"Martha Young-Somebodys Little Girl" - читать интересную книгу автора (Young Martha)

And one time Bessie Bell was at a pretty house and somebody sat her
on a little low chair and said: `` Keep still, Bessie Bell.''

She kept still so long that at last she began to be afraid to move
at all, and she got afraid even to crook up her little finger for
fear it would pop off loud,--she had kept still so long that all her
round little fingers and her round little legs felt so stiff.

Then one, great grown person said: ``She seems a very quiet child.''
And the other said: ``She is a very quiet child--sometimes.''

But just then Bessie Bell turned her head, and though her round
little neck felt stiff it did not pop!--and she saw--something in
a corner that was blue, green, and brown, and soft, and she forgot
how afraid to move she was, and she forgot how stiff she thought she
was, and she forgot how still she was told to be, and she jumped up
and ran to the corner and cried out: ``Pretty! Pretty! Pretty!''

One grown person took up the Thing that was blue, and green, and
brown, and soft, and waved it to and fro, to and fro in front of
Bessie Bell.

And Bessie Bell clapped her hands, and jumped for joy, and laughed,
and cried: ``Boo! boo! boo!''

And Bessie Bell ran right into the Thing that was blue, and green,
and brown, and soft, and she threw out her round little arms and
clasped them about the Thing that was blue, and green, and brown,
and soft!

And she pulled it over her face, and she laughed and cried for joy--
because she remembered--

But the great grown person who had brought Bessie Bell to the pretty
house said: ``Oh, Bessie Bell! Why, Bessie Bell! For shame, Bessie
Bell! How could you do so to the beautiful peacock-feather-fly-
brush!''

So Bessie Bell could only cry--and that very softly--and feel
ashamed as she was bid, and forget what it was that she remembered.

Bessie Bell might have remembered one time when a great house was
all desolate, and when nobody or nothing at all breathed in the
whole great big house, but one little tiny girl and one great big
white cat, with just one black spot on its tail.

The nurse that always had played so nicely with the tiny little girl
was lying with her cheek in her hand over yonder.