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+Project Gutenberg's Mildred's Inheritance, by Annie Fellows Johnston
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Mildred's Inheritance
+ Just Her Way; Ann's Own Way
+
+Author: Annie Fellows Johnston
+
+Illustrator: Diantha W. Horne
+
+Release Date: November 22, 2005 [EBook #17133]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MILDRED'S INHERITANCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Garcia, Janet Blenkinship and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Kentuckiana Digital Library)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ MILDRED'S
+
+ INHERITANCE
+
+
+ [Illustration]
+
+
+ ANNIE FELLOWS
+ JOHNSTON
+
+
+ COSEY CORNER SERIES
+
+
+
+
+ MILDRED'S INHERITANCE
+
+ ----
+
+ JUST HER WAY
+
+ ----
+
+ ANN'S OWN WAY
+
+
+
+
+ Works of
+
+ Annie Fellows Johnston
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ The Little Colonel Series
+ (Trade Mark)
+
+ The Little Colonel $ .50
+ The Same. Holiday Edition 1.25
+ The Giant Scissors .50
+ The Same. Holiday Edition 1.25
+ Two Little Knights of Kentucky .50
+ The Same. Holiday Edition 1.25
+ The Little Colonel Stories 1.50
+ (Containing in one volume the three stories, "The
+ Little Colonel," "The Giant Scissors," and
+ "Two Little Knights of Kentucky.")
+ The Little Colonel's House Party 1.50
+ The Little Colonel's Holidays 1.50
+ The Little Colonel's Hero 1.50
+ The Little Colonel at Boarding-School 1.50
+ The Little Colonel in Arizona 1.50
+ The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation 1.50
+
+ Other Books
+
+ Joel: A Boy of Galilee 1.50
+ Big Brother .50
+ Ole Mammy's Torment .50
+ The Story of Dago .50
+ Cicely .50
+ Aunt 'Liza's Hero .50
+ The Quilt that Jack Built .50
+ Flip's "Islands of Providence" .50
+ Mildred's Inheritance .50
+ In the Desert of Waiting .50
+ The Three Weavers .50
+ Keeping Tryst .50
+ Asa Holmes 1.00
+ Songs Ysame (Poems, with Albion Fellows
+ Bacon) 1.00
+
+ L.C. PAGE & COMPANY
+ 200 Summer Street Boston, Mass.
+
+
+
+
+ [Illustration: "THREE PRETTY COLLEGE GIRLS LEANED OVER THE RAILING OF
+ THE UPPER DECK." (_See page_ 1).]
+
+
+
+
+ Cosy Corner Series
+
+
+ MILDRED'S
+ INHERITANCE
+
+ JUST HER WAY
+
+ ANN'S OWN WAY
+
+
+ By
+
+ Annie Fellows Johnston
+
+ Author of "The Little Colonel" Series, "Big Brother,"
+ "The Story of Dago," "Joel: A Boy of Galilee," etc.
+
+ _Illustrated by_
+
+ Diantha W. Horne
+
+ [Illustration]
+
+ _Boston_
+ _L.C. Page & Company_
+ 1906
+
+ _Copyright, 1899_
+ BY THE TRUSTEES OF THE PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF
+ PUBLICATION AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK
+
+ _Copyright, 1906_
+ BY L.C. PAGE & COMPANY
+ (INCORPORATED)
+
+ _All rights reserved_
+
+ First Impression, May, 1906
+
+ _COLONIAL PRESS_
+ _Electrotyped and Printed by C.H. Simonds & Co._
+ _Boston, U.S.A._
+
+ [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+ CONTENTS
+
+ PAGE
+
+ MILDRED'S INHERITANCE 1
+
+ JUST HER WAY 27
+
+ ANN'S OWN WAY 55
+
+
+ [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+ ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+ PAGE
+
+ "THREE PRETTY COLLEGE GIRLS LEANED OVER
+ THE RAILING OF THE UPPER DECK" (_See Page_ 1) _Frontispiece_
+
+ "BEFORE THE DAY WAS OVER THE TWO WERE
+ TALKING TOGETHER LIKE OLD FRIENDS" 5
+
+ "SAT DOWN ON THE BATTERED LITTLE BOX TO
+ WAIT" 11
+
+ "SHE READ THAT POOR MUFFIT HAD OVERTAXED
+ HER EYES" 21
+
+ "THE PASSING OF THE VILLAGE OMNIBUS WAS
+ AN EXCITING EVENT" 29
+
+ "SHE AND MISS BARBARA PORED OVER A MAP
+ OF WASHINGTON" 42
+
+ "'I WISH DAISY AVERY COULD SEE HER NOW,'
+ SHE MUTTERED, SAVAGELY" 47
+
+ "SAT PERCHED AMONG ITS GUARDED BRANCHES" 56
+
+ "IT WAS THE BOX THAT HELD THE GREEN KID
+ SHOES" 63
+
+ "ANN FOLLOWED GINGERLY IN THEIR WAKE" 69
+
+
+
+
+MILDRED'S INHERITANCE
+
+
+As the good ship _Majestic_ went steaming away from the Irish coast, one
+sunny September morning, three pretty college girls leaned over the
+railing of the upper deck, watching the steerage passengers below. With
+faces turned to the shore which they might never see again, the
+lusty-throated emigrants were sending their song of "Farewell to Erin"
+floating mournfully back across the water.
+
+"Oh, look at that poor old grandmother!" exclaimed one of the girls.
+"There; that one sitting on a coil of rope with a shawl over her gray
+head. The pitiful way she looks back to land would make me homesick,
+too, if I were not already on my way home, with all my family on board,
+and all the fun of the sophomore year ahead of me. Let's go down to the
+other end of the deck, where it is more cheerful."
+
+They moved away in friendly, schoolgirl fashion, arm in arm, intent
+only on finding as much enjoyment as possible in every moment of this
+ocean voyage. A young English girl, dressed in deep mourning, who had
+been standing near them, followed them with a wistful glance; then she
+turned to look over the railing again at the old woman on the coil of
+rope.
+
+"I wish that I could change places with her," thought the girl. "She is
+so old that she cannot have many homesick years in store, while I--left
+alone in the world at seventeen, and maybe never to see dear old England
+again--" The thought brought such an overwhelming sense of desolation
+that she could not control her tears. Drawing her heavy black veil over
+her face, she hurriedly made her way to her deck-chair, and sank down to
+sob unseen, under cover of its protecting rugs and cushions.
+
+This was the first time that Mildred Stanhope had ever been outside of
+the village where she was born. The only child of an English clergyman,
+the walls of the rectory garden had been the boundary of her little
+world. She could not remember her mother, but with her father for
+teacher, playmate, and constant companion, her life had been complete in
+its happiness.
+
+If the violets blooming within the protecting walls of the old rectory
+garden had suddenly been torn up by the roots and thrown into the
+street, the change in their surroundings could have been no greater than
+that which came to Mildred in the first shock of her father's death. She
+had been like one in a confused dream ever since. Some one had answered
+the letter from her mother's brother in America, offering her a home.
+Some one had engaged her passage, and an old friend of her father's had
+taken her to Liverpool and put her on board the steamer. Here she sat
+for the first three days, staring out at the sea, with eyes which saw
+nothing of its changing beauty, but always only a daisy-covered mound in
+a little churchyard. All the happiness and hope that her life had, ended
+in that.
+
+"Who is the pretty little English girl?" people asked when they passed
+her. "She doesn't seem to have an acquaintance on board."
+
+"I never saw such a sad, hopeless face!" exclaimed one of the college
+girls whom the others called "Muffit." "If she were an American girl I'd
+ask her to walk with us. But English girls are so reserved and shy, and
+I am afraid it would frighten her."
+
+If Muffit could have known, that cold, reserved manner hid a heart
+hungry for one friendly word. It was the third day out before any one
+spoke to her. She had been warned against making the acquaintance of
+strangers, but one look at the gentle-voiced, white-haired lady who took
+the chair next her own, disarmed every suspicion. The lady was dressed
+in deep mourning, like herself, and she had a sweet, motherly face that
+drew Mildred irresistibly to her. Before the day was over the two were
+talking together like old friends. When she saw how the girl grieved for
+her father, she tried to draw her away from her sorrow by questioning
+her about her future.
+
+[Illustration: "BEFORE THE DAY WAS OVER THE TWO WERE TALKING TOGETHER
+LIKE OLD FRIENDS."]
+
+Mildred answered with a shiver. "Oh, I try not to think about that at
+all. I have never seen Uncle Joe or any of his family, and everything
+must be so strange and queer in America. Now, if they lived in India I
+would not dread going half so much; for there would be something
+homelike in feeling that I was still under the protection of our queen.
+I cannot bear to think of leaving the ship, for it will be like
+leaving the last bit of home, to step from under the dear old Union
+Jack. 'A stranger in a strange land,'" she added, her lips quivering.
+
+"No, dear, not as strange as you think," added the lady, with a motherly
+hand-clasp. "Don't you know that one corner of our country is called New
+England, in loving remembrance of the old; that your blood flows in our
+veins regardless of dividing seas, and gives us the same heritage of
+that proud past which you hold dear? Don't you know that thousands of us
+go back every year, like children of the old homestead, drawn by all
+those countless threads of song and story, of common interests and aims
+and relationships that have kept the two nations woven together in the
+woof of one great family?
+
+"Let me tell you a bit of personal sentiment that links me to the old
+town of Chester on the River Dee. There is a house there that, until
+recently, was in the possession of my husband's family for nobody knows
+how many generations. Thousands of travellers go every year to see the
+inscription over its door. Once, over two hundred years ago, an awful
+plague swept the town, and every family in it lost one or more of its
+household. Only this one house was spared, and in grateful memory of
+its escape there was carved over the door the inscription:
+
+ "'GOD'S PROVIDENCE IS MINE INHERITANCE.'
+
+"That became the family motto, and it is engraved here in my
+wedding-ring. The beautiful thought has helped me over many times of
+perplexity and sorrow, and has become the inspiration of my life.
+Because we can trace it back to that place, I have grown to love every
+stone in the quaint old streets of Chester."
+
+She sat twisting the plain gold circlet on her finger for a moment, and
+then added thoughtfully: "In the light of her history America might well
+set that inscription over her own door: 'God's providence is mine
+inheritance.' It would be none the less appropriate because it reaches
+back past the struggling colonists and past the _Mayflower_ to find the
+roots of that faith in the mother country, in a little English town
+beside the Dee.
+
+"No, my dear," she exclaimed, looking up at Mildred; "it is not a land
+of strangers you are going to. We sing 'America' and you sing 'God Save
+the Queen,' and we both feel sometimes that there is a vast difference
+between the songs. But they are set to the same tune, you know, and to
+alien ears, who cannot understand our tongue or our temperament, they
+must sound alike."
+
+Life seemed very different to Mildred when she went to her stateroom
+that night, and her cheery companion inspired her with so much hope
+before the voyage was over that she began to look forward to landing
+with some degree of interest. How much of her new-found courage was due
+to the presence of her helpful counsellor Mildred did not realize until
+she came to the parting. They were standing at the foot of the gangplank
+in the New York custom-house.
+
+"I am sorry that I cannot stay to see you safe in your uncle's care,"
+the lady said, "but my son tells me there is barely time to catch the
+next train to Boston. Good-bye, my child. If you get lonely and
+discouraged, think of the motto in my wedding-ring, and take it for your
+own."
+
+The next instant Mildred felt, with a terrible sinking of the heart,
+that she was all alone in the great, strange, new world.
+
+Following the directions in her uncle's letter, she pushed her way
+through the crowds until she came to the section marked "S," where he
+was to meet her. There was no one in sight who bore any resemblance to
+the description he had written of himself. She stood there until her
+trunk was brought up, and then sat down on the battered little box to
+wait.
+
+An hour went by, and she began to look around with frightened, nervous
+glances. A half-hour more passed. The crowds had diminished, for the
+officials were making their custom-house examinations as rapidly as
+possible. All around her the sections were being emptied, and the
+baggage wheeled off in big trucks. The newsboys and telegraph agents had
+all gone. A great fear fell suddenly upon her that her uncle was never
+coming, and that she would soon be left entirely alone in this barnlike,
+cavernous custom-house, with its bare walls and dusty floors; and night
+was coming on, and she had nowhere to go.
+
+She was groping in her pocket for a handkerchief to stop the tears that
+would come, despite her brave efforts to wink them back, when some one
+spoke to her. It was the pretty college girl whom the others had
+called Muffit.
+
+[Illustration: "SAT DOWN ON THE BATTERED LITTLE BOX TO WAIT."]
+
+"Are you having trouble with your baggage too?" she asked, kindly. "One
+of our trunks was misplaced, and they would not examine anything until
+it was found. It is here at last, thank fortune, so that we shall not be
+delayed much longer. Mamma and I have noticed you waiting here, and
+wondered if you were in the same predicament. Papa says that he will be
+so glad to help you in any way he can, if you need his assistance." She
+did not add that her mother had said, "I can't go away with any peace of
+mind until I see that child safe in somebody's hands."
+
+"There is some dreadful mistake!" sobbed Mildred. "My uncle was to meet
+me here, and I do not know what to do!" She buried her face in her
+handkerchief, and the next minute "Muffit's" mother had her arms around
+her. Then she found that the girl's name was not Muffit, but Mildred,
+like her own, Mildred Rowland.
+
+When Mildred Stanhope told Mrs. Rowland her name, that motherly woman
+exclaimed, "Oh, Edward! What if it were our daughter left in such a
+trying position! She shall just come to the hotel with us and stay until
+we hear from her uncle. Wasn't it fortunate that that old trunk delayed
+us so long! We might have hurried off and never known anything about
+you. Well, it's all right now. Mr. Rowland shall telegraph to your
+uncle, and we will keep you with us until he comes."
