UNIVERSITY OF 
 NORTH CA ROLINA 
 
 School oi Library 
 Scieoc© 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 III 
 
 00022230088 
 
 K7 
 
 V 
 
.jrcy 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
 
 http://archive.org/details/peepatourneighboOOwood 
 

 THE DROWNED GIRL. 
 
 113 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS; 
 
 THE SEQUEL TO 
 
 THE WILLOW LANE BUDGET. 
 
 itfitjj Sllustrattntisf. 
 
 BY UNCLE FEAKK, 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE " QUEER OLD MILLER," ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 CHARLES SCIUBNER, 145 NASSAU STREET. 
 
 1852. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for 
 
 the Southern District ol New York. 
 
 C. W. BENEDICT, 
 Stereotyper and Printer, 
 201 William St., N. Y- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 WHAT I AM GOING TO DO, ... .7 
 
 A GLANCE AT PARSON DALEY, . . . . 16 
 
 DOCTOR WINDMAN AND HIS DOSES, . . . .47 
 
 HUNTING HENS' NESTS, ...... 63 
 
 CLIMBING THE PEACH TREE, . . . . . 83 
 
 THE BALL FAMILY, .*.... 90 
 
 . CHIPS OF THE OLD BLOCK, 105 
 
 -^9 THE DROWNED GIRL, 113 
 
 gjf" THE YOUNG TRUTH-TELLER, . . . . .118 
 
 rL 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 FACE 
 
 THE NEW SKATES, 140 
 
 LAUGHING BILL, . . . . . . . .159 
 
 UNCLE FRANK'S LEAVE-TAKING, . . . . 173 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 the drowned girl, . . . Frontispiece 
 
 VIGNETTE TITLE-PAGE, .... .1 
 
 A PEEP AT WILLOW LANE, . . . . . 13 
 
 PARSON DALEY AND THE LITTLE GIRL, 26 
 
 HUNTING HENS' NESTS, . . # . 65 
 
 JOE AND HIS VICTIM, 108 
 
 AMANDA AT HER KNITTING WORK, . . . 119 
 
 "OH, DANIEL ! FORGIVE ME !" . . . • .156 
 
A PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 WHAT I AM GOING TO DO. 
 
 I suppose that my friends, the boys 
 and girls, for whom I make this book, 
 would like to know at the outset, what 
 sort of a thing I have got for them, and 
 how I came to make it. I will tell 
 them, in as few words as possible. 
 
 Not long ago, I spun some yarns, and 
 wove them together, and sent them off 
 to the little folks about the country, with 
 
8 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 this label on them : " A Budget of 
 Willow Lane Stories." I had quite a 
 liking for these stories myself. " That's 
 natural enough, Uncle Frank" — so I 
 fancy I hear you say — " because you 
 made them ; and people are apt to like 
 what they make." Yes, I know that 
 well enough ; and perhaps that is one 
 reason why I took so kindly to these 
 stories. But that was not the only rea- 
 son. It was not the chief reason, I 
 think. Willow Lane was the place 
 where I was born, and where I spent 
 the merriest days of my life. 
 
 I said I liked these stories, and that 
 I liked them because they had so much 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 9 
 
 to do with the bright, and green, and 
 joyous days of my childhood. But 
 when I sent the budget out, to be open- 
 ed and read, I own I was in doubt 
 whether my friends would be pleased 
 with the budget or not. But they were 
 pleased with it. They liked it. I sus- 
 pect that the very neat and tasteful dress 
 in which the book appeared, had some- 
 thing to do with their liking it. It was 
 beautifully printed, and the pictures in 
 it were very fine. So that it is due to 
 Uncle Frank's publisher, Mr. Scribner, 
 as much, perhaps, as to Uncle Frank 
 himself, that the budget was so well 
 thought of. 
 
s 
 
 10 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 Let that be as it may, however — the 
 stories about matters and things in Wil- 
 low Lane were read so eagerly, that I 
 made up my mind to set my thinking 
 factory agoing again, and to spin and 
 weave some more yarns from the same 
 kind of stuff. 
 
 " What ! another entire budget, Uncle 
 Frank?" 
 
 Yes, another budget. 
 
 "But I have not opened the first one 
 yet." 
 
 Haven't you ? Well, you can attend 
 to that some other time. It will not 
 make any difference which book you 
 read first. If you do not read the other 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 11 
 
 at all — though I hope you will read it 
 sometime or other — you can understand 
 this one just as well. The stories in the 
 first budget are not so woven into the 
 stories in the second budget, that you 
 will find it necessary to get hold of the 
 thread at the very beginning, and to 
 keep a tight hold of it till you get to the 
 end. You can do so or not, just as you 
 like, or just as you find it convenient. 
 
 Let me see. What label shall I put 
 upon the new budget ? I have thought 
 of calling it " A Peep at our Neighbors" 
 I guess that name will be just the thing. 
 While I am peeping at those neighbors, 
 however, you will not expect me to peep 
 
12 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 at nothing else. We must take some 
 notice of things as well as of people. 
 We cannot very well avoid doing so, if 
 we would ; and I do not think it would 
 be best to do so, if we could. I am 
 more anxious to weave together a bundle 
 of stories which will please you, and 
 which will have something in them of 
 real value to you, than I am to select 
 just such facts and incidents, and only 
 such, as will fit the name I give them. 
 
 So you must not shake your head, if 
 it seems to you that I do, once in a 
 while, get away a few paces from the 
 text I have taken. Ministers do not 
 always stick very closely to their texts, 
 

PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 15 
 
 you know. They wander a little some- 
 times. I mean to take the same liberty. 
 Some boys and girls, when they read 
 the title of this book, may think, at first, 
 before they read any of the stories, that 
 Uncle Frank has turned tattler. But 
 there is no tattling in the book ; nothing 
 of the kind. What I am going to do, 
 or what I am going to try to do, may 
 be expressed in a very few words, and I 
 design to give you a little picture — a sort 
 of daguerreotype miniature — of every- 
 day life in our neighborhood at Willow 
 Lane. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 A GLANCE AT PARSON DALEY, 
 
 Our minister was one of the most de- 
 voted and exemplary men it has ever 
 been my lot to know. Everybody loved 
 Parson Daley. It was not so easy, per- 
 haps, to get acquainted with ministers 
 when I was a little boy, as it is now. 
 There was something about them, which 
 inspired us little folks with great reve- 
 rence, amounting, at times, almost to 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 17 
 
 terror. Their very dress had something 
 of the awful about it to us. 
 
 I have often heard my father tell what 
 a time he used to have, in the days of 
 his boyhood, when he met the minister 
 who then preached in the old brick 
 meeting-house. That was a little while 
 after the revolutionary war ; and as long 
 ago as that time the children must have 
 been almost frightened, when they came 
 across a real, live minister out of the 
 pulpit, and had to look him in the face, 
 and speak to him. My father said that 
 when he was in the street, and saw the 
 minister, though ever so far off, coming 
 right toward him, jogging along leisurely 
 
18 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 upon the back of his white mare, with 
 his short clothes on, and his knee 
 buckles so finely polished, he began to 
 make preparations for his bow. His hat 
 was off in a moment. He stopped still, 
 as if he had been petrified, and waited 
 for the great man to come up. When 
 the meeting took place, the bow was got 
 off as if the life of the bower depended 
 on the character of his bow. 
 
 There was not quite so much venera- 
 tion for the minister when I was a boy, 
 though there was much more than there 
 is now. Now there may be too little — 
 then there might have been too much. 
 
 Parson Daley was not an old man, at 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 19 
 
 the time I am writing of. Still he 
 was an old-fashioned man — so we boys 
 thought. He wore short clothes and 
 knee buckles ; and his hair hung down 
 behind, and was sometimes fastened in 
 a cue. 
 
 When he walked out, there was not a 
 boy or girl in the street, that he did not 
 stop to speak to. There was some stiff- 
 ness about him — something which always 
 seemed to me to warn me against coming 
 too near him, until I was spoken to, and 
 until he held out his hand toward me, as 
 king Ahasuerus held out the golden scep- 
 tre toward Esther. But I do not think 
 he really courted such outward respect as 
 
20 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 everybody paid him. He received it — 
 expected it — would have been displeased 
 at the absence of it — because it was cus- 
 tomary for the flock to render it to the 
 shepherd. But when the ceremony of 
 receiving him was gone through with — 
 when you had got through the crust of 
 ministerial dignity, if I may say so, 
 which covered the person of the min- 
 ister from head to foot, and seemed to 
 render him almost too sacred to be used 
 except on Sundays, fast days, and 
 thanksgiving days — when you got into 
 the heart of the man, you saw at a 
 glance that he was one of the last per- 
 sons in the wide world to be afraid of. 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 21 
 
 How often, when he reined his old 
 sorrel horse up to our house, and hitched 
 her to the fence near the door, and came 
 in, slowly and gravely, with an air so 
 dignified, have I wished I might have 
 leave to get into the farthest corner of 
 the garret, and to remain there among 
 the rats and cobwebs, until that great 
 man should remount his little pacer ; and 
 how often, too, after I had spoken to my 
 good pastor, and he had spoken to me, 
 and kindly patted me on my head, and 
 told me some nice story, with a good 
 moral tacked to the end of it, have I 
 wished, when I have heard him call for 
 
 his hat, and say he must go, that he 
 
 2 
 
22 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 would stay until sundown, at which time 
 it was customary to post me and my 
 brother off to the trundle bed. 
 
 It was a great day when Parson Daley 
 visited the district school. Then we all 
 had our Sunday clothes on, and did our 
 very best. Then the schoolmaster made 
 us read, and spell, and recite our lessons, 
 and parse, and do long sums out of Da- 
 boll's arithmetic, to show the minister 
 what a bright set of boys and girls we 
 were. Then— my heart throbs now, 
 when I think of it — then the minister 
 asked us questions in geography and 
 grammar, with his own mouth. When 
 we had gone through with all the rest of 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 23 
 
 the exercises, the minister got the 
 Primer, and heard us say all the West- 
 minster catechism, from the " chief end 
 of man" to the last of those very long 
 answers, over which I had to rack my 
 poor little brains so much. 
 
 He never left the school without giv- 
 ing us some psalm or hymn to learn, and 
 telling us that he would hear us say it 
 when he came to see us again. Many 
 of the hymns I learned at that time, and 
 by that dear man's request, are as fresh 
 in my mind at this moment, as if I had 
 committed them to memory but an hour 
 ago. 
 
 I have said that Parson Daley always 
 
24 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 stopped to speak to the children he met 
 when he was walking out. I remember 
 hearing Mary Frasier tell how kind and 
 good-natured he was to her, one day, 
 when she was quite small. 
 
 She was going to one of the neigh- 
 bor's — this was Mary's story — with a 
 pitcher in her hand, after something for 
 her mother, when she met Mr. Daley. 
 
 " Good morning, my dear," said the 
 minister, with a sweet smile shining 
 from his face. " Good morning, Mary. 
 How do you do ? and how are they all 
 at home ?" 
 
 Mary said she was almost afraid to 
 speak to him, at first ; but she supposed 
 
I* PARSON DALY AND THE LITTLE GIRL. 2b 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 27 
 
 she must have taken courage when she 
 looked up and saw the sunshine in his 
 face ; for she soon found herself talking 
 with the minister as fast as if he had 
 been one of her own playmates. " Oh, 
 dear !" said she, " how sorry I was, 
 when he took my hand, and said * good 
 bye.' I am not sure but I cried. I felt 
 sad enough to cry, I know. Again and 
 again, even after the dear man had got 
 a great distance from the place where he 
 met me, I turned around to take another 
 look at him, before he was quite out of 
 sight." 
 
 And that reminds me of another story 
 I have heard about him. A little girl — 
 
28 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 I don't remember her name — met Mr. 
 Daley, as she was going to school. 
 
 He did not stop, but he spoke to her, 
 and said, "How do you do, little dear?" 
 or something of the sort. I suppose he 
 was in a hurry. He was always in a 
 hurry, when he was on his way to the 
 post office, and very likely he was going 
 to the post office then. 
 
 The little girl was not satisfied with so 
 short a conference with her minister. 
 She wanted to hear him talk longer. 
 
 " Mr. Daley," she said, faintly. 
 
 He stopped, and turned around. 
 " Well, my dear ?" 
 
 " I — is the meeting — I mean — when 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 29 
 
 do the children have another meeting ?■" 
 She alluded to Mr. Daley's custom of 
 meeting the children once in a while, at 
 the school house, on Saturday afternoon, 
 at which time he made a point to get 
 acquainted with them, and sang hymns 
 with them, and talked kindly with them. 
 
 " Next week," said the minister, 
 kindly, and passed on. « 
 
 Another girl, who was also going to 
 school, and was only a little way behind, 
 heard all that was said. 
 
 " Why, you knew when the meeting 
 was going to be," said she, " as well as 
 Mr. Daley did. He told us last Sunday, 
 in the pulpit." 
 
30 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 "I know it," said the other. 
 
 " Well, what did you ask him for ?" 
 
 " Because I wanted to hear him talk 
 to me." 
 
 That was the honest truth. She 
 wanted to hear him talk to her. It 
 did her good to hear the sound of his 
 voice. And she spoke the mind of 
 many a child in our neighborhood, I 
 doubt not. 
 
