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Page 52
Then she would wander round the room, examining and fingering
everything, and occasionally coming back with something in her hand to
tread on her mother's dress, and break in upon the ladies' conversation
with--"Mamma! Mamma! What's the good of keeping this old basin? It's
been broken and mended, and some of the pieces are quite loose now. I
can feel them:" or--addressing the lady of the house--"That's not a
real ottoman in the corner. It's a box covered with chintz. I know, for
I've looked."
Then her mamma would say, reprovingly, "My _dear_ Amelia!"
And perhaps the lady of the house would beg, "Don't play with that old
china, my love; for though it is mended, it is very valuable;" and her
mother would add, "My dear Amelia, you must not."
Sometimes the good lady said, "You _must_ not." Sometimes she
tried--"You must _not_" When both these failed, and Amelia was balancing
the china bowl on her finger-ends, her mamma would get flurried, and when
Amelia flurried her, she always rolled her r's, and emphasized her words,
so that it sounded thus:
"My dear-r-r-r-Ramelia! You must not."
At which Amelia would not so much as look round, till perhaps the bowl
slipped from her fingers, and was smashed into unmendable fragments.
Then her mamma would exclaim, "Oh, dear-r-r-r, oh, dear-r-Ramelia" and
the lady of the house would try to look as if it did not matter, and
when Amelia and her mother departed, would pick up the bits, and pour
out her complaints to her lady friends, most of whom had suffered many
such damages at the hands of this "very observing child."
When the good couple received their friends at home, there was no
escaping from Amelia. If it was a dinner-party, she came in with the
dessert, or perhaps sooner. She would take up her position near some
one, generally the person most deeply engaged in conversation, and
either lean heavily against him or her, or climb on to his or her knee,
without being invited. She would break in upon the most interesting
discussion with her own little childish affairs, in the following
style--"I've been out to-day. I walked to the town. I jumped across
three brooks. Can you jump? Papa gave me sixpence to-day. I am saving
up my money to be rich. You may cut me an orange; no, I'll take it to
Mr. Brown, he peels it with a spoon and turns the skin back. Mr. Brown!
Mr. Brown! Don't talk to Mamma, but peel me an orange, please. Mr.
Brown! I'm playing with your finger-glass."
And when the finger-glass full of cold water had been upset on to Mr.
Brown's shirt-front, Amelia's mamma would cry--"Oh dear, oh
dear-r-Ramelia!" and carry her off with the ladies to the drawing-room.
Here she would scramble on to the ladies' knees, or trample out the
gathers of their dresses, and fidget with their ornaments, startling
some luckless lady by the announcement, "I've got your bracelet undone
at last!" who would find one of the divisions broken open by force,
Amelia not understanding the working of a clasp.
Or perhaps two young lady friends would get into a quiet corner for a
chat. The observing child would sure to spy them, and run on to them,
crushing their flowers and ribbons, and crying--"You two want to talk
secrets, I know. I can hear what you say. I'm going to listen, I am.
And I shall tell, too;" when perhaps a knock at the door announced the
Nurse to take Miss Amelia to bed, and spread a general rapture of
relief.
Then Amelia would run to trample and worry her mother, and after much
teasing, and clinging, and complaining, the Nurse would be dismissed,
and the fond mamma would turn to the lady next to her, and say with a
smile--"I suppose I must let her stay up a little. It is such a treat
to her, poor child!"
But it was no treat to the visitors.
Besides tormenting her fellow-creatures, Amelia had a trick of teasing
animals. She was really fond of dogs, but she was still fonder of doing
what she was wanted not to do, and of worrying everything and everybody
about her. So she used to tread on the tips of their tails, and pretend
to give them biscuit, and then hit them on the nose, besides pulling at
those few, long, sensitive hairs which thin-skinned dogs wear on the
upper lip.
Now Amelia's mother's acquaintances were so very well-bred and amiable,
that they never spoke their minds to either the mother or the daughter
about what they endured from the latter's rudeness, wilfulness, and
powers of destruction. But this was not the case with the dogs, and
they expressed their sentiments by many a growl and snap. At last one
day Amelia was tormenting a snow-white bulldog (who was certainly as
well-bred and as amiable as any living creature in the kingdom), and
she did not see that even his patience was becoming worn out. His pink
nose became crimson with increased irritation, his upper lip twitched
over his teeth, behind which he was rolling as many warning R's as
Amelia's mother herself. She finally held out a bun towards him, and
just as he was about to take it, she snatched it away and kicked him
instead. This fairly exasperated the bulldog, and as Amelia would not
let him bite the bun, he bit Amelia's leg.
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