+
+The next two days were full of strange experiences to Mildred. The rush
+and roar of the great city, the life in the palatial hotel, with its
+seeming miles of corridors and hundreds of servants, bewildered her. In
+response to Mr. Rowland's telegram the reply came: "Joseph Barnard died
+last Wednesday. Call for letter Blank Hotel." The message was signed
+Derrick Jaynes. The letter, which was brought up an hour later, bore the
+same signature. It had been written at the request of Mrs. Barnard by
+her minister. It told Mildred of her uncle's sudden death, occurring the
+day that she left Liverpool, and had been sent to the hotel to which Mr.
+Barnard had intended to take his niece, Mrs. Barnard supposing that her
+husband had given Mildred that address in case of any slip in making
+connections.
+
+The kindly old minister seemed to realize the unhappy position in which
+the young girl was placed, and gave minute directions regarding the
+journey she would have to take alone, while Mr. Rowland arranged for her
+comfort in the same fatherly way he would have done for his own Mildred.
+"What would I have done without you?" she exclaimed, in a choking voice,
+as she clung to Mrs. Rowland at parting. "Now I shall be adrift again,
+all alone in the world, as soon as you unclasp your hand."
+
+"No, Providence will take care of you, dear," answered Mrs. Rowland.
+"Just keep thinking of that motto you told me about, and let us hear
+from you when you are safe in Carlsville."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Easter had always come to Mildred with the freshness of country meadows,
+with cowslips and crocuses, with the soft green of budding hedgerows and
+a chorus of twittering bird-calls in the old rectory garden. This year,
+after her long, dreary winter in Carlsville, she looked out on the roofs
+of the smoky little manufacturing town, and saw only red brick factories
+and dingy houses and dirty streets. The longing for the spring in her
+old English home lay in her heart like a throbbing pain. "Oh, papa," she
+sobbed, resting her arms on the window-sill and laying her head wearily
+down, "do you know all about it, dearest? Oh, if you could only tell me
+what to do!"
+
+A week before, her aunt, Belle Barnard, had said, in her sickly,
+complaining voice, "Well, Mildred, I don't like to tell you, but I have
+been talking the matter over with the girls, and they think that we
+might as well be plain-spoken with you. Everybody thought that your
+Uncle Joe was a rich man, and so did we till we got the business settled
+up. Now we find that after the lawyers are paid there won't be enough
+for us all to live on comfortably. At least there wouldn't be if it
+wasn't for a small inheritance that Maud and Blanche have from their
+grandmother, and, of course, they couldn't be expected to divide that
+with you, and deny themselves every comfort; so I don't see any help for
+it but for you to get a place in some store or millinery shop, or
+something. We have to move in a smaller house next week."
+
+The week had nearly gone by, and Mildred was growing desperate.
+Unfitted for most work, either in strength or education, she scarcely
+knew for what to apply, and went from one place to another at her aunt's
+recommendation, feeling like a forlorn little waif for whom there was no
+place anywhere in the world.
+
+One afternoon she sat by her window, looking out on the early April
+sunshine, trying, with the hopelessness of despair, to form some plan
+for her future. "Why didn't I have a grandmother to leave me an
+inheritance like Blanche and Maud?" she thought, bitterly.
+
+Then her thoughts flew back to the day on shipboard, when she had heard
+of the old house in Chester and the inscription in her companion's
+wedding-ring. "And she told me to take that motto for my own," she
+whispered through her tears. "'God's providence is mine inheritance!' If
+it is, the time has certainly come for me to claim it, for I have never
+been in such desperate need."
+
+The few times that winter that Mildred had gone to any service, had been
+in the church in the next block. Its gray stone walls, with masses of
+overhanging ivy, reminded her of the one she had loved at home. God had
+seemed so very far away since she came to Carlsville. She prayed as she
+had always done before, but her prayers seemed like helpless little
+birds, unable to rise high enough to carry her pleadings to the ear of
+the great Creator who had so many cries constantly going up to him. She
+had not realized before how big the world was and how small a part her
+little affairs played in the plan of the great universe. A longing for
+some closer communion than she had known before drew her toward this
+church, of which Derrick Jaynes was the rector. The door was unlocked,
+and the slender black figure slipped in unobserved. In the big empty
+church her desolate little moan was all unheard and unheeded, as she
+knelt at the altar sobbing, "Oh, God, I don't know what will become of
+me if you do not help me now! Oh, show me 'mine inheritance!'"
+
+Three times during that week she went back to that same place with that
+same cry. The last time she went some one was in the church. It was the
+organist, practising some new Easter music for the next day's services.
+A burst of triumphant melody greeted her as she noiselessly opened the
+side door. She met the florist coming out, for he had just completed the
+decorating, and the place was a mass of bloom. All around the chancel
+stood the tall, white Easter lilies, waiting, like the angels in the
+open tomb, with their glad resurrection message--"He is risen!"
+
+As Mildred stood with clasped hands, an unspoken prayer rising with the
+organ's jubilant tones and the incense of the lilies, she felt a touch
+on her shoulder. It was the white-haired old minister.
+
+"I saw you come in," he said, in a whisper. "I have been trying all day
+to find time to call at your aunt's to talk with you. You do not know,
+but I have been in correspondence several times this winter regarding
+you, with a Mr. Rowland. He wrote me when you first came that his wife
+and daughter were deeply interested in you, and wanted to be kept
+informed of your welfare. This morning I received a letter which needs
+your personal answer. I am very busy now, but shall try to see you
+Monday in regard to it."
+
+Mildred's heart beat rapidly as he handed her a large,
+businesslike-looking letter and went softly out again. In the dim light
+of the great stained-glass windows she read that poor Muffit had
+over-taxed her eyes, and that they were so badly affected she could not
+go back to school for the spring term. In looking for some one who could
+be eyes for their Mildred, so that she might go on with her studies at
+home, they had thought of this other Mildred, the little English girl,
+whose low, musical voice had been so carefully trained by her father in
+reading aloud. By one of these strange providences which we never
+recognize as such at the time, Mr. Rowland had broken his spectacles the
+last evening of Mildred's stay in New York. She had offered to read the
+magazine article which he was particularly anxious to hear, and they had
+been charmed by her beautifully modulated voice. Now the letter had been
+written to offer her a liberal salary and a home for the summer.
+
+Mildred gave a gasp of astonishment. It was not the almost miraculous
+finding of what she had come to seek that overwhelmed her. It was a
+feeling that swept across her like a flood, warm and sweet and tender;
+the sudden realization that a hand stronger than death and wise above
+all human understanding had her in its keeping. She dropped on her knees
+at the flower-decked altar-rail, with face upturned and radiant; no
+longer lonely; no longer afraid of what the future might hold. She had
+come into her inheritance.
+
+[Illustration: "SHE READ THAT POOR MUFFIT HAD OVERTAXED HER EYES."]
+
+Kneeling there she looked back again to her father's lowly grave in the
+little churchyard across the seas, but she saw it no longer through
+hopeless tears. Into her heart the great organ had pealed the gladness
+of its exultant Easter message, and in the deep peace of the silence
+which followed, the fragrance of the lilies breathed a wordless "Amen!"
