If the little Parlins met her on the street when they went of an errand, she always stopped them to inquire what they had been buying at the store, or took their parcels out of their hands and felt them with her fingers.

She was interested in very little things, and knew how all the parlors in town were papered and carpeted, and what sort of cooking-stoves everybody used.
Dotty hung her head when her grandmother said she wished her to go every night to Mrs.Gray's with a quart of milk.
"Must I ?" said she.

"Why, grandma, she'll ask me if my mother keeps a girl, and how many teaspoons we've got in the house; she will, honestly.
Mayn't somebody go with me ?" "Ask me will I go ?" said Katie, "for I love to shake my head!" "And, grandma," added Dotty, "Mrs.Gray's eyes are so sharp, why, they're so sharp they almost prick! And it's no use for Katie to go with me, she's so little." "O, I'm isn't _much_ little," cried Katie.

"I's growing big." "I should think Prudy might go," said Dotty Dimple, with her finger in her mouth; "you don't make Prudy do a single thing!" "Prudy goes for the ice every morning," replied Mrs.Parlin.

"I wish you to do as I ask you, Alice, and make no more remarks about Mrs.Gray." "Yes, 'm," said Dotty in a dreary tone; "mayn't Katie come too?
she's better than nobody." Katie ran for her hat, delighted to be thought better than nobody.