"You can't go out," said my mother. "You must stay at home and be a good girl."
But my sister did not like that.
"I want to go out in the rain! I want to go out!"
"Look at the pictures in your book," said my mother.
"I don't want to! I want to go out in the rain!"
My little sister was very naughty.
Then my mother said:
"I shall give you my scissors, and you can cut out pictures."
My mother gave her some old books and the scissors, and my little sister began to cut out pictures. She cut out a dog and a cat, and a brown bear and a red fox. She cut out some flowers and many other pictures.
Then she saw a big box on a chair. She opened the box and saw a beautiful dress with pretty blue flowers on it. My naughty little sister wanted to cut out only one flower. She did so. She liked it and began to cut out many flowers.
Suddenly my mother came in. She was very angry.
"You are a bad, bad girl," she said. "That was my best dress. I shall not give you the scissors again."
And she didn't.
VI. We Go to the Zoo
One day my little sister did not want to eat her breakfast. My mother gave her an egg, some bread and butter and a big cup of milk for breakfast. But she did not want to eat.
"Eat your egg!" said my mother.
"I don't want to. Bad egg!"
"Then you will not go to the Zoo on Sunday!" said my mother.
And my little sister began to eat. She ate her egg and some bread and butter, she drank her cup of milk, too. She wanted to go to the Zoo very much.
On Sunday we put on our best dresses and white socks and white shoes and went to the Zoo. We went there with our cousin Jane. She was a big girl. She was sixteen. We took a bus23, and soon we were at the Zoo. It was very interesting there.
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: