Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

loo ANNALS OF OUR ANCESTORS
grew the settee and could be led by the hand, becoming the
companion of our rambles through field and wood. I remember
how Brother Will used to delight to carry this dear child
"poose back," or strip off her shoes and stockings to make in
the dusty road the print of her little feet, for they looked "so
cunning." Her heart was always a fountain of love; nothing
grieved her more than to have the boys punished. She would,
on such necessary occasions, become greatly excited and
flushed of face, while with tears and entreaties she begged
mother to throw away the whip. Sometimes she would even
bite mother 's dress while she was punishing the boys, so aroused
would she become. I always believed the boys were spared
many a whipping on account of her tearful pleading in their
behalf. Often have I taken her out to the orchard when it was
necessary for them to be taken through "a course of sprouts."
Sister Ida recalls her one whipping, as I do the sympathy
I gave her at the time. Our mother had the greatest dislike
to what we called by-words in those days, now slang. Indeed
she was most precise in her language, using the clearest, most
exact English — the result of those girlhood days when she
was determined to know. The boys of our family took to all
the slang of the time with amazing facility, and the little
sister was a mimic. One expression on the forbidden list was
"Dog on it!" One day something aroused the little girl's
deep indignation and out came the prohibited expletive.
When our mother attached the penalty she did not expect the
first offender to be her baby; supposedly it would be William
or, perhaps, Joseph.
The little maiden was taken to the north porch downstairs
(the boys were accustomed to receive their punishments
on the side porch upstairs, but Ida was marched out upon the
downstairs porch), and I hid in dismay behind the ash-barrel
while the awful deed was being performed. First mother
washed the round face and the dirty, chubby, little hands;
next she combed her precious culprit's hair and braided the
little pigtails, and last of all laid the baby across her knee and
spanked her.
The moment. the punishment was over away flew little