. CONCLUSION. 215

LITTLE GRANDFATHER.

CHAPTER I.

THE PARLINS.

He did look so funny when they first put him into "pocket-clothes!" His
green "breeches" were so tight that they made you think of two pods of
marrow-fat peas, only they were topped off with a pair of "rocco" shoes,
as red as bell-peppers. He had silver buckles on his shoes, and brass
buttons on his green jacket, which was fastened at the back. He had a
white collar about his neck as large as a small cape, and finished off
around the edge with a ruffle. His mother had snipped his dark locks so
they needn't look so much like a girl's; and then with his brown fur hat
on, which his grandfather Cheever had sent from Boston, he looked in the
glass and smiled at himself.

Do you wonder he smiled?

He had bright black eyes, red cheeks, and a rich, dark skin. He was a
handsome little creature; but when he was tanned, his brother Stephen
called him a "Pawnee Indian," which was a heavy joke, and sank deeper
into Willy's tender soul than Stephen suspected.

After he had viewed himself in the mirror, dressed in his new suit, he
ran to his best comforter, his mother, and said, with a quivering lip,--

"Isn't I _most_ white, mamma?"

His mother caught him to her breast and hugged him, brown fur hat and
all, and told him he mustn't mind Steenie's jokes; he was not an Indian,
and Molly Molasses--the squaw who came around with baskets to
sell--would never carry him off.

He was three years old at this time, and so full of high spirits and
health, that he was rather a troublesome child to manage. Mrs. Parlin
sometimes remarked, with a sigh and a smile,--

"I don't know what I _shall_ do with our Willy!"

If she had said, "I don't know what I should do without him," it would
have been nearer the truth; for never did mother dote more on a child.
He was the youngest, and two little children next older--a son and a
daughter--had been called to their heavenly home before he was born.
People said Mrs. Parlin was in a fair way to spoil Willy, and her
husband was so afraid of it, that he felt it his duty to be very stern
with the boy.

Seth, the oldest son, helped his father in this, and seemed to be
constantly watching to see what Willy would do that was wrong.

Stephen, two years younger than Seth, was not so severe, and hardly ever
scolded, but had a very "hectoring disposition," and loved dearly to
tease his lit