Sophie May - Dotty Dimple Out West
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Sophie May >> Dotty Dimple Out West
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6 SOPHIE MAY'S
LITTLE FOLKS' BOOKS.
_Any volume sold separately_.
+DOTTY DIMPLE SERIES+.--Six volumes, Illustrated. Per volume, 75 cents.
Dotty Dimple at her Grandmother's.
Dotty Dimple at Home.
Dotty Dimple out West.
Dotty Dimple at Play.
Dotty Dimple at School.
Dotty Dimple's Flyaway.
+FLAXIE FRIZZLE STORIES+.--Six volumes. Illustrated. Per volume, 75
cents.
Flaxie Frizzle. Little Pitchers. Flaxie's Kittyleen.
Doctor Papa. The Twin Cousins. Flaxie Growing Up.
+LITTLE PRUDY STORIES+.--Six volumes. Handsomely Illustrated. Per
volume, 75 cents.
Little Prudy.
Little Prudy's Sister Susy.
Little Prudy's Captain Horace.
Little Prudy's Story Book.
Little Prudy's Cousin Grace.
Little Prudy's Dotty Dimple.
+LITTLE PRUDY'S FLYAWAY SERIES+.--Six volumes. Illustrated. Per volume,
75 cents.
Little Folks Astray. Little Grandmother.
Prudy Keeping House. Little Grandfather.
Aunt Madge's Story. Miss Thistledown.
* * * * *
+LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS+,
BOSTON.
[Illustration: Title page]
_DOTTY DIMPLE STORIES_.
DOTTY DIMPLE OUT WEST.
BY SOPHIE MAY,
AUTHOR OF "LITTLE PRUDY STORIES."
+Illustrated+.
BOSTON
LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS
10 MILK STREET
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869,
BY LEE AND SHEPARD,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
TO
_DOTTY DIMPLE'S LITTLE FRIENDS_,
GUSSIE TAPPAN AND SARAH LONGSLEY.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. STARTING, 7
II. THE CAPTAIN'S SON, 20
III. A BABY IN A BLUE CLOAK, 36
IV. "PIGEON PIE POSTPONED," 52
V. THE MAJOR'S JOKE, 67
VI. NEW FACES, 82
VII. WAKING UP OUT WEST, 96
VIII. GOING NUTTING, 108
IX. IN THE WOODS, 119
X. SURPRISES, 133
XI. SNIGGLING FOR EELS, 146
XII. "A POST-OFFICE LETTER," 160
DOTTY DIMPLE OUT WEST.
CHAPTER I.
STARTING.
One beautiful morning in October the sun came up rejoicing.
Dotty Dimple watched it from the window with feelings of peculiar
pleasure.
"I should think that old sun would wear out and grow rough round the
edges. Why not? Last week it was ever so dull; now it is bright. I
shouldn't wonder if the angels up there have to scour it once in a
while."
You perceive that Dotty's ideas of astronomy were anything but correct.
She supposed the solar orb was composed of a very peculiar kind of
gold, which could be rubbed as easily as Norah's tin pans, though so
intensely hot that one's fingers would, most likely, be scorched in the
operation.
On this particular morning she felt an unusual interest in the state of
the weather. It had been decided that she should go West with her
father, and this was the day set for departure. "I am happy up to my
throat:" so she said to Prudy. And now all this happiness was to be
buttoned up in a cunning little casaque, with new gaiters at the feet,
and a hat and rosette at the top. Forty pounds or so of perfect delight
going down to the depot in a carriage.
"Don't you wish you could go, Zip Parlin? I'd like to hear you bark in
the cars; and I'd like to hear _you_ talk, Prudy, too!"