 Mr. Daley could do well one very de- 
 sirable thing which so many ministers 
 are unable to do at all, and 'so many 
 others can do but poorly. He could 
 talk to the children of his parish in their 
 own language. 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 31 
 
 Why is it — if I may stop a moment 
 here, to drop a hint where it may possi- 
 bly be picked up by some one in the 
 ministerial office — why is it that such 
 multitudes of our best clergymen fail 
 utterly in this department ? Why is it, 
 that though it can almost be said of them 
 that they "speak with the tongues of 
 men and of angels, and have the gift of 
 prophecy, and understand all mysteries 
 and all knowledge," they are dumb, or 
 might as well be dumb, when they at- 
 tempt to address the little lambs of their 
 flock? If they don't understand the 
 language of children, why don't they 
 study it ? " They don't understand the 
 
32 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 language of children !" Why don't they 
 drill themselves in the use of it, then, 
 day in and day out, if it is necessary 1 
 Why they can speak Latin and Greek ; 
 aye, and Hebrew and Arabic, for ought 
 I know. But when they get up to talk 
 to an audience of bright-eyed boys and 
 girls, they are as dull, and dry, and 
 prosy, and tedious, as if they had eaten 
 one of their old dusty folio volumes for 
 breakfast. There are words enough in 
 the English tongue which the little folks 
 can understand, and there are ways 
 enough of putting them together, so 
 that the ideas one wants to express — or 
 ce:tainly the ideas to which he ought to 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 33 
 
 confine himself — are as plain as A B C, 
 to the young mind. Why don't such 
 men learn these words, if they never 
 have learned them, and learn the mode 
 of stringing them together for their 
 young hearers ? 
 
 " But the faculty of interesting chil- 
 dren is natural to some people. Nature 
 don't give it to everybody. It doesn't 
 come natural to me." 
 
 Nonsense. Neither does your Latin 
 
 come natural to you, nor your Greek, 
 
 nor your Hebrew. I don't believe you 
 
 was born with either of these languages 
 
 flowing very glibly from your tongue. 
 
 The fact is, you must come down — not 
 3 
 
34 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 descend, but come down — to the dear 
 young lambs of your flock. See what 
 interests them. Watch their counte- 
 nances, at the domestic hearth, while 
 you are trying the effect upon them of 
 different topics and different modes of 
 presenting these topics. Break your 
 sentences to pieces. Cut them up. 
 Lay aside your words of Latin and 
 Greek derivation. "You can't do it?" 
 Yes, you can. " It's an art." Very 
 well, learn the art. Make yourself per- 
 fect in it. Don't be afraid that you will 
 spoil your style for other uses. If you 
 should mix up a great deal more Anglo- 
 Saxon in your sermons than you now do, 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 35 
 
 it would not hurt them. They would be 
 the better for it. 
 
 But, a little urchin who has been look- 
 ing over my shoulder, for the last ten or 
 fifteen minutes, pulls the sleeve of my 
 gown, and asks me if it is not almost 
 time for Uncle Frank to go back to 
 " Our Neighbors," and see about Parson 
 Daley and the Willow Lane youngsters. 
 The little fellow's hint is a good one. I 
 must not throw it away because it came 
 from the brain of a child. 
 
 I was saying that Parson Daley could 
 talk well to children in their own lan- 
 guage. He could make things very 
 plain to their minds. He did not try 
 
36 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 to teach them everything. But what he 
 did try to do, he did, and did well. I 
 don't remember ever hearing him dis- 
 course to us about the " determination 
 of the will," much less of " volition." I 
 am quite sure he never tried to enlighten 
 us in the mysteries of " innate ideas," or 
 the " vicarious nature of Christ's sacri- 
 fice," or " retributive justice," or the 
 " divine essence." 
 
 What could we have understood of 
 these things, if he had talked about them 
 until he made himself hoarse ? Why 
 should children be expected to under- 
 stand such things, any better than they 
 could the " differential and integral cal- 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 37 
 
 cuius," or the " precession of the equi- 
 noxes 7" 
 
 I will give you a specimen of the kind 
 of things our minister talked about to the 
 younger members of his flock, and the 
 kind of words and sentences he used. 
 
 One morning, as he was taking an 
 early walk, he happened to pass by 
 Doctor Osborne's garden. He looked 
 over the fence, and there he saw the 
 Doctor's three boys, George, Henry and 
 Frank, very busily engaged weeding 
 the flower beds. The little gardeners 
 stopped work when they saw him 
 coming, and went to the garden gate 
 to meet him. 
 
38 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 "Good morning, my children," said 
 Mr. Daley. 
 
 " Good morning, Mr. Daley," said 
 each of the boys ; and they invited him 
 to come into the garden, and see the 
 flowers. 
 
 The good man was very much at home 
 among all the people in his parish. So 
 he opened the gate, and went into the 
 garden. He was delighted with the 
 flowers, especially with some white lilies 
 which had just opened ; and Henry 
 broke off a cluster of them, and gave 
 them to him. He remarked, as he took 
 them, that "even Solomon in all his 
 glory was not arrayed like one of these." 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 39 
 
 Mr. Daley told them how good and 
 kind God was, in making these beautiful 
 flowers, and in teaching them to bloom 
 all around us. He told them that every- 
 body ought to love the Creator, for all 
 the gifts he bestows upon us. Then he 
 asked them, what was God's greatest 
 gift to men. They told him, it was the 
 gift of his Son, who came into the world 
 to die for his enemies. And he con- 
 versed with them a good deal about 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 Then something like this dialogue oc- 
 curred between them : 
 
 F. I wonder if there are any flowers 
 in heaven, where mother is now. Mr. 
 
40 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 Daley, if God is so good, I do not see 
 why he took dear mother away from us. 
 I shall never be so happy again as I 
 was before they put her into the grave 
 yonder. 
 
 D. My dear child, your mother has 
 gone to heaven, has she not ? 
 
 F. I hope so, sir. 
 
 D. Well, then, she is happier than 
 she was before 1 
 
 F. Oh yes, sir. 
 
 D. Then you don't think God was 
 unkind to her, do you ? 
 
 F. No, sir. '. 
 
 D. Was he unkind to you ? 
 
 F. It seems as if he was. 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 41 
 
 D. My dear child, did you love your 
 mother while she was living ? 
 
 F. Yes, sir, very much. We all 
 loved her. 
 
 D. Why did you love her ? 
 
 H. Because she was so good. 
 
 F. And because she was so kind to 
 us. 
 
 D. She was a very good mother. I 
 knew her very well. No wonder you 
 loved her. But was she not sometimes 
 unkind to you ? 
 
 All. No, sir. 
 
 D. Did she not punish you once in a 
 while ? 
 
 G. Yes, sir. But it was only when 
 
42 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 we had done wrong. She did not pun- 
 ish us if we were good children. 
 
 D. That may be. But did she not 
 hurt you and make you cry sometimes ? 
 
 G. Yes, sir, sometimes she did. 
 
 D. And did she not mean to do it ? 
 
 G. I suppose she did. 
 
 D. Well, was that kind in her, to 
 make her children feel bad and cry 7 
 
 G. Yes, sir, She did not do it be- 
 cause she loved to see us cry, but she 
 wanted to make us better. 
 
 D. Well, is it not possible that God 
 took your mother from you to make you 
 better ? 
 
 H. Perhaps so ; but I should not 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 43 
 
 think he would take that way to make 
 us better. 
 
 D. Why not? 
 
 H. Because it made us very unhappy. 
 
 F. I lie awake nights now, when I 
 think how she was taken away from us. 
 
 G. I shouldn't think God would wish 
 to make us cry. 
 
 D. But did not your mother make you 
 cry? 
 
 F. She did so, to make us better chil- 
 dren. I don't see how God can do us 
 any good, in taking away those we love. 
 
 D. What is the great business of life ? 
 
 F. To prepare to die, and to be with 
 God in heaven. 
 
44 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 D. To be sure it is. Well, if you 
 were perfectly happy here, and your 
 friends did not die, do you think you 
 that you would care much about God 
 and about heaven ? 
 
 F. Perhaps not. 
 
 D. Does not heaven seem a much 
 more pleasant place since your mother 
 died? 
 
 All. Yes, sir. 
 
 D. Does this world seem as pleasant 
 as it did before ? 
 
 H. No, sir ; it never will again. 
 
 D. Well, can you not see how this 
 sorrow may do you some good, then ? 
 The Bible says, " Set your affections on 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 45 
 
 things above, and not on things on the 
 earth ;" and if anything that God does 
 tends to make us love heavenly things 
 more, I am sure it ought to make us 
 better, and in the end happier, too. 
 
 F. I never thought of that before. 
 H. Nor I. 
 
 G. Well, I am sure I never did. I 
 see now how God is kind to us all the 
 time. 
 
 D. Certainly he is. Don't you re- 
 member that the Bible says, "Whom 
 the Lord loveth, he chasteneth ?" 
 
 H. I see it all now. 
 
 Then the good minister, after express- 
 ing a desire that the children would all 
 
46 
 
 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 love God, and endeavor to please him, 
 bade them good morning, and went on 
 with his walk. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 DOCTOR WINDMAN AND HIS DOSES. 
 
 I shall not attempt to describe our 
 doctor to you, and for this reason, if for 
 no other, that he was a perfect nonde- 
 script. The most that I shall attempt in 
 the way of a description, will be just to 
 give you a bird's-eye glance at him ; and 
 while T have my hand in, I will tell you 
 something of the way in which he cured 
 us when we were sick. 
 
48 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 Doctor Windman seemed always to 
 have his head as full of learning as his 
 saddle-bags were of medicines. He was 
 in the constant habit of using, even on 
 the most common occasions, the longest 
 and most out-of-the-way words, and of 
 tying them together into the hardest and 
 most fantastic knots. A perfect volcano 
 of Latin and Greek would issue from his 
 mouth at times. 
 
 A most extraordinary person was this 
 Doctor Windman. He was small, so far 
 as his physical structure — borrowing, for 
 the occasion, a couple of words from the 
 doctor — was concerned. But his mind ! 
 to the youngsters in Willow Lane it ap- 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 49 
 
 peared to have no bounds. To them it 
 
 " floated large o'er many a rood," like 
 
 the arch fiend in Milton's " Paradise 
 
 Lost;" and in the rather one-sided 
 
 vision of these juvenile observers, it 
 
 seemed to have no bottom, any more 
 
 than the fabled deep hole in the middle 
 
 of the mill pond. 
 
 I have seen all the boys and girls in 
 
 school, when he passed by the school 
 
 house, during the recess at noon, stop in 
 
 the midst of their play, and gaze at the 
 
 doctor, as if he were something a little 
 
 more than human, until he was fairly out 
 
 of sight. Nor would they resume their 
 
 sports, they were so spell-bound by his 
 4 
 
50 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 learning, even then, but kept looking 
 toward the spot where he had disappear- 
 ed from view. 
 
 " And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, 
 That one small head should carry all he knew." 
 
 I should judge that disease, at the 
 time and in the neighborhood of which 
 I am speaking, was considered as a sort of 
 a demon, that must be cast out of a poor 
 man at all hazards. The doctor went 
 to work at his patient, as a priest of a 
 darker age would go to work at one sup- 
 posed to be possessed of a devil. To 
 get at the monster, and drive him out, it 
 was often necessary, in their view of the 
 case, to torment the patient with the 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 51 
 
 cannonading of a whole regiment of 
 bottles, quite as much as he was tor- 
 mented by the disease. Their aim was 
 to get rid of the enemy — to get rid of 
 him at any rate. If they could turn out 
 the evil spirit of disease so as not to 
 turn out the spirit of the man at the 
 same time, all the better. But they 
 considered themselves bound to storm the 
 strong-holds of the disease, and to drive 
 drive him out, at all events. Our doctor 
 seldom entered anybody's house but his 
 own, unless disease had gone in at the 
 door, and he was summoned to turn him 
 out, when he made his appearance, in the 
 shortest possible space of time, with his 
 
52 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 saddle-bags stuffed with all sorts of me- 
 dicines, the very thought of any of which 
 would bring on a turn of nausea, were I 
 to name it to you. 
 
 He was a very good man in a sick 
 room. That is — for this statement must 
 be taken with a trifling limitation — he 
 was patient, kind, watchful, a capital 
 nurse, and always on the alert to see 
 that the disease did not get the upper 
 hand of his patient. As to the way he 
 dosed and drugged the folks, that is an- 
 other thing. The least that can be said 
 of the quality and quantity of his reme- 
 dies, is that they were not such as the 
 homeopathic doctors would have ap- 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 53 
 
 proved, if there had been such doctors 
 in Willow Lane. To my certain know- 
 ledge, Doctor Windman did not deal in 
 the " high dilutions," when he practiced 
 upon me for the whooping cough and 
 maladies of that class and order. 
 
 O what oceans of rhubarb, and mag- 
 nesia, and glauber salts, and senna, were 
 distributed to the invalids of Willow 
 Lane, in the course of a year ! But our 
 doctor was, perhaps, not more generous in 
 dealing out nauseous doses than his bro- 
 ther physicians were. It was the fashion 
 to punish a poor follow so severely for get- 
 ting sick, that he would be pretty sure not 
 to get sick again if he could help it. 
 
