"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: