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[Illustration: "They approached slowly, the little animal permitting
them to come quite close, and then the children saw that it was indeed
a squirrel."--p. 15.]




    THE MARTIN AND NELLY STORIES.


    LITTLE BESSIE, THE CARELESS GIRL,

    OR

    SQUIRRELS, NUTS, AND WATER-CRESSES.


    BY
    JOSEPHINE FRANKLIN,

    AUTHOR OF "NELLY AND HER FRIENDS," "NELLY'S FIRST
    SCHOOL-DAYS," "NELLY AND HER BOAT," ETC.


    BOSTON:
    PUBLISHED BY BROWN AND TAGGARD,
    25 AND 29 CORNHILL.
    1861.




    Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by
    BROWN AND TAGGARD,
    in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District
          of Massachusetts.


    RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:
    STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON.




LIST OF THE

"MARTIN AND NELLY STORIES."


       I. NELLY AND HER FRIENDS.
      II. NELLY'S FIRST SCHOOL-DAYS.
     III. NELLY AND HER BOAT.
      IV. LITTLE BESSIE.
       V. NELLY'S VISIT.
      VI. ZELMA.
     VII. MARTIN.
    VIII. COUSIN REGULUS.
      IX. MARTIN AND NELLY.
       X. MARTIN ON THE MOUNTAIN.
      XI. MARTIN AND THE MILLER.
     XII. TROUTING, OR GYPSYING IN THE WOODS.




CONTENTS.


                   PAGE
    CHAPTER I.
    GOING NUTTING     7

    CHAPTER II.
    THE RIDE HOME    27

    CHAPTER III.
    WATER-CRESSES    41

    CHAPTER IV.
    HUNGRY FISHES    68

    CHAPTER V.
    LOST             98

    CHAPTER VI.
    THE NEST        122




LITTLE BESSIE;

OR,

SQUIRRELS, NUTS, AND WATERCRESSES.




CHAPTER I.

GOING NUTTING.


BESSIE was the only child of a poor widow. The mother and daughter
lived alone together in a small house, about half a mile from Nelly's
home.

Bessie's father died when she was quite young, so young that she did
not remember him. There was a portrait of him, which her mother kept in
her top bureau drawer in her own room. Occasionally the little girl
was allowed to look at it. It made her feel very sad to do so, and the
tears rose in her eyes whenever she thought of what her mother must
have suffered in so great a loss. In the hard task which fell to that
mother of supporting herself and her child, she did not murmur. Before
her husband's death, she had lived in very comfortable circumstances,
but this did not unfit her to work for her living afterwards.

She gathered and sent fruit to market from her little place, she made