Sophie May

“ Flaxie pondered upon this speech as she sat rattling along in the cars, munching peanuts, while Mrs. Prim took care of the shells.
“Troublesome. Oh, my! ’s if I ever troubled anybody! ’Cept Grandma Gray; and that’s ’cause she’s got something in her back. But mamma always thinks Milly is nicer than me! Queer what makes mammas never like their own little girls!—I mean, not much. Now Aunt Charlotte thinks I’m the nicest. She scolds to Milly sometimes, but she don’t scold to ME!” ”

“ It was not so with thoughtful Milly. She snuggled down on the piazza beside Julia, and looked on quietly.
“I’m glad Preston was so good,” thought she; “perhaps he wouldn’t have been so very good if he hadn’t had those blind eyes and spectacles. How God must love him! Papa says Julia is like a little candle, and I’m sure Preston is like a candle too. Why, where is Flaxie going now?” ”

“ It might be very funny to light a fire on one’s own little hearth, and bake one’s own little biscuits for tea; but then it was certainly wrong. If it hadn’t been wrong, why didn’t the little girls tell of it at home? What made Flaxie seize a bunch of matches from the kitchen-shelf and hide them in her pocket? What made Milly snatch that piece of dough when Nancy’s back was turned, and run away with it so fast? Children are never sly, you know, when they are doing right. ”

“ And who saved it?”
“Miss Pike!” broke forth all the children in chorus.
“Yes,” said Johnny; “but she marched us all out first, so the little ones wouldn’t get burnt. Never said a word about the fire till we got out!”106
“She always does things just right. She’s one of God’s girls,” cried Freddy.
“Yes,” broke in Flaxie, strongly excited; “I don’t care if I can’t see her soul. I’ve seen it shine! Oh, it’s beautiful to be homely!”
Nobody smiled—they all thought Flaxie was right.
“Yes, it is beautiful to be homely in just Miss Pike’s way,” said Aunt Charlotte. ”

“ But I made those mittens, and then I felt better.”
“What mittens?” asked Milly, who hadn’t untied her bonnet yet, and couldn’t know in a minute everything that had happened.
“Why, Lucy’s red mittens; don’t you know? I tell you, Milly, what you must do when you don’t feel happy: you must make somebody some mittens.”
This was Flaxie’s way of saying “You must help other people.” But Milly knew what she meant. Children understand one another when the talking is ever so crooked. ”

“ And one day after Flaxie had taught the little folks all the games she could possibly remember, she thought of a new thing to do.
“See there, Milly,” said she, pointing to a high pile of boards behind the schoolhouse, under one of the windows. “A man has gone and put those down there, and now let’s make a house of ’em, and live in it!” ”

“ There’s a woman out in the other room eating peas,—eating, and eating, and eating. Why don’t you stop her? Oh, you don’t hear! Johnny Allen, run for a sponge and vinegar, and put it in auntie’s ears, so she can hear!”
Milly laughed at these strange speeches till she heard Nancy say to Mrs. Hunter, “Crazy as a loon, ain’t she? I’m afraid it’s water on the brain.”
Then Milly, who did not understand Nancy’s meaning, but was appalled by the tone, ran into the pantry, and cried behind the flour-barrel.
“If Flaxie Frizzle dies, I want to die too! She’s the only twin cousin I’ve got in the world.” ”

“ And he did bear it nobly and patiently, and the whole family helped him. That is one comfort of having a father and mother, and brothers and sisters; they always do help you bear your troubles.
“Let’s read to him,” said Milly to Flaxie.160 So they read,—first one of them, and then the other,—whenever he wished. This would have been very pleasant if he had liked “nice books” such as little girls enjoy; but no, he chose stories of lion-tamers, and sea-serpents, and wild, dreadful Indians.
“Isn’t it just awful?” said Flaxie to Milly; but they read away like young martyrs. ”

“ She’s going to scald me to death, and I s’pose you know I’m sick,” whined Flaxie, sinking down on the doormat, where the light of the lamp shone full upon her, and Mrs. Hunter saw—what she might have seen before, if she had not been so nervous—that the little girl wore a checked flannel nightie, and her feet were done up in poultices. ”

“ You needn’t tell anybody, but I do pity children who never hunted for hens’ nests: it is such capital fun! And then there was the handsome dog, Tantra-Bogus, one of Flaxie’s best friends.28
In the house she had her “splendid Dr. Papa;” her dear brother Preston, who could whittle all sorts of things with a penknife; her darling Grandma Gray, an old lady with white hair, white cap, and white ribbons; and last, but not least, she had the “beautifullest baby” Philip, who could stand on his head “just as cunning,” and “hug grizzly”—that is, like a grizzly bear. ”

