did,
Dotty, when you was a little girl, and picked the inside out of that
custard pie."

"Ahem!" said Dotty. "I guess you think you're talkin' to somebody else,
Prudy Parlin! I don't like your story; wish you'd stop."

"But I was going to tell you how Jacky got sick, and there were ever so
many more monkeys on board--"

"On what board?"

"On the ship. And they took care of Jacky, and brought him his supper as
if they were folks."

"What did he have for supper?"

"O, nuts and things, on a wooden plate."

"I wish I was a monkey!"

"O, Dotty Dimple, that's a horrid speech!"

"Then I don't want to be a monkey; I want to be a ape. I wish I could go
puffing round the world in a ship."

"Well, Dotty, this isn't keeping school. What letter have you learned?"

"I didn't learn a letter; I learned a story. You're a funny gell to keep
a _story_-school!"

Prudy held up the block.

"O, that picked thing? You called it a ape!"

"Why, Dotty Parlin! that's A."

"A _what?_"

"I said _A_," repeated Prudy, with emphasis, "only just _A_."

"Why, 'tisn't A _nothing_--is it?"

"Dear me," thought Prudy, "I don't see how folks do keep school. I'm
getting just as hungry--and cross!"

When Dotty had learned A so well that she knew it at a glance, her
teacher proceeded to the next letter, which stood on the block for a
bat. Dotty said the picture looked "like Zip with an umbrella over him."

After the second story, she was tired of the business.

"Look out the window, Prudy. See that whale! O, you April fool!"

The young sister sighed over her sister's light-minded behavior. When
they came to C, which stood for cat, Dotty seized her kitty and tried to
feed her with lozenges. But Pusheen turned away her head with a gesture
which signified,--

"Candy isn't fit to touch. I'd eat a mouse with you, with pleasure."

"Talk," said Dotty; "say 'thank you,' Pusheen! No, indeed, you needn't
do it; I's just in fun. God didn't give you any teef to talk with,
Pussy; so you can't talk."

"Now, Dotty, this next letter is D."

"O, Prudy, I wish you'd hush! I've got the earache."

"Ah, well!" thought the gentle teacher, with a sigh; "I'll try again,
some other day. I'll not give it up. Grandma says, 'Time and patience
make the mulberry leaf into satin.' I don't know what that means, only
it's something about _perseverance_."

CHAPTER VII.

BOTH SIDES OF A STORY.

The little school was not resumed for some time. Not