+
+
+
+
+JUST HER WAY
+
+
+"Look out of the window, Judith! Quick! Mrs. Avery is going away!"
+Judith Windham, bending over the sewing-machine in her bedroom, started
+as her little sister's voice came piping shrilly up the stairs, and
+leaving her chair she leaned out of the old-fashioned casement window.
+
+There were so few goings and comings in sleepy little Westbrooke, that
+the passing of the village omnibus was an exciting event. With an
+imposing rumble of yellow wheels it rattled up to Doctor Allen's gate
+across the road. A trunk, a dress suit case, and numerous valises were
+hoisted to the top of it, and the doctor's family flocked down to the
+gate to watch the departure of the youngest member of their household,
+Marguerite.
+
+It had been four years since the first time they watched her go away, a
+nineteen-year-old bride. Since then they had visited her, severally and
+collectively, in her elegant apartments in Washington, but this had been
+her first visit home. Judith, watching her flutter down the walk with
+her hand in the old doctor's, thought she looked even prettier and more
+girlish than on her wedding-day. Married life had been all roses for
+Marguerite.
+
+"She's the same dear old harum-scarum Daisy she always was, in spite of
+the efforts of her Lord Chesterfield of a husband to reform her,"
+thought Judith, fondly, as her old schoolmate, catching sight of her at
+the window, waved her parasol so wildly that the staid old 'bus horses
+began to plunge.
+
+The girls had bidden each other good-bye the night before, but
+Marguerite stopped in the midst of her final embracings to call out,
+"Good-bye, again, Judith. Remember, I shall expect you the first of
+February." Then the slender figure in its faultless tailor-made gown
+disappeared into the omnibus. Her husband, a distinguished, scholarly
+man, lifted his hat once more and stepped in after her. The door banged
+behind them, and, creaking and swaying, the ancient vehicle moved off in
+a cloud of dust.
+
+[Illustration: "THE PASSING OF THE VILLAGE OMNIBUS WAS AN EXCITING
+EVENT."]
+
+Feeling that something very bright and interesting had dropped out of
+her life, Judith went back to the sewing-machine. As she picked up her
+work an involuntary sigh escaped her.
+
+"That's a very sorry sound, Judith. Are you tired?"
+
+It was a sympathetic voice that asked the question, and Judith looked up
+with a smile. Her mother's cousin stood in the doorway--a prim little
+old spinster, who had been their guest for several days. Like
+Marguerite, she, too, had come back to her native village after an
+absence of four years, but not to her father's house. She was all alone
+in the world, save for a few distant relatives who called her Cousin
+Barbara. After a short visit, she would go away for another long
+absence, but not, like Marguerite, to a life full of many interests and
+pleasures. She had only her music pupils in a little Pennsylvania mining
+town, and a room in a boarding-house.
+
+"Come in, Cousin Barbara," said Judith, cordially. "I was sighing over
+Marguerite's departure. You know she was my best friend at school, and I
+have missed her so much since her marriage. The other girls in our class
+have all gone away to teach or take positions somewhere, except the two
+who married and settled down here in Westbrooke; and they have such
+different interests now. All they can talk about is their housekeeping
+or their babies. Most of the boys have gone away, too. I don't wonder.
+Anybody with any ambition would get away from such a place if it were
+within the range of possibilities."
+
+Cousin Barbara had seated herself in a low rocking-chair and was pulling
+the basting threads from a finished garment. "Listen!" she said, "isn't
+that Amy calling again?" An excited little voice came shrilly up the
+stairs.
+
+"Look, Judith! Mrs. Avery is coming back again! What do you suppose is
+the matter?"
+
+The omnibus dashing down the road stopped suddenly at the gate opposite.
+The door burst open, and the dignified Mr. Avery, in undignified haste,
+ran breathlessly toward the house, while Marguerite called out a
+laughing explanation to her friend at the window.
+
+"I left my watch on the dressing-table and my purse with my trunk keys
+in it, and we've only six minutes to catch the train. Isn't that just my
+way? Look at Algernon run! I wouldn't have believed it of him. Well, it
+has given me another chance to remind you that you are to come to me in
+February. You needn't shake your head. I'll not take 'no' for an answer.
+You're so good at planning, Judith, I'm sure you can arrange it some
+way."
+
+Then as her husband returned, red-faced and breathless, she leaned out
+of the 'bus, and laughingly blew an airy kiss from her fingertips.
+
+"That's just like her!" exclaimed Judith. "She's as irresponsible and
+careless as a child. She was always late to school, and losing her
+pencils and forgetting her books. We used to call her 'Daisy
+Dilly-dally.' She's such a dear little butterfly, though, and it doesn't
+seem possible that we are the same age--twenty-three. I feel like a
+patriarch beside her."
+
+"So she has invited you to visit her in Washington," began Miss Barbara.
+"I am glad of that. It will be such a fine change for you."
+
+To her surprise, the gray eyes filled with tears, and in her effort to
+wink them back Judith did not reply for a moment. Then she answered,
+lightly, "Yes; it would be a golden opportunity if I could only afford
+to accept, but the wolf is still at the door, Cousin Barbara. It has
+stood in the way of everything I ever longed to do. Even when a child I
+used to hear so much about it that I thought it was a veritable
+flesh-and-blood wolf. Many a night I slipped out of bed and peered
+through the curtain, all a-shiver. I wanted to see if its fiery eyeballs
+were really watching at the door. I wanted to see them if they were
+there, and yet was terrified to peep out for fear they were. Even now it
+seems more than a mere figure of speech. Often I dream of having a
+hand-to-hand struggle with it, but I always conquer it in the end--in my
+dreams," she added, with a gay little laugh. "And that is a good omen."
+
+That cheery laugh was the key-note of Judith's character, Miss Barbara
+thought. All her life she had taken the pinch of poverty bravely for the
+sake of her invalid mother and the three younger sisters whom she was
+now helping through school. Gradually she had shouldered the heavy
+responsibilities laid upon her, until she had settled down to a routine
+of duty, almost hopeless in its monotony. Miss Barbara noted with keen
+eyes that a careworn look had become the habitual expression of the
+sweet girlish face, and she sat wishing with all her heart that she were
+something herself besides a poorly paid little music teacher with the
+wolf lurking at her own door. As she wound the basting threads on a
+spool she planned the rose-coloured future Judith should have if it were
+only in her power to give it.
+
+Judith must have felt the unspoken sympathy, for presently she burst
+forth: "If I could only go away, just once, and have a real good time,
+like other girls, just once, while I am young enough to enjoy it, I
+wouldn't ask anything more. I've never been ten miles outside of
+Westbrooke, and I'm sure no one ever longed to travel more than I. I
+never have any company of my own age. Our old set is all gone, and my
+friends are either elderly people or the school-children who come to see
+the girls. And they all are so absorbed in the trivial village
+happenings and neighbourhood gossip.