“ That was funny too, and Ethel joined in on a high key:171
“Poor little fish, I know you wish
To live as well as I;
I will not hook you from the brook,
Or even wish to try.
”And you, old frog, behind the log,
I will not stop your song;
Your great round eyes may watch the flies,
I will not do you wrong.“
Mrs. Gray and grandma did not know this exhibition was called for on purpose to amuse them, but they laughed heartily, and felt the better for it; and so did Flaxie and Milly. Wasn’t it much better than sitting in silence and thinking about Preston, when they couldn’t help him at all? ”

“ We had bread with egg between, and bread with chicken between, and candy and pinnuts. ’Twas splendid!”
“Well, we’ll have nice times here,” returned Aunt Charlotte; but her tone was doubtful. She knew how suddenly Flaxie sometimes changed from one mood to another; and what could she do with such a wayward little guest, when Milly was gone?
“I like Hilltop so much,” went on Flaxie, pouring out compliments. “Uncle Ben’s so nice, you know; and Johnny, and Freddy, and the baby.”
Freddy threw back his shoulders. He liked to be called “nice;” but Johnny was older, and only laughed. ”

“ Milly hugged Flaxie, it was such a bright94 idea. Make a house? Of course they would! They had made cupboards out of shingles and stones, and put clay dishes on the shelves; they had dug ovens all along the bank like swallows’ nests; but a real live house, what could be so charming as that?
But when you came to think of it, it wasn’t what you might call easy work, for the boards were very heavy; and with all their tugging the little girls could only drag them a little way across the ground.
“Well, Johnny will help,” said Milly, puffing for breath. “And perhaps Freddy will too.” ”

“ And Milly ‘n’ I, we didn’t get but one tart and one piece o’ cake; for auntie had a party with ’em her own self. Do you think ’twas right when she made ’em for Milly and me?”
Here Flaxie’s eyes flashed.
“My child, we are talking of you now, not Auntie Prim.”
“Yes’m, I know it, and I’m real sorry I’m so naughty; but Auntie Prim makes me naughty.”
“Mary, Mary, you must not talk so about that good woman!”45
“Oh, I know she’s good, mamma. Why, she is the best woman in this town; she’s the best woman in the world! And she knows she’s good, and it makes her just as proud!” ”

“ She supposed she was showing very kind and tender feelings when she cried about Preston.
“Let’s go back to the parlor,” said Milly; “perhaps Aunt Emily will feel better if we talk and laugh and play with the baby.”170
“That’s the nicest little thing I ever saw,” thought Dora, gazing after Milly; “she don’t fret about her own feelings, but tries to make other folks happy.”
This was very true, but you mustn’t suppose that Flaxie didn’t also try to make other people happy. She did whenever she could think of it. She was really learning lessons in unselfishness every day ”

“ Flaxie dropped her head and blushed. “Oh, yes’m, I can stay. I’ve sent Preston home, and locked the door!”
Mrs. Proudfit smiled into the oven as she looked at her gingerbread, and thought—of course she did—that Flaxie Frizzle was a very queer child.
It did seem as if that gingerbread never38 would bake! A cloud came up, the wind blew, the baby cried so Patty couldn’t play, the children quarrelled, and the kitten ran round in a fit.
Nothing seemed half as nice as it had seemed an hour ago; and when supper was ready, that gingerbread was burnt, and, as true as you live, the preserves were sour! ”

“ Phil had a grieved lip. He hardly liked the little pink morsel in the nurse’s lap; but he was glad to see Flaxie, and stood on his head with delight.74
Mamma looked very happy, and so did Dr. Papa. Ninny went singing about the house, and Preston whistled more than ever.
It was all beautiful, only Flaxie wanted to have a “talk” with mamma, but nurse said, “You’d better go down-stairs to play;” and then, not long after supper, she said again, “And now you’d better go to bed!”
“A queer woman, scolding so to other people’s little girls,” thought Flaxie. ”

“ Once she had fallen into a brook, and once into a well, beside falling sick times without number. Uncle Ben and Aunt Charlotte knew all this, but they did not happen to know that it was a very common thing for Flaxie to be crazy! It was just so with her brother Preston and her sister Ninny; they seldom had any little ailment like a bad cold without “going out of their heads,” and nobody in the family minded it at all.
If Flaxie’s mother had been at Hilltop, she would have sent Uncle Ben and Aunt Charlotte to bed ”

“ Still her heart ached now and then just as hard as ever, and when she was riding in the cars that afternoon to Chicopee with her aunt beside her and her second-best dolly in her arms, she did look the picture of woe.
“Toothache, perhaps,” thought a woman who entered the car with a baby and two little girls. One of the girls limped along, scowling as if every step hurt her.
“How do you do, Mrs. Chase?” said Aunt64 Charlotte, making room for the mother and baby by taking Flaxie in her lap; then turning over the seat just in front of them for the two little girls. ”

