My name is Mrs.Piper.
Prudy,--no, Rosy,--you shall be Mrs.Shotwell, come a-visiting me; because you can't do anything else.

We'll make believe you've lost your husband in the wars.

I know a Mrs.Shotwell, and she is always _taking-on_, and saying, 'My poor dear husband,' under her handkerchief; just this way." The children laughed at the nasal twang which Annie gave to the words, and Prudy imitated it to perfection, not knowing it was wrong.
"Well, what shall I be ?" said Susy, not very well pleased that the first characters had been taken already.
"O, you shall be a hired girl, and wear a handkerchief on your head, just as our girl does; and you must be a little deaf, and keep saying, 'What, ma'am ?' when I speak to you." "And I," said Florence, "will be Mr.Peter Piper, the head of the family." "Yes," returned Annie, "you can put on a waterproof cloak, and you will make quite a good-looking husband; but I shall be the head of the family myself, and have things about as I please!" "Well, there," cried Flossy, slipping her arms into the sleeves of her cloak, "I don't know about that; I don't think it's very polite for you to treat your husband in that way." Flossy wanted to have the control of family matters herself.
"But I believe in 'Woman's Rights,'" said Annie, with a toss of the head, "and if there's anything I despise, it is a _man_ meddling about the house." Here little Dotty began to cause a disturbance, by sticking a fruit-knife into the edges of the "what-not," and making a whirring noise.
"I wouldn't do so, Dotty," said Susy, going up to her; "it troubles us; and, besides, I'm afraid it will break the knife." "I don't allow my hired girl to interfere with my children," said Annie, speaking up in the character of Mrs.Piper; "I am mistress of the house, I'd have you to know! There, little daughter, they shan't plague her; she shall keep on doing mischief; so she shall!" Dotty needed no coaxing to keep on doing mischief, but hit the musical knife harder than ever, giving it a dizzy motion, like the clapper in a mill.
Prudy was quite annoyed by the sound, but did not really know whether to be nervous or not, and concluded to express her vexation in groans: the groans she was giving in memory of the departed Mr.Shotwell, who had died of a "cannon bullet." "My good Mrs.Shotwell," said Mrs.Piper, trying to "make conversation," "I think I have got something in my eye: will you please tell me how it looks ?" "O," said Prudy, peeping into it, "your eye looks very well, ma'am; don't you '_xcuse_ it; it looks well enough for _me_." "Ahem!" said Mrs.Piper, laughing, and settling her head-dress, which was Susy's red scarf: "are your feet warm, Mrs.Shotwell ?" "Thank you, ma'am," replied Prudy, "I don't feel 'em cold.

O, dear, if your husband was all deaded up, I guess you'd cry, Mrs.Piper." Susy and Flossy looked at each other, and smiled.

They thought Prudy seemed more like herself than they had known her for a long time.
"You must go right out of the parlor, Betsey," said Mrs.Piper, flourishing the poker; "I mean you, Susy--the parlor isn't any place for hired girls." "Ma'am ?" said Susy, inclining her head to one side, in order to hear better.
"O, dear! the plague of having a deaf girl!" moaned Mrs.Piper.