+
+"What I want is to meet people out in the world who really do
+things,--men like Mr. Avery, for instance; Daisy is always entertaining
+distinguished strangers, artists and authors and musicians. Friendship
+with such cultured, interesting people would broaden the horizon of my
+whole life. I have a feeling that if I could once get away, it would
+somehow break the ice, and things would be different ever after." Then
+she added, with a tinge of bitterness that rarely crept into her voice,
+"I might as well plan to go to the moon. The round-trip ticket alone,
+without the sleeping-car berth, would be at least forty dollars,
+wouldn't it?"
+
+Miss Barbara nodded. "Yes, fully that. It costs me almost that much to
+go to Packertown and back, and that, you know, is a few hours this side
+of Washington."
+
+There was silence for several minutes, while Judith, already ashamed of
+her outburst, stitched twice round the skirt she was making for Amy.
+Then she said in a cheerful tone that somehow forbade any return to the
+subject, "Tell me about Packertown, Cousin Barbara. How did you happen
+to stray off there after a music class?"
+
+The trip to Washington was mentioned no more that summer, but Miss
+Barbara understood.
+
+It was the middle of September when the old yellow omnibus rolled up for
+Miss Barbara and her trunk. This time there was no returning in mad
+haste after forgotten property. With a precision that was almost
+fussiness, she had packed her trunk days before her departure, and her
+bonnet was on an hour before train time.
+
+"I can't help it," she said, calmly, when Judith remonstrated. "It's
+just my way. I have a horror of keeping any one waiting. Habitual
+disregard of punctuality in the keeping of an engagement or a promise is
+a sort of dishonesty, in my opinion. I suppose I do carry it to an
+extreme in minor matters, but it is better to do that than to cause
+other people needless anxiety and trouble."
+
+Miss Barbara was mounted on her hobby now, and she ambled vigorously
+along until Amy, with a sigh of relief, announced that she heard wheels.
+Amy had heard Cousin Barbara's views more than once, when a missing shoe
+button, a torn glove, or an unanswered note, claimed immediate
+attention.
+
+"Remember, Judith," said Miss Barbara, at parting, "if anything should
+happen to make it possible for you to go to Washington, be sure and let
+me know. I want to arrange for you to stop with me a week on your way."
+But even as Judith spoke her thanks, she shook her head. She had stopped
+building air-castles.
+
+Winter came early to Westbrooke. Mrs. Allen ran over occasionally with a
+letter from Marguerite, who was an erratic correspondent, sometimes
+sending interesting daily bulletins of sixteen or twenty pages,
+sometimes breaking a month's silence by only a postal card. They rarely
+heard from Miss Barbara, but, one snowy day late in January, Amy dashed
+in from the post-office with a letter to Judith, addressed in her
+unmistakable precise little hand. She wrote:
+
+ "The new year began for me with a great pleasure, Judith dear. An
+ old bill, which I had been unable to collect for so long that I
+ crossed it off my books two years ago, was paid very unexpectedly,
+ and I feel as if I had fallen heir to a dukedom.
+
+ "It is enough to enable you to make your visit to Washington and to
+ pay your board in the room next to mine for two weeks. Maybe there
+ will be enough to get the material for a simple evening gown, and
+ you can make it while you are here, or at home. It depends on
+ whether you go first to Mrs. Avery or to me. Write to her at once,
+ please, so that I may know when to expect you.
+
+ "Oh, my dear child, you do not know the unalloyed pleasure I have
+ already had in anticipating not only your visit to me, but your
+ good times in Washington. I feel that your enjoyment of the outing,
+ which I would have enjoyed so intensely at your age, will, in a
+ way, compensate me for my starved, unsatisfied girlhood, and I am
+ sure you are too generous to refuse me the pleasure.
+
+ "Enclosed you will find the check and a card on which I have
+ written all necessary directions as to railroad connections,
+ time-tables, etc."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+No girl of fifteen could have been more enthusiastic in her rapturous
+expressions of delight than Judith, as she danced into her mother's
+room, waving the check. Amy looked on in amazement.
+
+"I didn't know that sister could get so excited," she said to her
+mother, afterwards.
+
+"It is the first great pleasure she has ever had," said Mrs. Windham,
+with a sigh. "It means far more to her than a trip to Europe would to
+Marguerite. We all must help her to make the most of it."
+
+It seemed to Judith that all Westbrooke had heard of her proposed
+journey before night. Neighbours ran in to talk it over and proffer
+their assistance. The little old trunk that had gone on her mother's
+wedding journey was brought down, and the family dropped various
+contributions into it, from Mrs. Windham's well-preserved black silk
+skirt, to Edith's best stockings. Amy brought her coral pin and only
+lace-trimmed handkerchief, begging Judith to wear them when she went to
+the White House. "Then I can tell the girls they've seen the President
+of the United States," she said, proudly.
+
+Lillian, next in age to Judith, presented her outright with her
+Christmas gloves. "Mittens are good enough for Westbrooke," she said.
+"Just bring me a leaf from Mount Vernon and one from Arlington for my
+memory book. I can hardly realize that you are really going to see such
+famous places."
+
+Marguerite's letter in response to Judith's news came promptly. She
+named a long list of sights which she had planned for Judith to see,
+and mentioned a noted violinist who was to visit Washington the
+following month and had promised to play at the musicale she intended
+giving on the sixteenth.
+
+"I am sure you will like that better than anything," she wrote. "Make
+your visit to Miss Barbara first. I wish I could have you come on the
+first of February, as I invited you to do, but, unfortunately, Mr.
+Avery's mother and sisters are with us just now, and they occupy all our
+spare room. They do not expect to stay long after my cousin's reception
+on the third, however, and I will write as soon as they leave, and let
+you know just what day to come."
+
+The first week of Judith's visit in Packertown fairly flew by. Miss
+Barbara was away much of the time, both morning and afternoon, with her
+music pupils, but Judith busied herself with the making of the dainty
+white dinner gown, and wove happy day-dreams while she worked. In the
+evenings she and Miss Barbara pored over a map of Washington until they
+could locate all the prominent places of interest, and then Miss Barbara
+brought out a pile of borrowed magazines in which were interesting
+descriptions of those very places, and they took turns in reading
+aloud.
+
+[Illustration: "SHE AND MISS BARBARA PORED OVER A MAP OF WASHINGTON"]
+
+When the dress was completed they had a little jubilee. Judith wore it
+one evening, with its dainty flutter of ribbons, for Miss Barbara to
+admire, and they invited the landlady and her daughter in to have music
+and toast marshmallows.
+
+"You don't look a day over eighteen," Miss Barbara declared. "You ought
+to wear white all the time."
+
+"It is given only to saints and the 'lilies that toil not' to do that,"
+answered Judith, gaily. "I am satisfied to be arrayed just on state
+occasions." And then because she was so happy she seized the little
+music teacher and waltzed her round and round before the mirror. "It's
+all your doing, you blessed Cousin Barbara! See how you have
+metamorphosed me."
+
+Several days later she stood idly turning the calendar. "This is the day
+of the reception," she said; "the Averys will certainly be going home
+soon, and I ought to hear from Marguerite."
+
+But no letter came the next day, nor the next, nor all the following
+week, although she went to the post-office several times daily.