As Dotty spoke, the faintest possible shadow flickered across her
radiant face; but it was only for a moment. She could not have quite
everything she wanted, because she could not have Prudy; but then they
were to take a basket of cold boiled eggs, sandwiches, and pies; and
over these viands, with a napkin between, were two picture-books and a
small spy-glass. There was a trunk with a sunshade in it, and some
pretty dresses; among them the favorite white delaine, no longer stained
with marmalade. There were presents in the trunk for Grace, Horace, and
Katie, which were to take them by surprise. And more and better than
all, Miss Dotty had in her own pocket a little porte-monnaie, containing
fifty cents in scrip, with full permission to spend it all on the way.
She also had a letter from Susy to be read at Boston, and one from Prudy
to be read at Albany.
Yes, there was everything to be thankful for, and nothing to regret.
She was quite well by this time. The rich, warm color had come back to
her cheeks. She did not need the journey for the sake of her health; her
papa was to take her because he chose to give her the same pleasure he
had once given Prudy. It was Susy's private opinion that it was
rightfully her turn this time, instead of Dotty's; but she was quite
patient, and willing to wait.
It was a long journey for such a little child; and Mrs. Parlin almost
regretted that the promise had been made; but the young traveller would
only be gone three or four weeks, and in her aunt's family was not
likely to be homesick.
It was a very slow morning to Dotty. "Seems to me," said she, vibrating
between the parlor and the kitchen like a discontented little
pendulum,--"seems to me it was a great deal later than this yesterday!"
She had eaten as many mouthfuls of breakfast as she possibly could in
her excited condition, had kissed everybody good by twice over, and now
thought it was time to be starting.
Just as her patience was wearing to a thread the hack arrived, looking
as black and glossy as if some one had been all this time polishing it
for the occasion. Dotty disdained the help of the driver, and stepped
into the carriage as eagerly as Jack climbed the bean-stalk. She flirted
her clean dress against the wheel, but did not observe it. She was as
happy as Jack when he reached the giant's house; happier too, for she
had mounted to a castle in the air; and everybody knows a castle in the
air is gayer than all the gold houses that ever grew on the top of a
stalk. To the eye of the world she seemed to be sitting on a drab
cushion, behind a gray horse; but no, she was really several thousand
feet in the air, floating on a cloud.
Her father smiled as he stepped leisurely into the hack; and he could
not forbear kissing the little face which sparkled with such
anticipation.
"It is a real satisfaction," thought he, "to be able to make a child so
happy."
The group at the door looked after them wistfully.
"Be a good child," said Mrs. Parlin, waving her handkerchief, "and do
just as papa tells you, my dear."
"Remember the three hugs to Gracie, and six to Flyaway," cried Prudy;
"and don't let anybody see my letter."
Dotty threw kisses with such vigor that, if they had been anything else
but air, somebody would have been hit.
The hack ride did not last long. It was like the preface to a
story-book; and Dotty did not think much about it after she had come to
the story,--that is to say, to the cars.
Her father found a pleasant seat on the shady side, hung the basket in a
rack, opened a window; and very soon the iron horse, which fed on fire,
rushed, snorting and shrieking, away from the depot. Dotty felt as if
she had a pair of wings on her shoulders, or a pair of seven-league
boots on her feet; at any rate, she was whirling through space without
any will of her own. The trees nodded in a kindly way, and the grass in
the fields seemed to say, as it waved, "Good by, Dotty, dear! good by!
You'll have a splendid time out West! out West! out West!"
It was not at all like going to Willowbrook. It seemed as if these
Boston cars had a motion peculiar to themselves. It was a very small
event just to take an afternoon's ride to Grandpa Parlin's; but when it
came to whizzing out to Indiana, why, that was another affair! It wasn't
every little girl who could be trusted so far without her mother.
"If I was _some_ children," thought Dotty, "I shouldn't know how to part
my hair in the middle. Then my papa wouldn't dare to take me; for _he_
can't part my hair any mor'n a cat!"
Dotty smiled loftily as she looked at her father reading a newspaper. He
was only a man; and though intelligent enough to manage the trunks, and
proceed in a straight line to Indiana, still he was incapable of
understanding when a young lady's hat was put on straight, and had once
made the rosette come behind!
