We saw many animals at the Zoo: tigers, a red fox, a brown bear, a wolf and some funny monkeys. The monkeys were jumping and playing in their cage.
Then we saw a little roundabout near the lake. The little roundabout had little cars and horses and bears. The roundabout went round and round24, and the cars and horses went up and down, up and down.
"I want to go on the roundabout!" cried my little sister.
When the roundabout stopped, my little sister ran to the little car and got into the seat25. The roundabout went round and round. Then it stopped again. My big cousin Jane said:
"And now let's go and see the monkeys again, Nancy! We have no money now."
"I want to go on the roundabout again!" cried my naughty little sister.
"Come, Nancy!" I said.
And we went to look at the monkeys again. They were so funny.
"But where is Nancy?" suddenly asked Jane.
We looked around, but we did not see her. We went to the roundabout, but she was not there. There were many people there, and we did not see her.
"We must tell the policeman," said my big cousin Jane.
So we went to the police-station. We saw a policeman there.
"We have lost a little girl26," said my big cousin Jane.
The policeman asked us many questions, and he wrote our answers down in a big book.
"What is her name?"
"Her name is Nancy Brown."
"How old is Nancy Brown?"
"She is four."
"What does she look like?27"
"She has red hair and brown eyes."
"What has she on?28"
"She has a blue dress on and white socks and white shoes"
"Where do you live?"
"We live in 24 Park Street," I said. "My father, mother, my sister and I live there."
"Now go home," said the policeman. "We'll find your sister and take her home."
We thanked the policeman and went home. We could not take a bus, because we had no money. So we walked. We were very hungry when we came home.
But do you know what we saw when we came home?
We saw my naughty little sister at the table.
"How did you get home?29" we asked.
"The policeman found me and took me home in his big car. But I shall not run away again," said my naughty little sister.
"But why did you run away?" I asked.
"I wanted to see the roundabout, so I ran away," she said. "Then I looked for you. But there were many people there and I could not find you, and I cried. An old man took me to the police-station. The policeman asked me many questions. I told him my name and how old I was, but I did not know where I lived. So the policeman looked in his big book, and he told me where I lived. Does the policeman know where all little children live?"
"Yes, he does. He knows where all the naughty children live," said my mother.
VII. My Naughty Little Sister at the Birthday Party
There was a little boy who lived in our street. His name was Tom. My little sister liked to play with him. But Tom was a naughty little boy, and my sister was a naughty little girl.
So they often played in our yard and in our garden. They trampled flowers and picked green apples, broke their toys and broke my toys. One day they washed my doll in dirty water and the next day they put Tom's Teddy bear on the flowerbed.
One day Tom came to our house with a letter for my sister. He said to Nancy:
"This is a letter for you from my mother. Please come to my birthday party. We shall have tea and a big birthday cake."
"I like birthday cakes," said my little sister.
She put on her best dress and her white socks and white shoes.
"Don't forget to say Please and Thank you" said my mother.
When my little sister came to the birthday party, she said to Tom's mother:
"How do you do?30 I want a birthday cake."
Tom's mother laughed and said:
"Soon all the children will come, and then you can have the birthday cake."
Then the other children came and played in the garden. They played hide-and-seek. They sang songs and danced. But my little sister did not want to play. She did not want to dance and to sing. And Tom did not want to play.
"I can show you the birthday cake," he said.
So they went to the dining-room, and there on the table they saw a beautiful birthday cake with chocolate roses on it.
"Oh, I like chocolate roses very much," said my naughty little sister.
"I can give you a little rose," said Tom.
He gave my sister one rose, and she ate it up. Then he took one rose and ate it up. My sister ate three roses, and Tom ate three roses. They took the roses with their hands, and there was chocolate on their hands and on their faces. Then they went into the garden to play with the other children.
When Tom's mother saw them, she did not ask any questions. She went to the dining-room and looked at the birthday cake. She was very angry.
Tom's mother told Tom to go to bed, for he was a very naughty boy. And she told my naughty little sister to go home. Nancy was sick all night31.
My sister is not a little girl now, but she does not like chocolate roses even today.
VIII. My Father Looks after My Naughty Little Sister
When my sister was a very little girl and I was a little girl, we lived in 24 Park Street. A shoe-mender lived near our house. He very often mended my shoes and my sister's shoes. My little sister liked to go with my mother to the shoe-mender. He was an old man, and his name was Mr. Smith.
My little sister liked to talk to Mr. Smith, and he liked to talk to her, too. He gave her little boxes, and she liked to play with them. Then she put the boxes back on the shelf.
Mr. Smith had a very funny picture on the wall. In this picture you could see a little dog in a very big shoe. My little sister liked this picture very much.
One day my mother wanted to buy a new coat for me. She did not want to take my little sister with us, because she was too little.
But my naughty little sister cried:
"I want to go, too! I want to go!"
'And she cried and cried.
Then my father said:
"You can't go. I shall take my work into the garden, and I shall look after you."
So my father took his table into the garden. He put it near a bench under a big tree. Then he took his pen and began to write. My father was a writer. He wrote books for children. My sister looked and looked at the father, and then she said:
"Father, please give me my doll. It is in a big box in the wardrobe."
So my father went to my mother's bedroom. He took the big box out of the wardrobe and gave it to my little sister. Then he began to write again. My sister looked and looked at my father, then she said:
"Father, I want a drink."
My father went to the kitchen, took a cup of water and brought it to my little sister. Then he began to write again.
"Please, Father," said my naughty little sister. "My doll wants a drink. Give her a cup of water, too."
