Mrs. Pragoff asked for all their photographs, and gave the Parlins some Polish mittens to carry home to their mother.
"I s'pose you know," said Dotty, privately to Prudy, "there's not another girl at my school been to New York, and treated with such attention; but O, I tell you, I shan't be proud. I shall always love Tate Penny just the same."
When the day came to separate, it went hard with them all.
"Just as we got to having a good time," said Dotty, her face in a hard knot.
"But we shall all meet next summer," said Prudy, hopefully.
"I don't want to wait," moaned Fly, going into her pocket-hangfiss--all but her back hair and the rest of her body.
I have a great mind to let her stay there till we come to the next book, which is, AUNT MADGE'S STORY, TOLD BY HERSELF.
[Illustration: SOPHIE MAY'S "LITTLE-FOLKS" BOOKS.]
"The authoress of THE LITTLE PRUDY STORIES would be elected Aunty-laureate if the children had an opportunity, for the wonderful books she writes for their amusement. She is the Dickens of the nursery, and we do not hesitate to say develops the rarest sort of genius in the specialty of depicting smart little children."--_Hartford Post_.
"The children will not be left without healthful entertainment and kindly instruction so long as SOPHIE MAY (Miss Rebecca S. Clarke) lives and wields her graceful pen in their behalf. Miss CLARKE has made a close and loving study of childhood, and she is almost idolized by the crowd of 'nephews and nieces' who claim her as aunt. Nothing to us can ever be quite so delightfully charming as were the 'Dotty Dimple' and the 'Little Prudy' books to our youthful imagination, but we have no doubt the little folks of to-day will find the story of 'Flaxie Frizzle' and her young friends just as fascinating. There is a sprightliness about all of Miss CLARKE'S books that attracts the young, and their purity, their absolute _cleanliness_, renders them invaluable in the eyes of parents and all who are interested in the welfare, of children."--_Morning Star_.
"Genius comes in with 'Little Prudy.' Compared with her, all other book-children are cold creations of literature; she alone is the real thing. All the quaintness of children, its originality, its tenderness and its teasing, its infinite uncommon drollery, the serious earnestness of its fun, the fun of its seriousness, the naturalness of its plays, and the delicious oddity of its progress, all these united for dear Little Prudy to embody them."--_North American Review_.