initial commit of ebook 44133HEADmain

1 files changed, 5437 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/44133.txt b/old/44133.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3153206
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/44133.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5437 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Girl Warriors, by Adene Williams
+
+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: The Girl Warriors
+       A Book for Girls
+
+Author: Adene Williams
+
+Release Date: November 8, 2013 [EBook #44133]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIRL WARRIORS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: Underscores are used as delimiter for _italics_]
+
+
+
+
+  The Girl Warriors
+
+  _A BOOK FOR GIRLS_
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  By ADENE WILLIAMS
+
+
+  David C. Cook Publishing Company
+  ELGIN, ILL.; OR
+  36 WASHINGTON STREET, CHICAGO.
+
+
+  Copyright, 1901.
+  By David C. Cook Publishing Company.
+
+
+
+
+The Girl Warriors.
+
+_A BOOK FOR GIRLS._
+
+By ADENE WILLIAMS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE BURTONS.
+
+
+Winnifred Burton sat all alone in the pleasant sitting-room, curled up
+in an easy-chair so large that her little figure was almost lost in its
+great depths. The fire in the open grate burned brightly, sending out
+little tongues of flame which made dancing shadows on the walls and
+ceiling, and flashed ever and anon on the bright hair and face and dress
+of the little girl sitting so quiet before it.
+
+It was a dismal day near the close of January. Snow had been falling
+steadily all day, and the window-sill was already piled so high with it
+that by and by it would have to be brushed away in order to close the
+shutters. But Winnifred was so absorbed in the book she was reading that
+she knew nothing of all this. The book was a new edition of "The Giant
+Killer; or, The Battle That All Must Fight." She was just reading how
+the brave but tempted Fides lay in the dreadful Pit of Despair; of
+how he had fallen back, bruised and bleeding, time after time, in his
+endeavors to cut and climb his way out, before he found the little cord
+of love which was strong enough to draw him out with scarcely an effort
+of his own.
+
+Twilight was fast closing in around the little reader, and all the
+letters on the page were beginning to dance up and down. Impatiently
+shaking herself, Winnifred slipped down from her chair, gave the fire
+a little poke, and settled herself on the floor in front of it, holding
+the book so that she could see to read by the flickering light. But she
+had scarcely begun to do so, when the door opened. She gave a little
+jump, and turned quite red in the face.
+
+But it was only her little brother Ralph, who said: "'Innie, mamma says
+if 'oo have 'oor lessons done, 'ou'se to come out and set the table for
+supper."
+
+Her lessons done! Winnie glanced at the pile of books lying on the
+table by the window. Yes, there they all were--her geography, history,
+grammar, arithmetic. When now would she have time to learn those
+lessons? And she felt that she had been dishonest, too, because her
+mother would perhaps have had something else for her to do, if she had
+not supposed she was studying hard. However, there was no help for it
+now, and with a rueful face she left the room.
+
+Mrs. Burton was in the kitchen, so that Winnie escaped being questioned,
+but just now she was taking herself to task, for she had a very guilty
+conscience, and was wondering when she was going to begin fighting her
+giants. She knew only too well what one of them was, and she knew
+also that if she could not find time to learn those lessons, another
+punishment beside the stings of her conscience would await her on the
+morrow.
+
+But presently her father and older brother came home; little Ralph ran
+to get their slippers, while they took off their wet boots; supper was
+put on the table, and they all sat down to the cheerful meal.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Burton had few rules for their household, but they had
+one which was imperative: nothing but cheerful faces and cheerful
+conversation was allowed at the table. Business or household worries
+were kept for private conference, and the little griefs of the children
+were not allowed to be mentioned.
+
+Winnie soon forgot her anxiety in listening to the things that her
+father and brother Jack were saying, and, as the talk was about
+politics, and the tariff, and the state of the market, other little
+girls may not be so interested as Winnie tried to make herself believe
+that she was. So this will be a good time to describe them all, as they
+sit at the table.
+
+All of their acquaintances spoke of the Burtons as a very happy family,
+and this opinion was undoubtedly correct, the reason for which will
+appear later.
+
+Mr. Burton is a tall, handsome, young-looking man, with brown eyes
+having a merry twinkle in them; his eyebrows and moustache are dark and
+heavy, and his firm mouth and chin show character and decision.
+
+Mrs. Burton looks as young as her husband, and Winnie is always taken by
+strangers to be her younger sister, which is a source of great delight
+and comfort to the girl, as she is very proud of her dainty and stylish
+mother. Mrs. Burton has soft brown hair, always prettily dressed; her
+eyes are a deep, soft blue, shaded by long, curling lashes, and with
+straight, delicate eyebrows above. Although she does much of the
+household work, she manages, in some mysterious manner, to keep her
+hands soft and white. Winnie sometimes steals up behind her mother and
+puts her own little brown hands beside one of the soft white ones with
+a little sigh--for she would like her own to be soft and white, too--but
+more often with a merry laugh.
+
+Eighteen-year-old Jack, except that he gives promise of attaining his
+father's noble inches, is much like his mother. He had been intended for
+one of the professions, but all of his talents and inclinations having
+pointed to business, his father finally yielded the point of having him
+go through college, and, upon his graduation from high-school the year
+previous, took him into his own real estate office.
+
+Winnie has eyes and hair like her father, but, in spite of her twelve
+years, is so small and slight that she looks like a child of nine or
+ten.
+
+Four-year-old Ralph is the pet and beauty of the family. His hair
+curls in loose rings all over his head. His hazel eyes have such large,
+dilating pupils, and such a way of shining when anything is given him,
+that his young aunts and uncles, together with Winnie and Jack, are
+always giving him something for the pleasure of seeing his wondering
+look.
+
+"Well, my dear," said Mr. Burton to his wife, as they rose from the
+table, "anything on the carpet for to-night?"
+
+"Yes, if you don't think the weather too bad, I'd like to call on Mrs.
+Brown after Ralph is put to bed."
+
+"Winnie, I should like you to accompany Jack in one of his new violin
+studies, while we are gone; but you must not forget that half past nine
+is your bed-time."
+
+[Illustration: "Now for the new music," Jack said.--See page 6.]
+
+Poor Winnie! She dearly liked playing Jack's accompaniments, but the
+unlearned lessons rose up before her, and she said, "Oh, mamma, I can't
+to-night; I haven't done my lessons!"
+
+"Well, Winnie, this has happened three or four times within the last
+week. If several study bells in school and two hours in the afternoon
+are not sufficient for you to keep up with your classes, I'd rather
+you'd go back a year. I want you to be educated thoroughly, but I can't
+have you 'crammed,' and you're too young to do studying at night."
+
+"Mamma, that is time enough for me to do all my school work; but, like
+the Little Women, I have something to ''fess,' and if you'll let
+me study this time, I think that after this I'll get through in the
+daytime."
+
+"Very well; but remember, if this is of frequent occurrence, I'll have
+to consult Mr. Bowen and see if you are overworked."
+
+Jack and Mr. Burton had heard none of this conversation, having gone
+into the sitting-room for a game of chess, and Mrs. Burton and Winnie
+had remained in the dining-room.
+
+Mrs. Burton went into the kitchen to give her orders for breakfast
+to Norah, and Winnie returned to the sitting-room with a strong
+determination to work so hard that she would make up for her
+self-indulgence of the afternoon. But little Ralph came running up to
+her with: "Now, 'Innie, tell me a story."
+
+"Oh, Ralphie, Winnie can't to-night; see, she has to learn something out
+of all these books;" and she pointed to the big pile of them that lay on
+the table.
+
+"Well, den, me'll wead the newspaper;" and he sat down on a hassock with
+a paper in his hand, and looked so cunning that Winnie had to go and
+give him a little hug before she could get to work.
+
+She began with her greatest bugbear, United States History; not,
+however, without having cast one longing look at "The Giant Killer,"
+as it stood temptingly on the edge of the book case. But, saying to
+herself, "I'm bound to do it"--a phrase which had seemed to help her
+over difficulties so many times that she almost felt as if it were the
+phrase, and not the exertions which always followed the use of it, that
+was helpful to her--she applied herself with such concentration that,
+during the twenty minutes her mother remained out of the room, she
+learned quite thoroughly the three pages describing the Battle of
+Monmouth. In the meantime, Ralph had been put to bed, and Mrs. Burton
+had come in, cloaked and bonneted. As soon as their father and mother
+had gone, Jack said, "Now, Win, for the new music."
+
+"Oh, Jack, look here! There are two pages of descriptive geography, ten
+map questions, and a short account of the exports and imports of India
+to be learned, and I've six long problems in percentage to work."
