Part 2 (1/2)
”Wasn't she crazy, mamma?”
Mrs. Parlin shook her head.
”No, I am afraid not, dear. Only, when she allowed anger to stay in her heart, it made her feel blind and dizzy. Perhaps she was crazy for the time.”
Dotty hung her head again. She remembered how blind and dizzy she herself had felt while screaming at Norah that morning.
”This little girl had no mother to warn her against indulging her temper. When she had the feeling of hate swelling at her heart, n.o.body told her what it was like. _You_ know what it is like, Dotty?”
Dotty's chin drooped, and rested in the hollow of her neck.
”I don't want to tell you, mamma.”
”Like _murder_, my child.”
Dotty shuddered, though she had known this before. Her mother had often read to her from the Bible, that ”whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.”
”Well, there was no one to love this poor Harriet; she was not lovable.”
”No, 'm, she was _hateable_!” remarked Dotty, anxious to say something; for if she held her peace, she was afraid her mother would think she was applying the story to herself.
”There was no one to love her; so a woman took her, and was paid for it by the town.”
”Town? Town, mamma? A _town_ is _houses_.”
”She was paid for it by men in the town. I don't know whether this woman tried to teach Harriet in the right way or not. It may be she had so much to do that she thought it less trouble to punish her when she was naughty than to instruct her how to be good.”
”O, yes; I s'pose she struck her with a stick,” said Dotty, patting her forefingers together--”just this way.”
”Harriet had the care of one of Mrs. Gray's children, a lively little boy about two years old.”
”Was he cunning? As cunning as Katie Clifford? Did he say, 'If you love me, you give me hunnerd dollars; and I go buy me 'tick o' canny'?”
”Very likely he was quite as cunning as Katie. You would hardly think any one could get out of patience with such a little creature--would you, my daughter?”
”No, indeed!” cried Dotty, eagerly, and feeling that she was on safe ground, for she loved babies dearly, and was always patient with them.
”I don't know but Harriet was envious of Mrs. Gray's little boy, because he had nicer things to eat than she had.”
”Well, it ought to have nicer things, mamma, 'cause it hadn't any teeth.”
”And she got tired of running after him.”
”No matter if she did get tired, mamma; the baby was tireder than she was!”
”And the parents think now it is very likely she was in the habit of striking him when n.o.body knew it.”
”What a naughty, wicked, awful girl!” cried Dotty, her eyes flas.h.i.+ng.
”She had a fiery temper, my child, and had never learned to control it.”