Yet that very time of neglect is the period when they most need all manner of helps , and ought to have them . I like boys and oysters raw ; so , though good manners are always pleasing , I do n't mind the rough outside burr which repels most people , and perhaps that is the reason why the burrs open and let me see the soft lining and taste the sweet nut hidden inside . My first well-beloved boy was a certain Frank , to whom I clung at the age of seven with a devotion which I fear he did not appreciate . There were six girls in the house , but I would have nothing to say to them , preferring to tag after Frank , and perfectly happy when he allowed me to play with him . I regret to say that the small youth was something of a tyrant , and one of his favorite amusements was trying to make me cry by slapping my hands with books , hoop-sticks , shoes , anything that came along capable of giving a good stinging blow . I believe I endured these marks of friendship with the fortitude of a young Indian , and felt fully repaid for a blistered palm by hearing Frank tell the other boys , ` She 's a brave little thing , and you ca n't make her cry . ' My chief joy was in romping with him in the long galleries of a piano manufactory behind our house . What bliss it was to mount one of the cars on which the workmen rolled heavy loads from room to room , and to go thundering down the inclined plains , regardless of the crash that usually awaited us at the bottom ! If I could have played foot-ball on the Common with my Frank and Billy Babcock , life could have offered me no greater joy at that period . As the prejudices of society forbid this sport , I revenged myself by driving hoop all around the mall without stopping , which the boys could not do . I can remember certain happy evenings , when we snuggled in sofa corners and planned tricks and ate stolen goodies , and sometimes Frank would put his curly head in my lap and let me stroke it when he was tired . What the girls did I do n't recollect ; their domestic plays were not to my taste , and the only figure that stands out from the dimness of the past is that jolly boy with a twinkling eye . This memory would be quite radiant but for one sad thing -- a deed that cut me to the soul then , and which I have never quite forgiven in all these years . On one occasion I did something very naughty , and when called up for judgment fled to the dining-room , locked the door , and from my stronghold defied the whole world . I could have made my own terms , for it was near dinner time and the family must eat ; but , alas for the treachery of the human heart ! Frank betrayed me . He climbed in at the window , unlocked the door , and delivered me up to the foe . Nay , he even defended the base act , and helped bear the struggling culprit to imprisonment . That nearly broke my heart , for I believed he would stand by me as staunchly as I always stood by him . It was a sad blow , and I could n't love or trust him any more .
Peanuts and candy , ginger-snaps and car-rides were unavailing ; even XXXXX could not reunite the broken friendship , and to this day I recollect the pang that entered my little heart when I lost my faith in the loyalty of my first boy .
Common Frank crash dimness evenings first foot-ball hoop-sticks manufactory treachery