Three proverb stories Author:Louisa May Alcott Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: AUNT KIPP. " Children and fools speak the truth." " What's that sigh for, Polly, dear?" "I'm tired, mother, tired of working and waiting. If I'm ever going... more » to have any fun, I want it now while I can enjoy it." " You shouldn't wait another hour if I could have my way; but you know how helpless I am; " and poor Mrs. Snow sighed dolefully, as she glanced about the dingy room and pretty Mary turning her faded gown for the second time. " If Aunt Kipp would give us the money she is always talking about, instead of waiting till she dies, we should be so comfortable. She is a dreadful bore, for she lives in such terror of dropping dead with her heart-complaint that she don't take any pleasure in life herself or let any one else; so the sooner she goes, the better for all of us," said Polly, in a desperate tone; for things looked very black to her just then. " My dear, don't say that," began her mother, mildly shocked; but a bluff little voice broke in with the forcible remark: — "She's everlastingly tellin' me never to put off till to-morrer what can be done to-day; next time she comes I'll remind her of that, and ask her, if she is goin' to die, why she don't up and do it." " Toady ! you're a wicked, disrespectful boy; never let me hear you say such a thing again about your dear Aunt Kipp." " She aint dear ! You know we all hate her,ma, and you are 'fraider of her'n you are of spiders, — so now." The young personage, whose mellifluous name of Theodore had been corrupted into Toady, was a small boy of ten or eleven, apple-cheeked, round-eyed, and curly-headed; arrayed in well- worn, gray knickerbockers, profusely adorned with paint, glue, and shreds of cotton. Perched on a high stool, at an isolated table in a state of chaos, he was absorbed in making a boat,...« less