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town!”
    Pa laughed as hard as we children did. He assured Ed that everything had turned out all right, and Grandpa Hobbs was forgiven. We seldom made a trip to town after that but someone would say, “Remember when Grandpa Hobbs took Nellie home by mistake?” I guess that was the most memorable trip to town we had when I was a little girl.

    Grandma continued to rock and crochet, and I returned to the window to watch the rain and think what fun it would have been to be a little girl when Grandma was.

11
    The New Pump
    “Be careful,” said Grandma. “That’s hot!”
    But I had already taken a swallow of the cocoa, and now I knew it was hot. It burned my tongue and all the way down.
    “That’s too bad,” said Grandma. “I know how that feels. I’ve burned my tongue many times. Did you know that something doesn’t have to be hot to burn your tongue?”
    “You can’t burn it on something cold,” I said, still rubbing at the tears that had come to my eyes.
    “Oh my,” Grandma replied, “you surely can. And much worse than you’ve just burned yours. I know because I did it once.”
    “How, Grandma?” I asked.
    “I was quite often a foolish little girl,” said Grandma. “If someone told me not to do something, that was exactly what I wanted to do. Most of the time I had to pay dearly for it too. But this time I learned a lesson I didn’t forget for a long time.”

    It was in the fall that Pa had gotten a new pump. We had drawn the water from a well before, and the pump was a wonderful thing. You just had to move the handle up and down, and the water came gushing out. We all felt quite privileged to have such a wonderful thing in our own yard. The boys didn’t fuss about whose turn it was to get water for Ma, and they could fill the horse trough in just a few minutes. The whole family enjoyed that pump.
    The weather had gotten cold early that year, and we had frost most every night in October. By November the snow was falling, so the boys needed mittens on when they went to get water in the morning. The well was deep so the water didn’t freeze in the winter. Sometimes the pump would be frozen, though, and they would have to bring hot water from the kitchen to pour in and thaw it. Even that extra work didn’t take away from the enjoyment we children got from that new pump.
    One evening our neighbor Mr. Hobbs stopped by to visit. He and Pa sat in the kitchen talking about the crops and the cold weather. I was helping Ma with the dishes. I was always anxious to enter into the conversation, but since I didn’t know much about crops, there seemed to be nothing for me to say. However, during a lull in the talking, I thought of something I did know about.
    “Mr. Hobbs,” I said, “did you know we have a new pump?”
    “No,” said Mr. Hobbs. “Do you really, now? I suppose you bring in all the water for your Ma and water the animals, too, don’t you?”
    I knew Mr. Hobbs was just teasing. The handle was too heavy for me to move fast enough to get the water started. The boys had let me help them pump sometimes when they were in a good mood. But I laughed along with Mr. Hobbs and Pa. A few minutes later Mr. Hobbs rose to leave. As he opened the door, he turned to me and said with a laugh, “Well, Mabel, don’t put your tongue on that pump handle!” Then he and Pa went out into the yard.
    That seemed a strange thing to say. Why would I want to do that? I concluded that Mr. Hobbs was teasing again and thought no more about it.
    Several days later I came out of the house to find everything covered with new snow. I could see my breath in the frosty air, and there were little thin pieces of ice around the edges of the horse trough. I gave the pump handle a few pulls to see if I might be able to get some water, but of course nothing happened. The handle was white with frost, and as I stood looking at it, I remembered Mr. Hobbs’s remark. Since he was only fooling, there was no reason why I shouldn’t lick