+
+It grew dull waiting, with Miss Barbara gone so much, and with nothing
+to do. She read the few books at her disposal, she paced up and down in
+the two little back bedrooms that she and Miss Barbara occupied. She
+took long walks alone, but the little mining town was even smaller than
+Westbrooke, and she found scant material with which to fill her letters
+home.
+
+The two weeks for which she had been invited came to an end, and Judith
+grew desperate over her fruitless trips to the post-office. She knew
+that Miss Barbara had just made the payment that was due the Building
+and Loan Association in which she was putting her little earnings, and
+would be almost penniless until the end of another term. Besides, she
+had accepted all that she was willing to take from the hard-worked
+little music teacher.
+
+"I have packed my trunk and am going home to-morrow, Cousin Barbara,"
+she announced. "Mr. Avery's family have evidently stayed longer than
+Daisy expected, and she can't have me. Maybe some of them are ill."
+
+"Then she should have written and told you so," said Miss Barbara,
+waxing so indignant over the neglect of her _protegee_ that she grew
+eloquent on the subject of her hobby--punctuality, especially in
+correspondence.
+
+"I suppose you wouldn't want to write again?" she suggested.
+
+But Judith shook her head. "Oh, no, no!" she insisted; "Daisy
+understands perfectly that I can stay here only two weeks. I explained
+the situation fully in my letter. I mailed it myself, and I am sure that
+she received it. And I couldn't thrust myself upon her, you know. She
+has probably forgotten all about her invitation by this time; this visit
+doesn't mean as much to her as to me."
+
+"But I can't bear to be disappointed after going so far," said Miss
+Barbara. "She'll surely write in a few days. You'll just have to stay
+another week. I can arrange for that long. The landlady wants the room
+after the twenty-first for a permanent boarder, but you can't go until
+then."
+
+In spite of all Judith's protestations, Miss Barbara kept her, and never
+did a week drag by so slowly. It snowed incessantly. Miss Barbara was
+unusually busy. Judith took a severe cold that confined her to the
+house. Her eyes ached when she attempted to read, and all she could do
+was to pace up and down the room and look out of the window, or watch
+the clock in feverish impatience for Miss Barbara to return with the
+mail.
+
+But not until the sixteenth, the day of the musicale, did she lose hope.
+When the hour came in which she should have been listening to the famous
+violinist in Marguerite's elegant drawing-rooms, she threw herself on
+the bed and cried as if her heart would break. It had been years since
+she had given away to her emotions as she did then, but the
+disappointment was a bitter one. She must go back home without even a
+glimpse of the city of her dreams, and without meeting a single
+interesting person. True, she had had a pleasant visit with Cousin
+Barbara, but they both had thought of it as only the stepping-stone to
+what lay beyond. Then at the thought of Miss Barbara's disappointment,
+second only to her own, she cried again. And again for her mother's
+disappointment and the girls', and her mortification when it should be
+discussed in every house in Westbrooke. She sobbed so long that finally
+she fell into a deep sleep of exhaustion.
+
+Miss Barbara, coming in later in the twilight, found her lying on the
+bed, with a feverish flush on her cheeks. The grieved, childlike droop
+of the sensitive little mouth told its own story, and Miss Barbara set
+her lips sternly together.
+
+"I wish Daisy Avery could see her now," she muttered, savagely; "it's
+cruel to disappoint any one so. I don't care what the cause is, it's
+wickedly cruel to be so careless."
+
+[Illustration: "'I WISH DAISY AVERY COULD SEE HER NOW,' SHE MUTTERED,
+SAVAGELY."]
+
+Four days later Judith went home. In the course of a week a letter
+was forwarded to her from Packertown. It was from Marguerite:
+
+ "How can you ever forgive my abominable carelessness? I intended to
+ answer immediately after our guests left, but Mr. Avery and I were
+ invited to a little house-party in the country, and I thought a few
+ days wouldn't make any difference to you. Then, after our return,
+ so many things interfered and the days slipped by so fast, that the
+ month was nearly gone before I realized it. But then I always have
+ been such a poor correspondent.
+
+ "I hope that it hasn't inconvenienced you any, and that you have
+ been having a good visit with Miss Barbara. You know my unfortunate
+ way of doing things, and I'm sure you'll forgive me, like the
+ darling you always were.
+
+ "We shall look for you to-morrow on the six o'clock train. Don't
+ disappoint us, for we both shall be at the station to meet you.
+
+ "Devotedly,
+ "MARGUERITE."
+
+
+Judith read the letter aloud to the girls and then dropped it in the
+fire, watching it without a word, as it curled up in the flame. How
+long she had waited for that careless little letter! How anxiously she
+had hoped for it! A few days sooner it would have brought untold
+happiness. Now it was only a hollow mockery. Well, it was all over now.
+Her hopes were in ashes like the letter. How high they had burned! And
+the little evening gown she had taken such pleasure in making--there
+would never be any occasion fit for its wearing in Westbrooke. She might
+as well fold it away. The letter had come too late. And she was asked to
+forgive it--the disappointment that would sting all her life
+long--simply because it was Daisy's way.
+
+The silence was growing uncomfortable. Amy kept casting frightened
+glances at her sister's white, tense face. "Oh, dear," she sighed,
+finally, "if this had only been in a story it wouldn't have ended so
+dreadfully. Something nice would have happened just at the last minute
+to make up for the disappointment."
+
+"But it isn't in a story," said Judith, slowly, rising to leave the
+room. "And nothing can compensate for such a disappointment. It will
+hurt always."
+
+As the door closed behind her the girls exchanged sympathizing glances.
+"If there had even been a good reason," sighed Lillian, "but it was only
+carelessness. And the trouble of it is, the world is full of Daisy
+Averys."
+
+
+
+
+ANN'S OWN WAY
+
+
+"Ann! Ann! Have you been home yet to feed the chickens?" The call came
+from the doorway of a big old farmhouse, where a pleasant-faced woman
+stood looking out over the October fields.
+
+The answer floated down from an apple-tree near by, where a ten-year-old
+girl sat perched among its gnarled branches. She had a dog-eared book of
+fairy tales on her knee, and was poring over it in such blissful
+absorption that she had forgotten there were such things in all the
+world as chickens to be fed.
+
+"No'm, Aunt Sally, I haven't done it yet, but I'll go in a minute," and
+she was deep into the story again.
+
+"But, Ann," came the voice after a moment's waiting, "it is nearly
+sundown, and you ought to go right away, dear. Lottie says that you have
+been reading ever since you came home from school, and I am afraid that
+your mother wouldn't like it."
+
+[Illustration: "SAT PERCHED AMONG ITS GUARDED BRANCHES"]
+
+"Oh, bother!" exclaimed Ann under her breath, shutting the book with an
+impatient slap; but she obediently swung herself down from the limb,
+and went into the house for the key. The little cottage where Ann Fowler
+lived stood just across the lane from her Uncle John's big brown house,
+where she was staying while her mother was away from home. Mrs. Fowler,
+who had been called to the city by her sister's illness, had taken
+little Betty with her, but Ann could not afford to miss school and had
+been left in her Aunt Sally's care. The arrangement was very agreeable
+to the child, for it meant no dish-wiping, no dusting, no running of
+errands while she was a guest. Her only task was to go across the lane
+twice a day and feed the chickens.
