Sarah L. Barrow

“ Then there were ever so many pork pies, with the most elegant wreaths of flowers on the top crust, comical little hams already cooked, and fat dumplings of sucking pigs, as pink as baby himself!
When we had looked about us a little, we concluded to buy a pork pie of the pig man; and while that was being nicely packed up in paper, out popped [33] Gipsey from my pocket, and stood triumphant on the counter, in the midst of the little pigs and savory pastries. ”

“ My little neighbor laughed and blushed comically when I said that, and then Jimmy said:
"He's a first rate fellow, I tell you. [98] He sent us a letter the other day, and what do you think? he's coming here!"
"Coming here!" I exclaimed; "my stars! I shall be quite thrown in the shade when such a nice friend makes his appearance. I think I shall have to go home again Monday, and I did mean to stay till Wednesday," and I made up a dismal face, and pretended to be quite heart-broken.
"No, indeed, Neighbor Oldbird! we shall always like you the best!" cried Nelly, catching both my hands in hers. ”

“ We stayed down on the delightful beach until nearly half-past nine; and, dear me, what a heap of sand we got in our shoes! It was quite wonderful how it contrived to work its way in; but there it was, making us lift up our feet as heavily as though we had cannon balls tied to our ankles.
But it was getting late, and high [103] time for small people to be off to bed; so, with a shake of the hand from one of my little neighbors, and a "good kiss" from the other, I don't say which, Gipsey was waked up, and they all trotted off together. ”

“ Meanwhile, I walked quietly along, with my market basket on my arm, a sober old bachelor. I expect the people who passed us in the street thought me a rather incongruous addition to such a frisky party; but then, you know, children [28] must caper about. Bless your heart! it would never do in the world to see children mincing solemnly along, like little old men and women; it would be as absurd as to have my Neighbor Nelly wearing her great-grandmother's coal-scuttle bonnet! ”

“ While we were occupied in this way, a little girl, poorly dressed, and lugging a large bundle of work in both arms, came along, and stopping beside us at the window of the most splendid toy shop, stood looking wistfully in.
Neighbor Nelly straightway twitched my hand, and whispered, "Oh look, Neighbor Oldbird! what a poor little girl! I don't suppose she ever saw a doll before in her life. How she must wish she had one!"
"Suppose we ask her?" I said.
"Will you ask?" she answered; "I don't like to."
"Nonsense! ask her yourself; she won't eat you, or Gipsey either;" ”

“ He is so glad to meet the fat baby [12] when he comes home at night, that I can see him in the parlor first kissing it almost black and blue, and then tossing it up in the air until I feel as though its head must come bump against the ceiling, but it doesn't—and at last, carrying it off perched on his shoulder, and looking very much perturbed in its spirits.
But the pleasantest neighbors of all live exactly opposite, at No. 9. They take tea every evening in the back parlor; and as the front window shades are up, and only the back room lighted, I can always see them at their cheerful meal. ”

“ I wish I could sketch a little picture of our party as we clustered together on the piazza, to show what manner of people we were then; and another, of our appearance in the water afterward. Ten o'clock was the hour for bathing that morning; so we each armed ourselves with our [114] bathing clothes and a prodigious towel, like the main sail of a fishing smack, and rushed down to the beach; that is, the younger members; Aunt Elsie, Mrs. Lawson, and I walked soberly along. ”

“ Now, Neighbor Nelly and Jimmy had been looking out of their parlor window, and advising me which were the best parts of our windows to play on, when, all of a sudden, Nelly said:
"Why, Tom, it doesn't half clean the panes to do them that way; they ought to be washed with soap and hot water. Suppose we try it? Only think!" she went on, "how much your aunties would be obliged to us if we were to find out a new way to [74] make windows clean, ever so much better than the old one!" ”