54 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 Now I don't profess to know much 
 about the theory of disease, or the best 
 way to get it out of a man, when it gets 
 into him. I belong to no particular 
 school. It would puzzle me, possibly, 
 to tell to which of the numerous pathies 
 of the present age I most incline. But I 
 must say, with all proper respect for 
 science, that we Willow Lane folks were 
 most unmercifully overdosed. Why, 
 when one of us was taken with ever so 
 slight an ailment, and the doctor was 
 sent for, the chances were that before we 
 got out of his hands, he tried the con- 
 tents of half the vials in his saddle-bags 
 on us, to say nothing of the blood which 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 55 
 
 flowed from our veins at the tap of his 
 lancet. 
 
 We children got in the habit of dislik- 
 ing the doctor, on account of the medi- 
 cines he gave us and our friends. In 
 spite of all our judgment, we could not 
 help looking upon him as a most cruel 
 and unfeeling man, with all his learning. 
 We did not love him. We stood in as 
 much fear of him, almost, as we did of 
 that ideal bear whose portrait appeared 
 in Webster's spelling book, and whose 
 aspect, grim at the best, was rendered a 
 shade or two more frightful by the art — 
 or rather the want of art — exhibited by 
 
 the engraver. 
 4 
 
56 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 Doctor Windman did not deserve our 
 dislike, though. There was scarcely a 
 more clever man — I use this adjective in 
 the Willow Lane sense — in the neighbor- 
 hood. He meant well, certainly. Still, 
 I could not bear the sight of him. I 
 remembered too well that affair of the 
 measles ; or if I had forgotten that, I 
 retained too distinct a recollection of the 
 vile compounds he made for my little 
 sister when she had the canker-rash. 
 And all the children had much the same 
 notions about him that had crept into my 
 head. We did not like him at all. It 
 was on this account that when we heard 
 of a certain odd and rather serious acci- 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 57 
 
 dent that had happened to him and his 
 medicine bag, a universal titter went 
 through our ranks. 
 
 I must tell you about that accident. 
 
 The doctor was visiting a sick girl. 
 The girl was not very much unwell. 
 There was some trouble about her throat. 
 She had taken a little cold, I believe. 
 The pulse having been learnedly and 
 solemnly felt, the tongue carefully and 
 mysteriously examined, and the whole 
 catalogue of questions used in such cases 
 gravely and leisurely put, the doctor was 
 beginning to rummage his saddle-bags 
 for the necessary medicines. He had 
 the heavily-loaded magazine on his knee. 
 
58 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 " Madam," he said to the mother of the 
 child, " this is a very complicated affec- 
 tion. The mucous membrane which 
 lines the interior of the epiglottis — " 
 
 Just at this point a pinch of snuff was 
 taken, and the sentence which the doc- 
 tor had commenced, which I have no 
 doubt would have been extremely lu- 
 minous, if it had been completed, was 
 left awhile quite obscured in a fog-bank ; 
 for it was the practice of the good doc- 
 tor to take his time when he went 
 through the process of snuff-taking. 
 
 It was one of the hottest days of sum- 
 mer. The doors of the house had all 
 been thrown open, to admit of the freest 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 59 
 
 possible circulation of air. Even the 
 cellar door, near which the doctor sat, 
 with his saddle-bags on his knee, stood 
 wide open. The snuff-taking operation 
 was drawing to a close. The great red 
 bandanna handkerchief, with diamond- 
 shaped spots of dingy white, had been 
 withdrawn from its place of deposit, 
 and was doing important service, when a 
 huge turkey stalked into the room, and 
 marched fiercely up to the doctor. 
 
 The saucy fellow ! he ought to have 
 been served up at the Thanksgiving that 
 occurred the previous autumn. What a 
 pity he was spared. He had formed a 
 habit, it afterward appeared in evidence, 
 
60 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 of showing his dislike of any red color, 
 by rushing boldly up to any one who 
 happened to have any red about him. 
 He never harmed anybody. He gobbled 
 lustily, and threatened to do all sorts of 
 malicious things ; but that was the end 
 of the matter. 
 
 The doctor, however, not being ac- 
 quainted with the true state of the case, 
 and being terribly scared by the turkey's 
 sudden attack, got up in a hurry, with 
 the intention of making a retreat. He 
 started for the cellar door, thinking, it 
 was presumed, that if he could once get 
 into the cellar, and have the door closed 
 after him, his life would be saved. 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 61 
 
 He succeeded in reaching the cellar 
 stairway. But he had no sooner set his 
 foot on the top stair (which was slippery 
 at the time, owing to some soft soap 
 having been spilled upon it) than he 
 slipped, and fell headlong, with his 
 whole assortment of bottles, to the cellar 
 floor. 
 
 Strange enough, he was not very badly 
 hurt; but the damage done to the con- 
 tents of the magazine was immense. 
 Such a smashing of small bottles was 
 never known before in those parts, and 
 has never, to my knowledge, been 
 known since. 
 
 I don't know that a vote of thanks to 
 
62 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 that ill-natured turkey was ever proposed 
 among the boys and girls in Willow 
 Lane ; but, such was our defective 
 standard of judgment, that I am certain 
 the vote would have been unanimous, if 
 it had been proposed. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 HUNTING HENS' NESTS. 
 
 There was no task so pleasant to me, 
 while I lived on a farm, as hunting hens' 
 nests. Feeding the chickens, and taking 
 care of the cosset lambs, gave me almost 
 as much pleasure, but not quite, I think. 
 There was something exciting about the 
 business of exploring the barn, the wood 
 house, and the entire premises, in fact, 
 and being rewarded, after a noisy out- 
 
64 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 burst of cackling, by a whole hatful of 
 eggs. 
 
 In these explorations, I was generally 
 attended by my brother, only a little 
 younger than myself, who relished the 
 sport quite as much as I did myself. 
 There is a story of rather a tragic na- 
 ture connected with one of these hunting 
 excursions, which I have a mind to tell 
 you. There is a little bit of wisdom 
 wrapped up in the tale, which, when the 
 tale is unfolded, I hope you will find and 
 profit by. I say I hope you will profit 
 by it ; for, after all, what is wisdom 
 worth, even if you should get your head 
 as full of it as Solomon's was, if you do 
 

 HUNTING HENS' NESTS. 
 
 65 
 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 67 
 
 not make some use of it ? Not much, I 
 am sure. Dogs and cats, rats and mice, 
 squirrels and rabbits, geese and ducks — 
 all these animals, though they do not get 
 hold of so much knowledge as we have, 
 generally use what little knowledge they 
 do get. They make the most of it. 
 When they have learned a good lesson, 
 they remember it. It is not necessary, 
 in most cases, to keep teaching the same 
 lesson, over and over again, to the same 
 dog, for instance, after he has once got it 
 by heart. Even the goose, whom we 
 are in the habit of calling a very stupid 
 creature, when she has learned a lesson, 
 generally keeps it in mind, and practices 
 
68 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 it. I knew of a whole flock of geese 
 once, who got as drunk as fools, eating 
 cherries that had been soaked in rum. 
 But nobody could ever make a single 
 goose in that flock eat such things after 
 that. They had been drunk once. 
 That was sufficient for them. What a 
 pity that all the members of the human 
 family did not profit by what they learn, 
 as these geese did by their knowledge. 
 
 But I am getting off on this " wild 
 goose chase" too far, and I must come 
 straight back to the story. 
 
 The interior of our barn — and I am 
 not sure but the same could be said of all 
 the barns in our neighborhood — had on 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 69 
 
 each side of the wide open space, called 
 the " barn floor," two high beams, run- 
 ning horizontally, the whole length of 
 the building. These beams were some 
 twenty feet, perhaps, from the floor. 
 When the hay was all in, the mows on 
 each side of the barn floor reached as 
 high as these great beams, though, as the 
 hay was generally taken away during the 
 winter, of course the distance from the 
 hay mow to the beams increased. In 
 the middle of the winter, I recollect, it 
 always seemed a great feat to jump from 
 the high beam to the mow, as Peter, my 
 father's hired man, used sometimes to 
 do, for the amusement, he said, of the 
 
70 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 " little shavers." Some loose ^pieces of 
 timber were placed on the high beams, 
 in the fall of the year, reaching across 
 the barn floor, from one beam to the 
 other. These timbers formed a tempo- 
 rary scaffold, on which they placed 
 bundles of rye and oats, before they 
 were threshed. 
 
 You will readily see that this scaffold 
 was not a safe place for boys. Besides 
 the danger of sliding off, there was also 
 danger that the timbers would spread 
 apart, so as to let a person through. We 
 boys were cautioned, again and again, of 
 the danger of that scaffold, and forbidden 
 to go there on any account whatever. 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 71 
 
 While hunting for hens' nests in the 
 barn, it used, nevertheless, to seem a 
 great pity to me, that we could not pur- 
 sue our researches on that forbidden 
 ground. "What a host of eggs there 
 must be on the scaffold," I thought. 
 
 One day, when we were not so sue- 
 cessful in our hunting excursion as usual, 
 a very meagre collection of eggs having 
 resulted from a search of a couple of 
 hours, my thoughts were drawn so 
 strongly toward the scaffold, that I could 
 hardly turn them in any other direction. 
 
 " I wonder how many eggs there are 
 on the scaffold V 9 I inquired of my 
 brother. 
 
72 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 " I guess about a hatful," was the 
 answer. 
 
 "A hatful!" I exclaimed; "pooh! 
 more likely half a bushel." I was 
 rather a sanguine boy. 
 
 "But there's no use talking about 
 the scaffold," my brother said. "We 
 couldn't go there, you know, if the 
 whole scaffold was covered with eggs." 
 
 I thought otherwise. " I don't be- 
 lieve the folks know what lots of eggs 
 there are among those bundles of rye," I 
 said. 
 
 " But," said my brother, I shouldn't 
 wonder if they knew one thing about 
 that scaffold, better than we do." 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 73 
 
 " What's that ?" I asked. 
 
 " They know that it is rather a dan- 
 gerous place," was the reply. 
 
 " But Peter goes there," said I. 
 
 " Peter is a man," said my brother. 
 
 At that remark I remember I laughed. 
 I laughed to think that Peter could per- 
 form any feat in the way of climbing, 
 which I dared not attempt. Boys have 
 often great confidence in themselves. 
 As they grow older, and gradually draw 
 nearer the period of manhood, they are 
 apt to think less and less of themselves. 
 My confidence in myself, on this occa- 
 sion, was not courage. It was not hero- 
 ism. It was nothing of the kind. It 
 5 
 
74 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 was something for which I deserved a 
 great deal more censure than praise. 
 
 I finally reasoned my brother into the 
 conclusion that, on the whole, it was best 
 to climb up to the scaffold ; or, rather, I 
 talked to him till he had used up all his 
 arguments, for I hardly think he was 
 altogether convinced that I was right. 
 We arranged everything in our own 
 minds, so that our parents would never 
 know that we had climbed the scaffold. 
 They would wonder, we knew, where 
 we got such a large quantity of eggs. 
 But we were going to deal out our infor- 
 mation as physcians of a certain school 
 deal out medicines to their patients — in 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 75 
 
 very small doses. That matter was all 
 arranged. 
 
 The next step was to mount the lad- 
 der. It was thought best, by all means, 
 to take up two hats. One hat, we 
 thought, would be hardly sufficient to 
 hold all the eggs. So up I started, 
 holding on tight to the rounds of the 
 ladder with both hands, and as tight to 
 the brims of both hats with my teeth. 
 
 In spite of myself, somehow or other, 
 I felt my courage oozing out of my fin- 
 gers and toes, as I went up the ladder. 
 I trembled a little, I guess. But I went 
 on. I had no notion of being scared out 
 of an expedition which promised a peck 
 
76 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 of hens' eggs, at the least, and possibly- 
 half a bushel. 
 
 Yes, I went on. But when I got to 
 the top of the ladder, which rested on 
 the great beam, I began to think that 
 our Peter was a brave fellow, and that 
 the feat I had undertaken was probably 
 the greatest on record. I hesitated, and 
 then climbed, as boldly as I could, in 
 the circumstances, upon the great beam, 
 from which I stepped to the scaffold. 
 
 I looked down. Oh, how high that 
 scaffold seemed ! What a distance to 
 the barn floor ! From the moment my 
 eye fell upon the place where my 
 brother was standing, fear took the en- 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 77 
 
 tire control of me, and knocked every 
 other thought and idea out of my head. 
 The hats — so I was told afterward, 
 though I could not have been sensible 
 of it at the time— fell to the floor, at the 
 moment that I turned to look down- 
 ward. 
 
 My memory of what took place after 
 I stepped upon the scaffold, is very con- 
 fused and misty. I remember looking 
 down. I remember, too, that I felt 
 sick ; that everything began to go round 
 and round, and that I went round and 
 round with everything ; that sometimes I 
 was on the floor, sometimes on the mow, 
 sometimes on the scaffold, and sometimes 
 
78 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 among the wasps' nests, where the raf- 
 ters came together ; that I wondered 
 how the barn came to tumble over, and 
 how it came to stand up again, and how 
 the bundles of rye could stay on the scaf- 
 fold, and why T could stay on myself — 
 and 
 
 It was very hazy after that, very hazy 
 indeed. 
 
 The next thing I remember now, the 
 next thing I remembered then, was that 
 I was lying on a bed, and a strange-look- 
 ing man, with a strange-looking pen- 
 knife, was sitting close to me and pinch- 
 ing my wrist. I don't know exactly 
 how a cat in a strange garret feels. I 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 79 
 
 don't know that anybody knows, though 
 it is a very common thing to hear people 
 talk about feeling " as queer as a cat in 
 a strange garret." / don't pretend to 
 determine the precise nature of the sen- 
 sations that fill Puss' bosom, when she 
 suddenly finds herself in an upper apart- 
 ment where she has never been before. 
 But I can say, and I will say, that if she 
 is any more bewildered at such a time 
 than I was when I saw Doctor Wind- 
 man — for it turned out that it was the 
 doctor — sitting there with his lancet in 
 one hand, and my wrist in the other, — if 
 she is any more bewildered than I was, 
 I pity her. 
 
80 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 And my head ached, too. How hap- 
 pened that ? And my arm was lame. 
 What did that mean ? Had I hurt it ? 
 I tried to turn over in the bed. I 
 couldn't do anything of the kind. I 
 seemed to have been put into a barrel 
 and pounded, as Amanda Lounsbury 
 pounded the clothes, in the process of 
 washing. What did all this mean ? 
 
 I found out what it all meant — not im- 
 mediately, but after a while. I found 
 out that I had fallen from the scaffold 
 down to the floor ; that I was badly hurt 
 by the fall ; that my brother had alarmed 
 the folks in the house; that they had 
 carried me into the kitchen, and made up 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 81 
 
 a bed for me there ; that Doctor Wind- 
 man had been sent for; that he had 
 come and bled me ; that everybody was 
 alarmed ; that the doctor had not said 
 much, but that he looked as if he was a 
 good deal worried about me — alas! I 
 knew that; I saw that look — and had 
 shaken his head when my father asked 
 him how badly I was hurt ; that Peter 
 had gone to Northville for another doc- 
 tor ; and, in short, that I was likely to 
 have a pretty severe time of it. 
 
 I leave you to judge how I felt, when 
 I learned all this. The pain in my head 
 and limbs was not all the pain I suffer- 
 ed — no, not by a good deal. There was 
 
82 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 something in my breast which seemed to 
 say : " This is what you get by disobe- 
 dience. You deserve it all, and more." 
 Oh, how that thought tortured me ! 
 
 It was a long time — I do not remem- 
 ber how long, but it seemed an age, 
 and I believe it was some two or three 
 months — before I could walk in the door 
 yard ; and for some time after that, I 
 had to hobble about, like an old horse 
 who has*got the spring halt. 
 
 J?rom the day of that unfortunate fall, 
 uiftil I became almost as large as Peter, 
 the territory in*»hich I hunted for hens' 
 nests never embraced the high scaffold. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 CLIMBING THE PEACH TREE. 
 
 My friend Laura was in my room a 
 day or two after I had written the story 
 of my sad adventure in the barn at Wil- 
 low Lane ; and she took up the manu- 
 script which was lying on my table, and 
 read it. 
 
 "How much this s4*ry makes me 
 think of a little incident. in my own ex- 
 rience," said she. And then she told 
 
84 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 me how, when she was a little girl, there 
 was a peach tree near the school house ; 
 that the man who owned the tree al- 
 lowed the children to pick up the 
 peaches that dropped on the ground, 
 but that he did not permit them to climb 
 the tree, or to knock off any of the 
 peaches; that the good school mistress 
 told the children what the rules were, 
 but that the mischievous Laura disobeyed 
 them, and paid, as children are so apt to 
 do, very dearly for her disobedience. 
 
 "Laura," I said, "let me have the 
 story for my book." 
 
 "Why, you have got one of your own 
 very nearly like it," said she. 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 85 
 
 "True," I replied, "but my story is 
 for the boys. I'm afraid some of the 
 girls who read my book, will not learn 
 the lesson there is in it, but will shift it 
 off upon the boys." 
 
 " But," said Laura, " my story has 
 nothing to do with Willow Lane, or any 
 of the Willow Lane people." 
 
 " Never mind that," said I ; " you 
 write the story, and I'll settle the rest 
 with the boys and girls." 
 
 Well, Laura consented, for fear the 
 girls would not profit enough by my 
 story, to write down this little incident 
 in her experience. So she seated her- 
 self at my table, and in the course of an 
 
86 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 hour she surprised me not a little by 
 reading her tale in verse. Here it is. 
 Read it, girls, and learn the lesson which 
 it teaches : 
 
 THE MAIDEN'S WARNING. 
 
 Oh list, ye maidens, one and all, 
 Take warning by my luckless fall ; 
 Take warning from this aching head, 
 And from this slow and limping tread. 
 
 Take warning from my gown all rent, 
 And from my locks in tangles blent ; 
 Take warning from these tearful eyes, 
 And from these sad repentant sighs. 
 
 Oh, hearken always to the rule ; 
 Pare not to slight the law of school, 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 87 
 
 Else, oft, like me, you'll shun the light, 
 When caught in such a woful plight. 
 
 This morn, when first my feet took way, 
 To spend at school the pleasant day, 
 How smoothly combed my chestnut hair ! 
 How shone my dress with Betty's care ! 
 
 My apron and my kerchief too, 
 Were trim as could be found on you ; 
 Yet now you scarce can smiles restrain, 
 To see them almost torn in twain. 
 
 Command how oft dear teacher laid 
 " Ne'er climb the tree, a single maid ;" 
 Unhappy, I first gave offence — 
 Mark well the direful consequence. 
 
 As 'neath a peach tree tall I stood, 
 And mused upon the fruit so good, 
 One fairer than the rest I spied, 
 With ruddy cheeks upon its side. 
 
88 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 " It shall be mine," methought ; but, oh ! 
 The branch was high, my stature low ; 
 'Twas formed above my humble reach, 
 The much desired, the downy peach. 
 
 " But let me bring it here ;" and quick 
 I threw up many a stone and stick ; 
 Which now and then, as they came down, 
 Would glance upon my luckless crown. 
 
 All vain, unharmed by stone or wood, 
 The tempting fruit in glory stood ; 
 " I'll scale the tree ; the branch I'll clasp ; 
 No more shall it elude my grasp." 
 
 " Forbear," cried Conscience, in mine ear, 
 " Forbear, you'll danger see," cried Fear: 
 I heeded not, but took in count 
 The easiest way thereon to mount. 
 
 Graining by little or no toil, 
 
 The branch which held the tempting spoil, 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 89 
 
 'Twas surely mine ! as 'twere a gem, 
 I reached to pluck it from the stem. 
 
 Yet now a serious ill forbode ; 
 My foothold trembled 'neath its load — 
 The tottering branchlet broke and fell — 
 My saddened mien the rest can tell. 
 
 Oh list ye maidens, one and all j 
 Take warning from my luckless fall ; 
 Beware, and break not e'en one rule, 
 That helps to form the code of school. 
 6 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE BALL FAMILY. 
 
 Captain Ball was a notorious charac- 
 ter among us, and his family were noto- 
 rious, too. We will have a peep at 
 them, if you please. The captain lived 
 on the hill — not the hill on which the 
 school house stood, recollect, but the 
 high one on the other side of the great 
 brook. I believe it went by the name 
 of Breakneck Hill, among the older 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 91 
 
 people, because it was so frightfully 
 steep. 
 
 You will think that all the folks in 
 Willow Lane had their names spliced 
 with some sort of title or other. And 
 you will think pretty nearly right. I 
 can hardly remember one full grown 
 man that had not some handle to his 
 name. How some of the men came by 
 the title they were so generally known 
 by, is much more than I can tell, and 
 probably more than anybody can tell. 
 Jonathan Ball, however, had a good right 
 to his title. He was the commander- 
 in-chief of the Willow Lane militia, 
 and led that valiant band on training 
 
92 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 days. That is to say, he led those 
 soldiers as well as anybody could lead 
 them. They were a little awkward, and 
 not under perfect discipline. 
 
 Shall I tell you an anecdote, just here, 
 of one of Captain Ball's desperate efforts 
 in drilling his soldiers ? The " Penny- 
 royal Guard" — so the company was 
 known out of Willow Lane, in that sec- 
 tion of the country — were drawn up on 
 the green, in front of the old brick' 
 meeting house, and there were a good 
 many people looking on. Captain Ball 
 was a little proud of his company, and 
 he wanted they should do their very 
 best at this time. " Willow Lane ex- 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 93 
 
 pects every man to do his duty to-day," 
 he said. 
 
 " Form a line !" he roared out. That 
 was not quite so easy a matter. They 
 got into a perfect hard knot, at last ; and 
 it was a great deal more than the captain, 
 with the aid of all his corporals, could do 
 to get the knot untied. Poor man ! he 
 was humbled and vexed ; and again he 
 thundered, as if his military honor was 
 all staked on that one last order, " Form 
 a line ! every man form a line !" 
 
 If you will promise me one thing, I 
 will let you into a secret, little friend. 
 Promise that you will try to profit by the 
 lessons you learn from this sketch of the 
 
94 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 Ball Family, and I will tell you just 
 what Captain Ball's faults were ; for 
 he had faults, and they were such as 
 everybody ought to try hard to keep 
 clear of. 
 
 He was not a bad man. He never 
 took to drinking, as I am sorry to say too 
 many of the farmers in Willow Lane did. 
 He was temperate. There was not a 
 better neighbor in the place than Jona- 
 than Ball. His great faults were that he 
 was lazy, and that he did not stick to 
 one thing. Now, though I am not sure 
 that he ever would have made a very 
 good militia captain, at the best, if he had 
 tried ever so hard and so long, yet he 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 95 
 
 would have done much better, if he had 
 taken pains to drill himself before he 
 undertook to drill his men. 
 
 He was a farmer. He had a pretty 
 good farm, for Willow Lane. But he 
 was always behind hand in his work. 
 He did not get to ploughing in the 
 spring, until most of his neighbors had 
 done. To be sure, he had excuses for 
 his delay, a plenty of them. He was 
 never in want of excuses. When he 
 came to harvest his corn, and rye, and 
 potatoes, of course he found that . his 
 crops had not turned out so well as they 
 would have done, if his affairs had been 
 managed correctly. The fact is, he was 
 
96 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 always unfortunate. Let him attempt to 
 do what he might, he had " bad luck," 
 to use his own words, though I do not 
 like them, and never did. 
 
 I have known the captain in haying 
 time, when the weather was very hot, 
 sit under a tree in the meadow, and 
 smoke a .pipe for more than half an hour, 
 when there was a thunder shower coming 
 on, and he must have known that it was 
 quite as much as he and his men could do 
 to get the hay raked up before the rain 
 began to pour down, even if they had all 
 worked like beavers every moment of 
 the time. 
 
 He was almost — not quite, T confess — 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 97 
 
 as lazy as the man I heard of down east. 
 That man was very fond of fishing. He 
 liked the sport, but was too lazy to pull 
 the fish out of the water. So he used to 
 go down to the water, with his horse and 
 wagon; and when he got to the place 
 where the large black fish lived, he 
 would back up his wagon as near as he 
 could to the water's edge, and throw 
 over his line. When the black fish took 
 hold of his hook, he would whip up, and 
 let his horse draw the fish out of the 
 water. 
 
 Captain Ball never did that. At least, 
 I never heard of his doing it. But I will 
 tell you what he did do once. Mr. 
 
98 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 Packer — Peter Packer, the man who 
 rode the pacing mare, and who brought 
 around the newspaper once a week — was 
 passing by Captain Ball's garden one hot 
 day, and happening to look over the 
 fence, he saw the captain weeding his 
 onion bed. And how do you think he 
 got the weeds up 1 I shall have to tell 
 you ; for I don't believe you would guess 
 how the thing was done, if you were to 
 rack your brains about it for twenty 
 years. He sat in his rocking chair, and 
 rocked forward to get hold of the weed, 
 and backward to pull it up. Don't you 
 think he ought to have had a patent for 
 that way of weeding onion beds ? 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 99 
 
 Captain Ball built a saw-mill. Every- 
 body said he did it because he thought 
 he would have an easy time of it, sitting 
 still, all day long, and watching the 
 great logs as they moved slowly toward 
 the saw. But I don't know how that 
 was. 
 
 When the mill was done, or when he 
 thought it was done, he got all the Wil- 
 low Lane men and boys together, to see 
 him let on the water, and saw the first 
 log. Well, the water was let on, and 
 the wheel went round. But for some 
 reason or other, the saw would not go. 
 It would not stir an inch. You could 
 not imagine a more obstinate saw than 
 
100 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 that was. I never heard what was the 
 matter with the mill. But I remember 
 well that Captain Ball got sick of it. He 
 never made another trial to get the saw 
 agoing, after that day. He was not the 
 man to stick to anything, especially if 
 there was any trouble or hard work 
 about it. 
 
 When I last saw that mill — I don't 
 mean when I last sawed with it, for 
 there was never any sawing done there — 
 when I last saw that mill, it was a per- 
 fect wreck. It was all tumbling to 
 pieces. As I stopped a moment to look 
 at it, and thought of its history, it seem- 
 ed like a monument, put up there to 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 101 
 
 warn everybody of the evils of laziness, 
 and of the habit of leaving things half 
 done. 
 
 Captain Ball showed his lazy habits on 
 the Sabbath, as well as on week days. 
 Almost as soon as he got into the 
 meeting house — we had no churches in 
 that part of the country where I was 
 brought up ; houses of worship were all 
 meeting houses — almost as soon as he got 
 into the meeting house, and took his 
 seat, he went to sleep, and he frequently 
 slept, it seemed to me, through all the 
 sermon. I never could see what good it 
 did him to go to meeting at all. 
 
 Would you believe it ? He frequently 
 
102 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 got fast asleep, when he was standing 
 up. We always stood up, by the way, 
 in prayer time. One afternoon, when 
 the prayer was a little longer than 
 usual — rather too long, we children 
 thought — Captain Ball lost his balance, 
 and over he pitched into the broad aisle. 
 He came down with a great crash, for he 
 was a fat, heavy man — lazy folks are apt 
 to be fat, you know — and there he lay, 
 as flat as a flounder, on the floor. What 
 a tittering went round the meeting house, 
 when the boys found out the meaning of 
 that noise. 
 
 But the joke did not end here. A 
 good many of the people thought that 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 103 
 
 the captain had fainted away, or that he 
 had been seized with a fit. So two or 
 three strong men ran up to him, before 
 he had time to get wide awake, to find 
 out where he was and what had really 
 happened, and took him up, and carried 
 him out into the open air. 
 
 Captain Ball never heard the last of 
 that affair, until he died. It was all the 
 talk for a while, and everybody in Wil- 
 low Lane felt at liberty to have a good 
 laughing spell at the poor man's expense. 
 His fall broke up his sleeping in meet- 
 ing for a time, though I am sorry to say 
 that he finally got back again to his old 
 habit. 
 
104 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 Captain Ball had no curb to his well. 
 He was always thinking about doing it, 
 and making up his mind that he would 
 do it ; but he never set himself about it. 
 One of the neighbors ventured to hint to 
 him that the well was not safe. " Per- 
 haps not," he said, with a yawn, " but I 
 have had it so more than fifteen years, 
 and there haven't been but two drowned 
 in it, and one of them was a mere child." 
 
 The well curb was never built in the 
 captain's day, I believe. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CHIPS OF THE OLD BLOCK. 
 
 Captain Ball's children had very- 
 poor bringing up. I might almost say 
 they came up themselves. 
 
 I never had such a perfect horror of 
 any one person in my life, as I had of 
 Joe Ball, the oldest of the boys. I had 
 some reason to be afraid of him, as you 
 will see when you learn what he did to 
 me once. I will tell you how it was. 
 
106 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 I was coming home from the store one 
 day, where I had been of an errand, 
 when I came across Joe. He had been 
 playing ball, and was just going toward 
 home. I had bought " Robinson Cru- 
 soe," I recollect, with some money 
 which I had got by selling my pet 
 squirrel, who had become so mischievous 
 that my father would not let me keep 
 him any longer. I was walking along 
 leisurely, reading that book, when Joe 
 came up to me, 
 
 " Ah, you little imp !" said he ; " I've 
 got you now. I'll give it to you for 
 that." 
 
 I was not so happy as to know what 
 

 **» 
 
JOE AND HIS VICTIM. 
 
 108 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 109 
 
 that meant ; and so I asked him if he 
 would be so good as to tell me what I 
 had done to displease him. 
 
 " You pretend not to know, do you V 9 
 said he. " I'll teach you. You'll find 
 out that you've got a pretty hard fellow 
 to deal with, when you cross my track, 
 you little tell-tale." 
 
 And he struck me a blow on the side 
 of my head so hard that it almost stunned 
 me, and made my head ache all that day 
 and most of the night. 
 
 " There !" he said, " that will teach 
 you better than to peach on Joe Ball." 
 
 I could not understand in what way I 
 bad " crossed the track" of Joe Ball. I 
 
110 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 thought I had kept as far away from him 
 as possible ; I always meant to do so. 
 Nor did I know what peaching meant. 
 Until that time, I had, it so happened, 
 never met the verb to peach. I learned, 
 however, from a word or two which Joe 
 added, that peaching was playing the 
 part of the tell-tale. My crime, it ap- 
 peared, was telling the schoolmaster who 
 pelted the old school house with spoiled 
 eggs — a piece of information which cost 
 Joe the hardest flogging, I suppose, that 
 he ever got in his life. Now it so hap- 
 pened that, until Joe Ball got whipped, 
 I did not know or suspect that he threw 
 the eggs ; nor do I know to this day 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. Ill 
 
 who told the schoolmaster. I know that 
 I did not tell him. 
 
 After this adventure with Joe Ball, I 
 lived in almost as much fear of him as if 
 he had been a mad dog or a hyena. 
 
 It was a very rare thing to see either 
 Simeon or Randolph — Captain Ball's 
 youngest boys, who were not far from 
 my own age — without holes in their 
 stockings, and their elbows seemed al- 
 ways to have a habit of bursting through 
 the sleeves of their jackets. And they 
 were all three such ill-natured and quar- 
 relsome fellows, that all the children in 
 school disliked them. 
 
 The reason they acted so badly, was 
 
112 
 
 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 that their father had not patience and 
 energy enough to bring them up properly, 
 I suppose. I don't know what other 
 reason there was for it. 
 
 . ; -^^^^^^te 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE DROWNED GIRL. 
 
 Simeon was a very passionate boy. 
 He seemed to have hardly any control 
 over himself, when he got angry. He 
 did a terrible thing once, in the heat of 
 passion. A relative of the Ball family — 
 a cousin, I believe, of Captain Ball's chil- 
 dren — had come on from Boston, and 
 was staying for a few weeks in Willow 
 Lane. She had brought a bathing dress 
 
114 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 with her ; and one fine day, she went 
 over to the pond, with Simeon and his 
 younger brother, and went in to bathe. 
 She was rather timid, and Simeon, who 
 could swim, kept hold of her hand while 
 she was in the water. 
 
 Simeon knew nothing about fear him- 
 self, and he thought it was very foolish 
 for his cousin Margaret to be afraid. He 
 laughed at her, and tried to persuade her 
 to go farther from the shore, where the 
 water was deeper. But Margaret re- 
 fused to go. After trying a long time to 
 persuade the timid girl to go into the 
 deep water, he got angry ; and in a mo- 
 ment, before he took time to think of 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 115 
 
 what he was doing, he gave her a rude 
 push, and said, " There ! you shall go, 
 whether you want to or not." 
 
 Margaret lost her balance, and fell 
 where the water was deep. Her pres- 
 ence of mind was all gone. Else, per- 
 haps, she could have helped herself so 
 far as not to have sunk under the water. 
 But as it was, she went down, and it was 
 a great while before she rose again to 
 the surface. Of course Simeon seized 
 her as soon as she rose. He was sorry 
 enough then, for what he had done. 
 But she immediately seized him, as 
 drowning persons frequently do, when 
 they have lost the command of them- 
 
116 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 selves, and she held his hands so fast 
 that he could not move them. The 
 water was so deep that he could not 
 touch the bottom. He was in danger 
 of drowning himself. Meanwhile, the 
 poor girl was sinking again. Simeon 
 struggled with all his might. After a 
 long time he succeeded in dragging her 
 to the shore. But she was drowned. 
 The last spark of life had left. 
 
 I shall never forget what a gloom 
 spread over the whole neighborhood, 
 when the terrible news was known. No 
 event of such a nature had ever happen- 
 ed there before ; and for months after 
 that, tears flowed down the sunburnt 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 117 
 
 cheeks of those warm-hearted farmers, 
 when the fate of poor Margaret was men- 
 tioned. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE YOUNG TRUTH-TELLER. 
 
 I learned many a lesson in truth- 
 telling, when I was a boy, from Amanda 
 Redmond. Amanda was a sweet girl. 
 I loved her, as if she were my own sister. 
 She Avas a little my senior in age. But 
 she never put on any airs on that ac- 
 count, as some of the older girls did. 
 She did not assume any superior wisdom. 
 She did not try to dazzle me with the 
 
P- AMANDA AT HER KNITTING- WOBK. 119 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 121 
 
 learning she had picked up, I scarcely 
 know how, when and where. But I al- 
 ways felt, when in her presence, that I 
 was a mere dunce. It is astonishing 
 what influence she had over me ; though 
 I presume that as great a portion of it was 
 due to her pure principles and consistent 
 life, as to a mind quite above her years. 
 
 Amanda's father was a blacksmith- — 
 the only one in Willow Lane. He shod 
 all the horses and oxen, put on all the 
 cart tires, made all the cranes, hooks and 
 trammels, and in short, did all the blow- 
 ing and striking in Willow Lane ; unless 
 I except the blowing and striking, which 
 certainly had not much to do with black- 
 
122 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 smithing, of Mr. Solomon Stark, the 
 schoolmaster. 
 
 Mr. Redmond had several children; 
 but among them all, Amanda was my 
 favorite. How many, many times I 
 have gone over to Mr. Redmond's, for 
 no other purpose in the world, than be- 
 cause I wanted to have a chat with 
 Amanda. Though I always found her 
 busy about something — knitting, or sew- 
 ing, or helping her mother about the 
 house — I do believe she was always glad 
 to see me. The kind, true-hearted girl ! 
 I had reason to love her. I knew I 
 could always depend on what she said. 
 She never deceived me. Her regard for 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 123 
 
 the truth was a proverb in Willow Lane. 
 I have many a time heard a person say, 
 " I don't believe that that girl (mention- 
 ing the name) would tell a lie any more 
 than Amanda Redmond would." In- 
 deed, Parson Daley was once heard to 
 speak of her as the " truth- teller." 
 
 What an excellent character this is for 
 a girl to have — the " truth-teller !" I 
 tell you what it is, that title is more to 
 be coveted than that of the queen of 
 England or the emperor of Russia. 
 
 "But what was there so remarkable 
 about that girl V 9 some one inquires. 
 "Is it such a rare thing for children to 
 tell the truth ? Why, I never did any- 
 
124 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 thing else but tell the truth in all my 
 life." 
 
 I should hope, to be sure, that among 
 my readers, the number of those who 
 ever allow themselves to tell a lie, is very 
 small, indeed. But I am afraid that it is 
 too common with boys and girls to act 
 falsehood, when they would not speak it 
 with their lips for all the world. I have 
 known some young people dodge about, 
 for a quarter of an hour, so near a lie, all 
 the time, that I thought they might al- 
 most as well have told a round, plump 
 one, and have done with it. 
 
 I have heard of a man who was once 
 found in a cellar, holding a lighted lamp 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 125 
 
 in an open cask of powder. When 
 asked what he was at, he replied, coolly, 
 that he was trying to see how near he 
 could get the blaze to the powder with- 
 out touching it. I have sometimes 
 thought, when I have seen people 
 dodging about between a lie and the 
 truth, that they were trying an experi- 
 ment quite as foolish and almost as dan- 
 gerous as the one which this dunce tried 
 over the powder barrel. 
 
 Now the way in which my friend 
 Amanda got her character for truth- 
 telling, was by showing a regard for 
 truth at all times — by telling the truth in 
 her actions, as well as in her words. 
 
126 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 I remember a debate I had with her 
 one day about this matter of truth-tell- 
 ing. She took strong ground against all 
 those deviations from the bounds of truth, 
 so commonly regarded as exceedingly 
 slight and frivolous, which sometimes go 
 by the name of white lies. I stood up 
 for the white lies. I did not often ven- 
 ture to differ with Amanda, much less to 
 dispute with her. She was my oracle ; 
 and in most cases I yielded to her opin- 
 ion at once. I pinned my faith on her 
 sleeves, almost as tightly as Uncle 
 Miah did his on the sleeves of Par- 
 son Daley. I must tell you an anec- 
 dote — if you will let me go out of my 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 127 
 
 way a little — which will show you how 
 firmly the deacon's faith was pinned to 
 the sleeves of our good minister. One 
 Sunday a strange clergyman preached in 
 the old brick meeting house. Mr. Daley 
 was away somewhere. Perhaps he had 
 exchanged with- the strange minister. I 
 do not remember how that was. Nor do 
 I remember — I might as well confess it — 
 what kind of preaching we had that day. 
 But this I remember distinctly enough, 
 that one of the neighbors met Uncle 
 Miah the next day, and asked him how 
 he liked the minister they had heard the 
 day before. " Can't tell for certain," 
 said Uncle Miah ; " haven't seen Parson 
 
128 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 Daley yet." But I must hurry back to 
 Amanda and those white lies. 
 
 As I was saying, I pinned my faith 
 pretty tightly to Amanda's sleeves, and 
 did not ordinarily unpin it. But this 
 time, when we had the talk about the 
 white lies, I set up for 'myself. I saw 
 that if she was right, there was a good 
 deal in my conduct that needed tinker- 
 ing ; and I did not wish to admit that 
 for a moment. So I pitched head fore- 
 most into a perfect ocean of argument. 
 
 " Frank," said she, at the time to 
 which I allude, " are you fond of water- 
 melons ?" 
 
 I frankly confessed that I was fond of 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 129 
 
 them — " very fond, indeed." There 
 was no white lie about that statement. 
 
 " Because," she added, as if I had not 
 spoken, " we have some very fine ones, 
 and father says you can have one every 
 day, if you will come over to our house 
 and get it." 
 