“ No, Auntie Prim didn’t even scold. She merely looked through her spectacles at grandma, and said, “Children are so absurd!”
And grandma replied sorrowfully:
“Well, they have to suffer for their own naughtiness, and that does grieve me!”
“They ought to suffer,” said Mrs. Prim; “it is the only way they can learn not to behave so again.”
Dear little Milly heard this, and remembered it, and repeated it to her mother the27 next week when she went home to Hilltop. She thought she had suffered so much that she should never be “absurd” again, even to please her beloved Flaxie Frizzle. ”

“ I like good aunties; I don’t like the kind that tell lies.
“Oh, my throat is growing sore, and I’m going off up-stairs to stay in the cold, and get sick, ’cause they ought to keep steam; and then I guess auntie’ll be sorry!”
I grieve to tell you this about Flaxie, for I fear you will not like a little girl who could be so very naughty.
When the happy party of church-trimmers came home at tea-time, there she was up-stairs121 in the “doleful dumps;” and it was a long while before Milly could coax her down. ”

“ The children liked to skip stones and see them spin up and down in the foam; but they had been warned not to go too near the bank. Nobody had ever fallen in yet, but it wasn’t a safe place for very little folks, certainly not for roly-poly babies like Bubby Proudfit. He was very clumsy, falling down, rolling over, and picking himself up184 again every five minutes. Patty meant to watch him, but he was not very interesting, and the little girls quite bewitched her with their kind smiles and pretty ways.
Flaxie Frizzle was one of the youngest, but led off in most of the games. ”

“ But one thing she did know, she wanted to be a good girl,—not pretty good, but the very best in the world,—that that sweet woman might love her.
91 CHAPTER VI. THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT.
“Well, darling,” said Aunt Charlotte at noon, “you said you went to hear the singing, and you look as if you had enjoyed it.”
“Oh, the singing isn’t as good as Miss Pike; she’s just the best woman. Only,” added Flaxie regretfully, “I wish I could see her soul, auntie!” ”

“ It is strange how things change to you as you grow older! Flaxie never cared to visit at that house now, for Patty wasn’t a nice little girl at all; she not only teased away your playthings, but told wrong stories.
“Our baby’s two months old, and he’s got two teeth!” cried she, as Flaxie turned away; but nobody believed her.
The twin cousins and their little friends148 had a gay time that afternoon on the bank, and Christie Gretchen “received” with great dignity; but I have no time to talk of that now, I want to tell you something about Preston. ”

“ I’ve seen folks look worse’n you do—a good deal,”83 added the little fellow, and thought it a handsome apology.
“I’ll tell you who looks worse,” he broke in again, as they were all seated at supper; “it’s our teacher, Miss Pike. She isn’t the same color by a long shot, but she’s awful homely.”
“Is she? Well, I guess I shan’t go to school.”
“Johnny ought not to speak in that way of his dear teacher,” said Aunt Charlotte gravely; “it is not her fault that she is not pretty; and everybody loves her, for she has a beautiful soul.”
“Oh, yes, everybody loves her,” said Master Freddy ”

“ Flaxie, too, missed Milly, but was resolved to be a little woman, and said to Christie Gretchen privately, “We won’t cry.” After breakfast she spent two hours in the kitchen with patient Nancy, spatting out little ginger cakes, and picking dirt from the cracks of the floor with a pin. Then she danced off to the sitting-room to play with the baby, telling him “if he’d be goody, he’d grow up a doctor, like my papa.” She had promised the54 same thing to every boy baby at Laurel Grove, for doctors were the best people in the world, she thought, and best of all was Dr. Papa. ”

“ This was the first Mrs. Prim had ever heard of “Patty C. Proudfit,” and grandma knew nothing about her either; but Preston said the Proudfit family had just moved into town, “a whole army of ’em, and lived in that black house under the hill.”
Next day, as Mrs. Prim was looking out of the window, she saw Flaxie and Miss Patty playing dolls under the trees. Patty was two years older than Flaxie, but her red hair had not been combed lately, her dress was torn, and her shoes were out at the toes.
“She is not a nice child; I am sorry to see this,” sighed Mrs. ”

“ One day the twin cousins were in the shade of the apple-blossoms, in what was called the “orchard garden,” driving a carriage full of dolls to a “wedding picnic.” Flaxie’s dolls led a very gay life, and perhaps that was one reason they all faded so young.
Just as “Christie Gretchen” was alighting161 from the carriage, assisted by her young husband, “Dr. Preston Smith,” and just as Milly had sweetened the lemonade exactly to the bride’s taste, and was cutting the cake, there was a quick call from Preston. ”

“ Gray’s while his wife went away for her health. This would have been very pleasant, only Julia went with her mother, and little Flaxie was always troublesome without Julia.
Mrs. Prim had said that morning to Dora that she would go into the pantry and make three apple-pies, for she knew how to make them better than Dora; and then she must finish writing her lecture on Ancient History. And now Flaxie Frizzle had come and asked for a party! Mrs. Prim was called a “superior woman,” and knew more than almost anybody else in town except the minister ”