+
+"Whew! Then my cake's dough! But how is it that you have all this to
+do to-night? I thought we were to spend our evenings in helping and
+entertaining each other; that was what I understood mother to say when
+she changed your hour for bed from half past eight to half past nine.
+Ah! Win, I know what it is; you've been at your old tricks, you little
+bookworm!"
+
+"Don't tease, Jack. I'm sorry enough for it now, and I'll be ready to
+help you to-morrow night."
+
+"To-morrow! Always to-morrow! But to-morrow our debating club meets, and
+that settles that. I'll have to play without accompaniment, that's all."
+
+Winnie heaved a sigh. It was a disappointment to her, too, but she
+resolutely forbore to say more about the matter. It took her, however,
+until nearly nine o'clock to learn her geography lesson, and when her
+bed-time came, she had but four of the problems solved. She would much
+have liked to remain up an hour longer, but of direct disobedience Mrs.
+Burton's children were seldom guilty, so Winnie gathered up her books,
+ready to take to school in the morning, and went to her room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+GOOD RESOLUTIONS.
+
+
+Winnie was having a confused dream of a little dwarf, armed with a long
+column of figures, which he waved threateningly in the air; but as she
+advanced to seize them, thinking to use them for her lessons during
+the day, the dwarf commenced to grow, and, as she stood amazed and
+horror-struck, he attained the height of ten feet or so, and was
+still growing when she heard the tinkling of a bell, and a voice said:
+"Wizard, avaunt!" At this the giant disappeared, and the whole column of
+figures fell on the floor in a confused heap. She stooped to pick them
+up, when the bell rang again, this time louder, and she grasped--her
+brother Ralph, who was ringing the breakfast bell violently in her ears.
+
+A little vexed, she was going to send him away and turn over for another
+nap, when suddenly she remembered her good resolutions of the evening
+before, and, to Ralph's surprise, sprang up at once.
+
+Having dressed herself, she turned the bedclothes back to air, and, with
+the exception of making her bed, which was done by Norah later in the
+day, put everything in her dainty pink room in nice order. Then she sat
+down to select her verse, it being the custom of the family for each
+to recite some passage from the Bible, about which they afterward had a
+little talk. She chose part of the second verse of the sixth chapter of
+2d Corinthians: "Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation."
+
+When the bell rang for the family to gather, Winnie was ready to go down
+at once, without hurry or confusion, or being haunted by the thought
+that she was but half dressed. If she received no other reward, her
+mother's approving smile as her daughter entered, made her feel quite
+happy.
+
+Mr. Burton and Jack were not yet down, but came in almost directly.
+Her father read for that morning a part of the 107th Psalm, that most
+beautiful psalm of praise and thanksgiving. Then they all recited their
+verses. The mother had chosen hers from the chapter just read: "For he
+satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness."
+Jack had chosen: "Judge not, that ye be not judged." Ralph said, "Suffer
+little children," which was his great standby. Mr. Burton had a few
+words to say about all of them, but about Winnie's in particular; he
+spoke about its spiritual and religions meaning, and went on to say that
+it could be applied to all the affairs of life. He spoke of the folly as
+well as the sin of procrastination, that great destroyer of so many
+good deeds, which become utterly useless if done too late. He said
+that duties are like bricks used in building a house; if the foundation
+stones were left out, it would be impossible to make any use of those
+remaining. After the talk was finished, the family gathered around the
+piano, and sang a morning hymn.
+
+Winnie was in very good spirits that morning; an approving conscience is
+a great help to cheerfulness and good temper. She cut Ralph's steak for
+him, and pleased him very much by begging for one of his dollars, as
+she called the tiny cakes which Norah fried for her pet. She amused the
+others, also, by giving, in the phraseology of a school-girl of to-day,
+a graphic account of the way she imagined the redoubtable Captain Molly
+acted at the Battle of Monmouth.
+
+Everything seemed to go well with her, and at half past eight she had
+her books in her arms, ready to take a leisurely stroll to school,
+although the unfinished problems still troubled her.
+
+When she entered her room, three or four of the girls rushed up to
+her with: "Come on into the dressing-room, Win; we're going to have a
+meeting of the B. S. S."
+
+"Oh, I can't, girls!" said Winnie, it must be confessed very faintly,
+"I've two more problems to work, and I'll just have time to do them
+before the bell rings, and during the first study bell."
+
+"Oh, bother the problems!" said Miriam Douglass, striking an attitude.
+"Let them go! What are problems, compared with the important business of
+the B. S. S.?"
+
+But Winnie, collecting all her mental strength, and remembering her "I'm
+bound to" of the night before, resolutely drew back, saying, "I can't,
+girls; for I've a giant to kill."
+
+The girls looked at her in amaze.
+
+"A giant to kill! You look as if you'd kill a dozen, single-handed, you
+midge!" laughed tall Miriam, for Winnie was the youngest and smallest
+girl in the class. "Whatever do you mean?"
+
+"I can't stop to tell you now," said Winnie, "for if I do, I'll lose the
+first blow; but I'll tell you about it at recess."
+
+"All right, since you're determined," said Fannie Allen; "and I say,
+girls, let's postpone our meeting till then."
+
+"Agreed!" said the others; and each one, as they separated, went to
+her own seat and busied herself at some study, so quickly does a little
+leaven leaven the whole.
+
+When recess came, Winnie explained to the three girls, and Miriam
+Douglass laughed at her and teased her not a little; but somehow no one
+minded Miriam's teasing, she was so bright and good-natured with it all.
+
+"I suppose," said Miriam, munching her last piece of butterscotch--for
+be it known that the mysterious initials, about which the other girls of
+the class were "dancing crazy with curiosity," as Miriam said, signified
+"Butter Scotch Society"--"you'll be wanting us to give up the B. S. S.
+with all its sweet delights, and go about the world with drawn swords,
+and 'front like Jove, to threaten or command,' neither giving nor
+receiving quarter. I can see myself now, as I exclaim, 'Base spirit,
+beware, lest with this trusty sword I hew thee in pieces!'" And she
+flourished her ruler with such spirit that the girls all applauded.
+Just then, however, the bell rang for the close of recess, and they were
+obliged to go to their recitations.
+
+Thanks to Winnie's determination, and her vigorous use of the study
+bells, she received a perfect mark in all her lessons for the day, but
+she went home in the afternoon tired and jaded from the hard work.
+
+She found her mother in the sitting-room, sewing, and said, as she threw
+down her books, "Now, mamma, I want to make my confession, and also
+to thank you for allowing me to work last night. I know you have often
+spoken to me about my bad habit of putting everything off till the last
+minute, and it is almost always because I get hold of a story book and
+cannot lay it down. Yesterday it was 'The Giant Killer,' and I was
+so interested in Fides' battle with Giant Hate, that I forgot I was
+neglecting my own faults to watch him conquer his. But now I'm going
+to begin killing my own giants, and I'll commence with my worst,
+procrastination; for indeed, as Miss Brownlow is always telling us,
+it is the thief of time. And I want you to watch me and help me. As
+to-morrow will be Saturday, I want to get every one of my lessons for
+Monday, so that I can use the Monday study bells for Tuesday's lessons;
+then I can always get through in the afternoon."
+
+"I think that will be a very good plan, Winnie; you will then feel at
+ease each day about the work for the succeeding one, and an absence of
+worry will keep your mental faculties in good condition, so that you can
+do much more work with less strain of mind or body. And it will leave
+your evenings for reading or such other recreation as may occur from
+time to time, for you know I do not believe in all work and no play. I
+want to run down to Shillito's now to do a little shopping, and I hope
+you will be able, while I am gone, to resist your favorite temptation,
+for I really believe that many of our temptations are favorites."
+
+As soon as Mrs. Burton, taking Ralph with her, had gone, Winnie settled
+herself resolutely to work at her problems. She had just become quite
+interested in finding out the "population of a certain village," which
+increased a certain per cent, the first year, etc., when the bell rang,
+and answering the call, she found Miriam Douglass. Here was a dilemma.
+But she said:
+
+"Miriam, I'm just at work on my problems for Monday. Come right in, and
+we'll work them together."
+
+"Oh, Winnie, we'll have all day to-morrow to get our lessons. Do let's
+have a good time to-day."
+
+"I promised mamma that I would do all my lessons before Monday, but,
+of course, Miriam, if you don't wish to, I'll stop. I do think, though,
+that we'll enjoy ourselves just as well if we do this work."
+
+"All right, Winnie, go ahead," said Miriam laughing. "I guess my brain
+can stand it if yours can."
+
+The two girls applied themselves so well, Miriam being particularly
+bright in arithmetic, that by the time Mrs. Burton returned, they not
+only had the whole set of problems solved, but neatly copied and ready
+to "hand in."
