Dotty Dimples Flyaway

Dotty Dimple's Flyaway, by
Sophie May

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dotty Dimple's Flyaway, by Sophie
May This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Dotty Dimple's Flyaway
Author: Sophie May
Release Date: September 11, 2006 [EBook #19247]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOTTY
DIMPLE'S FLYAWAY ***

Produced by Sigal Alon, La Monte H.P. Yarroll, Sankar Viswanathan,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

[Illustration: "WHAT FOR YOU LOOK THAT WAY TO ME?"]

DOTTY DIMPLE STORIES.

DOTTY DIMPLE'S FLYAWAY.

By SOPHIE MAY,
AUTHOR OF "LITTLE PRUDY STORIES."
Illustrated.

BOSTON: LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS. NEW YORK: LEE,
SHEPARD AND DILLINGHAM. 1871.
* * * * *
TO THE
LITTLE LINDSAYS.
* * * * *

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
I.
BEGINNING TO REMEMBER.
II. RUNNING AWAY TO CHURCH.
III. RUNNING AWAY TO HEAVEN.

IV. A RAILROAD SAVAGE.
V. EAST AGAIN.
VI. THE RAG-BAG.
VII. THE WICKED GIRL.
VIII. "WHEELBARROWING."
IX. TIN-TYPES.
X. WAKING.
XI. AUNT POLLY'S STORY.
XII. FULL NIPPERKIN.
* * * * *

DOTTY DIMPLE'S FLYAWAY.
CHAPTER I.
BEGINNING TO REMEMBER.
Katie Clifford was a very bright child. She almost knew enough to keep
out of fire and water, but not quite. She looked like other little girls,
only so wise,--O, so very wise!--that you couldn't tell her any news
about the earth, or the sun, moon, and stars, for she knew all about it
"byfore."
Her hair was soft and flying like corn-silk, and when the wind took it
you would think it meant to blow it off like a dandelion top. She was so
light and breezy, and so little for her age, that her father said "they must
put a cent in her pocket to keep her from flying away;" so, after that,
the family began to call her Flyaway. She thought it was her name, and

that when people said "Katie," it was a gentle way they had of scolding.
Everybody petted her. Her brother Horace put his heart right under her
feet, and she danced over it. Her "uncle Eddard" said "she drove round
the world in a little chariot, and all her friends were harnessed to it,
only they didn't know it."
Her shoulders were very little, but they bore a crushing weight of care.
From the time she began to talk, she took upon herself the burden of
the whole family. When Mrs. Clifford had a headache, Flyaway was so
full of pity that nothing could keep her from climbing upon the sufferer,
stroking her face, and saying, "O, my dee mamma," or perhaps
breaking the camphor bottle over her nose.
She sat at table in a high chair beside her father, and might have learned
good manners if it had not been for the care she felt of Horace. She
could scarcely attend to her own little knife and fork, because she was
so busy watching her brother. She wished to see for herself that he was
sitting straight, and not leaning his elbows on the table. If he made any
mistake she cried, "Hollis!" in a tone as sweet as a wind-harp, though
she meant it to be terribly severe, adding to the effect by shaking the
corn-silk on her head in high displeasure. If she could correct him she
thought she had done as much good in the family as if she had behaved
well herself. He received all rebukes very meekly, with a "Thank you,
little Topknot. What would be done here without you to preserve
order?"
Flyaway could remember as far back as the beginning of the
world,--that is to say, she could remember when her world began.
It is strange to think of, but the first thing she really knew for a
certainty, she was standing in a yellow chair, in her grandmother
Parlin's kitchen! It was as if she had always been asleep till that minute.
People did say she had once been a baby, but she could not recollect
that, "it was so MANY years ago."
Her mind, you see, had always been as soft as a bag of feathers; and
nothing that she did, or that any one else did, made much impression.

But now something remarkable was taking place, and she would never
forget it.
It was this: she was grinding coffee. How prettily it pattered down on
the floor! What did it look like? O, like snuff, that people sneezed with.
This was housework. Next thing they would ask her to wash dishes and
set the table. She would grow larger and larger,