Cousin Lucy's Conversations. Abbott Jacob

we will get Royal to nail a cover on it.”

      “Well, – if I only had a box,” said Lucy.

      “And then,” continued Miss Anne, “after a good while, when you have forgotten all about the box, and have got tired of your playthings in the treasury, I can say, ‘O Lucy, don’t you remember you have got a box full of playthings up in the garret?’ And then you can go up there, and Royal will draw out the nails, and take off the cover, and you can look them all over, and they will be new again.”

      “O aunt Anne, will they be really new again?” said Lucy; “would old Margaret be new again if I should nail her up in a box?”

      Lucy thought that new meant nice, and whole, and clean, like things when they are first bought at the toy-shop or bookstore.

      Miss Anne laughed at this mistake; for she meant that they would be new to her; that is, that she would have forgotten pretty much how they looked, and that she would take a new and fresh interest in looking at them.

      Lucy looked a little disappointed when Anne explained that this was her meaning; but she said that she would carry up some of the things to the garret, if she only had a box to put them in.

      Miss Anne said that she presumed that she could find some box or old trunk up there; and she gave Lucy a basket to put the things into, that were to be carried up.

      So Lucy took the basket, and carried it into the entry; and she opened the doors of her treasury, and placed the basket down upon the floor before it.

      Then she kneeled down herself upon the carpet, and began to take a survey of the scene of confusion before her.

      She took out several blocks, which were lying upon the lower shelf, and also some large sheets of paper with great letters printed upon them. Her father had given them to her to cut the letters out, and paste them into little books. Next came a saucer, with patches of red, blue, green, and yellow, all over it, made with water colors, from Miss Anne’s paint-box. She put these things into the basket, and then sat still for some minutes, not knowing what to take next. Not being able to decide herself, she went back to ask Miss Anne.

      “What things do you think I had better carry away, Miss Anne?” said she. “I can’t tell very well.”

      “I don’t know what things you have got there, exactly,” said Miss Anne; “but I can tell you what kind of things I should take away.”

      “Well, what kind?” said Lucy.

      “Why, I should take the bulky things.”

      “Bulky things!” said Lucy; “what are bulky things?”

      “Why, big things – those that take up a great deal of room.”

      “Well, what other kinds of things, Miss Anne?”

      “The useless things.”

      “Useless?” repeated Lucy.

      “Yes, those that you do not use much.”

      “Well, what others?”

      “All the old, broken things.”

      “Well, and what else?”

      “Why, I think,” replied Miss Anne, “that if you take away all those, you will then probably have room enough for the rest. At any rate, go and get a basket full of such as I have told you, and we will see how much room it makes.”

      So Lucy went back, and began to take out some of the broken, and useless, and large things, and at length filled her basket full. Then she carried them in to show to Miss Anne. Miss Anne looked them over, and took out some old papers which were of no value whatever, and then told Lucy, that, if she would carry them up stairs, and put them down upon the garret floor, she would herself come up by and by, and find a box to put them in. Lucy did so, and then came down, intending to get another basket full.

      As she was descending the stairs, coming down carefully from step to step, with one hand upon the banisters, and the other holding her basket, singing a little song, – her mother, who was at work in the parlor, heard her, and came out into the entry.

      “Ah, my little Miss Lucy,” said she, “I’ve found you, have I? Just come into the parlor a minute; I want to show you something.”

      Lucy’s mother smiled when she said this; and Lucy could not imagine what it was that she wanted to show her.

      As soon, however, as she got into the room, her mother stopped by the door, and pointed to the little chairs and crickets which Lucy had left out upon the floor of the room, when she had dismissed her school. The rule was, that she must always put away all the chairs and furniture of every kind which she used in her play; and, when she forgot or neglected this, her punishment was, to be imprisoned for ten minutes upon a little cricket in the corner, with nothing to amuse herself with but a book. And a book was not much amusement for her; for she could not read; she only knew a few of her letters.

      As soon, therefore, as she saw her mother pointing at the crickets and chairs, she began at once to excuse herself by saying,

      “Well, mother, that is because I was doing something for Miss Anne. – No, it is because Royal made me go away from my school, before it was done.”

      “Royal made you go away! how?” asked her mother.

      “Why, he laughed at me, and so I ran after him; and then Miss Anne took me into her room and I forgot all about my chairs and crickets.”

      “Well, I am sorry for you; but you must put them away, and then go to prison.”

      So Lucy put away her crickets and chairs, and then went and took her seat in the corner where she could see the clock, and began to look over her book to find such letters as she knew, until the minute-hand had passed over two of the five-minute spaces upon the face of the clock. Then she got up and went out; and, hearing Royal’s voice in the yard, she went out to see what he was doing, and forgot all about the work she had undertaken at her treasury. Miss Anne sat in her room two hours, wondering what had become of Lucy; and finally, when she came out of her room to see about getting tea, she shut the treasury doors, and, seeing the basket upon the stairs, where Lucy had left it, she took it and put it away in its place.

      CONVERSATION II

      DEFINITIONS

      A few days after this, Lucy came into Miss Anne’s room, bringing a little gray kitten in her arms. She asked Miss Anne if she would not make her a rolling mouse, for her kitten to play with.

      Miss Anne had a way of unwinding a ball of yarn a little, and then fastening it with a pin, so that it would not unwind any farther. Then Lucy could take hold of the end of the yarn, and roll the ball about upon the floor, and let the kitten run after it. She called it her rolling mouse.

      Miss Anne made her a mouse, and Lucy played with it for some time. At last the kitten scampered away, and Lucy could not find her. Then Anne proposed to Lucy that she should finish the work of re-arranging her treasury.

      “Let me see,” said Miss Anne, “if you remember what I told you the other day. What were the kinds of things that I advised you to carry away?”

      “Why, there were the sulky things.”

      “The what!” said Miss Anne.

      “No, the big things, – the big things,” said Lucy.

      “The bulky things,” said Miss Anne, “not the sulky things!”

      “Well, it sounded like sulky,” said Lucy; “but I thought it was not exactly that.”

      “No, not exactly, – but it was not a very great mistake. I said useless things, and bulky things, and you got the sounds confounded.”

      “Con – what?” said Lucy.

      “Confounded, – that is, mixed together. You got the s sound of useless, instead of the b sound of bulky; but bulky and sulky mean very different things.”

      “What does sulky