+
+Mrs. Burton herself helped them with their analysis in grammar, and
+that being Miriam's great stumbling block, she was delighted with the
+assistance. She accepted Mrs. Burton's invitation to stay to supper,
+after which, Mr. Burton and Jack both being out, Winnie's mother
+proposed that the girls should take turns reading aloud to her from the
+book Winnie had been telling them about.
+
+Both girls had been well taught, and it was a pleasure to listen to
+their fresh, well modulated voices. Miriam, though far less imaginative
+than Winnifred, enjoyed the book very much, and said, half in fun:
+
+"Why can't we turn our B. S. S. into a club to fight our giants? We
+might then be a help instead of a drawback to each other, as I know we
+are now, for we're always upsetting each other's attempts to do right."
+
+"I think that is a very good idea," said Mrs. Burton. "Union and
+organization are such powers in this world, that I do not see why they
+should not help four little girls to do right. You might have social
+meetings occasionally to report progress, and you could have a good time
+beside. Talk it over on Monday with Gretta and Fannie, and if you want
+help, come to me."
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Burton, you always do think of the nicest things! That's just
+what we will do, and we'll report a week from to-night. But now it is
+time for me to go."
+
+As Miriam lived only a square away, Mrs. Burton and Winnie walked over
+with her, and on their return Winnie went to bed happy and contented.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+STUMBLING BLOCKS.
+
+
+On the following Monday at recess, Miriam called a meeting of the
+B. S. S., and she and Winnie told the other two girls what they were
+thinking of doing. But it was very hard work to make Gretta Berger
+understand.
+
+"Giants!" said she, "what do we care for giants? We're no longer little
+children, that we should believe in such things."
+
+"But don't you believe that we have faults that we ought to try to
+conquer?" said Winnie.
+
+"Faults! You'd think I had a million, if you'd hear my mother lecture
+me; and my sister Josephine seems to think I never did do anything
+right. I never suit either of them. I'm scolded from Monday morning till
+Saturday night, and I don't want all my play-time taken up in the same
+way."
+
+"Oh, Gretta, who is going to scold you? I'm sure we'll all have enough
+to do to watch over our own faults, without talking to you of yours."
+
+"Didn't you say we were to help each other? How can we do that, if we
+don't say anything when one of us does wrong? No, let our teachers and
+parents and big sisters do that. I'm sure they seem to enjoy it well
+enough."
+
+"Enjoy it! Well, I'm sure we can't blame them. I don't know how else
+they are to get even with you, when you never give in half your demerits
+for the day, and sit and sulk for half an hour if you're told to stop
+talking," said Miriam, with her usual heedlessness.
+
+"Well. I'm not so lazy that I can't pin my collar on straight and clean
+my finger nails; and as for killing giants, I think we'd better be
+eating fruit and taffy than getting into a fuss by meddling with other
+folks' affairs!" And Gretta flounced off in high dudgeon.
+
+Winnie's eyes filled with tears. All this was so unlike anything she had
+imagined, and now they had gotten into a quarrel the very first thing.
+
+"Let her go, Winnie," said Fannie; "she's always getting into the sulks,
+and her father's nothing but a music teacher, anyhow. I never could see
+why you girls liked her so much. I'm sure I never did."
+
+"No!" said Miriam sarcastically, "we can't all be the handsome daughter
+of a wealthy and celebrated lawyer, more's the pity!"
+
+Winnie's heart sank lower. How she wished she had tried to do right
+herself, and let the other girls alone! Now Fannie would be angry, too.
+
+But, to her surprise, Fannie laughed outright. "This is too absurd for
+anything, girls. Here we were just about to sweep the world before us,
+and now we've had our first quarrel for over a month. As for me, I
+know I'm proud and vain, and I do like my friends to be rich and
+distinguished. But papa says it isn't exactly well-bred to choose our
+friends on such a basis, and he calls my pride silly, and tells me not
+to be a--well, yes, he does--a snob. But I like to be proud. Perhaps,
+though, someone else beside myself knows something, and I'll be glad to
+join, and will try to like it when my toes are stepped on."
+
+"Well," said Miriam, "I'm sure I beg your pardon, if I hurt the toes.
+But I think your good-nature got the best of it. As for Gretta, you all
+know she'll sulk just so long, anyhow, and when she gets tired of
+it, she'll be all right; and if she once gets this thing through her
+somewhat thick head, she'll want to join, too."
+
+"My! but there's a lot of work before us! Do you know, girls, I actually
+lay awake for an hour last night, wondering what faults I had, and now,
+since this squabble, I've seen signs of half a dozen. It's taken all the
+starch out of me. Don't I look limp?" And Miriam hung her hands and arms
+so nervelessly and assumed such a vapid expression, that Fannie laughed
+outright, and Winnie smiled through her tears.
+
+"Well, there's one bad habit that we all have," said she decidedly.
+"We're always saying, 'in a minute,' or 'by and by,' or 'to-morrow.' I
+don't believe we'll get angry with each other over that, for it isn't
+what my father would call 'a personal peculiarity.'" Winnie did like to
+use big words.
+
+"All right, Winnie, we'll all begin together, and you shall be the
+captain of our first expedition against the foe."
+
+Winnie went home somewhat comforted, but still quite unhappy about
+Gretta. She longed to tell her mother all that had happened, but Mrs.
+Burton was entertaining callers, and she was therefore obliged to
+restrain her impatience.
+
+On Tuesdays there were fewer recitations for her class than on other
+days, and, having made good use of her study bells, she was quite
+through before five o'clock, and concluded to take Ralph out for a
+walk, so she called her mother to ask permission. Mrs. Burton was quite
+willing, and said she might also go to the library and change her book.
+Then she returned to her guests.
+
+Winnie ran to ask Norah if she would help get Ralph ready. She found
+her in the wooden rocking-chair in the cheerful kitchen, reading the
+"Commercial Gazette," and "taking it easy," as she called it. Winnie
+made her request in a very peremptory manner. Norah looked at her a
+minute, and then said: "So you want me to dress Ralph, do you? Well, I
+guess that want will have to be your master, for I don't intend to break
+my back over the wash-tub all day, and, when I'm snatching a moment for
+rest, be at the beck and call of a sassy little girl." So saying, Norah
+returned to her newspaper, completely ignoring Winnie's presence.
+
+Winnifred knew that it would be utterly useless to say anything more;
+besides, she had been reproved by her mother more than once for her
+way of speaking to Norah. But she was greatly disappointed, for now she
+would either have to take Ralph dressed as he was, or leave him at home.
+She finally concluded to do the former, so, hastily getting Ralph and
+herself into their coats, they were soon in the street car.
+
+Ralph, as usual, had numberless questions to ask. When they reached
+Fountain Square, they got out, and Winnie, as she invariably did when
+down town, crossed to the Esplanade to look at the fountain, of which
+she never wearied. Ralph said he liked to see the little boys and girls
+sprinkling, and then he must have a drink from the little boy with a
+shell in his hand.
+
+All this took up time, so that when they reached the public library it
+was quite late. The delivery room, as usual at that hour, was crowded,
+and, having handed in her card and list, Winnie sat down on one of the
+benches to wait till her number was called. This took so long that Ralph
+became restless and then sleepy, and when they were finally in the car
+on their way home, he soon closed his eyes. Winnie knew that she would
+have her hands full if he went to sleep, so she shook him, saying,
+"Ralphie, Ralphie, don't you know that you mustn't go to sleep?"
+
+"Me isn't s'eepy!" said the little fellow, poking his chubby fingers
+into his eyes to keep them open; but, finding it quite hard work, after
+a minute's consideration he added, "But there's somefin in my eyes,
+'ough."
+
+"Oh, Ralph, that's the Sandman; you mustn't let him throw sand in your
+eyes in the street car!"
+
+"No, me 'on't," said Ralph, making a desperate effort.
+
+This little conversation seemed greatly to amuse an old gentleman
+opposite. He took Ralph on his knee and let him play with his watch, and
+kindly kept him awake until it was time for the children to get out.
+
+When they reached home they found the family, with the addition of their
+grandma, Aunt Kitty and Uncle Fred, all at supper, laughing and talking
+in the happiest manner imaginable. Winnie was delighted. Aunt Kitty
+was the dearest to her of all her aunts. She was young and gay and
+good-natured, always ready to join in a frolic, or to help with one's
+lessons, or to take the children and the children's visitors to the
+"zoo" or the park or some other place equally delightful.
+
+After supper they went into the sitting-room, and Winnie and Jack played
+their last duet, which Aunt Kitty complimented quite highly. She said
+to Mr. Burton, "Winnie does so nicely with her music that I hope you'll
+allow her to make more of it soon. If she goes to the high-school next
+year, she'll have more time to practice, won't she?"
