"Of course it got tipped over--but not without hands, you careless girl! Do you get your shaker, and march home as quick as ever you can!

I must go with you, I suppose."

Lonnie ought to have come forward now, like a little gentleman, and told the whole story; but he had run away.

"O, auntie," said Grace, "she wasn't to blame. It----"

"Don't say a word," said aunt Louise, briskly. "If she was my little girl I'd have her sent to bed. That dress and ap.r.o.n ought to be soaking this very minute."

Bridget listened at the foot of the stairs in a very angry mood, muttering,--

"It's not much like the child's mother she is. A mother can pa.s.s it by when the childers does such capers, and wait till they get more sinse."

Poor little Susy had to go home in the noonday sun, hanging down her head like a guilty child, and crying all the way. Some of the tears were for her soiled clothes, some for her auntie's sharp words, and some for the nice dinner she had left.

"O, aunt Madge," sobbed she, when they had got home, "I kept as far behind aunt Louise as I could, so n.o.body would think I was her little girl. She was ashamed of me, I looked so!"

"There, there! try not to cry," said aunt Madge, as she took off Susy's soiled clothes.

"But I can't stop crying, I feel so bad. If there's any body gets into a fuss it's always _me_! I'm all the time making some kind of trouble.

Sometimes I wish there wasn't any such girl as me!"

Tears came into aunt Madge's kind gray eyes, and she made up her mind that the poor child should be comforted. So she quietly put away the silk dress she was so anxious to finish, and after dinner took the fresh, tidy, happy little Susy across the fields to aunt Martha's again, where the unlucky day was finished very happily after all.

"The truth is, Louise," said aunt Madge that night, after their return, "_Lonnie_ spilled that ink, and Susy was not at all to blame.

You scolded her without mercy for being careless, and she bore it all because she would not break her promise to that cowardly boy."

"O, how unjust I have been!" said aunt Louise, who did not mean to be unkind, in spite of her hasty way of speaking.

"You _have_ been unjust," said aunt Madge. "Only think what a trifling thing it is for a little child to soil her dress! and what a great thing to have her keep her word! Susy has a tender heart, and it grieves her to be unjustly scolded; but she would bear it all rather than tell a falsehood. For my part I am proud of such a n.o.ble, truthful little niece."

CHAPTER XII

PRUDY TRYING TO HELP

Prudy awoke one morning full of mischief. At the second table she split her johnny-cake, and spread it open, saying it was a singing-book, and began to sing out of it,--

"Little drops of water, Little _grains_ of sand."

Grandma heard her from the next room, and came in very much surprised.

"What shall I do with such a little girl as this?" said she, shaking her finger at Prudy.

"I think," answered the child, "you ought to call me to you and say, 'You been a-singin' to the table, Prudy.' Then I'll say 'Yes'm;' and you'll say, 'Prudy, go right out in the kitchen, and don't let me see you till you come back pleasant.'"

Grandma put her head out of the window a moment, for she didn't want any body to see her smile.

"This is one of Prudy's days," thought she. "I'm really afraid I shall have to punish her before it's over."

Very soon after breakfast the doorbell rang, and a little boy left a note directed to Miss Grace Clifford. It said,--

"Miss Grace Clifford, the Misses Parlin, and Mr. Horace Clifford, are respectfully invited to a gypsy supper in the Pines."

The children hardly knew what it meant.

"What _is_ jispies?" asked Prudy, a little frightened. "Be they up in the Pines?"

"It means a picnic, that's all," said aunt Madge, "and a very nice time you will have."

"A picnic!" screamed all the voices in chorus. It was almost too good to believe. Grace clapped her hands and laughed. Susy ran about the room like a crazy thing. Prudy hopped up and down, and Horace tried to stand on his head.

"Now scamper, every one of you," said aunt Madge, "for I must go right to cooking.--Let's see, you shall have some cunning little sandwiches, some hard-boiled eggs; and what else can you think of, Louise?"

"Stop a minute," said aunt Louise, drawing on a long face, "I hope Susy and Prudy----"

"Tarts and plum-cake!" cried Susy and Grace.

"Oranges, dates, and figs!" said Horace.

"And them little cookies you cut out of a thimble, you know," added Prudy, anxious to put in a word.

"Hear me speak," said aunt Louise. "I hope Susy and Prudy don't think they are going to this picnic, for the truth is, they haven't been invited."

"Not invited?" gasped Susy.

"The note says, 'the Misses Parlin,'" said aunt Louise, gravely. "That might mean your grandmother, but it doesn't! I take it to mean _the young ladies_, Madge (or Mig) and Louise, your beautiful aunties, who are often called 'the Misses Parlin.' Of course it _can't_ mean two little slips of girls in short dresses!"

Susy burst into tears, and tried to talk at the same time, but n.o.body could understand her.

"O, O!" moaned Prudy, burying her face in the roller-towel, "if I can't go I shall just lay down my head and cry!"

"It's not true, children, not one word; she's only joking," said aunt Madge, laughing and shaking the egg-beater at her sister. "I'm really ashamed of your aunt Louise for trying to tease you. What _do_ you suppose any body wants of old grown-up folks at your nice little party? There, there, don't laugh _quite_ so loud. Run away, and stay away, if you want me ever to do any thing."

In a few moments the children were playing out of doors in high spirits, and Prudy had told the workmen, in her pretty, lisping way, "that every one of we children were invited to a _jispy_ supper; had a ticket come a-purpose, so of course we should _have_ to go!"

The children were too much excited to do their morning work properly.

Grandma could not tell by the looks of the piazza whether Susy had swept it or not, and had to go and ask.

"She's swept it off," said Prudy, speaking for her, "but she didn't sweep it _way off_!"

"I should judge not," said grandma; "and here is Prudy, with her bib on yet, and Grace hasn't made her bed. Do you think such children ought to go to a party?"

"O, grandma," cried Prudy, "you know we had a ticket come a-purpose!"

"I'm ashamed," said Grace, promptly. "Susy, you and I are too big to act so. Let's go and do up our work right nice, and then see if we can't help grandma."