"ElizaLeeFollen-TheTalkativeWig" - читать интересную книгу автора (Follen Eliza Lee)

and I tell you an old cloak has a charmed life; you cannot wear it
out; like charity, it suffereth long and is kind.

As my dear mistress's children grew up, I was treated very much as
you all have been; that is to say, with no respect at all. What a
different life was mine from that which I led with dear, gentle
cousin Jane. Peace be with her sweet spirit!

One prank which the boys played some years after Jane's death, I
must relate, and then I have done. The eldest, whose name was
Willie, took me, the evening before thanksgiving day, and, having
dressed himself up in some of the cook's dirty old clothes, and hung
a basket on his arm, put me over his shoulders, and I went begging
of all the neighbors for something to keep thanksgiving with. He
disguised his voice by putting cotton wool in his mouth, and I
wonder myself how I came to know him. Two or three boys of his
acquaintance went with him, all dressed as beggars; and a grand
frolic they had.

They went to one house where a man lived that made great pretensions
to religion and goodness, but who the boys strongly suspected was
not very compassionate to the poor.

"Please," said Willie, "give us a little flour and raisins for our
mother to make a thanksgiving pudding with to-morrow." His answer
was a slam of the door in his face.

"Let us go to Granny Horton's," said one of the boys; "she has not
gone to bed yet."

"O," said Willie, "you know she has nothing but what mother sends
her, or some of the neighbors. It would be a shame. I carried her a
pair of chickens this morning, and some flour and raisins; and it is
a shame to beg of her, she is so kind. But won't it be funny if she
gives us something, when Squire Marsh would not; at any rate, she'll
not slam the door in our faces. Come, let's go quickly, before she
puts out her little light and goes to bed. I bet she'll give us one
of her chickens. But let us take whatever she gives us, just for the
fun, and for fear we should be found out."

Willie was to be the spokesman. He felt rather queerly at first; but
the fun of the thing was too tempting, so he agreed to speak. He was
dressed as a girl, and wrapped me closely about him, as if he was
very cold. He had on an old straw bonnet, and his face was painted,
so that she could not recognize him, he knew.

They knocked at Granny Horton's door, and she, in a kind, gentle
voice, replied, "Come in!" Willie, pretending to be a girl, told how
she and her brother and sister had come from the farther part of the
town, where they lived in the woods with a mother who was very old,