+
+"Yes, I think so," interrupted Uncle Fred. "She'll be putting on long
+dresses, and practicing the airs of a young lady before the glass. But
+she won't imitate you, Kitty; your ways will be too youthful for her by
+that time," and he gave Winnie's braid a pull. "Isn't it singular?" he
+continued meditatively. "Here Winnie will be growing older every year,
+and Kitty just the reverse. I don't think she'll have another birthday
+in ten years."
+
+"Most assuredly not, if you'll tell me the way to avoid it. Winnie can
+have my birthdays and her own, too," laughed Aunt Kitty.
+
+If there was one thing in the world that Winnie resented as an
+indignity, it was having her ears tweaked, and now she burst out:
+
+"Grandma, do make Uncle Fred stop! I think he ought to have a good
+scolding."
+
+"Why, he's my baby," said grandma; "you wouldn't have me scold my baby,
+would you?"
+
+Winnie's expression at the novel idea of teasing Uncle Fred's being
+anybody's baby was one of such amazement that they all laughed, though
+Winnie herself hardly appreciated the joke.
+
+"Never mind," said Uncle Fred, slipping a bag of chocolates into her
+hands as a peace-offering, "you know I must tease someone, and your Aunt
+Kitty is more invulnerable than Achilles himself, for I think that even
+her heel was dipped."
+
+"Oh, I have a vulnerable point," laughed Aunt Kitty, though a close
+observer might have noticed a queer little sober look about her eyes
+and mouth, "and it is this"--putting one of Winnifred's creams into
+her mouth: "the absolute cruelty of giving someone else a paper of
+chocolates while I'm present. By the way, Winnie, let's go into the
+kitchen and make some taffy, while my mother instructs your mother how
+to bring up children in the way they should go; for that she knows
+how to do it, witness your Uncle Fred and myself as bright and shining
+examples."
+
+But for once Winnie held back. At last she said: "Norah won't like it;
+she's cross to-day. She wouldn't help me get Ralph ready to go down
+town."
+
+"Oh, Winnie, I'm afraid you've been at your old tricks. But come on;
+I'll manage Norah, and she has probably forgiven you before this."
+
+This proved to be the case, and Norah, who was very fond of Aunt Kitty,
+was so good-natured, not even grumbling about the "muss," that Winnie
+felt as if she were having coals of fire heaped on her head; and, not to
+be outdone in generosity, contritely begged Norah's pardon for the way
+she had spoken to her in the afternoon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A RAINY DAY.
+
+
+  "'One by one the sands are flowing,'--comma--
+    One by one the moments fall;'--semicolon--
+  'Some are coming,'--comma; 'some are going;'--semicolon--
+    'Do not strive to grasp them all,'--period."
+
+dictated Miriam to a group of girls in the school-room, who were
+"cramming" for the February examination, and who had hurried back at
+dinner time for that purpose.
+
+"What a queer jumble that makes!" said Winnie. "I believe I'd rather
+copy it from the book. Don't you think that last line's odd?--'Do not
+strive to grasp them all.' I thought that was just what we ought to do,
+isn't it?"
+
+"I asked Miss Brownlow that question yesterday," said Ernestine Alroy, a
+tall, pale and thoughtful-looking girl, "and she said that Miss Procter
+didn't mean that we were to let any of them go, but that we are not to
+try to seize them all at once; that it would be like anything else--if
+our hands were too full, we'd be sure to drop something. She said we
+must take this 'Memory Gem' in connection with the motto on the board,
+'Do the duty that lies nearest thee,' and that if we followed the advice
+in both of them, we'd be sure not to let any of our duties go undone."
+
+"Ernestine, you always did like to preach," said Josie Thompson, making
+a wry face over the pickle she was eating. "I think it's quite bad
+enough to have to learn Memory Gems, with all the hideous punctuation,
+and expect to stand an examination--and they always pick out the one you
+know the least about--with five per cent. off for a comma left out or
+put in the wrong place, ten for a misspelled word, and so on until, by
+the time my 'Gems' are corrected, there's no per cent. left at all. I
+say all this is bad enough, without having to understand and explain
+them." And she stopped to take breath, quite exhausted by her long
+speech.
+
+"Perhaps, if you troubled yourself a little more about the meaning,
+you'd get higher marks occasionally," said Miriam.
+
+"Oh, who cares for marks anyhow? I'm getting sick of the eternal word
+'Duty!' Miss Brownlow never misses an occasion to make use of it. Then
+we're always learning some selection with the same word in it, and now
+you girls have taken it up and there's no knowing if you will ever stop.
+As for me, I'm going to enjoy myself while I'm young. I guess I'll live
+just as long, if I don't worry myself to death."
+
+The brighter girls laughed, and Miriam said, with quick mimicry, "I
+think you will live just as long, if you don't worry yourself to death.
+What a speech! Well, I think you're right; you'll live forever, if worry
+is the only thing that can kill."
+
+"Well, laugh as much as you please; you can all plod along, if you want
+to. I'm going to have a good time."
+
+"It is hard, though," said Winnie, plaintively; "it's much nicer to do
+the things we like to do than those we ought to do, especially when none
+of us want to do things that are very wrong."
+
+"It's harder to catch up," said Ernestine, "than to keep straight on;
+and I think if we'd all pray for help not to neglect our duties, we'd
+find it easier."
+
+None of the girls laughed at this, for Ernestine was so devoted to her
+ideas of religion, and so brave in the profession of them, that if
+she thought it was her duty, she would have knelt down right there and
+prayed aloud for them all.
+
+"Well, this isn't learning the 'Gem,'" said Fannie Allen decisively; and
+then for a few moments nothing was heard but the scratching of pencils,
+as Miriam went on dictating:
+
+  "One by one thy duties wait thee,
+    Let thy whole strength go to each,
+  Let no future dreams elate thee,
+    Learn thou first what these can teach."
+
+After the bell had rung for school to commence, the afternoon wore
+dismally away. A steady, drenching rain was pouring down as if it
+intended never to stop. Under the circumstances there could be no
+recess, which added to the general feeling of weariness, restlessness
+and disgust.
+
+Each recitation was a recapitulation, which made the more studious or
+those with the better memories feel as if there were "nothing new
+under the sun," and gave to the triflers, or those to whom study was a
+continual climbing of the "Hill Difficulty," a confused impression of
+hearing something they had heard before, but failed to remember just
+when or where or how.
+
+To add to the discomfort, there was much copying to be done from the
+blackboard, and, as it was dark and gloomy, there was a complaint of
+not being able to see, until the front seats were filled with a crowd of
+tired, discontented girls, with their young faces puckered up into all
+sorts of frowns and grimaces. Even the best-natured among the teachers
+were conscious of an utter failure to keep from showing irritation,
+and they were made to sigh for a royal road both to learning and to
+teaching. It was with a general sigh of relief that the bell announcing
+the hour of dismission was heard.
+
+But the discomfort was not yet over. The halls and dressing-rooms were
+filled with an odor of wet wool and rubber; rain-cloaks and rubbers were
+confusedly mixed, and Miss Brownlow reminded the complainers, in a most
+irritating manner, of the number of times she had urged them all to mark
+their gossamers and overshoes, and positively forbade them to expect any
+interference from her if anything were lost. Then some of the girls
+ran down stairs, and all were ordered back; and, it being impossible to
+distinguish the culprits, the innocent suffered with the guilty, so that
+it was nearly five o'clock before they were finally allowed to descend
+the stairs, and they had been hearing the exasperating shouts of freedom
+from the boys under the windows for a full half hour.
+
+Miriam and Winnie, walking home under the same umbrella, felt their
+desire to be good and the courage to strive for it, at the lowest ebb.
+Winnie said petulantly, "I wish there were no such thing as school! It's
+dig, dig, dig, and then it's cram, cram, cram, until, at last, you don't
+know whether you know anything or not! I'm just sick of it!"
+
+"You'd feel more disagreeable if you'd lost the third pair of rubbers
+this winter, and had wet feet. I don't see why it is that it's always my
+rubbers that are gone, anyway. Mamma will say that I grow more heedless
+every day of my life; that I never will learn to take care of anything;
+and will wonder if I think papa is a millionaire. I wish now that I'd
+marked that last pair of rubbers."
+
+"Oh, dear! It's so hard to do right, and not to feel hateful and cross.
+Everyone seems to get cross but Ernestine. But then, none of the rest
+are as good as she is. I don't believe she ever feels like doing wrong;
+and she always seems happy, too; not peevish or sulky like the rest of
+us. Do you suppose--"
+
+But just then, too absorbed to notice where they were going, they ran
+against an old gentleman, and their umbrella was knocked out of their
+hands into the gutter, where, of course, it was soon all wet and muddy.
+
+[Illustration: Too absorbed to notice where they were going.]
