My Naughty Little Sister (2 page)

My little sister put the bottle at the window and went to play with her doll. Soon she forgot about her bottle.

One day she looked at the bottle and saw a little green shoot.

"I see a little green shoot," cried my sister.

She was very glad and showed her bottle-tree to everybody.

"Now we can plant the acorn," said my father.

He went to the shed, took the spade and planted the acorn near our house.

The bottle-tree grew and grew, and now it is a big tree, bigger than my sister who is also big now.

When I was a little girl, I had a new doll. Its face was pretty, its eyes were pretty, its dress was pretty, too. My doll could open and close its eyes and say Ma-ma.

I did not play with my doll. I was afraid to break it
¹⁷
. The doll was in a box, and the box was in the wardrobe in my mother's room. When I wanted to see my new doll, my mother took the box out of the wardrobe and showed it to me. I looked at it for some time, and then my mother put it in the box again.

My little sister had a doll, too. Her doll was not new, and it was not pretty. It was old and dirty. It had only one eye, and it had no hair. Its dress was not pretty. My little sister liked her doll very much. She took it to the garden and to the yard. She put it on the floor and on the grass. And when she went to bed, she took her doll with her.

One morning my mother was in the kitchen. She wanted to make breakfast for the family, and she asked me:

"Mary! Do you know where your little sister is?"

"No, I don't," I said.

"Then go and look for her
¹⁸
," said my mother. "Breakfast is ready."

I went to look for my little sister. I looked in the yard. She was not there. I looked in the shed. She was not there. I looked in the garden. She was not there. Then I came back into the house.

Suddenly I heard a noise in my mother's room. I opened the door and looked in.

The wardrobe was open
¹⁹
, and my doll's box was on the floor. It was open, too, but the doll was not there. Then I saw my naughty little sister with my doll in her hands.

"Put the doll into the box," I said.

"No, I don't want to," said my little sister.

"It's my doll! Give it to me!" I said.

But my naughty little sister did not want to give me my doll. I wanted to take the doll away from her. I pulled, and she pulled, too. And the doll fell to the floor. I picked it up and looked at it. Its pretty face was broken
²⁰
.

I took my doll in my hands, and it did not say Ma-ma. I began to cry, and my naughty little -sister began to cry, too.

Our mother came into the room.

"Don't cry. We shall take the doll to the dolls' doctor, and he will make it well again," she said.

And do you know what my mother did?

She took my doll to the dolls' doctor, and she took my little sister's doll to the dolls' doctor, too.

One day our mother came home and gave us our dolls.

My doll had a pretty face and hair. It could open and close its eyes and say Ma-ma.

My little sister's doll was pretty, too. It had a pretty nose and pretty eyes and hair, and it could say Ma-ma. Its dress was pretty, too.

But my naughty little sister did not like her new doll. She did not take it to the yard or to the garden. She did not put it on the floor or on the grass. She put it into a box and did not take it out again.

One autumn when I was a little girl and my sister was a very little girl, it rained and rained. It was October. It was very cold, and it rained every day. When we went out, we put on our raincoats.

But my little sister liked to walk in the water. One day she walked in the water, and her feet got wet
²¹
. So she caught a bad cold
²²
, and she had red eyes.

"You can't go out," said my mother. "You must stay at home and be a good girl."

But my sister did not like that.

"I want to go out in the rain! I want to go out!"

"Look at the pictures in your book," said my mother.

"I don't want to! I want to go out in the rain!"

My little sister was very naughty.

Then my mother said:

"I shall give you my scissors, and you can cut out pictures."

My mother gave her some old books and the scissors, and my little sister began to cut out pictures. She cut out a dog and a cat, and a brown bear and a red fox. She cut out some flowers and many other pictures.

Then she saw a big box on a chair. She opened the box and saw a beautiful dress with pretty blue flowers on it. My naughty little sister wanted to cut out only one flower. She did so. She liked it and began to cut out many flowers.

Suddenly my mother came in. She was very angry.

"You are a bad, bad girl," she said. "That was my best dress. I shall not give you the scissors again."

And she didn't.

One day my little sister did not want to eat her breakfast. My mother gave her an egg, some bread and butter and a big cup of milk for breakfast. But she did not want to eat.

"Eat your egg!" said my mother.

"I don't want to. Bad egg!"

"Then you will not go to the Zoo on Sunday!" said my mother.

And my little sister began to eat. She ate her egg and some bread and butter, she drank her cup of milk, too. She wanted to go to the Zoo very much.

On Sunday we put on our best dresses and white socks and white shoes and went to the Zoo. We went there with our cousin Jane. She was a big girl. She was sixteen. We took a bus
²³
, and soon we were at the Zoo. It was very interesting there.

We saw many animals at the Zoo: tigers, a red fox, a brown bear, a wolf and some funny monkeys. The monkeys were jumping and playing in their cage.

Then we saw a little roundabout near the lake. The little roundabout had little cars and horses and bears. The roundabout went round and round
²⁴
, and the cars and horses went up and down, up and down.

"I want to go on the roundabout!" cried my little sister.

When the roundabout stopped, my little sister ran to the little car and got into the seat
²⁵
. The roundabout went round and round. Then it stopped again. My big cousin Jane said:

"And now let's go and see the monkeys again, Nancy! We have no money now."

"I want to go on the roundabout again!" cried my naughty little sister.

"Come, Nancy!" I said.

And we went to look at the monkeys again. They were so funny.

"But where is Nancy?" suddenly asked Jane.

We looked around, but we did not see her. We went to the roundabout, but she was not there. There were many people there, and we did not see her.

"We must tell the policeman," said my big cousin Jane.

So we went to the police-station. We saw a policeman there.

"We have lost a little girl
²⁶
," said my big cousin Jane.

The policeman asked us many questions, and he wrote our answers down in a big book.

"What is her name?"

"Her name is Nancy Brown."

"How old is Nancy Brown?"

"She is four."

"What does she look like?
²⁷
"

"She has red hair and brown eyes."

"What has she on?
²⁸
"

"She has a blue dress on and white socks and white shoes"

"Where do you live?"

"We live in 24 Park Street," I said. "My father, mother, my sister and I live there."

"Now go home," said the policeman. "We'll find your sister and take her home."

We thanked the policeman and went home. We could not take a bus, because we had no money. So we walked. We were very hungry when we came home.

But do you know what we saw when we came home?

We saw my naughty little sister at the table.

"How did you get home?
²⁹
" we asked.

"The policeman found me and took me home in his big car. But I shall not run away again," said my naughty little sister.

"But why did you run away?" I asked.

"I wanted to see the roundabout, so I ran away," she said. "Then I looked for you. But there were many people there and I could not find you, and I cried. An old man took me to the police-station. The policeman asked me many questions. I told him my name and how old I was, but I did not know where I lived. So the policeman looked in his big book, and he told me where I lived. Does the policeman know where all little children live?"

"Yes, he does. He knows where all the naughty children live," said my mother.