“ Our street is always shady and cool, it seems to me, and we were glad enough to find ourselves once more on its pavement. I invited Nelly and Jimmy and Gipsey all to take lunch with me, and didn't we have fun! We ate the pork pie, and stuffed Gipsey with lumps of sugar, and discovered a pot of raspberry jam in the closet, and ornamented ourselves with red rims round our mouths, digging it out ”

“ We promised about twenty-five times apiece always to be friends; and then I kissed Aunt Elsie and Aunt Ruth, pulled Poddles' ears for good-by, and pranced off all alone; of course, boys that have watches are [85] plenty big enough to go from New York to White Plains by themselves. I suppose we always shall stay there, for papa is abominably fond of the country; but just wait until I am a man, and see if I don't come to live in New York, and marry Neighbor Nelly, if she will have me. Mind you keep that last remark a secret, now, Neighbor Oldbird! ”

“ My bedroom is the third floor, back room, always; and you know that piazza at the back of the house? Well, what did I do, but twitch off my bedcover—nice white one it was, too—tie it to the bedpost, and let the end hang out of the window. Then I scrambled out, and slid down the wall like a streak of lightning! You can't think what jolly fun it was!
There was lots of amusement in the yard; twelve cats on the fence to plague, and no end of snow to make balls and pelt the cook with; beside, the gingerbread was just baked, and I got a brown corner! So! there! ”

“ In the evening I was looking out of my window as usual, when I saw the servant girl come in to light the gas in the back parlor at No. 9, with [21] Neighbor Nelly and the little brother Jimmy behind her. While she was setting the tea table, the children came running to the window, and both nodded and smiled at me. Presently the little boy thrust both hands in his pockets, and held them up crammed full of candy. "Thank you, Mr. Old Bachelor!" he shouted; "we like you real well!" ”

“ Neighbor Nelly and Jimmy joined me there pretty soon, and we had such fun playing "tag" and driving hoop. It wasn't hoop time, to be [59] sure, but that was no matter. Then, when we were tired of that, we all sat down together on the upper step of No. 9, and began talking about their school and mine, and what we learned.
"Do you ever learn pieces of poetry?" asked Nelly. "My teacher, Miss Backboard, always gives the girls each a piece of poetry every Friday; so we call that poetry day." ”

“ She hopes and prays, in all sincerity, that she has succeeded not only in amusing you, but in giving you some lessons which will sink into [135] your hearts for your real good. And if in the shadowy train of personages who have moved before you in these Sock Stories, there is one who has pleased you especially, from Colonel Freddy and little tender-hearted Greta, to Little Mother and the Old Bachelor, Neighbor Nelly, with her bright eyes and merry ways, or Gipsey, of the cork-screw tail and yap! ”

“ Now on the side of her satchel, I saw, when I came near her, [16] was printed in gold letters, "Nelly Lawson;" so I said, as cheerily as I could, in my old, quavering voice:
"Good morning, Neighbor Nelly!"
The little maiden looked up in my face in a shy fashion at first; but when she saw what a mild, gray-headed old bachelor had bade her good morning, she took courage, and answered, "Good morning, sir."
"So you are going to school this fine day?"
"Yes; I go to school, but brother Jimmy doesn't; he learns at home. I think he is going next year. Have you got a baby at your house? We have." ”

“ We thought we would go to market first. So we walked slowly down Fourth Avenue, and crossed over to the market where the Seventh Regiment armory is, opposite the Cooper Institute.
"My cousin is a Seventh Regimenter!" said Jimmy as we climbed up the iron steps; "he often let us look on at his company drills last winter, and afterward Nelly and I drilled in our yard. The big boy who comes to see the old ladies next door, looked over the fence and laughed at us, but we didn't care; and we mean to fight for our country like everything when we are bigger ”

“ So we felt quite like relations right away. Just as tea was over, lo and behold! [41] there was a tremendous hullaballoo on the back piazza, and when we poked our heads out of the window to see what the matter was, there was Gipsey high and dry on the back of Miss Bluejay's fat poodle—having squeezed through the railing which separated the two piazzas—with the squirrel, which had come to the rescue of his friend, hanging on to his tail! ”

