both of them laughed as though something very funny had happened.
“What are you laughing at?”
“Do you think we are going [69] to drag a great girl like you back to the grounds? I guess not,” replied Katy.
“I should think you might.”
“We don’t like you well enough to do that,” said Katy ”

“ The poor girl wandered about for two hours in the [79] woods, till she was so tired she could walk no longer. She thought of the Children in the Woods, and others who had been left in the forest, and she was afraid she should never see her friends again. ”

“ Josephine declared that this speech was very rude indeed; and perhaps it was; but it was plain common sense. The little [44] New York lady was so angry that she left Katy, and went to walk with Jenny Brown.
After the party had crossed the bridge, the boys took down the bars by the side of the road, and they entered the woods. There was a fine smooth road leading for several miles through the forest, and the children enjoyed the walk very much. ”