 That made me blush. Would you 
 like to know why ? I'll tell you. Mr. 
 Redmond had a patch of watermelons 
 that year, just back of his blacksmith's 
 shop, and I had been persuaded to join a 
 company of bad boys, one evening, and 
 to lend a hand in stealing — hooking, re- 
 garded as rather a milder word, was the 
 term used by the boys — some of these 
 
130 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 melons. You must not suppose that 
 stealing fruit was a common thing with 
 me. It was quite otherwise, I assure 
 you. I was out of my element that 
 night. I had yielded to temptation, in 
 an evil moment, and I had done what I 
 have been heartily ashamed of as often 
 as I have thought of it since. 
 
 "And don't you think," Amanda con- 
 tinued, " that you would feel a great deal 
 better, if you should eat the melons here, 
 with a clean plate and knife, than you 
 would to eat them behind tbe black- 
 smith's shop, with a dirty jack-knife, 
 without any plate at all ?" 
 
 I did think so, and so I told her. 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 131 
 
 " Well, then," she went on — and oh, 
 how those words did prick me ; I could 
 almost feel the old, dirty jack-knife cut- 
 ting into my flesh — " well, then, I hope 
 you will not eat any more melons behind 
 the blacksmith's shop." 
 
 She said all this kindly, and with a 
 smile as sweet as ever. But if she had 
 made a pin-cushion out of my arm, I 
 don't believe she would have made me 
 smart any more severely. But " I must 
 brave it out," I thought. " It will not 
 do to own up to her. I should be dis- 
 graced forever. She would never speak 
 to me again. She did not see me hook 
 the melons. I don't believe anybody 
 
132 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 saw me. She only guesses I did it. 
 How does she know ] I will not own. 
 it." 
 
 " I haven't eaten any melons behind 
 the blacksmith's shop," I said. 
 
 " But Captain Parry says he saw you 
 there with two or three other bad boys, 
 and that you was eating watermelons 
 with them." 
 
 "Well, if Captain Parry says so, he 
 lies, that's all." 
 
 Amanda looked at me, and shook her 
 head, but made no reply. 
 
 I saw in a moment that I had made a 
 great mistake — that I had dulled, as the 
 farmers say when they hit a stone in 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 133 
 
 mowing — for I knew and everybody 
 knew that there was not a truer or purer 
 man in Willow Lane than Captain Parry. 
 He was among the few in those parts 
 against whom the tongue of slander sel- 
 dom dared to wag. 
 
 There was a pause for a little while. 
 Amanda knew not what to say next — 
 and I am sure I did not. She ventured, 
 at last, timidly and sadly, to hint that she 
 was afraid I did not speak the truth ; 
 that Captain Parry must have been very 
 sure he saw me, or he would not have 
 said so ; and that she hoped I would not 
 tell a lie, because that was as bad as 
 taking the watermelons, if not worse. 
 
134 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 This softened me some, though not 
 enough. I confessed that I had had a 
 hand in stealing the melons, and that I 
 had done my share in eating them. 
 There was no merit in the confession, 
 though ; for you see I did not make it 
 until she had driven me into a cor- 
 ner where I could not get away. My 
 confession was well enough ; but it came 
 too late. My giving up when I was cor- 
 nered, was like a man talking about a 
 surrender, when he is already caught. 
 
 I told her all about that paltry water- 
 melon affair, and assured her that I was 
 sorry for the hand I had had in it. I 
 ivas sorry, you may depend upon that. 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 135 
 
 I *told her, too, that I should never do so 
 again, and that I hoped she and her 
 father would forgive me. 
 
 " But the falsehood ?" said Amanda, 
 inquiringly. 
 
 * Oh, I did not tell any falsehood," I 
 replied. 
 
 " Why, didn't you say that you had 
 not eaten any of the watermelons V 9 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " But now you own that you did eat 
 some of them." 
 
 " I said, at first, that I didn't eat any 
 watermelons. That was true. I didn't 
 eat but one." 
 
 " Is it possible that Frank can quibble 
 
136 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 in this way ?" Amanda said, while a tear 
 stood in her eye. " Is it possible ? I 
 should not have believed that of you." 
 
 « Why, what harm is there in that %" 
 I asked. 
 
 " You might as well ask what harm 
 there is in telling a lie." 
 
 " But I did not tell a lie." 
 
 " Perhaps not. But didn't you think 
 that was rather a poor way of telling the 
 truth ?" 
 
 " No, I'm sure I don't." 
 
 66 Didn't you try to make me think 
 that you had not taken any part in 
 stealing and eating the melons V 9 
 
 " Yes, but I didn't tell a lie about it." 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 137 
 
 " Suppose sister Julia should ask me 
 this evening if Frank had been over here 
 to-day, and I should shake my head, and 
 Julia should believe that you had not 
 been here; wouldn't that be telling a 
 lie ?" 
 
 " I don't know but it would." 
 " Are you not sure that it would ?" 
 " Yes, I am ; but I didn't do anything 
 like that." 
 
 " You meant to deceive me." 
 " But I didn't shake my head, when 
 you asked me about the watermelons." 
 
 " True, but you tried to cheat me by 
 a quibble, which I think was quite as 
 near a falsehood as you would have got 
 
138 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 if you had shaken your head. It was a 
 great deal too near, at any rate." 
 
 " But I didn't make you think I had 
 not taken the melons." 
 
 " No thanks to you for that. You 
 wanted to make me think so, and you 
 tried hard enough to bring it about." 
 
 I began to feel that I had not much 
 ground left to stand upon. She saw it — 
 she could read me, through and through, 
 at one glance — and she added, 
 
 " No, dear Frank, you are wrong, I'm 
 sure, now, you are wrong. You have 
 not thought much of the matter before. 
 You have not looked upon it in this 
 light ; and I don't think that you meant 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 139 
 
 to plead for falsehood in any shape. 
 But I hope you will think it all over 
 when you go home. Ask yourself — ask 
 your conscience, whether such liberties 
 as you have taken with the truth are 
 right, will you, Frank ?" 
 
 I promised her that I would. I kept 
 my promise, loo ; and the more I thought 
 of what she had said, the more clearly I 
 saw that I had been trying, though with- 
 out intending it, to justify falsehood. I 
 saw, that if such white lies were wel- 
 comed into good company, a door was 
 opened to let in all manner of lies, al- 
 most, that ever Satan invented. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE NEW SKATES; 
 ok, "forgive us our trespasses." 
 
 Close by my father's house resided 
 Mr. Goodman. My father and he were 
 on the best of terms. They met almost 
 every day, to chat^Wittle, and, it may be, 
 to smoke a* friendly pipe together — -for 
 they both loved smoking (though I do 
 not place that to their credit) as well as 
 they loved to eat, and I think a little 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 141 
 
 better — and to discuss the news far and 
 
 near. 
 
 Mr. Goodman had a son a very little 
 
 younger than myself, whose name was 
 
 Daniel. Daniel and I were quite as 
 
 good friends as our fathers were. If we 
 
 did not see each other every day, a dark 
 
 cloud came over our brow; and when 
 
 we were obliged to be separated for 
 
 several days, owing to one of us having 
 
 left home on a visit, the cloud aforesaid 
 
 grew darker- and thicker, and just as 
 
 likely as not the rain fell a little. We 
 
 were uneasy as a fish out of water, if we 
 
 were not romping together half the time 
 
 when we were out of school. 
 9 
 
142 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 It happened, however — I am sorry 
 to be obliged to own it ; I feel quite 
 ashamed now, at this distant day, when 
 I think of it — it happened one afternoon, 
 that we quarreled. Yes, we quarreled. 
 We got so angry with each other, that 
 our little hearts were transformed into 
 miniature steam-boilers, and our throats 
 into steam-pipes, and so the words 
 whizzed out of our mouths red-hot. I 
 shall not tell you what we said to each 
 other. I am not sure that I remember. 
 I have tried to forget it, I do assure you, 
 and perhaps I have succeeded. But 
 even if I could remember, I would not 
 tell you. Suffice it to say, that the 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 143 
 
 words were about as far from being kind 
 and good-natured as they could be. 
 
 The way in which the quarrel com- 
 menced was something like this. My 
 father had bought me a pair of skates, 
 and Daniel had none. It was in the 
 winter, and the mill pond was all frozen 
 over solid, and the skating was fine* 
 Ah, what capital sport I have had skat-^ 
 ing on Mason's pond. It brings back 
 the fresh, warm heart of my boyhood 
 now, only to think of it. 
 
 On the afternoon of the unfortunate 
 affair to which I allude, Daniel and I, 
 having obtained the consent of our pa- 
 rents, went over to the pond, to try the 
 
144 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 new skates. There never was a prettier 
 pair of skates — there never could have 
 been anything before that went over the 
 ice so gracefully and so swiftly. So we 
 thought. It was voted, unanimously — 
 that last word is a little too long, and 
 you may split it to pieces, if you like to 
 put another in its place — by the boys on 
 the pond at the time, of whom, it must 
 be confessed, the aforesaid Daniel and 
 myself comprised something more than 
 half, that Frank's skates were finer even 
 than Charley Hoyt's; and the school- 
 master had been heard to say that 
 Charley's were the best that had ever 
 come into Willow Lane. You can easily 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 145 
 
 see, reader, what a compliment was paid 
 to my new skates. The schoolmaster, 
 in the opinion of us boys, was a perfect 
 Solomon, and in our way of thinking, 
 Willow Lane embraced a much greater 
 share of the habitable globe than our 
 school atlas, in after days, when we 
 studied Morse's geography, gave it credit 
 for embracing. 
 
 Well, I mounted the skates. Skate 
 navigation, at first, is riCJt v^v ea^ r % 
 Every boy, in his first efforts to s^ate, 
 can easily understand how perilous were 
 some of my earliest attempts to imitate 
 the feats of the larger boys. I fell some 
 half a dozen times, and once or twice flat 
 
146 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 upon my back. Did you ever strike the 
 back part of your head on the ice, my 
 boy 1 What a host of stars one sees at 
 such a time. I saw I don't know how 
 many brilliant ones, and indeed, whole 
 constellations of them, over and over 
 again, before I learned to skate well. 
 
 When, on this occasion, I had amused 
 myself for half an hour, or more, I 
 thought I had studied astronomy in this 
 way about enough for one day, and un- 
 tied my skates, and allowed Daniel to 
 put them on his feet. They fitted him 
 as well as they did me. Our feet were 
 of very nearly the same size. Daniel's 
 fate was not unlike mine. He saw about 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 147 
 
 the same number of planets and stars of 
 the first magnitude — so I should think — 
 and made something like the same pro- 
 gress in the mysteries of the skating art. 
 
 While my companion was thus en- 
 gaged, we saw a colored boy, who lived 
 at my father's, coming toward the pond, 
 running at the very top of his speed — 
 " full tilt," as we boys had it — and what 
 was more to the point, he had a pair of 
 skates in his hand. Yes, a pair of skates ! 
 There was absolutely no mistake about 
 it. How strange ! 
 
 As soon as the little fellow could get 
 breath enough to speak, he told us that 
 the skates were presented to Master 
 
148 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 Daniel ; that my father recollecting, 
 after the boys had left for the pond, that 
 Daniel had no skates, went over to the 
 store and bought a pair for him, so that 
 he could enjoy the sport as well as I. 
 " As soon as he had bought them," 
 Peter went on, "he came into the 
 kitchen, where I was reading Robinson 
 Crusoe, and said, 'Run, Peter, run to 
 the pond, as fast as you can go, and take 
 these skates to Daniel.' So I ran all the 
 way, sure enough, and I never was so 
 tired in my life." And the fellow panted 
 for breath, as you have sometimes seen 
 a great fat man do, when he had walked 
 up three or four flights of stairs. 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 149 
 
 Could it be possible ? Daniel and I 
 both were equally surprised. Neither 
 of us had thought of the possibility of 
 such a state of things. Neither was pre- 
 pared for it. Daniel was elated. As for 
 me, it would be difficult to tell how I 
 felt, though I am quite sure I did not 
 feel right. When we got over our as- 
 tonishment a little, so as to be able to 
 speak, we began to " compare notes" 
 together. 
 
 It soon became evident how matters 
 stood. Daniel's skates, (so he really 
 thought them, though it is very doubtful, 
 w T ere he to see the two pairs together 
 now, if he could see any difference in 
 
150 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 them worth mentioning,) were hand- 
 somer than mine. Daniel hinted at this 
 fact. I hinted as plainly, and perhaps a 
 little more plainly, that he was mistaken, 
 if he thought so. 
 
 Daniel appealed to Peter. Peter 
 thought if there was any difference, it 
 was certainly in favor of Daniel's skates. 
 " There, there," said Daniel, "Peter 
 says my skates are handsomer than 
 yours;" and he laughed, and his black 
 eyes, I thought, had a roguish twinkle 
 about them, which meant more than he 
 dared to speak with his lips. I was 
 angry. The words I said had but three 
 letters each, and there were only three 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 151 
 
 of the words, but they were bitter 
 enough. I will not tell you what they 
 were. I don't want to disgrace my pen 
 with them. You can guess what they 
 were, though. 
 
 Then came a storm, you may be sure 
 of it. It lasted some time. There was 
 a good deal of thunder, as well as some 
 pretty bright flashes of lightning, in the 
 course of the storm. How long the quar- 
 rel would have lasted, if we had remained 
 together, I don't know. But it got to 
 be time to leave for home. We parted — 
 parted brimful of anger and hate. Oh, 
 how foolish and wicked ! Peter went 
 home with me ; Daniel went alone. 
 