+
+Then the old gentleman sputtered and scolded, and said he wished little
+girls would look where they were going once in a while, and that they
+were nothing but "giggling nuisances" anyhow. Then Miriam dropped her
+books, and, as both she and Winnie stooped to pick them up, they knocked
+their heads together with such force that tears sprang to the eyes of
+both.
+
+As a usual thing, such occurrences would have made them laugh, but they
+were far enough from being "giggling nuisances" on this occasion, and
+when they turned the corner and separated, it would not have been easy
+to find two muddier or crosser little girls, while both, I fear, had
+forgotten all about the giants they were intending to fight.
+
+When Winnie reached home, she spoke to Ralph so crossly, when he ran up
+to her for a kiss, that his lips trembled and he turned to Mrs. Burton,
+saying, "Mamma, is me bad? 'Innie 'ouldn't tiss me!"
+
+Winnie, at sight of his grieved face, began to feel ashamed of herself,
+but was still too cross to make any acknowledgments, and, without saying
+a word, went up to her room to change her muddy dress.
+
+When she came down, Mrs. Burton looked at her searchingly, but asked
+no questions, and it was not until after supper that Winnie felt
+sufficiently herself to tell her mother about the disagreeable
+afternoon. Mrs. Burton only said: "Well, Winnie,--
+
+  'Into each life some rain must fall.
+  Some days be dark and dreary,'
+
+but I hope my daughter isn't going to grow up into one of those
+unpleasant women who always make it disagreeable for other people when
+things do not turn out just as they would like to have them."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE FIRST MEETING.
+
+
+As a consequence of the lost rubbers and wet feet, Miriam caught such a
+cold that she was not able to leave the house for the remainder of the
+week. Gretta Burger was still sulking, and Fannie Allen was, as she
+said, "reviewing odds and ends," so the meeting which was to have been
+held on Friday of that week was postponed.
+
+But fickleness and inconstancy of purpose were not among the faults of
+Winnifred, and although she made many failures, and the words "by and
+by" and "in a minute" were frequently on her lips, she nevertheless made
+some progress in conquering her great fault.
+
+Her greatest temptation, as is evident from what has already been seen
+of her, was to let everything else go and slip off into some nook and
+lose herself in what she called "a delicious read." And this habit was
+all the harder for her to break because she had commenced it when she
+was a very little girl, and it had then looked "so cunning" and studious
+that injudicious friends and acquaintances of the family, unable
+to distinguish between a love for study which costs hard work and
+self-denial, and a mere love for narrative which is easily gratified,
+had praised her when she was within hearing, and had told Mr. Burton
+how much they envied him the possession of so studious and intelligent a
+child. Not that all works of fiction are to be condemned, for they often
+have a good and lasting influence, and become a decided factor in
+the formation of a noble character. But like all things intended for
+recreation, they should be used only at the proper time. Winnie was fast
+finding out that the proper time was when her daily duties were over,
+and that was reducing her two or three snatched hours a day to fifteen
+or twenty minutes. She was also beginning to find out the close
+connection between various bad habits. She saw that procrastination led
+to carelessness, disobedience, and, in some natures, to untruthfulness
+and dishonesty.
+
+But by the following Friday, the long-anticipated examination was over.
+Our four little friends had reason to be well satisfied with the result,
+so far as they were personally concerned. A mutual content had restored
+harmony between Gretta and the other three, and they had decided to hold
+their first meeting on that evening.
+
+Winnie was very anxious to have Ernestine come, too; but, although she
+laughed at herself for her foolish pride, Fannie said: "Of course we
+know Ernestine is a nice girl, but we don't know anything about her
+family, and you know she never speaks of her father, although nobody
+ever heard that he is dead. They may be very common people, for all we
+know."
+
+Winnie was greatly troubled about this, for she did not like "common
+people" very well herself. She had her own ideas about such things, and
+she called Althea Browne "common." Althea wore brass jewelry, and was
+always boasting about the fine things they had at home, and the grand
+parties her aunt in Virginia gave. She was always willing to accept
+fruits and sweetmeats from the other girls, but had been known, more
+than once, to sneak off by herself and munch candies and apples which
+she had brought. Winnie thought that if Ernestine's people were like
+Althea, she did not want to have anything to do with them.
+
+As usual, she carried this perplexity to her mother, who said: "Let the
+matter rest for the present, dear. While Fannie feels as she does about
+it, it would not be pleasant for any of you to have her come, or for
+Ernestine herself, and dissension will not help you to become better. In
+the meantime I will consider the matter, and, if I conclude that it will
+be best for Ernestine to join you, I hope to be able to arrange it."
+
+Mrs. Burton had invited the three girls to take supper with Winnie,
+and, as school had closed early, and they had no lessons to prepare for
+Monday, they had a nice, long afternoon together. Miriam read aloud the
+account of the combat of Fides with the Giant Sloth, and when she was
+through, said: "That is the giant Gretta pointed out to me; and a hard
+one he will be for me to overcome, I can tell you."
+
+"What is my worst one?" asked Fannie, taking up the book which Miriam
+had laid down. As she glanced through the pages she said, with a slight
+blush, "Oh, yes; my father would tell me that I must conquer my pride,
+and he tries to have me see how disagreeable it makes me, by telling me
+that I will never be a perfect lady until I have done so. Here, Miriam,
+read this aloud, too; you make it so plain that I almost feel as if I
+were there."
+
+Gretta said very little, but she had a self-satisfied air about her, as
+if it were as needless for anyone to be proud or untidy as for anyone to
+steal, and she felt herself far removed from faults such as these. And
+indeed she was neither indolent nor untidy. She rose at six--that magic
+hour in which Fides was to strike his first blow at Giant Sloth--and
+practiced two hours before school; she was neatness itself, both
+in person and in all her belongings. Besides, she was neither so
+conscientious as Winnie, so frank and outspoken as Fannie, nor so easily
+influenced, either for right or wrong, as Miriam. So her conscience lay
+dormant.
+
+She was, however, conscious that she, too, had a habit of not doing
+things as soon as she ought, and to try to overcome that seemed to her
+almost like a lesson to be learned, so she was willing to try to learn
+it with the others.
+
+After Miriam had finished the chapter, Winnie said, "Oh, girls, I must
+show you my autographs;" and, turning to Ralph, who sat by the window,
+gazing intently at a couple of puppies which were having a romp
+together, she said, "Ralphie, bring Winnie that book by the window."
+
+Without moving a muscle of his chubby little body, or even turning his
+head, the child answered: "You just s'pect me to do evvyfing; I tan't do
+evvyfing."
+
+"Oh, Ralph, my little partner in distress!" exclaimed Miriam, in her
+most dramatic way, snatching him up and kissing him in spite of his
+struggles. "You'll have to have a suit of armor, too. Who would have
+thought that one so young could be so lazy!"
+
+The laugh was not yet over when Mrs. Burton came in, with her pleasant
+smile, saying, "Girls, I've a short story to tell you--that is, if you
+wish to hear it; and there'll just be time before supper."
+
+Of course they were delighted, and, Fannie having coaxed Ralph to her
+lap, they all gathered around Mrs. Burton, making a pretty group
+in their unconsciously graceful attitudes, as they listened to the
+following narrative:
+
+"Constance van Orten was born in New York, a descendant of one of the
+old Knickerbocker families, but of a branch which had preserved more of
+the family pride than its estates. Money, however, was not altogether
+lacking, and to many people their income would have seemed sumptuous;
+but to them, in comparison with their more wealthy friends and
+relatives, it seemed the merest pittance that necessity could demand.
+
+"But this comparative lack of money never troubled little Constance, and
+fortune seemed to smile upon her. One might almost have believed that
+all the beneficent fairies had presided at her birth, so many graces of
+face and form and disposition were hers, and so many of the conditions
+necessary to human happiness seemed fulfilled in her lot.
+
+"She was the youngest child and only daughter, and her four brothers
+found her so charming a plaything, and later so agreeable a companion,
+that they took pleasure in making her life a succession of pleasant
+surprises, and her every wish was gratified almost before expressed.
+Indeed, had she asked for the moon, it would have been a source of
+genuine grief to them that they could not get it for her.
+
+"Pain seemed as far removed from her as anxiety or grief, for, although
+she had an odd faculty of catching all the diseases incident to
+childhood, they touched her so lightly that it was seldom necessary to
+call in a physician. If she received a cut or a wound of any kind, so
+pure was her blood and so perfect her physical condition that it healed
+as if by magic.
+
+"Her willfulness was extreme, as might have been expected from the
+almost total lack of restraint under which she grew up; but so winning
+were her ways, and so ready her repentance for her little misdeeds, that
+for the most part she escaped punishment and even reproof.