In view of these short-comings of her parent and her own adroitness at
the toilet, Dotty came to the conclusion that she was not, strictly
speaking, under any one's charge, but was taking care of herself.
"I wonder," thought she, "how many people there are in this car that
know I'm going out West!"
She sat up very primly, and looked around. The faces were nearly all new
to her.
"That woman in the next seat, how homely her little girl is, with
freckles all over her face! Perhaps her mother wishes she was as white
as I am. Why, who is that pretty little girl close to my father?"
Dotty was looking straight forward, and had accidentally caught a peep
at her own face in the mirror.
"Why, it's me! How nice I look!" smiling and nodding at the pleasant
picture.
"Sit up like a lady, Dotty, and you'll look very polite, and very
_style_ too."
Florence Eastman said so much about "style" that Miss Dimple had adopted
the word, though she was never know to use it correctly. I am sorry to
say there was a deal of foolish vanity in the child's heart. Thoughtless
people had so often spoken to her of her beauty, that she was inclined
to dwell upon the theme secretly, and to admire her bright eyes in the
glass.
"Yes, I do look very _style_," she decided, after another self-satisfied
nod. "Now I'd just like to know who that boy is, older'n I am, not half
so pretty. I don't believe but somebody's been sitting down on his hat.
What has he got in his lap? Is it a kitten? White as snow. I wish it
wasn't so far off. He's giving it something to eat. How its ears shake!
Papa, papa, what's that boy got in his lap?"
"What boy?"
"The one next to that big man. See his ears shake! He's putting
something in his mouth."
"In whose mouth?"
Mr. Parlin looked across the aisle.
"That 'big man' is my old friend Captain Lally," said he quite pleased;
and in a moment he was shaking hands with him. Presently the captain and
his son Adolphus changed places with the woman and the freckled girl,
and made themselves neighbors to the Parlins. The two seats were turned
_vis-a-vis_, the gentlemen occupying one, the children the other.
Now Dotty discovered what it was that Adolphus had in his lap; it was a
Spanish rabbit; and if you never saw one, little reader, you have no
idea how beautiful an animal can be. If there is any gem so soft and
sparkling as his liquid Indian-red eyes, with the sunshine quivering in
them as in dewdrops, then I should like to see that gem, and have it set
in the finest gold, and send it to the most beautiful woman in the world
to wear for a ring. This rabbit was white as a snowball, with ears as
pink as blush roses, and a mouth that was always in motion, whether
Adolphus put lumps of sugar in it or not.
Dotty went into raptures. She forgot her "style" hat, and her new
dignity, and had no greater ambition than to hold the lovely white ball
in her arms. Adolphus allowed her to do so. He was very kind to answer
all her questions, and always in the most sensible manner. If Dotty had
been a little older, she would have seen that the captain's son was a
remarkably intelligent boy, in spite of his smashed hat.
After everything had been said that could possibly be thought of, in
regard to rabbits and their ways, Dotty looked again, and very
critically, at Adolphus. His collar was wrinkled, his necktie one-sided,
he wore no gloves, and, on the whole, was not dressed ad well as Dotty,
who had started from home that very morning, clean and fresh. He was
every day as old as Susy; but Miss Dimple, as a traveller bound on a
long journey, felt herself older and wiser still, and began to talk
accordingly. Smoothing down the skirt of her dress with her
neatly-gloved hands, she remarked:--
CHAPTER II.
THE CAPTAIN'S SON.
"Is your name Dollyphus?"
"Yes, Adolphus Lally."
"Well, my name is Alice. Nobody calls me by it but my papa and my
grandmas. Dotty Dimple is my short name. There are a pair of dimples
dotted into my cheek; don't, you see? That's what it's for. I was born
so. My _other_ sisters haven't any at all."
Adolphus smiled quietly; he had seen dimples before.
"You didn't ever know till just now there was any such girl as _me_, I
s'pose."
"No, I never did."