+
+As Ann came out of the house swinging the key, her aunt called her
+again: "Mrs. Grayson was here to-day. She came to invite you and Lottie
+to a Saturday afternoon romp with her little girls to-morrow. She's
+asked a dozen boys and girls to come and play all afternoon and stay to
+tea. Her oldest daughter, Jennie, is going to give a Hallowe'en party at
+night, but she'll send you home in the carryall after tea, before the
+foolishness begins."
+
+"Didn't she invite us to the party too?" asked Ann, who had heard it
+discussed at school all week by the older girls and boys of the
+neighbourhood, until her head was full of the charms and mysteries of
+Hallowe'en.
+
+"Why, of course not," was the answer. "Jennie Grayson is fully eighteen
+years old and wouldn't want you children tagging around."
+
+"But we can't work any charms in the afternoon," said Ann, "They won't
+come true unless you wait till midnight to do 'em. I found a long list
+of 'em in an old book at home and gave them to Jennie. I think she might
+have asked me. I'd love to try my fate walking down cellar backwards
+with a looking-glass in one hand and a candle in the other. They say
+that you can see the reflection of the man you're going to marry looking
+over your shoulder into the glass."
+
+"Why, Ann Fowler!" exclaimed her aunt in a horrified tone, lifting up
+both hands in her astonishment. "I didn't think it of a little girl like
+you! Don't you go to putting any foolish notions like that into Lottie's
+head. Fate indeed! It would be more like your fate to fall down cellar
+and break the looking-glass and set yourself on fire. No, indeed!
+Lottie shouldn't go to such a party if she had a dozen invitations."
+
+Ann hurried away wishing that she had not spoken. She had an
+uncomfortable feeling that her aunt considered her almost wicked,
+because she had made that wish. As for her aunt, she was saying to her
+husband, who had just come in, "Well, well! that child has the queerest
+notions. Her mother lets her read entirely too much, and anything she
+happens to get her hands on. And she sets such store by her clothes,
+too. I believe if she had her own way she'd be rigged out in her Sunday
+best the whole week long. I'm glad that Lucy isn't like her."
+
+No one, judging by the appearance of the resolute little figure trudging
+across the lane, would have imagined that Ann's besetting sin was a love
+of dress. She was such a plain old-fashioned little body, with her short
+brown hair combed smoothly back behind her ears. But the checked
+sunbonnet, the long-sleeved gingham apron, and the stout calfskin shoes
+were no index of Ann's taste. They were of her mother's choosing, and
+Ann's mother was not a woman whose decisions could be lightly set
+aside.
+
+In a bureau drawer in the guest-chamber of the little cottage was a
+dress that Ann had been longing to put on for six months. It was of
+dainty white organdy, made to wear over a slip of the palest green silk,
+with ribbons to match. And carefully wrapped in a box, with many
+coverings of tissue paper, was a pair of beautiful pale green kid shoes.
+Ann had worn them only once, and that was in the early spring, when she
+had gone to a cousin's wedding in the city. Many a Sunday morning since,
+she had wept bitter tears into that drawer, at not being allowed to wear
+the costume to church.
+
+"Just see how beautiful they are, mother," she would say tearfully,
+touching the beribboned dress with admiring fingers and caressing the
+shoes. "By the time I have another chance to wear them in the city they
+will be too small for me, and I shall have to give them to Betty. I
+don't see why I can't wear them out here."
+
+"Because they are not suitable, Ann," her mother would answer. "You
+would look ridiculous going through the fields and along the dusty roads
+in such finery, and among all these plainly attired country people you
+would appear overdressed. I hope that my little daughter is too much of
+a lady in her tastes to ever want to call attention to herself in that
+way, especially at church."
+
+"But, mother," the little girl would sob protestingly, and then Mrs.
+Fowler's decided voice would silence her.
+
+"Hush, Ann! Close the drawer at once. You cannot wear them." That would
+settle the matter for awhile, but the scene had been repeated several
+times during the summer. Now it was next to the last day of October, and
+no suitable occasion had arrived for Ann to wear them.
+
+As she stood scattering the corn to the chickens, a daring plan began to
+form itself in her busy brain. The trees suggested it; the trees of the
+surrounding woodland, decked out in their royal autumn colouring of red
+and yellow, that the sunset was just now turning into a golden glory.
+
+"Even the trees get to wear their best clothes sometimes," she said to
+herself. "They look like a lot of princesses ready for a ball. Oh,
+that's what they are," she exclaimed aloud. "They are all Cinderellas.
+October is their fairy godmother who has changed their old every-day
+dresses into beautiful ball-gowns, for them to wear on Hallowe'en. I
+don't see why I couldn't wear my best clothes too, to-morrow." Then she
+went on, as if she were talking to the old white rooster: "I'd rather be
+dressed up and look nice than to play, and I needn't romp at all. If we
+were to begin trying charms after supper, Mrs. Grayson would be almost
+sure to let us stay until after Jennie's party begins, and then all the
+big boys and girls would see my lovely clothes. Nobody out here knows
+I've got 'em. And then if I should go down cellar with a looking-glass
+and candle and somebody should look over my shoulder, I'd be so glad
+that the first time he ever saw me I was all in green and white like the
+Princess Emeralda, with my beautiful pale green party shoes on."
+
+Alas! Aunt Sally was right. The flotsam and jetsam of too many
+sentimental stories and fairy tales were afloat in the child's active
+mind. A few minutes later she had gathered the eggs and put them away in
+the pantry. Then she stepped into the sitting-room, awed by the solemn
+stillness that enveloped the usually cheerful room. How strange and
+dark it seemed with all the blinds closed! She groped her way across the
+floor, and tiptoed through the hall as if she were afraid that the great
+eight-day clock in the corner might hear her and call her back. Its loud
+tick-tock was the only sound in the house, except her own rapid
+breathing.
+
+[Illustration: "IT WAS THE BOX THAT HELD THE GREEN KID SHOES."]
+
+Throwing open a western window, she pushed back the shutters until the
+guest-chamber was all alight with the glow of the sunset. Then she
+clutched the handles of the bureau drawer with fingers that twitched
+guiltily, and gave a jerk. It was locked. For a moment her
+disappointment was so great that she was ready to cry, but her face soon
+cleared and she began a search for the keys. Under the rug, in the vases
+on the mantel, behind photograph frames, into every crack where a key
+could be hidden, she peered with eager brown eyes. It was not to be
+found. Finally she climbed on a chair to the highest closet shelf, where
+she came across something that made her give a cry of delight. It was
+the box that held the green kid shoes.
+
+"I'll wear this much of my party clothes, anyhow," she declared,
+scrambling down with the box in her arms. Then followed a fruitless
+search for the silk stockings that matched them. They were not in the
+box with the shoes, where they had always been kept, and a rummage
+through the drawers showed nothing suitable.
