ROSIE’S NOSES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XVIII, 1 May 1897, Page 559

ROSIE’S NOSES.

BY

ALICE A. SMITH.

OH, dear !’ sighed Rosie. The sigh was so deep and Rosie's face so sober that Aunt Em and Sister Lillie looked np from their work. ‘ What’s the matter. Puss ?* inquired auntie. ‘ I wish I didn’t have a pug-nose,' said Rosie, sadly. Auntie and Lillie looked amused, while Rob. who was lying on the lonnge, langhed outright. She was snch a little girl that no one suspected a heavier trial than a broken doll or a dead kitten. ‘Wei l , I do.’ she persisted. ‘ Rob says it points to my bangs.’ ‘ So it does.’said Rob. still laughing; ‘straight upto her little curly bangs. Look at it ’ ‘Don't tease her, Robbie.’ said Aunt Em. • Don’t mind him, my dear, ’ she said to Rosie; pug-noses are nice. See, mine is a pug.’ Rosie looked at Aunt Em’s nose critically. ‘ Well, I don’t think it’s very nice.’ she said. ‘ Anyway, I wish I didn’t have one.’ ‘ You ought to be satisfied with your looks, Rosie,’ remarked Lillie ‘ Now my nose is a pug too. but I don't feel bad about it.* • But you ain’t satisfied with your hair, ’cause you curl it with hot irons every day.’ ‘ Oh, that’s only to make it look a little better,' said Lillie, in self-defence ; ‘now I wouldn’t dye it to make it any other colour.’ ’Well, I only want to make my nose look a little better; I don’t want to change its colour—only its shape.’ ‘ What kind of a nose do you want ?’ asked Aunt Em. ‘ Like Hannah Lee’s.’ said Rosie. I heard her mother say yesterday that Hannah’s nose was just perfic ; and when she saw me she said to the lady that was with her. “ What a horrid pug-nose that child’s got !” and the lady said, “ Yes, ’ain't she ?” ’ ‘ I tell vou what. Puss, that was hard.’exclaimed Rob. ‘ but you just get your nose fixed over. Yon can do it as easy as wink. There’s a man down town that makes noses grow any shape you want them. And I I read the other day that if you wear a patent clothespin on your nose it will grow straight and “ perfic.” ’ ‘ But. Pussie.’ said Aunt Em, suppose you changed your nose, and we didn’t any of us recognize you, what would you do ? I am sure we would all miss that dear little pug if it were gone.’ ‘ There’d be my mouth and eyes, and I’d know all the rest of vou. and I’d tell you who I was,' answered Rosie. ' Of course you would,' said Rob ; ‘no danger but we would know you. I’ll send along the first good fairy I see. and have the thing fixed up.’ Rosie wondered if he meant it, but she didn’t ask him. because he teased so much. Then auntie and Lillie left the room, and Rob soon followed. After that Rosie settled down in the big soft chair by the fire, and as it began to grow dark she wondered why nurse didn’t come to put her to bed. While she wondered the door opened, and the queerest creature came in and walked up close to her. He was very little, not half as high as the table. He had funny thin legs and a big body. His eyes were round and bright, his mouth large and well turned up at the corners, giving him a very jolly look, and his nose was the puggiest of pugs. The little girl knew he was a

Brownie ; she had seen Brownies’ pictures so often. At first she was frightened and was going to scream, when she caught sight of a little basket he was carrying. It was full of noses of all shapes and sizes. He must be the good fairy Rob was going to send, so her brother wasn't teasing her after all. ‘I hear yon don't like your nose.' said the Brownie. • No.’ said Rose, not quite sure whether or not she ought to say sir. ‘ Well, all you’ve got to do is to choose the one you want out of my basket, and I’ll have it on for you in no time.’ Rosie forgot her fright, and thought only of the new nose that there was a chance of getting, so she watched with interest as the Brownie held up one after another for her inspection. ‘Try that, now,’ he said, holding up a large red one with a big bend in it. She held it up to her face and looked in the glass. It made her think of the woman in the fairy story whose chin turned up and nose turned down, making her look like a nut-cracker. ■ Oh, that won’t do at all,’ she said, laying it back in the basket. ‘ There, let me see that, and she pointed to a beautiful straight white one. as perfect as Hannah Lee's own. The Brownie handed it to her, and she held it in place. • Ah, that is fine !’ cried he ; ‘ what do you think ? ” Rosie said it was just what she wanted, so the Brownie took a bag of tools from the basket, and climbing upon the arm of the chair began to put the nose on. When he had finished he said : ‘ Now you look fine indeed with that beautiful nose. All the other children will wish they had seen me, too ;’ and before she could say a word he had gone. Rosie sat and stared in theglass for a long time, thinking how glad papa and mamma would be to have her look so nice, and how Rob couldn’t tease her about her nose any more But, alas ! just as Aunt Em had said, no one knew her. Their Rosie hadn't a straight nose like that, they declared, but a cunning little turned-up one. In vain she told them that it had been made over, and begged them to look at her eyes and hair and mouth, and showed them two rows of pearly teeth. She looked for Rob, but he was not to be found. It made her sad not to be recognized, but she would go to the Sunday-school picnic, anyway. ‘ I guess they’ll know me there,’ she said to herself. So she started off and looked with scorn upon several girls with pug-noses that she met on her way that she almost made the straight new one turn up. She went into the Sunday-school room and took her seat. Soon Rosie's teacher came in. • Who are you, my dear ?’ she asked. ‘l’m RoseCady.’the child replied, timidly. ‘ Oh, no, you can’t be ; Rosie hasn’t that kind of a nose.’ Poor, poor Rosie '. The happy moment had come for starting, and hundreds of little eyes danced with pleasure, and hundreds of little feet could scarcely keep from dancing, but Rosie stood sorry and ashamed. Her teacher called the superintendent and said to him. ' Here is a little girl who says she is Rose Cady, but she doesn’t look the least like her.’ ‘ It's funny,’ thought Rosie. ‘ that noses are the onlythings girls is known by,' and then she said aloud, ‘ I came to go to the picnic.’ ‘ Why not let her go ?’ asked the superintendent. ‘ It wouldn’t do at all ; we can take only our own pupils, and likely her mother knows nothing about it. I'm sorry, my dear, but we couldn't think of taking vou.’ Rosie walked out, her heart almost bursting, and that horrid nose hurting all the time. Here were a hundred happv bovs and girls, all dressed clean, and with their very own" noses, going in a big boat up the river, with music, too, and plenty of good things to eat, and she, because she hadn’t been satisfied with her nose, was turned right away from her own Sunday-school picnic. This state of affairs would never do, and she didn't know where the Brownie had gone. Soon she caught a glimpse of him a little way ahead. ‘ I want my own nose,’ she shrieked, and put up her hand to pull off the one he had given her, it was hurting so, and then she sat up in the big soft chair, and saw Rob on the lounge laughing. In her hand was—what ? Not a new nose at all, but a patent clothes pin, oue of the kind that works with a spring, and is warranted to make pug-noses grow straight if worn long enough. ‘Did you put that thing on my nose, Rob?’ she asked. ‘ Why, ves, Puss ; I wanted to help you get a “ perfic ” nose.’ I thought you’d be glad to get rid of your pug.’ Rosie jumped down from the chair and smoothed her skirts. ‘ I think a pug nose is as nice to have as any other,’ she replied, with dignity.