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"Cross-patch, draw the latch, Sit by the fire and spin yarns!" chanted Alicia. "Go away, you pink-and-white delusion!" said The Author, severely. "You have made Scholarship and Wisdom put on cap and bells and prance like a morris-dancer. Isn't that mischief enough for one day?" Alicia has a round, snow-white chin, and when she tilts it the curve of her throat is distracting.
Little-sing will pour out Bo-peep's tea with her own pretty, elegant hands, and butter his muffins for him, and Cross-patch in the corner can keep herself quiet." "May I go into our bedroom, mother?" said Maggie at that juncture. "No, miss, you may not," said Martin, suddenly rousing himself from a very comfortable position in the only easy-chair the room afforded.
Again the White Linen Nurse's chin went burrowing down into the soft collar of her dress. "I don't suppose it is usual," she admitted reluctantly. "The children next door, I notice, call theirs 'Cross-Patch."
"Cross-patch and sauce-box!" returned Jackson readily, still under the malign influence of his boyish past, as she flounced away. Presently he heard the buggy rattle away with his persecutor.
"I could saw wood for you, Aunt Jo!" said Demi, feeling as if a new means of earning money for his mother was suggested by the story. "Tell about a bad boy. I like them best," said Nan. "You'd better tell about a naughty cross-patch of a girl," said Tommy, whose evening had been spoilt by Nan's unkindness.
"But why did he clap on sail if he could not carry it?" inquired he, ruefully, of his monitress. The others burst out laughing; but Lucy remained grave and silent. David rode along crestfallen. Mrs. Bazalgette brought her pony close to him, and whispered, "Never mind that little cross-patch. She does not care a pin about the horse; you interrupted her flirtation, that is all."
As to Matilder, she an' me never did, what you might call, hit it orf, by reason of 'er not givin' way to me, as she should ha' done, me bein' the youngest and what you might call the baby of the lot. We ain't seen each other fur years, and the meetin' will be cold. She'll not have much forgiveness fur me bein' a bride, when she's but a lone cross-patch, drat her." "Don't quarrel with her, Debby.
"I'm not going to say any more of it," she answers sullenly. "Why, you cross-patch! What's the matter?" The little girl, who had been seated on a low stool, has risen to her feet and now sees why her papa has not been attending to her. The snow is falling less thickly, and the fair head of Signora Evelina has appeared behind the window-panes over the way. Brave little woman!
If he is fortunate enough to be thrown into the society of his contemporaries, he is subjected to a course of salutary discipline. No mercy is shown to "cross-patch." He cannot present his personal grievances to the judgment of his peers, for his peers refuse to listen. After a while he becomes conscious that his wrath defeats itself, as he hears the derisive couplet: "Johnny's mad.
This fact aroused Annie's curiosity, who looked at her with sparkling eyes full of mischief. "You are a cross-patch," exclaimed Nan in her most spoilt tone. "I never knew such a thing. Is not a father's letter meant for one child as well as for another?" "No, Nan, dear, not on this occasion," said Hester in a firm tone.
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