+
+"Almost without the power of application, she seemed to pick up external
+evidences of education and culture without effort. She talked fluently,
+sang charmingly, and, having almost marvelous tact, never failed to
+please.
+
+"Being, as I have said, the only daughter, she entered society earlier
+than most girls, and, in spite of her comparative lack of means, soon
+became a reigning belle. During her first season she refused more than
+one wealthy suitor, and that, too, to the intense satisfaction of her
+parents and brothers, for she was a veritable sunbeam in the family, and
+they looked forward with dread to the thought of losing her.
+
+"At last, however, there came, furnished with letters of introduction
+to one of Constance's uncles, a young and wealthy cotton planter from
+Louisiana. His seeming indifference to money and his prodigal use of
+it, his pleasant speech and manner, his languid Southern movements,
+so different from those of the brisk Northerners to whom they were
+accustomed, and, above all, the very fact of his being a stranger, made
+him most welcome to the girlish minds so fond of change and novelty. But
+it was with the greatest regret that the Van Ortens began to notice his
+marked attentions to Constance and the increasing pleasure she took in
+them. It was not only that a marriage with him would separate her from
+them all, but her father and brothers, constantly meeting the young
+stranger at clubs and places where there were no ladies present, and
+consequently where he was off his guard, found him capricious and
+changeable in his opinions and actions, extremely self-indulgent,
+selfishly indifferent to the comfort of others, and so fond of
+intoxicating liquor that, on more than one occasion, he had been
+directly and shamefully under its influence.
+
+"But Constance would not, perhaps could not, see him in the light in
+which he was portrayed to her, and, in spite of all their warnings and
+her mother's pleadings, she consented to become his wife. Immediately
+after the marriage, they went to Louisiana, and for awhile all was to
+Constance as her most ardent fancy had painted it. Their home was in
+the beautiful Claiborne Parish, which has been named "the Eden of
+Louisiana." Her winning ways and delicate beauty endeared her to the
+new acquaintances she formed, and made her the idol of the slaves on the
+plantation. Here two sons were born, and the mother felt her happiness
+complete. But presently she found her husband less attentive to her. He
+absented himself on long journeys, for which he scarcely had a pretext,
+and when at home was either sullen or irritable.
+
+"Then the Civil War broke out and he lost much of his property, and
+there were almost ceaseless and taunting allusions on his part to the
+"plebeian Yankees" and the ruin they had brought him. After the close of
+the war, however, he seemed to make an effort to do the best with what
+property remained. He became a little more considerate, and sometimes
+seemed to be almost what he had been in the early years of his married
+life, and when Constance became the mother of a little girl, she began
+to feel as if, after all, life might hold some good in store for her.
+
+"But alas! her husband's good behavior did not last long. He began to
+drink constantly, and at last he left one morning, without saying a
+word, and never returned. Then the two promising boys died of that
+dreadful scourge, yellow fever, and Constance was almost heartbroken.
+
+"During the war, communication with her New York relatives had
+been almost impossible, and since then, as is usual in interrupted
+correspondence, even among those who love each other best, it
+had assumed a desultory character; and now that Constance felt
+overwhelmingly disgraced by her husband's desertion, and knowing that
+all this sorrow had come upon her in consequence of her opposition to
+the wishes of her family, she was too proud to turn to them for help
+or comfort. But to remain where she was was likewise almost an
+impossibility, for the scenes of sorrow through which she had passed
+made the South a hated prison from which she felt that she must escape.
+Besides, her husband's creditors had seized upon everything that was
+left, and the once lovely, petted girl, destitute, bereaved, forsaken,
+raised what money she could from the sale of her laces and jewelry,
+and, taking passage in one of the Mississippi steamers, started for
+Louisville. There, however, she remained but a few days, and finally
+came to Cincinnati, hoping here to find some way to support herself and
+her little daughter, without being obliged to appeal to her brothers for
+help.
+
+"But for a woman reared as she had been, what was there to do? Her
+slender means became still more slender, and it was only after having
+been subjected to absolute privation, that she managed to obtain a place
+in a store as saleswoman, and now she and her child are able to live
+respectably, if not always comfortably. Her one joy and source of
+happiness she finds in the companionship of her daughter Ernestine, a
+girl of character so fine and religious principles so high that they
+would be a credit to one of twice her years."
+
+"Why, that sounds like a description of Ernestine Alroy!" said Fannie.
+
+"And it is Ernestine of whom I am speaking, although I hope it is not
+necessary for me to suggest that she would not like her mother's history
+to be made public property. In fact, I must earnestly request you not to
+mention it even in your own homes," said Mrs. Burton. "It was only by
+a mere accident that I heard this narrative yesterday afternoon. But I
+hear Mr. Burton and Jack in the hall, and, as supper will be served in
+a very few minutes, I must leave you, with an apology for telling you a
+sad story, and one which I would not have ventured upon had it not been
+an 'o'er true tale.'"
+
+"How dreadful!" said Fannie. "And to think, girls, that her mother was
+as happy and well reared--"
+
+Just then, however, supper was announced, and Fannie's sentence remained
+unfinished.
+
+After supper, Jack brought out his violin, and he and Gretta played some
+duets together, Gretta reading the piano part at sight, and so well that
+Winnie felt her own poor little talent cast quite in the shade.
+
+Then Gretta played some pretty sonatinas with fine taste and expression,
+and gave so much pleasure to her listeners that Fannie began to think
+there might be worse things in the world than being a "music teacher's
+daughter."
+
+After that, to the great delight of the girls, Mr. Burton sang, in his
+fine bass voice, and with the merry twinkle in his eyes in accord with
+his extravagant gestures, a comic song, ending with a little refrain
+in which all the Burtons, not even excepting Ralph, joined, the
+latter singing at the top of his voice, and clapping his hands for
+accompaniment.
+
+They had hardly had time to feel weary of sitting still and listening,
+when Mrs. Burton had them all in the dining-room playing the good
+old game of "Puss in the Corner." Here, too, Mr. Burton distinguished
+himself by his pathetic appeals for a "corner." The game left them all
+breathless but happy, and they sat down for awhile to recover themselves
+and "cool off," while Jack went to get on his overcoat preparatory to
+seeing the girls home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY.
+
+
+The school which Winnie and her friends attended was in the habit
+of selecting certain authors, whose birthday anniversaries they
+commemorated. This year, however, the principal had concluded to
+celebrate Washington's birthday by patriotic songs, declamations, and so
+on. In consequence the pupils were all in a state of great excitement,
+pleasurable to boyish and girlish hearts.
+
+Lessons were shortened, classes dismissed early, rehearsals conducted
+morning, noon and night. From one end of the building to the other,
+"spouting" was heard, gestures were being made in the most frantic
+manner, the strains of "The Star Spangled Banner," "America," and "The
+Red, White and Blue" rose upon the air; and, as the crowds of boys and
+girls passed to and from school, their conversation contained allusions
+to "The Father of our Country," or the fine way in which Harry or Tom or
+Frank gave that declamation, or the sweetness of Mabel Gray's voice, or
+why Mr. Bowen hadn't selected Clarence instead of Bob, etc., etc., etc.,
+until all the air around the school-house must have been as heavily
+charged with patriotism as the air around Lexington on the morning of
+that memorable battle which, too, was talked of, for there had been much
+"brushing up" of United States history.
+
+The memorable day of the 21st of February arrived (there being no school
+on the 22d), and found the rooms finely decorated with flags and swords
+and battle relics, portraits of George and Martha Washington, and
+flowers and living plants, while the blackboards were entirely filled
+with ornamental scrolls containing patriotic mottoes.
+
+Two o'clock had been set for the beginning of the programme, but long
+before that time visitors had begun to arrive and were shown to seats by
+the two gentlemanly boy-ushers in quite an impressive manner.
+
+Among the visitors, our friends the Burtons, not excepting Ralph, were
+represented. Ralph sat snuggled up to his mother, his big eyes having
+their most pleased and wondering look. Mrs. Alroy, too, was there,
+dressed quietly but tastefully, and looking a perfect lady; having
+indeed so thoroughbred an air that even Fannie's somewhat haughty mamma
+who sat next her, could scarcely equal her.
+
+Gretta Berger took her place at the piano, and soon the inspiring
+strains of a patriotic medley were heard, while the boys and girls from
+the various rooms marched into the hall and took their places with such
+a fine idea of time and military precision of movement that to see them
+was not the least pleasure of the afternoon.
