Funny Little Socks.

by Sarah. L. Barrow.

LITTLE MOTHER.

ONE day Kitty's mother called her little daughter to her, and taking both her dimpled dots of hands in her own soft white ones, said, "Kitty, my darling, I am going to New York this morning, to see your dear grandma', and I shall have to leave the house in your charge until I come back. Do you think you can be my little housekeeper for to-day?"

"Oh yes, mamma! I should like that so much! I will keep house as well as you--that is, 'most, not quite!" and Kitty jumped up and down for joy at being trusted with such important affairs.

"You must take care of dear little Luly and Walter, you know; see that they have their dinners fixed right, and go out walking with them and nurse; and if any company comes, you must go down and see them, and say that mamma has gone to New York, will you?"

"Yes, mamma; I will be just as good as pie!" said Kitty, earnestly; "Luly and Wawa will like to have me for a mother, I guess."

"Yes; you are their Little Mother for to-day," said her mamma. "I know you love me, Kitty, and want to save me all the trouble you can; it will be a great comfort to me, while I am away, to feel that I can trust you perfectly;" and she kissed the little, rosy cheek, I'm sure I can't tell how many times, and Kitty felt so proud and happy that she only wished she had been trusted with a much larger family of little brothers and sisters, instead of two; that she might show the more what an excellent Little Mother she intended to be. You would wish so too, wouldn't you! yes, of course!

Kitty May lived with her papa and mamma, Luly and Walter, Mary the nurse, and Betty the cook, three brown horses, two red cows, a black dog, and a white kitten, at a beautiful country seat up the Hudson River. She was only eight years old, but her obedience to her parents, and tender, loving care of her little brother and sister, were beautiful to see, and a shining example to some little girls I know. On the day that I am telling you about, her papa had gone to town, as usual, early in the morning, and now here was mamma going too, and Kitty would be left to play lady of the house as grand as anything.

Well, the carriage was brought to the door, and mamma got in, after kissing her little family all round about twenty times. Everybody rushed to the front piazza to bid her good-by in their own fashion. Trip, the black dog, jumped and barked around the horses, until they nearly kicked him, when he sprang away, snapping out, "No, you don't! no, you don't!"

Dody, the white kitten, so called by Walter for "Daisy," mewed as hard as she could from Luly's arms. Walter crowed and chuckled, and said, "Boo-bi!" meaning good-by; Luly lisped, "Dood-by, dear mamma, _div_ my _yove_ to gan'ma;" and Kitty said, "Good-by, mamma; I'll be a famous Little Mother--see if I'm not!" And so the carriage drove away.

When it was quite out of sight, the little girls skipped and climbed, and wee Walter was carried by nurse up stairs into the nursery; and Kitty said, "Now, Mary, you can just go on with your sewing; you needn't mind us a bit. I'm going to take care of _the children_; mamma said so."

"Very well, Miss Kitty," said Mary; "I'll sit in the window here, and if you want me, you can call."

So Mary fixed little Walter in his chair, and Luly got hers, and Kitty sat down in her mamma's rocking chair, to be grander.

Walter's chair had a little tray fastened before it, on which his toys were put. His dearest plaything was a ridiculous old doll, with no eyes, half a wig, such a dilapidated pair of kid arms that the stuffing came bursting through in every direction, making her look as if she had a cotton plantation inside her, and the bolls were sprouting out; and such an extremely short pair of legs in proportion to her body, that it seemed as if they must shut into her like a pair of telescopes. Besides this, there was a stale sugar peac.o.c.k without a tail, a monkey that ran up and down a stick, and a woolly dog that could open his mouth and bark when you pressed him underneath; but the doll was the prime favorite, after all. Walter called her Gawow, and as n.o.body in the house could imagine what he meant by it, it was supposed to be a pure piece of invention, and a very fine sort of thing.

The children played on peaceably together for some time, when all at once there came a ring at the bell.

"Dear me!" cried Kitty, springing up and smoothing down her little black silk ap.r.o.n in a great flurry. "There comes company, and I'm to go and see them."

"Ou!" said Luly; "me want to see tompany too!"

"And so you shall, you little darling!" said Kitty, kissing her; and, sure enough, up came Ellen, the waiter, to say that the good minister, Mr. Lacy, was down stairs; for Mrs. May had smilingly told her, before she went, that "Miss Kitty would see any one who called."

In high glee, yet somewhat awed by her grown-up dignity, Kitty let Mary brush her soft brown braided wig and Luly's golden curly one; then she rushed into her mother's room in a hurry, called Luly out into the entry, and the little sisters took hold of hands and went down stairs to see the company.

Mr. Lacy was sitting by the window, looking out on the beautiful garden, and did not know the children had entered until he felt a mite of a hand put softly on his, and heard two little pipy voices saying, "How do you do, Mr. Lacy?" The minister turned round and burst right out laughing!

for Kitty, when she ran into her mother's room, had put on--what do you think?--why, one of mamma's caps, which was lying on the dressing table!

and the queer little thing looked so funny with the lace cap perched on top of her head, that Mr. Lacy laughed heartily, and said, "Why, Kitty!

are you the old woman that lived in a shoe? or have you got bald all of a sudden, that you have taken to caps?"

"Oh, I'm Little Mother!" said Kitty; "mamma has gone to the city, and left me to take care of _the children_, and the house, and Dody, and Trip, until she comes back; and I'm Little Mother to all of them."

"Well, Little Mother," said Mr. Lacy, who was none of your cross, crabbed old ministers, with faces as sour as vinegar, and voices as sharp as a needle, who frighten children half out of their wits, forgetful that "of such is the kingdom of heaven;" "I hope your children will be well brought up, and learn all they should. What does this one know?" lifting Luly to his knee.

"I know 'ittle hymn," said Luly, smiling up confidently in his face.

"Can't you say it for me?" asked the minister. "What is it all about?"

"'Bout 'at a 'ittle child can do," lisped Luly.

"Say it, Luly," said Kitty.

Luly folded her cunning fat hands over each other, and crossed her feet.

Then she looked up sideways in Mr. Lacy's face, and sucked her tongue a little bit, and at last, all at once, in a little singing voice, she began:

"I'm a very 'ittle maid; Hardly can I talk, 'tis true; Yet mamma I'd love to aid-- What can 'ittle Luly do?

"I can go, on busy feet, Errands for her all day through; Work for her, I feel, is sweet-- This can 'ittle Luly do!

"I can hold the gate long skein When 'tis tangled and askew; Never wanting to _compain_[A]-- This can 'ittle Luly do!

"I can search, her book to find, And be _glad_ to do it, too!

I can always _quickly mind_-- This can 'ittle Luly do!

"I can ever go up stairs Cheerfully, when falls the dew; And with _yev'yence_[B] say my prayers-- This can 'ittle Luly do!

"G.o.d 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 know any, Little Mother?"

"I am learning a beautiful hymn," said Kitty, "but I don't know it yet--not quite."

"No?" said Mr. Lacy. "Then I shall have to tell you something myself, I declare. Here, sit down beside me, and listen very attentively."

Now, what do you think the minister told them? "Some dreadful, dismal story, full of dreadful, wicked children, who were sent to prison, I suppose; 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 never would get to Heaven!" perhaps you will say. Not a bit of it. He just trotted 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!