My father was angry. He said:
"Your doll can't drink."
"She can, she can. She can open and close her eyes. She can say Ma-ma. She can drink, too."
Then my father took his table back into his room, and he took his work with him. He sat down at his table and began to write. When my naughty little sister opened the door, he said:
"Close the door and go away32. And don't come back again. I am busy now33."
He worked and worked, and then he looked at the clock. It was late. He went to the kitchen, took some bread, butter and cheese and went to look for my sister. He looked in the garden. She was not there. He looked in the yard. She was not there. He could not find her. Then he went out into the street. He asked people:
"Have you seen34 a little girl with red hair and brown eyes?"
But the people said, "No, we haven't35."
My father went home. He did not know what to do. When we came home, my mother went to the kitchen and said:
"Why didn't you give Nancy her bread and butter?"
Father told her all about my naughty little sister.
And then my mother said:
"I know where she is. She is with old Mr. Smith."
We all went to Mr. Smith, and there we saw my naughty little sister. She was playing with little boxes.
"Come home," said my father.
"I don't want to," said my naughty little sister.
"Come home. It is late. You must drink your milk," said my mother.
"I don't want to."
Then Mr. Smith said, "Take this picture and give it to your doll. She will like it." And Mr. Smith took his beautiful picture from the wall and gave it to my naughty little sister.
My sister was very happy. She forgot to say Thank you to Mr. Smith and ran home very quickly.
And we all went home, too.
IX. My Naughty Little Sister Goes to School
One day when I was a little girl, my mother got a letter from my grandmother. She was ill, and she asked my mother to come to her.
"Take your sister to school with you," said my mother to me.
"She can't sit still for five minutes," I said.
"I can sit still," said my little sister.
My mother wrote a letter to my teacher. My teacher answered:
"Yes, Nancy may come to school if she is a good girl."
My sister was very happy. Do you know what she did? She found my father's old bag and put a pencil and a notebook into the bag. She went to bed very early. She was a very good girl.
In the morning she got up early. She washed her face and neck and dressed quickly. After breakfast my mother went to my grandmother, and we went to school.
Our lessons began at 9 o'clock. But we came to the schoolyard earlier. My sister said Good morning to everybody in the yard.
When we came into the classroom, the teacher said:
"Jack is ill. So your sister may sit at his desk."
My little sister did not talk. She looked and looked. She looked at the teacher, she looked at the schoolboys and schoolgirls. She looked at the blackboard and at the pictures on the wall.
The children opened their bags and took out their pencils and notebooks. My sister opened her bag, too. She took out her pencil and her notebook.
Then the teacher called all the children's names. The children said: "Present." But she did not call my sister's name, because she was not a pupil. Then my naughty little sister got up and said:
"I want a present, too."
Everybody laughed36. Then the teacher gave her some plasticine37. My little sister made a red flower, and the teacher said it was very nice.
The teacher read us a story, and my sister listened, too. When the teacher asked questions about this story, all the children put up their hands and my sister put up her hand. And she gave a good answer. The teacher said:
"Your little sister is very clever."
Then we drew pictures. I drew a house, a tree and a lake. But do you know what my little sister drew? She drew our teacher. Yes, she drew our nice teacher. She drew her with very little eyes and very long black hair, and a very big mouth.
"I like your picture," said our teacher. "I like it very much."
Then we all went to the schoolyard and played there. We played ball. My little sister played ball, too.
Then we went to the classroom again. We read a story in a book, but my little sister could not read, so she fell asleep38. She slept till four o'clock when the lessons were over and we went home.
X. The Baby-Tooth39
When I was a little girl and my little sister was a very little girl, we had an apple-tree behind our house. We liked to pick apples and eat them.
One day my little sister picked a very big green apple. When she began to eat it, one of her little teeth got loose40. My little sister began to cry.
"Don't cry," said my mother. "It's a baby-tooth. All your little baby-teeth will get loose and new teeth will grow."
My little sister liked to show her tooth to everybody. She showed it to the postman and to her friend the shoe-mender.
"Come," said my mother. "I'll pull it out41."
"No, no! Don't pull it out!" said my naughty little sister. "I like my tooth."
Then the shoe-mender said, "You must show it to the doctor. The doctor likes to see nice baby-teeth."
"I want to go to the doctor," said my naughty little sister to my mother. "I want to show him my baby-tooth. He likes to see nice baby-teeth."
"All right!42" said my mother.
So my little sister went to the doctor. She showed her tooth to the people who were there. Everybody liked her little tooth.
"You have a very nice tooth," said the doctor. "I collect nice teeth. Can you give me your tooth? I want to show it to the people who come to me."
And do you know what my little sister did? She pulled out her tooth and gave it to the doctor.
"Here it is," she said. "You may take it. You can show it to the people who come to you."
She was a funny little girl, wasn't she?
XI My Naughty Little Sister Goes to the Theatre
Once when my little sister was four, our mother took us to the theatre.
The theatre was very beautiful. My sister and I liked it very much.
When we were in the theatre, my little sister did not talk. She looked at the curtain and at the beautiful walls and the big lamps over our heads.
She looked at the boys and girls and at their mothers and fathers. But when the curtain went up43 and a little funny man came out, she looked only at this funny man. His name was Humpty-Dumpty44. He said:
"How do you do, little boys and girls?"
"How do you do?" we all said.
But my little sister cried:
"Hullo, Humpty-Dumpty!"
Everybody laughed, and Humpty-Dumpty said: