Amelia Bedelia is the first book in the Amelia Bedelia

Amelia Bedelia

This article is about the protagonist in the childrens book series of the same name. For the first book in the series, see Amelia Bedelia ...

 childrens book series. It was written by Peggy Parish

Peggy Parish

Peggy Parish of Manning, South Carolina , was the author of the children's story series Amelia Bedelia. The series was continued, after her sudden death from an aneurysm, by her nephew Herman Parish...

 and published in 1963.

Synopsis

The silly Amelia Bedelia is hired as a maid

Maid

A maidservant or in current usage housemaid or maid is a female employed in domestic service.-Description:Once part of an elaborate hierarchy in great houses, today a single maid may be the only domestic worker that upper and even middle-income households can afford, as was historically the case...

 for the wealthy Rogers family. Despite meaning well, Amelia cannot seem to do anything right. Mrs. Rogers gives her a list of chores to complete while the family goes out for the day. After choosing to make a lemon meringue pie

Lemon meringue pie

Lemon meringue pie is a type of baked pie, usually served for dessert, made with a crust usually made of shortcrust or shortbread pastry, lemon curd filling and a fluffy meringue topping. Lemon meringue pie is typically prepared with a bottom pie crust, but with no upper crust: i.e. the meringue is...

 to be nice, Amelia proceeds to take all the chores literally: she "dresses the chicken

Chicken

The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...

" in tiny clothes, "drawing the drapes" on a piece of notebook

Notebook

A notebook is a book or binder composed of pages of notes, often ruled, made out of paper, used for purposes including recording notes or memoranda, writing, drawing, and scrapbooking....

 paper

Paper

Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....

 and "puts out the lights" by hanging them on the clothesline.

When the Rogers return home, Mrs. Rogers is bewildered that none of the chores are done. On the verge of firing Amelia, she has a bite of Amelia's pie shoved in her mouth, and finds it so delicious she forgives Amelia and decides to keep her--but vows to write more explicit instructions in the future.

The List

Amelia's list went like this...and listed is what she did.

• Put out the lights - Took all the lightbulbs out of their sockets and hung them on a clothesline.
• Dust the furniture - Literally threw dust on the furniture (in her house they "undust" furniture)
• Change the towels in the green bathroom - Used scissors to change the look of the towels.
• Draw the drapes when the sun comes in - Drew a picture of the drapes.
• Measure two cups of rice - Poured rice in two coffee cups, stacked them, measured them with a ruler, then dumped the rice back in the box.
• Trim the fat on the steak - Put lace trimmings around the steak.
• Dress the chicken - Put clothes on the chicken.

(The last two things she was still allowed to do in the future.)