"I live in the city of Portland," pursued Dotty, with a grand air, "and
my papa and mamma, and two sisters, and a Quaker grandma (only you must
say 'Friend') with a white handkerchief on. Have you any grandma like
that?"
"No, my grandmother is dead."
"Why, there's two of mine alive, and one grandpa. Just as nice! They
don't scold. They let you do everything. I wouldn't _not_ have
grandmothers and fathers for anything! But _you_ can't help it. Did you
ever have your house burnt up?"
"No, indeed."
"Well, ours did; the chambers, and the cellar, and the windows and
doors. We hadn't any place to stay. My sister Susy! You ought to heard
her cry! I lost the beautifulest tea-set; but I didn't say much about
it."
"Where do you live now?"
"O, there was a man let us have another house. It isn't so handsome as
our house was; for the man can't make things so nice as my father can.
We live in it now. Can you play the piano?"
"No, not at all."
"Don't you, honestly; Why, I do. Susy's given me five lessons. You have
to sit up as straight as a pin, and count your fingers, one, two, three,
four. X is your thumb."
Dotty believed she was imparting valuable information. She felt great
pleasure in having found a travelling companion to whom she could make
herself useful.
"I'm going to tell you something. Did you ever go to Indiana?"
"No."
"Didn't you? They call it Out West. I'm going there. Yes, I started
to-day. The people are called Hoojers. They don't spect me, but I'm
going. Did you ever hear of a girl that travelled out West?"
"O, yes; ever so many."
"I mean a girl as little as me, 'thout anybody but my papa; and he don't
know how to part my hair in the middle. I have to take all the care of
myself."
Dotty had been trying all the while to call forth some exclamation of
awe, or at least surprise. She was sure Adolphus would be impressed now.
"All the whole care of myself," repeated she. "My papa has one of the
_highest_ 'pinions of me; and he says I'm as good as a lady when I try.
Were you ever in the cars before, Dollyphus?"
"O, yes," was the demure reply, "a great many times. I've been round the
world."
Dotty started suddenly, dropping her porte-monnaie on the floor.
"Round the world! The whole round world?" gasped she, feeling as
insignificant as a "Catharine wheel," which, having "gone up like a
rocket," has come down "like a stick."
"You didn't say round the _whole_ world?" repeated she, looking very
flat indeed.
"O, yes, in my father's ship."
His "father's ship." Dotty's look of superiority was quenched entirely.
Even her jaunty hat seemed to humble itself, and her haughty head sink
with it.
Adolphus stooped and restored the porte-monnaie, which, in her surprise,
she had quite forgotten.
"Does your father keep a ship?" asked she, reverently.
"Yes; and mother often makes voyages with him. Once they took me; and
that was the time I went round the world. We were gone two years."
"Weren't you afraid?"
"No, I'm never afraid where my father is."
"Just a little afraid, I mean, when you found the ship was going
tip-side up?"
"Tip-side up?" said Adolphus. "I don't understand you."
"Why, when you got to the other side of the world, then of course the
ship turned right over, you know. Didn't you want to catch hold of
something, for fear you'd fall into the sky?"
Adolphus laughed; he could not very well help it; but, observing the
mortification expressed in his companion's face, he sobered himself
instantly, and replied,--
"No, Dotty; the world is round, but you wouldn't know it by the looks of
it. Wherever I've been, the land seems flat, except the hills, and so
does the water, all but the waves."
As the captain's son said this, he looked pityingly at his little
companion, wondering how she happened to be so silly as to suppose a
ship ever went "tip-side up." But he was mistaken if he considered Dotty
a simpleton. The child had never gone to school. Her parents believed
there would be time enough yet for her to learn a great many things; and
her ignorance had never distressed them half so much as her faults of
temper.
"Did you ever go as far as Boston before?" pursued Adolphus, rather
grandly, in his turn.
"No, I never," replied Dotty, meekly; "but Prudy has."
"So I presume you haven't been in Spain? It was there I bought my
beautiful rabbit. Were you ever in the Straits of Malacca?" continued
he, roguishly.
