Looking quickly about her, she spied a large snake just below her naked
feet, among the loose stones. Uttering a loud scream, she sprang terrified
from the spot; nor did she slacken her speed until she reached the
schoolhouse, her delicate feet cut and bleeding in several places, and a
large thorn in the side of one foot, which pained her sadly. The girls
laughed at her fright, and one rude boy ran out, shouting, at the top of
his voice,--
"Hallo, boys! hallo! Annie Allis has come to school barefooted."
Poor, foolish child! what would she have given if she had only obeyed her
mother!
The little white feet swelled and ached all the day long. Annie had hardly
ever felt so much pain in all her life, and there was nobody to pity her.
But the pain in her feet was nothing to the pain in her heart. How could
she meet her dear mother, after having so wickedly disobeyed her? At length
school was out. Slowly and painfully she walked homeward. As she approached
the house she shook with pain and dread. Down in the little grove at her
right hand she saw Susie and Mary with the dear little baby, and they
beckoned her to come to them; but she could not. Oh, how could the guilty
child look into the clear, sweet eyes of that innocent one, with such a
load of sin and disobedience on her heart?
Softly--just like a _thief_--she stole round the house, as she thought,
unobserved.
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