III. My Naughty Little Sister Makes a Bottle-Tree13

One day my little sister got up very early. My mother was in the kitchen. She wanted to make breakfast for the family, and she did not see that my little sister was not in her bed.

My naughty little sister went to the shed and took a little spade. Then she went to the garden. It was autumn. There were many red and yellow leaves in the garden. There were many pretty flowers in the garden, too. My little sister went to the flowerbed.

But she did not look at the beautiful flowers, which my father liked to plant. She trampled the flowers under her feet and made a hole in the flowerbed.

Do you know why my little sister made the hole in the flowerbed? She wanted to plant an acorn. She had a nice brown acorn in her hand. So she made a hole in the flowerbed and put the acorn in the hole. Then she put a short stick near it.

Do you know why she did that?

She wanted to know the place where the acorn was. She was a clever little girl, wasn't she?14

My little sister went to this place after breakfast and before dinner and after dinner. She took the acorn out and then she put it back again.

Do you know why she took the acorn out? She wanted to see it grow15.

In the evening Father came home and he saw his flowers. He was very angry16.

"You bad, bad girl," said my father. "Why did you trample my flowers?"

"I did not want to trample your flowers. I wanted to plant my acorn. I wanted to see it grow." And my little sister began to cry.

"Your acorn won't grow if you take it out," said my father. "Give it to me."

Father took a bottle, put some water in it and then put the acorn into it.

"Now you can see it grow," said Father.

My little sister put the bottle with the acorn at the window. She looked at it all the time, but it did not grow. She put the bottle near her bed and looked at it in the morning and in the evening. But it did not grow.

"Put the bottle at the window and go and play with your doll," said my mother.

My little sister put the bottle at the window and went to play with her doll. Soon she forgot about her bottle.

One day she looked at the bottle and saw a little green shoot.

"I see a little green shoot," cried my sister.

She was very glad and showed her bottle-tree to everybody.

"Now we can plant the acorn," said my father.

He went to the shed, took the spade and planted the acorn near our house.

The bottle-tree grew and grew, and now it is a big tree, bigger than my sister who is also big now.

When I was a little girl, I had a new doll. Its face was pretty, its eyes were pretty, its dress was pretty, too. My doll could open and close its eyes and say Ma-ma.

I did not play with my doll. I was afraid to break it17. The doll was in a box, and the box was in the wardrobe in my mother's room. When I wanted to see my new doll, my mother took the box out of the wardrobe and showed it to me. I looked at it for some time, and then my mother put it in the box again.

My little sister had a doll, too. Her doll was not new, and it was not pretty. It was old and dirty. It had only one eye, and it had no hair. Its dress was not pretty. My little sister liked her doll very much. She took it to the garden and to the yard. She put it on the floor and on the grass. And when she went to bed, she took her doll with her.

One morning my mother was in the kitchen. She wanted to make breakfast for the family, and she asked me:

"Mary! Do you know where your little sister is?"

"No, I don't," I said.

"Then go and look for her18," said my mother. "Breakfast is ready."

I went to look for my little sister. I looked in the yard. She was not there. I looked in the shed. She was not there. I looked in the garden. She was not there. Then I came back into the house.

Suddenly I heard a noise in my mother's room. I opened the door and looked in.

The wardrobe was open19, and my doll's box was on the floor. It was open, too, but the doll was not there. Then I saw my naughty little sister with my doll in her hands.

"Put the doll into the box," I said.

"No, I don't want to," said my little sister.

"It's my doll! Give it to me!" I said.

But my naughty little sister did not want to give me my doll. I wanted to take the doll away from her. I pulled, and she pulled, too. And the doll fell to the floor. I picked it up and looked at it. Its pretty face was broken20.

I took my doll in my hands, and it did not say Ma-ma. I began to cry, and my naughty little -sister began to cry, too.

Our mother came into the room.

"Don't cry. We shall take the doll to the dolls' doctor, and he will make it well again," she said.

And do you know what my mother did?

She took my doll to the dolls' doctor, and she took my little sister's doll to the dolls' doctor, too.

One day our mother came home and gave us our dolls.

My doll had a pretty face and hair. It could open and close its eyes and say Ma-ma.

My little sister's doll was pretty, too. It had a pretty nose and pretty eyes and hair, and it could say Ma-ma. Its dress was pretty, too.

But my naughty little sister did not like her new doll. She did not take it to the yard or to the garden. She did not put it on the floor or on the grass. She put it into a box and did not take it out again.

One autumn when I was a little girl and my sister was a very little girl, it rained and rained. It was October. It was very cold, and it rained every day. When we went out, we put on our raincoats.

But my little sister liked to walk in the water. One day she walked in the water, and her feet got wet21. So she caught a bad cold22, and she had red eyes.

"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.