152 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 That night and all the next day, I was 
 wretched enough. Indeed, I never got 
 angry with anybody in my life without 
 being wretched. It is a bad investment, 
 this getting into a passion, and holding 
 heat a long time, as a bar of iron does. 
 I never came across anybody in my 
 whole life, that said there was any fun in 
 getting mad. Anger is like a sirocco 
 wind. There is no good in it. It hurts 
 everything it blows upon. It withers up 
 all the sweet flowers of the heart. 
 
 My father heard of the affair. He did 
 not say anything to me about it until the 
 next day. That night, when I kneeled 
 down with my brother, to say " Now I 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 153 
 
 lay me down to sleep," and the " Lord's 
 Prayer," I felt worse than ever. I came 
 to the words, " Forgive us our trespasses, 
 as we forgive those who trespass against 
 us." 
 
 " Stop," said my father. " You ask 
 the Lord to forgive you, just as you for- 
 give your playmates. Do you forgive 
 them ? If you cannot forgive them, all 
 of them, for the wrongs they have done 
 you, how can you expect your heavenly- 
 Father will forgive you ?" 
 
 This touched my heart. I had often 
 repeated those words before ; but I had 
 never fully understood their meaning. 
 Oh, what a mine of pure gold the whole 
 
154 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 Bible is, my dear children. How full it 
 is of just such things as we all need, to 
 help us along in our journey to the other 
 world. It is a blessed volume. What 
 should we do without it ? and how 
 thankful we ought to be that God has 
 given it to us. 
 
 When my father asked me the ques- 
 tion, I burst into tears. " O, father !" I 
 said, " I am very unhappy. What shall 
 I do ?" and a deluge of tears ran down 
 my cheeks. 
 
 " Do ?" said my father, " forgive Dan- 
 iel. Go and tell him you forgive him, 
 and that you are sorry you have said 
 anything to injure his feelings." 
 
A QUARREL MADE UP. 
 
 156 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 157 
 
 " I will — I will go to-morrow," I said. 
 
 " Better to-night," replied my father. 
 
 I hesitated a little ; but I got my hat 
 and mittens, and went over with my 
 father to Mr. Goodman's. Daniel, who 
 felt as unhappy as I did, came into the 
 room where I was. I ran and embraced 
 him. " O Daniel ! forgive me !" I said. 
 " I will never do so any more." 
 
 At first he was not quite ready to 
 make up; but when I told him again 
 that I was sorry for what I had said, and 
 asked his forgiveness, and assured him 
 that if he forgave me, I would never do 
 so any more, he was melted. There was 
 a whole deluge of tears shed on both 
 
158 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 sides, and the difficulty was all over for- 
 ever. 
 
 I went home. I knelt down again to 
 say the " Lord's Prayer," and this time I 
 felt that God smiled upon me when I 
 asked him to "forgive my trespasses." 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 LAUGHING BILL. 
 
 There was a boy in our neighborhood 
 who generally went by the name of 
 "Laughing Bill." His real name was 
 William Scott ; but he was so seldom 
 addressed by that name, that I doubt if 
 half a dozen among all the merry school- 
 boys in Willow Lane, were aware that 
 such a person as William Scott ever 
 
 lived. 
 
 10 
 
160 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 As you may surmise, this urchin was a 
 laughing character. In fact, he laughed 
 as if it was a business he had taken up 
 for life, and one by which he intended 
 to get his living. If things went on well 
 with him, he laughed. He laughed, too, 
 quite as heartily, if they went ill. I 
 have known him absolutely convulsed 
 with laughter, while the village school- 
 master was giving him a sound drubbing 
 with one of the seasoned hickory sprouts, 
 which had been laid up for three months 
 in his desk. So you see William Scott 
 came pretty honestly by the title which 
 the boys gave him. 
 
 He was a kind, good-natured boy. 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 161 
 
 Few of our number ever had any quar- 
 rels with him ; and if any one did so for- 
 get himself as to commence a battle with 
 him, just as likely as not Bill would set 
 his laughing engine in motion, and do 
 his part of the fighting with that. 
 
 He was, on the whole, a pretty good 
 scholar, though it happened too fre- 
 quently, I used to think, that he would 
 come to school with a very bad lesson. 
 For that, however, he generally managed 
 to make up pretty soon, probably as early 
 as the next day, when he would have a 
 better lesson, perhaps, than any other 
 boy in school. 
 
 As William lived in the immediate 
 
162 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 neighborhood of my father's house, we 
 used to be often together. He had no 
 bad habits ; and so my mother, who was 
 very particular in respect to the com- 
 pany I kept, did not hesitate to allow us 
 to be together. 
 
 I said that William had no bad habits. 
 I ought to explain that a little. I mean 
 that he did not use profane and impure 
 language, and that he was not what is 
 called a bad boy. There was one bad 
 habit about him, although that was of 
 such a nature that it is hardly proper to 
 speak of it as a wicked habit. I will tell 
 you what it was. He could hardly ever 
 deny a person, when he was asked to do 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 163 
 
 anything or to go anywhere. He was a 
 great deal too obliging in this respect. 
 
 " But that was a good trait in Bill's 
 character. I should think it was a good 
 trait, Uncle Frank." 
 
 No, that is a great mistake. 
 
 " Why, is it not right to oblige every- 
 body, as much as possible ?" 
 
 Certainly, when you can oblige every 
 one without doing wrong. Boys and 
 girls, and men and women, are often 
 asked to do something which would be a 
 great injury to them ; and perhaps, if 
 they yielded, they would disobey God. 
 In that case, it would be wrong to yield, 
 you see. William Scott, because he was 
 
164 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 so anxious to please everybody, or for 
 some other reason, used too often, as he 
 grew older, to do as he was urged to do, 
 when by so doing, he was the cause of a 
 good deal of mischief. 
 
 There were in our village, as there 
 are, I am sorry to say, in too many other 
 places in different parts of the country, 
 some young men that indulged in drink- 
 ing intoxicating liquors. Once in a 
 while they got together, and drank a, 
 good deal, at which times they did a 
 great many foolish things, as if they were 
 trying to see which could act most like a 
 brute. I believe they sometimes suc- 
 ceeded in outdoing all the brutes that 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 165 
 
 we've ever heard of, since the beginning 
 of the world. 
 
 Laughing Bill had scarcely tasted a 
 drop of liquor when he was fourteen 
 years of age. His father was pretty 
 temperate in his habits, and though he 
 furnished liquor to his hired men in hay- 
 ing time — for there was only one man in 
 Willow Lane who believed it possible to 
 get through haying without New Eng- 
 land rum, or something of that class and 
 order — he did not drink much himself, 
 and never allowed his boys to drink at 
 all. 
 
 But about this time, William was in 
 company with two or three of the drink- 
 
166 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 ing young men I have alluded to, and 
 they persuaded him to go to the tavern 
 with them the next night. He could not 
 say no. How strange ! Why, he must 
 have known that it would be dangerous 
 to be in such a place, with that kind of 
 company, even for one evening. But 
 perhaps he did not think much about it. 
 Young people frequently do things which 
 they are sorry for as long as they live, just 
 because they did not have their thoughts 
 about them at the time. They ought to 
 think, though. What are our thoughts 
 good for, if we cannot make use of them 
 when we are tempted to sin ? 
 
 William yielded, and went to the 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 167 
 
 tavern. He did not mean to drink any- 
 thing stronger than root beer and lemon- 
 ade, when he consented to go. He did 
 not mean to drink anything stronger after 
 he got to the tavern. But he was urged 
 to do so — urged hard. He could not 
 refuse ; it would be unkind to do so, he 
 thought. His companions would be 
 offended. 
 
 So he drank. Poor fellow ! how little 
 did he know, when he touched that glass 
 to his lips — how little did he know what 
 that act was to cost him. Though he 
 was disgusted with what he saw and 
 heard at the tavern, and left it with the 
 determination never to visit it with such 
 
168 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 company again, he did go there the 
 second time, with the same company, in 
 less than three weeks. You see he had 
 hard work to refuse, because he had 
 formed the habit of yielding. But he 
 ought to have refused. If he found it a 
 hard task, he should have worked harder 
 at it — he should have set himself more 
 resolutely about it. 
 
 I do not wish to follow this young man 
 through all the windings of his path for 
 five or six years. Knowing him so well 
 as I did, it would be too painful to pur- 
 sue his history so minutely, nor is it ne- 
 cessary to do so. The depraved taste 
 which he formed for rum and brandy, and 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 169 
 
 other liquors of the kind, soon led him 
 along the highway of intemperance with 
 fearful rapidity. Do you wonder at it, 
 my young friend ? You need not won- 
 der at it. Intoxicating liquors set the 
 whole body and mind on fire. They 
 drive a person crazy. He loses com- 
 mand of himself, after a while. He goes 
 on drinking, though he knows well that 
 he is going certainly and swiftly to de- 
 struction. 
 
 William was soon a confirmed drunk- 
 ard ; and oh, what distress he brought on 
 the once happy family of which he was 
 a member ! Before he was twenty-one 
 years of age, he was often found, in the 
 
170 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 dead of night, in a state of loathsome 
 drunkenness. 
 
 One day, in company with one of the 
 young men who led him astray, he went 
 into the woods on a hunting excursion. 
 A bottle of brandy was a part of the out- 
 fit for this excursion. They both drank 
 freely — William more freely than his 
 companion. Toward night, just before 
 they were thinking of returning home, 
 William was separated a few rods from 
 his companion, and for some reason or 
 other, had climbed a little distance up a 
 tree which was partly blown down by 
 the wind, and which overhung the brow 
 of the hill. Poor man ! he had not suffi- 
 
PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 171 
 
 cient command of himself to retain his 
 balance. He fell head foremost from 
 the tree, before his companion could 
 reach him, and was almost instantly 
 killed. 
 
 So ended the short career of Laughing 
 Bill. 
 
 Boys, I could preach you a long ser- 
 mon, with William Scott for a text. I 
 could talk with a great deal of feeling on 
 that subject, too ; for the tears will come 
 into my eyes, in spite of myself, when I 
 think of what that young man was, and 
 when I trace his history in my mind, till 
 I come to its terrible end. How I loved 
 that boy; and what sorrow filled my 
 
172 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 young heart, when I saw his fair face 
 for the last time. Aye, I could preach 
 long and feelingly on such a text. But 
 I will not do so. I will let the facts 
 preach for themselves. I will point you 
 to them for a sermon, as Mark Antony 
 pointed to the bleeding body of Csesar. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 UNCLE FRANK'S LEAVE-TAKING. 
 
 I suppose it is high time that I took 
 my leave of you, little friends. I am 
 very fond of young people ; and when I 
 can get a chance to tell them stories that 
 will entertain them, and profit them at 
 the same time, I hardly know where to 
 bite off the thread. When I get my 
 story-telling machinery in good running 
 order, it is really hard work to stop the 
 
174 PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 wheels. I am sorry to be obliged to 
 take my leave of you now. But I see 
 clearly enough that I must do it ; and so 
 I will say my adieu, without any more 
 ceremony. 
 
 Mr. Scribner, my publisher, thinks it 
 would be a good notion to write another 
 book for my -young friends. Perhaps so. 
 I am more than half inclined to write 
 one, while I have my hand in, and to 
 give in it an account of the Miller of 
 our Village, and some of his Tolls. 
 
BEAUTIFUL SERIES OF JUVENILES. 
 
 CHAELESSCEIBNER, 
 
 145 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK, 
 
 PUBLISHES 
 
 UNCLE FRANK'S 
 
 HOME STORIES. 
 
 IN 6 VOLS. SQUARE 12MO. UNIFORM STYLE, 
 WITH ELEGANT TINTED ENGRAVINGS IN EACH VOLUME. 
 
 By FRANCIS C. WOODWORTH, 
 
 EDITOR OF " WOOD WORTH'S YOUTH'S CABINET," AUTHOR OF "STORIES 
 ABOUT ANIMALS," ETC. 
 
 This Series, by one of the most popular writers in America, 
 in the department of Juvenile Literature, is confidently re- 
 commended by the publisher, as unequalled in respect to its 
 mechanical beauty and literary interest, by any similar pub- 
 lication. 
 
 The Titles of the several books of this series, with the 
 Contents and Illustrations in each book, are given on subse- 
 quent pages. 
 
A BUDGET OF WILLOW LANE STORIES. 
 
 BY UNCLE FRANK. 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Opening op the Budget. 
 
 Otte First Schoolmaster. 
 
 The Monkey and his Spelling Class. 
 
 The Bonfire. 
 
 The Cold Water Boy. 
 
 Witch Woods. 
 
 Our Huckleberry Parties. 
 Willow Lane Pic-Nics. 
 Capturing the Hornets' Nest. 
 A Gtrl Lost in the Woods. 
 Six Months at Uncle Miah's. 
 Close of the Budget. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Solomon Stark and the Monkey. 
 Vignette Title Page. 
 Visit to the Toy Store. 
 The Bonfire. 
 
 The Cold Water Boy. 
 The Pic-Nic. 
 Fanny's Temptation. 
 Life on a Farm. 
 
THE MILLER OF OUR VILLAGE, 
 
 AND SOME OF HIS TOLLS. 
 BY UNCLE FRANK. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 In™ >duction. 
 Wha r I Mean by Tolls. 
 My First Horseback Eide. 
 A Queer Getting Overboard. 
 On Cider Drinking. 
 Something About the Hypo. 
 A Talk About Light Houses. 
 
 On "Taking it Easy." 
 Fish and Fishermen. 
 Uncle Jake's Notions about Fish- 
 ing. 
 "Take Care/ 1 
 On Biting Files. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 The Old Miller and nis Friends. 
 Vignette Title Page. 
 Prying into the Letter. 
 My First Horseback Eidb. 
 
 Playing Truant. 
 The Eddystone Light House. 
 A Parley with Wicked Boys. 
 Fishing in the Mill-Pond. 
 
A PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS: 
 
 A SEQUEL TO THE WILLOW LANE BUDGET. 
 
 BY UNCLE FRANK. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 What I am Going to Do. 
 A Glance at Parson Daley. 
 Doctor Windman and His Doses. 
 Hunting Hens' Nests. 
 Climbing the Peach Tree. 
 The Ball Family. 
 
 Chips op the Old Block. 
 
 The Drowned Girl. 
 
 The Young Truth-Teller. 
 
 The New Skates. 
 
 Laughing Bill. 
 
 Uncle Frank's Leave-Taking. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 The Drowned Girl. 
 
 Vignette Title Page. 
 
 A Peep at Willow Lane. 
 
 Parson Daley and the Little Girl. 
 
 Hunting Hens' Nests. 
 Joe Ball and his Victim. 
 Amanda at her Knitting-Work. 
 " Oh, Daniel ! Forgi ve Me. 
 
THE STRAWBERRY GIRL : 
 
 OR, HOW TO RISE IN THE WORLD 
 
 BY UNCLE FRANK. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 Castle-Building, 
 
 The Castle-Builders. 
 
 The Flower of the Family. 
 
 The Fall of the Air-Castles. 
 
 Hopes and Disappointments. 
 
 Glimmerings of Sunshine. 
 
 That Strawberry Patch. 
 A Secret Discovered. 
 An Unexpected Visitor. 
 Changes at Eose Cottage. 
 Amy, as a Governess. 
 An Unlooked-for Answer. 
 A Nut for Mrs. Simpkins. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Amy Eose and tier Brother. 
 Vignette Title Page. 
 The Evening Prayer. 
 Watching fob the Ship. 
 
 '• What Monstrous Stitches." 
 The Serenaders. 
 
 The Professor and the Governess. 
 The Class in Botany. 
 
THE LITTLE MISCHIEF-MAKER, 
 
 AND OTHER STORIES. 
 BY UNCLE FRANK. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Introduction. 
 Clara. Eedwood's Tricks. 
 Clara at Home. 
 Clara at ScnooL. 
 The Drumming Affair. 
 My First Bargain. 
 The Prisoned Bird. 
 
 The Boy and the Robin. 
 
 Leading and Driving. 
 
 Beating People Down-. 
 
 Father Smith and the Skin-Flints. 
 
 Aunt Susan and her Secret. 
 
 Go Ahead. 
 
 The Happy Family. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Mischief Making. 
 
 Vignette Title Page. 
 
 The Mischief Maker Discovered. 
 
 Tearing up the Letter. 
 
 Vacation Sports and Pastimes. 
 The Boy and the Eobin. 
 The Prisoned Bird. 
 Beating Down the Glazier. 
 
BOYS' AND GIKLS' COUNTRY BOOR. 
 
 BY UNCLE FRANK. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 introduction. 
 
 The City Boy in the Country. 
 
 My Sister. 
 
 The Young Gleaner. 
 
 Getting Cooled Off. 
 
 A Black-Snake Story. 
 
 Captain Parry's Old Mare. 
 
 My Grandfather. 
 Drowning out Woodchuoks. 
 Cousin Helen and her Pony. 
 The Homesick Boy. 
 The Wasps' Nest. 
 Conclusion. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 A Peep at the Cows and Sheep. 
 Vignettte Title Page. 
 Feeding the Chickens. 
 "Winter Sports in the Country. 
 
 The Young Gleaner. 
 Uncle Jesse among the Sheep. 
 The Student and the Old Mare. 
 Cousin Helen and her Poney. 
 
Charles Scribner^s Juvenile Publications. 
 
 CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH'S WORKS. 
 
 PEESONAL EECOLLECTIONS, with a Memoir, by H. J. Tokna. 1 vol., 
 
 18nio 50 
 
 HELEN FLEETWOOD, 1 vol., 18mo 50 
 
 JUDAH'S LION, do . . .50 
 
 JUDAEA CAPTA, do 50 
 
 THE SIEGE OF DEEEY, do 50 
 
 LETTEES FEOM IEELAND, do 50 
 
 THE EOCKITE, do 50 
 
 FLOEAL BIOGEAPHY, do 50 
 
 PEINCIPALITIES AND POWEES, do 50 
 
 PASSING THOUGHTS, ) dQ 
 
 FALSEHOOD AND TEUTH, ^ 
 
 IZEAM, a Mexican Tale, ) ■, 
 OSEIC, a Missionary Tale, \ 
 
 CONFOEMITT, ) do 
 THE CONVENT BELL, a Tale, \ 
 
 CHAELOTTE ELIZABETH'S WOEKS, Uniform Edition, 12 vols., 
 
 18mo 6 00 
 
 do do do in Sheep for Libraries and 
 District Schools, 7 00 
 
 We have received numerous commendatory notices of Charlotte Elizabeth's 
 Works, from the religious papers of all denominations of Christians in this 
 country ; and for the benefit of those who have not supplied themselves with 
 her books, we insert here a few which are believed to be a fair specimen of the 
 opinion of the Press. 
 
Charles Scribner's Juvenile Publications. 
 
 From the Morning News. 
 Works of Charlotte Elizabeth. — Mrs. Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna is one of 
 the most gifted, popular, and truly instructive writers of the present day. In clear- 
 ness of thought, variety of topics, richness of imagery, and elegance of expres- 
 sion, it is scarcely too much to say, that she is the rival of Hannah More, or to 
 predict that her works -will be as extensively and profitably read, as those of the 
 most delightful female writer of the last generation. All her writings are per- 
 vaded by justness and purity of sentiment, and the highest reverence for moral- 
 ity and religion ; and may safely be commended as of the highest interest and 
 value to every family in the land. 
 
 From the Religious Spectator. 
 
 If Charlotte Elizabeth were not one «f the most attractive and useful writers 
 of the age, we might perhaps be ready to say that she was in danger of surfeiting 
 the public appetite, by her numerous productions ; but as it is, we aro con- 
 strained to say the oftener she shows herself as an author the better. Her 
 works never tire ; and we are never even in doubt in respect to their useful 
 tendency. 
 
 From the Albany Argus. 
 
 Charlotte Elizabeth's "Works have become so universally known, and are so 
 highly and deservedly appreciated in this country, that it has become almost 
 superfluous to mention them. "We doubt exceedingly whether there has been any 
 female writer since Mrs. Hannah More, whose works are likely to be so 
 extensively and so profitably read as hers. She thinks deeply and accurately, 
 is a great analysist of the human heart, and withal clothes her thoughts in 
 most appropriate and eloquent language. 
 
 From the Journal of Commerce. 
 
 These productions constitute a bright relief to the bad and corrupting litera- 
 ture in which our age is so prolific ; full of practical instruction, illustrative of the 
 beauty of Protestant Christianity, and not the less abounding in entertaining 
 description and narrative. 
 
 THE PEEP OF DAY, or a Series of the Earliest Eeligious Instruction 
 the Infant Mind is Capable of Eeceiving, with verses illustrative of the 
 subjects. 1 vol., 18mo, with engravings, 50 
 
Charles Scribner's Juvenile Publications. 
 
 LINE UPON LINE, by the Author of " Peep of Day ;" a second series .... 50 
 
 PRECEPT UPON PEECEPT, by the Author of "Peep of Day," etc., third 
 series, 50 
 
 HERE A LITTLE AND THERE A LITTLE, or Scripture Facts, by the 
 Author of " Peep of Day," etc. 1 vol., lSrno, with engravings. 4th 
 series, ,50 
 
 This is probably the best and most popular series of juvenile books ever pub- 
 lished. The publisher refers with the most entire confidence to all parents and 
 teachers who have introduced these books into their families or schools, who 
 will testify as to the useful and correct religious instruction which they contain. 
 
 T. S. ARTHUR'S POPULAR TALES. 
 
 KEEPING UP APPEARANCES, or a Tale for the Rich and Poor, 1 vol., 
 18mo 45 
 
 RICHES HAVE WINGS. A Tale for the Rich and Poor. 1 vol., 
 18mo 45 
 
 RISING IN THE WORLD. A Tale for the Rich and Poor. 1 voL, 
 ISmo 45 
 
 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH, or the Temptation and Pall. I vol., 
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 RETIRING FROM BUSINESS. 1 vol., ISmo 45 
 
 The above bound in uniform volumes in Sheep, for Libraries and District 
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 " Mr. Arthur's Tales are deservedly popular. His delineations of life come 
 home ' to the business and bosoms of men,' and are without exaggeration or 
 unhealthy sentiment." — Ogdensburg Sentinel. 
 
 " They are written in a pleasant style, and inculcate in an interesting manner 
 maxims of sound sense and morality. We sincerely recommend them to all 
 parents who wish that their children should be furnished with books fitted both 
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Charles Scribner's Juvenile Publications. 
 
 "Every young man, commencing in life, in duty to himself, ought to read and 
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 ■which is -well adapted to give the right direction to the minds of the young, and 
 to make them useful members of society." — Christian Secretary. 
 
 " We can only add that they are among the best productions of Mr. Arthur's 
 pen, and worthy of a place in the library of every family. The youthful mind, 
 particularly, will not only be delighted but instructed, as the author has set 
 forth with great truthfulness various phases of character met with in life, giving 
 peculiar charm to those worthy of imitation." — The Messenger. 
 
 THE GAMBLER, a Policeman's Story, by Charles Buedett. 1 vol., 12mo. 
 
 THE ELLIOTT FAMILY, or the Trials of New York Seamstresses. By 
 Chaeles Buedett. 1 vol., 12mo, with Portrait of the Author. 
 
 " His stories are mainly founded upon actual occurrences, are well and forci- 
 bly written, and exert an excellent moral influence." 
 
 " The Gambler is founded upon events in real, life, communicated to the 
 author by an officer connected with the New York police department, and, as 
 wc are assured, are in all essential points, entirely true." — Buffalo Courier. 
 
 " The story is one of absorbing interest, and its incidents are vividly sketched 
 while its moral is unexceptionable." — Detroit Free Press. 
 
 "The Elliott Family. — This, like the Author's previous works, is narrative 
 founded on fact. It evinces a powerful imagination, sympathy easily kindled, 
 and a remarkable talent at impressive narration. It has a specific object, and it 
 reaches it successfully." — Albany Argus. 
 
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 Those who have hearts should purchase and read it." — Providence Post. 
 
 WEEATHS OF FRIENDSHIP, a beautiful juvenile gift book. By T. S. 
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Charles Scribner's Juvenile Publications. 
 
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 and follies that sometimes belong to ' Children of larger growth 1 than ihey were 
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 FAIET TALES AND LEGENDS OF MANY NATIONS, selected and 
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 " The Illustrations of this volume are exquisite. The most delicate taste and 
 aptness of conception appear in them all. The Tales are also very engaging, 
 sprightly, graceful, full of incident, and withal remarkably characteristic of the* 
 people from whom they are severally selected." — IT. Y. Evangelist. 
 
 " This is one of the most varied and comprehensive books of fairy stories ever 
 published." — Parlor Gazette. 
 
 "Here is another book that contains a world of amusement for juvenile 
 readers." — Albany Argus. 
 
 " The stories are written in an agreeable vein, and each conveys some whole- 
 some, instructive, moral lesson, by which not only the young, but the middle- 
 aged and old may receive benefit and amusement." — Auburn Daily Adver- 
 tiser. 
 
 STORIES FOR SUMMER DAYS AND WINTER NIGHTS. 
 
 I. A GRANDMOTHER'S EECOLLECTIONS. By Ella Eodmax, 1 vol., 
 16mo. with Illustrations. 
 
 " This is a simple narrative of household reminiscences, more pleasing than 
 many a book of far greater pretensions." — Courier and Enquirer. 
 
 " This book is filled with entertaining and instructive matters."— Chronicle 
 and Atlas. 
 
Charles Scribner's Juvenile Publications. 
 
 " It tends to throw a mild and attractive light over home, and to minister 
 to those gentler feelings, -which find its best soil in the quiet and purity of tho 
 sanctuary of childhood." — Weekly Sun. 
 
 " The style of the book is simple, lively, and attractive ; it must become one 
 of the favorites of the day, especially among young readers." — Southern Lite- 
 rary Gazette. 
 
 II. BRAGGADOCIO, a book for Boys and Girls. By Mrs. L. C. Tuthili^ 
 Author of "I will be a Lady," etc. 1 vol., 16mo, with six tinted Illustra- 
 tions. 
 
 III. GITLLIYEE JOI ; his Three Voyages, being an Account of his Marvel- 
 lous Adventures in Kailoo, Hydrogenia, and Ejario. By Elbert Perce, 
 1 vol., IGmo. with six tinted Illustrations. 
 
 IV. THE YOUNG EMIGRANTS— Madelaine Tube— the Boy and tho 
 Book — 1 vol., 16mo, with Illustrations.