+
+The next thing on the programme was a sketch of George Washington's
+life, by Ernestine Alroy, read by her in a sweet, dignified way, in
+a well-modulated voice, and an expression which showed a thorough
+appreciation of the fine character and life she was describing. One of
+the boys followed with a recitation of Drake's "American Flag." Next a
+small choir of girls and boys (the girls dressed in the national colors
+and the boys wearing flag badges) sang the "Star Spangled Banner." Then
+Winnie went upon the stage, and recited the following, which is given in
+full, as it is one of those fugitive things which seem to have no home.
+It is entitled:
+
+
+THE USED-TO-BE.
+
+  The mother gathered her children together,
+    She folded them close to her heart in glee,
+  For the red sun had brought them rainy weather,
+    And what they should do, they never could see.
+  And they cried in querulous tones, "Mamma,
+  Now think back, ever and ever so far,
+  And see if _you_ ever had rainy days
+  That troubled the plans, and spoiled the plays,
+    And what you did in the Used-to-be."
+
+  The mother laughed with low, soft laughter;
+    She was remembering, they could see.
+  "I see, you rogues, what you are all after;
+    I'll tell you a tale that happened to me.
+  I and some wee little bits of girls,
+  With hair as yellow as shaving-curls,
+  When it rained for a day and a night and a day,
+  And we thought it hard to go on that way,
+    As we were as tired as tired could be.
+
+  "Up in the attic, in grandma's attic,
+    There's a chest of drawers--or there used to be;
+  Though we had many a charge emphatic,
+    Not to go near enough to see.
+  But one rainy day we opened them wide,
+  And strewed the contents on every side;
+  We dressed ourselves in the queer old caps,
+  The brass-buttoned coats, with long blue flaps.
+    And--but wait a minute; papa calls me."
+
+  They waited and waited and waited and waited,--
+    "Forty hours, it seems to me,"
+  Said weary Kitty, with eyes dilated.
+    "Let's do it ourselves; I can find the key."
+  They climbed the stairs,--as still as a mouse.
+  You might have heard them all over the house.
+  They dressed themselves in the queer old dresses,
+  The powdered wigs and hempen tresses,
+    Just as they did in the Used-to-be.
+
+  The warning stairs kept creaking and creaking,--
+    There was no time to turn and flee.
+  "_What's all this!_" (It was grandma speaking.)
+    "I shall take every one of you over my knee."
+  And I regret to say that she did,
+  All except Kitty, who ran and hid.
+  And when they went and told mamma,
+  She only said, with a soft "ha! ha!"
+    "Just what your grandmamma did to me."
+
+The amusing little poem suited Winnie's childish face and figure, and
+her mother had read between the lines for her, so that the picture was
+plain to her mind. Winnie saw the pretty young mother playing the little
+joke on the children, and the affected wrath of the grandmother as she
+spanked each of the little ones--saw the picture so plainly herself that
+it was easy for her to make her good-natured audience see it, too, and
+her hearers laughed while they applauded.
+
+Of course they had "The Red, White and Blue" sung by the whole school;
+and "America," which can never be old to any of us; and for further
+recitations. "Independence Bell," and "The Blue and the Gray"--for what
+patriotic celebration would be complete without these?
+
+The finest declamation of the day, given by the pride of the class, so
+far as elocutionary ability was concerned, and with a drum accompaniment
+by a corps of boys well drilled for the occasion, was the following
+stirring
+
+
+SONG OF THE DRUM.
+
+  Rataplan! Rataplan! Rataplan!
+  Follow me, follow me, every true man!
+  Hark to the song of the rolling drum:
+  Come with me! Come with me! Come with me! Come!
+  Follow me! Follow me! Follow me now!
+  Come from the anvil, come from the plow.
+  Don't think of the danger which threatens your lives!
+  Leave home, leave friends, leave your children, your wives!
+  Hark to the sound of the rolling drum!
+  Come with me! Come with me! Come!
+  Follow me, follow me, every one,
+  To where the white camps shine in the sun.
+
+  Rataplan! Rataplan! Rataplan!
+  Follow me, follow me, every true man!
+  From the crowded streets of the city, come!
+  Follow the drum, the drum, the drum!
+  From fields where the blithe birds chirp and sing,
+  From woods where your sturdy axes ring;
+  Leave the plow in the furrow to stand;
+  Grasp the musket firm in your hand:
+  There's a grander place in the world for you,
+  And nobler work for your hands to do.
+
+  Come with me! Come with me! Come with me! Come!
+  Follow the drum, the drum, the drum!
+  Come with me where the camps shine white;
+  Hark to my shrill tattoo at night,
+  To my loud reveille when morning breaks.
+  And the golden eye of the dawn awakes.
+  Come with me out to the trenches then.
+  Where are gathered scores of your fellow-men
+  Beginning to dig with pick and with spade,--
+  This is the way entrenchments are made.
+
+  There's a puff of smoke, and now comes a shell;
+  See yonder, there, where its fragments fell;
+  Nobody hurt! and above on the hill,
+  Our batteries, until this moment still,
+  Now blaze away with a deafening noise,
+  And a shout goes up from our gallant boys.
+  Rataplan! Rataplan! Rataplan!
+  This is the life for every true man.
+
+  Come with me now to the picket! Come!
+  Follow the drum, the drum, the drum!
+  That's a sharpshooter's rifle we hear,
+  And that was the bullet that sang so near;
+  There's another rifle, that shrill, sharp sound;
+  And yonder's a wounded man on the ground,
+  With the blood flowing out in a crimson tide
+  From a gaping hole in his quivering side.
+  Don't sicken and pale at the sight you see,
+  For this is where only men should be.
+
+  Rataplan! Rataplan! Rataplan!
+  Follow me, follow me, every true man!
+  Come with me over the battle field, come!
+  Follow the drum, the drum, the drum!
+  Through the smoke and heat and the storm of lead,
+  Adown this gulley piled deep with dead;
+  And along the edge of this shattered wood,
+  Where the trees are splintered and dashed with blood;
+  Then on through this field of trampled corn,
+  Where the once broad leaves into shreds are torn;
+  Into the shadow of this ravine,
+  Where the dead and wounded are everywhere seen.
+
+  Rataplan! Rataplan! Rataplan!
+  Follow me, follow me, every true man!
+  Follow me on through the fiery breath
+  Of the vengeful cannon, scattering death.
+  On through the battle's sound and glare,
+  Follow me, follow me, everywhere!
+  And hear the cries and the awful groans,
+  The piercing shrieks and the feeble moans--
+  And the ringing shout which goes up to the sun,
+  When a work is stormed and a victory won.
+  Rataplan! Rataplan! Rataplan!
+  This is the death for every true man.
+
+[Illustration: Then Winnie recited.--See page 25.]
+
+But the crowning performance of the day, in the opinion of all the
+girls and boys, was a little drama, written expressly for the occasion,
+entitled, "Revolutionary Days." The characters represented were an
+elderly lady, two young girls, two little children, a negro servant
+girl, an elderly gentleman, a Tory, and two young men, Continental
+soldiers.
+
+While the platform was being cleared and prepared, the girls and
+boys who took part were having what they called "fine fun" in the
+dressing-room, getting their hair powdered, caps and wigs adjusted, and
+so on.
+
+When the curtain rose, Miriam was discovered, dressed as an elderly lady
+of the eighteenth century, sitting in an old-fashioned chair beside a
+spinning-wheel, and singing a song of Revolutionary days. As she ceased
+singing, two little children, borrowed from the primary class in the
+"Colony," came in, begging their grandmother to tell them something
+about George Washington. She tells them that she is busy, but they
+persist, and then tell her that they know some verses about him,
+and each recites, alternately, a verse of four lines, descriptive
+of Washington's childhood and school days, and, as seems inevitable,
+winding up with the story of the hatchet.
+
+As they finish, a negro servant girl rushes in, in which burnt-cork
+heroine it would be utterly impossible to discover the maiden of the
+pickles and of the ardent desire to enjoy herself while young, had she
+not been seen in the dressing-room "making up" for the occasion. She
+informs Mrs. Grey that the cat or something has pulled all the yarn off
+the reel, and of its consequent fearful state of entanglement. Mrs.
+Grey rouses herself from her reverie, and asks the children if they know
+anything about it. Each accusingly points to the other, whereupon their
+grandmother looks at them sternly, when they say they "can't tell a
+lie," that they did it with--
+
+They are interrupted by Mrs. Grey, who tells Dinah to take them away
+and put them to bed without their supper. They begin to howl, and
+reproachfully tell their grandmother that she ought to say, "Come to
+my arms, my precious children;" whereupon an audacious small boy in the
+audience--a visitor, it is needless to say--shouts, "Chestnut!" and Mrs.
+Grey's face hardens into a look of positive inflexibility, as if this
+were the last straw, and the children, howling and struggling, are
+carried away by Dinah.
