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Updated: May 19, 2025
Then I should have to take care of the children; and I'd get somebody to nail some boards, so as to make five dear little cubby-houses inside the chest. I'd put Tommy in one, Isaphine in another, Arabella Jane in another, Belinda in another, and Gabella Sarah in another. Then I'd shut the lid down and fasten it, and wouldn't I have a good time!
I shall be at the window, and see you all the time. Will you promise to be good and do as I tell you?" "Es," lisped Gabella Sarah. "Es," said Isaphine. "Yes, yes," clamored the others, headed by Tommy, who was a child of promise if ever there was one. All the time his eyes were fixed on the table drawer! Mell went upstairs. First into the children's room, then into her own.
"Boo-hoo! boo-hoo!" blubbered Belinda. "I don't like my hair to be cut off. It makes my head feel all cold." "He didn't play nice a bit," sobbed Isaphine. "He's always notty to us." "I'll cut off your head," declared Tommy, threatening with the scissors. Mell seized the scissors, and captured them, Tommy kicking and struggling meantime.
No signs of the children appeared, till at last, in a marshy place, a small shoe was seen sticking in the mud. Belinda's shoe! Mell knew it in a minute. She picked up the shoe, wiped the mud from it with a tuft of dried grass, and, carrying it in her hand, went forward. She was on the track now, and here and there prints of small feet in the earth guided her. She called "Tommy! Isaphine!
There they were, sitting in a little circle close together, Arabella and Gabella Sarah fast asleep, with their heads in Belinda's lap; Isaphine crying; Tommy sitting a little apart, an evil smile on his face, in his hand a pair of scissors! "You naughty, naughty, naughty boy," screamed Mell, flinging herself upon him. With a howl of terror, Tommy started up and prepared to flee.
Tommy's a notty boy, he is." "I'm going to tell Ma when she comes home, see if I don't," added Isaphine. "I ain't a bad boy," cried Tommy. "Stop a-shaking of me, Mell Davis. We was playing they was sheep. I was a-shearing of em." "O Tommy, Tommy!" cried poor Mell, hot, angry, and dismayed, "how could you do such a thing?" "They was sheep," retorted Tommy sulkily.
Isaphine and Belinda went first; then the little ones, very cross after their nap; and, lastly, Mell, holding Tommy's arm, and driving the poor little shorn sheep before her with the handle of the parasol, which she used as a shepherdess uses her crook. They were all tired and hungry. The babies cried. The sun was very hot. The road seemed miles long.
Mell caught and held him tight. Something flew from his lap and fell to the ground. Alas! alas! three more pigtails. Mell looked at the children. Each little head was cropped close. What would mother say? "He cut off my hair," sobbed Isaphine. "So did he cut mine," whined Belinda. "He took those nassy scissors you told him not to take, and he cut off all our hairs. Boo-hoo! boo-hoo!
Give you a silly book to read, and the children might perish before your eyes for all you'd notice. Look at Isaphine, and Gabella Sarah. Little lambs, as likely as not they've taken their deaths. It shan't happen again, though. Give me that book " And, snatching Mell's treasure from her hands, Mrs. Davis flung it into the fire.
Then, as a sound of twittering voices began above, she ran up to the children, washed and dressed, braided the red pigtails, and got them downstairs successfully, with only one fight between Tommy and Isaphine, and a roaring fit from Arabella Jane, who was a tearful child.
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