+
+She heard her Aunt Sally's cook blowing the horn for supper before she
+gave up the search. That night after she and Lottie had gone up to bed,
+she took her cousin into her confidence.
+
+"Mother hasn't left a thing unlocked but my school clothes," she said.
+"I can't find a stocking except my red ones and my striped ones and some
+horrid old brown things. She hasn't left out a single white pair for
+Sundays; I don't see what she could have been thinking of." Nowadays
+little girls might not think that such a distressing matter, but
+twenty-five years ago no stockings but white ones were considered proper
+for full-dress occasions.
+
+"I'll lend you some," said Lottie obligingly. "I have a pair of fine
+white lamb's wool that will fit you. They are a little small for me, and
+ma put them away to keep because grandma knit them herself after she was
+eighty years old. But I know she would not care if you wore them just
+once."
+
+"Then let's get them to-night and not say anything about it until after
+to-morrow," said Ann. "She might say I ought not to wear the shoes, and
+I'm just bound to have my own way for once in my life."
+
+When Ann's dark eyes flashed as wickedly as they did then, Lottie always
+submitted without a word. Opening a big chest in one corner of the room,
+she began fumbling among the pile of neatly wrapped winter flannels it
+contained, while Ann held the candle.
+
+"I saw ma put them in this corner," said Lottie. "I am sure. Oh! here
+they are," she exclaimed, and as she unfolded them she sneezed so
+suddenly that it nearly put out the candle. "It's the red pepper," she
+explained. "They're full of it, to keep out the moths. Hold them up and
+shake them hard."
+
+Several shrivelled red pods fell out as Ann obeyed, and so much loose
+pepper that they both began sneezing violently. Lottie's mother
+presently called up the stairs for them to hurry to bed, for they surely
+must be taking cold.
+
+The next afternoon when Mrs. Grayson's carryall drove down the lane Ann
+was waiting in front of the cottage, and climbed in before her Aunt
+Sally came out to the gate to see them off.
+
+"Tuck the lap-robe around you well," she called. "If I had known it was
+so cold, I'd have gotten out your hoods instead of those sunbonnets. It
+really begins to feel as if winter is on the way."
+
+It was a dull gray day with a hint of snow in the air. Several flakes
+fell before they reached the Grayson farm, and Ann pulled aside the
+lap-robe more than once to peep at the light green shoes with secret
+misgivings as to their appropriateness. The wool stockings made them
+such a tight fit that they pinched considerably, but the pinching was
+more than compensated for by the shapely appearance of her trim little
+feet. Besides there was a vast amount of satisfaction to the wilful
+child in the mere knowledge that she was having her own way.
+
+[Illustration: "ANN FOLLOWED GINGERLY IN THEIR WAKE."]
+
+Under ordinary circumstances Ann would have looked back at that
+afternoon as one of the merriest of her life. She loved the woods like
+an Indian, and usually was the leading spirit in such exploits as they
+ventured on that day. They were off to the woods with baskets and
+pails as soon as they had all assembled. But for once the late wild
+grapes hung their tempting bunches overhead in vain. The persimmons,
+frost-sweetened and brown, lay under the trees unsought by Ann's nimble
+fingers, and the nuts pattered down on the dead leaves unheeded. While
+the other children raced down the hills and whooped through the frosty
+hollows, Ann followed gingerly in their wake, picking her way as best
+she could through the rustling leaves and across the slippery logs that
+bridged the little brooks. It was too cold to sit down. She was obliged
+to keep stirring; so all that miserable afternoon she tagged after the
+others, painfully conscious of her fine shoes, and a slave to the task
+of keeping them clean.
+
+"Hi! Ann, what's the matter?" called one of the boys as he noticed her
+mincing along at the tail-end of the procession instead of gallantly
+leading the charge as usual. Then his glance wandered down past the
+checked sunbonnet and the long-sleeved gingham apron to the cause of her
+leisurely gait.
+
+"My eyes!" he exclaimed with more vigour than politeness. "What made you
+pull your shoes so soon for, Ann? They ain't ripe. They're green as
+gourds."
+
+"Mind your own business, Bud Bailey," was the only answer he received,
+but from then on what had been her greatest pride became her deepest
+mortification. For some unaccountable reason, after awhile her feet
+burned as if they were on fire, and before the afternoon was over the
+pain was almost unbearable. Lottie found her sitting on a log behind a
+big tree, with her arms clasped around her knees, rocking back and
+forth, her eyes tightly closed and her teeth clenched.
+
+"It must be the red pepper in those stockings that burns you so," she
+said sympathetically. "Come on up to the house and take them off. Lucy
+will lend you another pair."
+
+But Ann sprang up, fiercely forbidding her to mention it to any one, and
+dashed into the games with a Spartan disregard of her pain. It was the
+only way to keep from crying, and she played recklessly on at
+"prisoner's base," not stopping even when a pointed stick snagged one
+shoe and a sharp rock cut the other.
+
+It was nearly dark when they went up to the house. Bud Bailey swung his
+baskets over the fence and turned to help the girls, but after his
+unfortunate speech to Ann, she scorned his gallantries. Scrambling to
+the top rail by herself at a little distance from his proffered hand,
+she poised an instant, and then sprang lightly down. Unfortunately, she
+had not looked before she leaped. Bud's basket was in the way, and both
+feet sank into a great pulpy mass of wild grapes, that instantly
+squirted their streams of purple juice all over her light shoes. They
+were splotched and dyed so deeply that no amount of rubbing could ever
+wipe away the ugly stains. They were hopelessly ruined.
+
+Alas for the Princess Emeralda, who that night might have learned her
+fate in the charm mirror! It was a Hallowe'en she could never forget,
+since its unhappiness was both burned and dyed into her memory. She sat
+through the tea, her feet like hot coals, too miserable to enjoy
+anything. Afterwards, when Jennie's guests began to arrive, she shrank
+into a corner, with her dress pulled down far as possible.
+
+It seemed weeks before the carryall was driven up to the door, but at
+last she was jolting along the frozen road beside Lottie on the way
+home. Out in the starlight, within the protecting privacy of her
+sunbonnet, she could let fall some of the tears she had been fighting
+back so long. Neither of the children spoke until the carryall turned
+into the home lane. Then Lottie cried out; "Oh, Ann! There's a light in
+your house. Your mother must have come back sooner than she expected.
+Yes, I can see Betty at the window watching for you."
+
+At the gate Ann climbed over the wheel and then turned to exclaim
+savagely, "I know what you're thinking, Lottie Fowler, even if you don't
+dare say it. You're thinking you're glad that you are not in my shoes!
+But I've had my own way, anyhow!" Then with her head high she marched up
+the path to the house.
+
+But in spite of her brave speech, when she reached the door-step, she
+stopped to wipe her eyes again on her apron. The carryall drove away,
+and still she stood there saying to herself with a little sob, "Oh, I
+wonder if the Prodigal Son was half as much ashamed to go home as I am!"
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Mildred's Inheritance, by Annie Fellows Johnston
+
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