My Naughty Little Sister

I am an English girl. My name is Mary Brown. When I was a little girl, I had a little sister. She was smaller than I. And she was very naughty.

I want to tell you some stories about my naughty little sister. Here is the first story.

One day, when my little sister was four year old, some children came to our house. They all had fishing-nets.

"Mary, let's go fishing
¹
," they said to me.

"May I go fishing?" I asked my mother.

"Yes, you may," said my mother.

And she gave me a fishing-net, some bread and butter and a bottle of milk.

Then my naughty little sister said:

"I want to go! I want to go, too!"

"You may go, Nancy," said my mother to my little sister. "But you can't catch fish. You must not go into the water."

So she did not give my sister a fishing-net. But my sister liked to pick up little stones, and my mother gave her a little bag to put them in. Then she gave her some bread and butter and a little bottle of milk and a big apple, too.

"Nancy must not go into the water. You must look after
²
her," my mother said to me.

"All right, Mother," I said.

We went to the little river. Then my friends and I took off our shoes and socks and went into the water to fish with our fishing-nets. It was summer, and the water was warm.

"You must not go into the water," I said to my sister. "Don't take off your shoes and socks. You can't fish. Pick stones and put them into your bag."

We fished and fished, but we did not catch any fish. Then one boy said:

"Look, your sister is in the water."

We saw my naughty little sister in the water with her shoes and socks on.

"Get out of the water
³
!" I said.

"No," said my naughty little sister.

I wanted to catch her, but she ran away and fell down in the water. Her dress was wet, her hair was wet, and her shoes and socks were wet, too.

We pulled her out of the water.

"She may catch cold
⁴
," said the children.

"Go and sit in the sun!" they said to her.

We took off her wet things and put them all on the grass to dry. My sister began to cry.

We gave her some bread and butter, and she ate it all up
⁵
. She ate up all her bread and butter and all my bread and butter. She drank her milk and my milk, too. Then she ate her apple.

When her dress and her shoes and socks were dry
⁶
, she put them on and we went home.

"Your sister was in the water," said my mother.

"How did you guess, Mother," I said. "We dried all her things."

"Yes, you dried them, but you did not iron them."

At supper I did not get any cake. Mother said:

"Only bread and butter for you. You did not look after your sister very well."

So I got only bread and butter.

My sister went to bed, and my mother gave her some hot milk.

But do you know what my mother found in the little bag?

She found a fish! Yes, a little fish!

"Look!" said my mother. "Your little sister caught a fish with her little bag."

My little sister liked to talk. She talked to everybody. She talked to the people who came to our house. She talked to the people in the street and in the shops. She talked to her friend the postman. Everybody liked to talk to my little sister. She was very funny.

One day my little sister fell ill
⁷
.

"I am ill," she said.

"You must stay in bed," said my mother, "and I shall call the doctor
⁸
."

"No doctor! Bad doctor! I don't like the doctor!" said my naughty little sister.

"The doctor is a nice man. He will make you well again
⁹
," I said to Nancy.

My mother gave Nancy a cup of hot milk. She gave her a doll and her best books. But my little sister did not want to play with her toys. She did not want to look at the pictures in her books.

"I am ill today," she said. Her friend the postman came to see her. He gave her a big red apple, a pencil and a little notebook, and he gave my mother a letter.

"I am ill," said my little sister to the postman. "I must stay in bed and drink hot milk and look at the pictures in my books. I don't like to stay in bed. I don't want the doctor! Bad doctor!"

"Good doctor! He will make you well again," said the postman. "You will soon play in the room and then in the garden."

In the afternoon my father came home. He saw my little sister in bed.

"Why are you in bed?" asked my father.

"I am ill," said my little sister. "I must stay in bed and drink hot milk and look at the pictures in my books."

"Soon the doctor will come, and he will make you well again," said Father.

"No doctor! Bad doctor! I don't like the doctor!"

"The doctor has a little black bag," said Father. "He has many interesting things in his bag."

"What things?" asked my little sister.

"I can't tell you. But you will see them when the doctor comes."

Now my little sister did not say Bad doctor!

When my mother came into the room with the doctor, Nancy said:

"Hullo, Doctor! Where is your bag? Show me the interesting things in your bag, please!" She did not forget to say please.

"Hullo, little girl!" said the doctor. "Here is my bag, and here are the things in my bag. Are they interesting?"

My little sister looked at the doctor's black bag. She looked at all the things in the bag. She opened her mouth and did all that the doctor told her to do.

Then he said: "That's all, little girl. Good-bye. You will soon be well again. Your mother will give you some medicine. You will take it three times a day
¹⁰
like a good little girl. Are you a good little girl?"

"Oh, yes, Doctor, I am a very good girl," said my naughty little sister. "Please come again tomorrow. I want to see the things in your bag again."

But the doctor didn't come again, because Nancy took the medicine
¹¹
and was soon well again
¹²
.

One day my little sister got up very early. My mother was in the kitchen. She wanted to make breakfast for the family, and she did not see that my little sister was not in her bed.

My naughty little sister went to the shed and took a little spade. Then she went to the garden. It was autumn. There were many red and yellow leaves in the garden. There were many pretty flowers in the garden, too. My little sister went to the flowerbed.

But she did not look at the beautiful flowers, which my father liked to plant. She trampled the flowers under her feet and made a hole in the flowerbed.

Do you know why my little sister made the hole in the flowerbed? She wanted to plant an acorn. She had a nice brown acorn in her hand. So she made a hole in the flowerbed and put the acorn in the hole. Then she put a short stick near it.

Do you know why she did that?

She wanted to know the place where the acorn was. She was a clever little girl, wasn't she?
¹⁴

My little sister went to this place after breakfast and before dinner and after dinner. She took the acorn out and then she put it back again.

Do you know why she took the acorn out? She wanted to see it grow
¹⁵
.

In the evening Father came home and he saw his flowers. He was very angry
¹⁶
.

"You bad, bad girl," said my father. "Why did you trample my flowers?"

"I did not want to trample your flowers. I wanted to plant my acorn. I wanted to see it grow." And my little sister began to cry.

"Your acorn won't grow if you take it out," said my father. "Give it to me."

Father took a bottle, put some water in it and then put the acorn into it.

"Now you can see it grow," said Father.

My little sister put the bottle with the acorn at the window. She looked at it all the time, but it did not grow. She put the bottle near her bed and looked at it in the morning and in the evening. But it did not grow.

"Put the bottle at the window and go and play with your doll," said my mother.