"No--o. I didn't know I was."
"Indeed? Nor in the Bay of Palermo? The Italians call it the Golden
Shell."
"I don't _s'pose_ I ever," replied Dotty, with a faint effort to keep up
appearances; "but I went to _Quoddy_ Bay once!"
"So you haven't seen the _loory_? It is a beautiful bird, and talks
better than a parrot. I have one at home."
"O, have you?" said Dotty, in a tone of the deepest respect.
"Yes; then there is the _mina_, a brown bird, larger than a crow;
converses quite fluently. You have heard of a mina, I dare say."
Dotty shook her head in despair. She was so overwhelmed by this time,
that, if Adolphus had told of going with Captain Lally to the moon in a
balloon, she would not have been greatly surprised.
A humorous smile played around the boy's mouth. Observing his little
companion's extreme simplicity, he was tempted to invent some marvellous
stories for the sake of seeing her eyes shine.
"I can explain it to her afterwards," said he to his conscience.
"Did you ever hear of the Great Dipper, Dotty?"
"I don't know's I did. No."
"You don't say so! Never heard of the Great Dipper! Your sister Prudy
has, I'm sure. It is tied to the north pole, and you can dip water with
it."
"Is it big?"
"No, not very. About the size of a tub."
"A dipper as big as a tub?" repeated Dotty, slowly.
"Yes, with the longest kind of handle."
"I couldn't lift it?"
"No, I should judge not."
"Who tied it to the north pole?"
"I don't know. Columbus, perhaps. You remember he discovered the world?"
Dotty brightened.
"O, yes, I've heard about that! Susy read it in a book."
"Well, I'll tell you how it was. There had been a world, you see; but
people had lost the run of it, and didn't know where it was, after the
flood. And then Columbus went in a ship and discovered it."
"He did?"
Dotty looked keenly at the captain's son. He was certainly in earnest;
but there was something about it she did not exactly understand.
"Why, if there wasn't any world all the time, where did _C'lumbus_ come
from?" faltered she, at last.
"It is not generally known," replied Adolphus, taking off his hat, and
hiding his face in it.
Dolly sat for some time lost in thought.
"O, I forgot to say," resumed Adolphus, "the north pole isn't driven in
so hard as it ought to be. It is so cold up there that the frost
'heaves' it. You know what 'heaves' means? The ground freezes and then
thaws, and that loosens the pole. Somebody has to pound it down, and
that makes the noise we call thunder."
Dotty said nothing to this; but her youthful face expressed surprise,
largely mingled with doubt.
"You have heard of the _axes_ of the earth? That is what they pound the
pole with. Queer--isn't it? But not so queer to me as the Red Sea."
Adolphus paused, expecting to be questioned; but Dotty maintained a
discreet silence.
"The water is a very bright red, I know; but I never _could_ believe
that story about the giant's having the nose-bleed, and coloring the
whole sea with blood. Did you ever hear of that?"
"No, I never," replied Dotty, gravely. "You needn't tell it, Dollyphus.
I'm too tired to talk."
Adolphus felt rather piqued as the little girl turned away her head and
steadily gazed out of the window at the trees and houses flying by. It
appeared very much as if she suspected he had been making sport of her.
"She isn't a perfect ignoramus, after all." he thought; "that last lie
was a little too big."
After this he sat for some time watching his little companion, anxious
for an opportunity to assure her that these absurd stories had been spun
out of his own brain. But Dotty never once turned her face towards him.
She was thinking,--
"P'rhaps he's a good boy; p'rhaps he's a naughty boy: but I shan't
believe him till I ask my father."
At Portsmouth, Captain Lally and son left the cars, much to Dotty's
relief, though they did carry away the beautiful Spanish rabbit; and it
seemed to the child as if a piece of her heart went with it.
"Is my little girl tired?" said Mr. Parlin, putting an arm around Dotty.