“ I am an old bachelor. Will you marry me?" [17]
"Oh, I am too little," she replied quite seriously. "You will have to wait until I grow up to you."
I laughed, and asked her, "Don't you want to go to market with me before you go to school? There is plenty of time."
"No," replied my little neighbor, firmly; "I can't go anywheres that mamma does not know of."
"That's right!" I said. "Don't do anything your mother would disapprove. Well, Neighbor Nelly, since you won't go to market with me, I must go to school with you ”

“ Then there is the fun of finding shiny pebbles and jelly fish on the beach. I used to think jelly fish were made of sea-calves' feet, and no flavoring. I suppose the mermaids eat them at their parties.
"Then there's fishing on the seaside. I used to catch flat fish sometimes, with a long string line, it was like swimming a kite. If you go out in a surf boat, take care it does not "flounder" and get "squamped," as some people say, instead of founder and swamped. ”

“ Somebody had told me that the Mansion House was the best hotel to stop at. Shall I tell you why? Because there was a party there, of a papa and mamma, a dear little girl and boy, and a remarkably nice little toy terrier, which would put me in mind very much of some friends of mine called Lawson. In fact, this family was called Lawson, too, and the younger members were christened Nelly and Jimmy! Comical, wasn't it?
If you have never been to Long Branch, you can't think what a pleasant sail it is down the Bay in the "Thomas Collyer," and how much I [92] enjoyed my trip. ”

“ First, then, is the family at No. 7, three maiden sisters and a bachelor brother. As I don't in the least know [9] their names, I have dubbed them the Bluejays, because the three maiden sisters always wear blue merino gowns in winter, and blue muslin ones in summer; and because they are all so fond of singing that no family of birds could be more musical. They have a pet poodle and a pet squirrel, too. The poodle is very fat, and his hair sticks out so much all over him, that he looks perpetually astonished, as if he had just seen a spook. ”

“ Mamma says I may take a walk with you this morning, because you are a good old bachelor. Jimmy wants to go, and Gipsey. Gipsey is my dog. He is black and tan, and his tail curls round so, that papa says you might use it for a cork-screw. Jimmy and I mean to try some time. Gipsey likes to be on the seashore, and so does baby. We are going there next week—to Long Branch. ”

“ And that was the end of the famous Sock Stories, which had afforded George and Helen so much amusement during nearly three months; for it took all that time for Aunt Fanny's daughter to write, and the children to read them all. ”

“ I said, laughing. "Funny stories, and sad ones, too; and some that are every word [126] of them true, and others that are told me by my friends; and you shall tell me whether they are true or not."
So we all made haste into my room—not the same I had when I first came, but one on the front piazza, near Neighbor Nelly's. The papers I meant were my own, Tom's, and the Fat Gentleman's stories, which I had brought down with me, to look over and correct. The candy I had bought for Nelly and Jimmy, as I told you, and forgotten all about to that moment. ”

“ Nelly, with another little girl, whose name seemed to be "Baby," for they never called her anything else, were manufacturing a resplendent doll's dress [121] for a waxen angel in a white spencer—or whatever those muslin concerns are called, which the ladies wear with colored skirts nowadays, and a black velvet pointed belt; while the boys, with their arms fraternally entwined, were interchanging confidences on the important subjects of "My peg top," "Don't you think thirty-eight cents is a tremendous price for kites?" ”

“ Then Jimmy [75] and I took off our nice jackets, rolled up our shirt sleeves, lugged in three big yellow dishes full of hot water, spilling plenty on the way, found a long bar of brown soap, and helped ourselves to three more of Bridget's clean towels; and then we all three began scrubbing away at the windows!
Such fun as we had! We put on the greatest lot of soap, and paid away with both hands, so as to make them good and clean, laughing and talking all the time ”