"No, papa, only I'm thinking. The north pole is top of the world--isn'
it? As much as five hundred miles off?"
"A great deal farther than that, my dear."
"There, I thought so! And we couldn't hear 'em pound it down with an
axe--could we? That isn't what makes thunder? O, what a boy!"
Mr. Parlin laughed heartily.
"Did Adolphus tell you such a story as that?"
"Yes, sir, he did," cried Dotty, indignantly, "and said there was a
dipper to it, with a handle on, as large as a tub. And a man tied it
that came from I-don't-know-where, and found this world. I know _that_
wasn't true, for he didn't say anything about Adam and Eve. What an
awful boy!"
"What did you say to Adolphus?" said Mr. Parlin, still laughing. "Hadn't
you been putting on airs? And wasn't that the reason he made sport of
you?"
"I don't know what 'airs' are, papa."
"Perhaps you told him, for instance, that you were travelling out West,
and asked him if _he_ ever went so far as that."
"Perhaps I did," stammered Dotty.
"And it is very likely you made the remark that you had the whole care
of yourself, and know how to part your hair in the middle. I did not
listen; but it is possible you told him you could play on the piano."
Dotty looked quite ashamed.
"This is what we call 'putting on airs.' Adolphus was at first rather
quiet and unpretending. Didn't you think he might be a little stupid?
And didn't you wish to give him the idea that you yourself were
something of a fine lady?"
How very strange it was to Dotty that her father could read the secret
thoughts which she herself could hardly have told! She felt supremely
wretched, and crept into his bosom to hide her blushing face.
"I didn't say Adolphus did right to tease you," said Mr. Parlin, gently.
He thought the little girl's lesson had been quite severe enough; for,
after all, she had done nothing very wrong: she had only been a little
foolish.
"Upon my word, chincapin," said he, "we haven't opened that basket yet!
What do you say to a lunch, with the Boston Journal for a table-cloth?
And here comes a boy with some apples."
In two minutes Dotty had buried her chagrin in a sandwich.
And all the while the cars were racketing along towards Boston.
CHAPTER III.
A BABY IN A BLUE CLOAK.
Dotty had begun to smile again, and was talking pleasantly with
her father, when there was a sudden rocking of the cars, or, as Prudy
had called it, a "car-quake." Dotty would have been greatly alarmed if
she had not looked up in her father's face and seen that it was
perfectly tranquil. They had run over a cow.
This little accident gave a new turn to the child's thoughts. She gazed
at the conductor with some distrust. If he did not take care of the
cars, what made him wear that printed hat-band? She supposed that in
some mysterious way he drove or guided the furious iron horse; and when
she saw him sitting at ease, conversing with the passengers, she was not
satisfied; she thought he was neglecting his duty.
"I s'pose," mused she, finishing the final crumb of her sandwich,--"I
s'pose there are two kinds of conductors in cars, same as in thunder.
One is a _non_, and the other isn't. I'm afraid this man is a _non_; if
he is, he will conduct us all to pieces."
Still her fear was not very active; it did not prevent her having a good
time. She saw that her father was comfortable, and this fact reassured
her somewhat. If they were going to meet with a dreadful accident,
wouldn't he be likely to know it?
She began to look about her for something diverting. At no great
distance was a little baby in a blue cloak. Not a very attractive baby,
but a great deal better than none.
"Papa, there's more room on the seat by that lady's bandbox. Mayn't I
ask to take care of her baby?"
"Yes, dear, if she is willing."
Dotty danced down the aisle, thinking as she went,--
"My father lets me do every single thing. If we had mamma with us,
_sometimes_ she'd say, No."
The tired woman greeted Miss Dimple cordially. She was not only willing,
but very well pleased to have the uneasy baby taken out of her arms.
Dotty drew off her gloves, and laid the little one's head tenderly
against her cheek. Baby looked wonderingly into the bright eyes bending
above him, reached up a chubby hand, caught Dotty's hat, and twitched it
towards the left ear.
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