+
+Quiet being thus restored, Mrs. Grey paces up and down, indulging in
+a long soliloquy. She speaks of the long years of war, and the hope
+deferred which maketh the heart sick. She regretfully recalls the bonnie
+little island, with its green fields and blooming gardens, which had
+been forsaken for these scenes of hardship. Then, however, she remembers
+the days of oppression there, and bursts into a thanksgiving that they
+had at last found a spot where they could worship God in peace according
+to the dictates of their own conscience. Then she thinks of the
+Declaration of Independence, and tries to remember the resolution of
+Richard Henry Lee. Seeing the girls come in, she says that they will
+remember.
+
+The two girls, Winnie and Fannie, attired in short-waisted dresses, big
+poke bonnets, and immense outside pockets, are asked by Mrs. Grey
+to recall the resolution which has for the moment slipped from her
+recollection. One of them (Fannie), in answer, declaims the resolution,
+and as she comments, in rather excited tones, "Glorious, mother, isn't
+it?" Mr. Cranston, the Tory gentleman, enters. This was one of the boys
+of the class, resplendent in hempen wig, frilled shirt front, and the
+veritable "brass-buttoned coat, with long blue flaps," knee breeches,
+and silver-buckled slippers. He tauntingly informs them that they will
+find it "too glorious, when the rebellion is crushed, and they are all
+sentenced to be executed as rebels."
+
+Whereupon he and the colonial young ladies enter into a heated argument,
+with taunts on one side about the minute-men of Massachusetts and the
+battles of Lexington and Concord, and retaliations from the Tory about
+the battle of Long Island and the miseries at Valley Forge. They retort
+with the news of the treaty of alliance with France, and he replies by
+reminding them of the loss of their ports in the north.
+
+He is interrupted by the entrance of the children, who tell the group
+that every one in the village is shouting "Hurrah!" that the bell in the
+church is ringing, and that the big flag is waving over the roof. While
+the patriots are exclaiming that "there must be good news," two young
+men enter, carrying guns. All spring up in surprise, and the children
+dance and caper about, with shouts of "Uncle Mark! Uncle John!"
+
+Mark and John inform Mrs. Grey and their sisters of the surrender of
+Cornwallis. The Tory makes his way out as quietly as possible, with
+a very evident desire to do so unobserved, saying, "Cornwallis
+surrendered! Then this is no place for me!" The curtain falls, as Mrs.
+Grey exclaims, with clasped hands and upraised eyes, "The morning has
+dawned at last!"
+
+There was the usual applause, and soon visitors and children--the
+entertained and the entertainers--were on their homeward way, and the
+"exhibition" had become a part of the past.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE YOUNG WARRIOR MAIDS.
+
+
+After the entertainment, things went on in their accustomed routine.
+Winnie, Miriam, Gretta and Fannie became more intimate than ever, and
+really tried, in spite of many discouragements, to conquer their bad
+habits.
+
+For a couple of weeks the little band of "Giant Killers" had had no
+meetings, but on the second week after the Washington celebration, the
+four girls received a pretty invitation from Winnifred's Aunt Kitty to
+take tea with her on the following Friday, and to consider themselves
+invited to hold their next meeting at her home, bidding them tell their
+mothers that the hostess would see that they arrived home safe not
+later than half-past nine. Also, inclosed under cover to Winnie, was an
+invitation for Ernestine Alroy, to be delivered only in case the other
+three girls were willing. Upon Winnie's showing this, Fannie was the
+first to propose that not only should the invitation be delivered, but
+that Ernestine should be invited to join their society.
+
+The family of Winnie's grandmother was a small one, Mrs. Benton often
+saying, with a sigh, that her children had all left her except Kitty and
+Fred. Whereupon Kitty would take hold of her mother's hand and assure
+her, in a serio-comic manner, that this daughter she would have ever
+beside her, "to warn, to comfort, to command." Mrs. Benton was not
+wealthy, but she had a comfortable income of her own, and as Fred
+received a very good salary in one of the large railroad offices, they
+always had means for the comforts of life and many of its luxuries. They
+lived in a suite of rooms in one of the finest apartment houses of the
+city.
+
+The "Arlington" was a very large building, and as the girls were not
+accustomed to such immense houses, they had arranged with Winnie that
+they should all go together at five o'clock. Accordingly that hour found
+them all standing in the vestibule together, to the manifest amusement
+of the janitor when he answered Winnie's ring. As Mrs. Benton's
+apartment was only one flight up, they did not take the elevator, but
+Winnie ran lightly up the stairs, the others following more slowly.
+She knocked at the door at the right of the hall, which was immediately
+opened by Miss Benton, to whom Winnie introduced the other girls, who
+more or less timidly put their hands into the outstretched one of this
+pleasant young lady, but found their timidity vanish almost as if by
+magic when they felt her warm, cordial clasp as she drew them into the
+parlor.
+
+And a very pretty parlor it was, with a quaint individuality of its
+own--"just like Kitty Benton herself," as her friends were wont to say.
+There were no two chairs alike, but they all agreed in one respect--that
+of being exceedingly comfortable, from the high-backed willow to the low
+chair upholstered in old gold and scarlet tapestry.
+
+On the walls were five or six oil paintings--a couple of marines, and
+the others bright, summer landscapes. There was one, which Miss Benton
+had herself painted, entirely different from the others. A cloudy sky,
+with dim, gray mountains in the distance. In the foreground a single
+grave under a willow, but lying in such vivid sunlight, which came from
+a break in the clouds, that it had almost a jubilant look for so sad
+a subject, as most people would have deemed it. On a low shelf stood
+a beautifully engraved Madonna, and on a table near was a portfolio of
+fine etchings. About the room were bits of bric-a-brac of various kinds,
+among them a piece of genuine old Wedgwood. On the upright piano stood a
+tall vase of Easter lilies.
+
+Miss Benton, having helped her young visitors to divest themselves of
+their wraps, seated them close to the open fire, and then took down the
+etchings to show them. These, however, proved a little beyond them, so
+she took from the table a stereoscope and some views, every one of which
+had been collected by her mother or herself during their various trips,
+and about each one she told some incident, amusing or pathetic, so that
+an hour had passed away almost before the girls knew it.
+
+Fred had been requested by his sister to take his supper downtown,
+as she felt that the girls would feel more at their ease without his
+presence. When the bright-faced maid announced supper, Miss Benton took
+Gretta by the hand, and said, as they all entered the dining-room, "'We
+are seven,' and, I presume, if Wordsworth were here, he would write a
+poem about us."
+
+As the five friends took their places, they simultaneously burst into an
+exclamation of delight. At each of their places was a bunch of flowers,
+with a card on which was a pretty little painting in water-colors of a
+young girl, with fair hair streaming over her shoulders, in full armor,
+receiving from an angel a sword. Underneath were the words in old
+English text, in scarlet and gold, "He that overcometh shall inherit all
+things."
+
+The cards were exactly alike, but the flowers were different. Miriam had
+a glorious red rose, with buds and leaves; Gretta, garden daisies
+and primroses; Fannie, scarlet geraniums, a calla lily and a wild
+jack-in-the-pulpit; Ernestine, lilies of the valley; Winnie, ferns
+and mignonette. Mrs. Benton lifted caressingly to her face a bunch of
+English violets, and their hostess pinned on her bodice a cluster of
+yellow rosebuds.
+
+"Oh, Aunt Kitty, what a hunt you must have had among the florists and
+markets for all these flowers!" said Winnie.
+
+"And how well you have suited us all!" cried Miriam.
+
+"What is this, Miss Benton?" asked Fannie, holding up the
+jack-in-the-pulpit.
+
+"That is a wild-flower," replied Miss Benton, giving the blossom its
+name, "which was sent me from Tennessee this week; it does not bloom
+quite so early here. If you will examine it and compare it with your
+calla, you will see many points of resemblance; indeed, they are of the
+same family, although the splendid Egyptian calla has all the advantages
+of climate, water and sun, which make it the handsome thing it is. But
+our little American Jack, all the same, lifts its head out of its green
+pulpit and preaches to us of the eternal kinship of all things. Put your
+geraniums in your button hole, and after tea I'll put your calla and its
+country cousin in water for you to keep fresh till you go home."
+
+"How did you know I was fond of lilies of the valley, Miss Benton?"
+asked Ernestine. "It is my mother's favorite flower, too; she says they
+used to grow in great clumps in the yard of her home when she was a
+girl, and she never sees one without thinking of her childhood."
+
+"Of course I couldn't know that, my dear; I only thought that you would
+like them. Although I had never met any of you I have heard Winnifred
+talk about you, and her little tongue sometimes gives me queer ideas,"
+said Miss Benton, smiling at her niece with an air of good comradeship.
+
+"Mother, let Winnie serve the chocolate, while I attend to this end of
+the table. You see, girls, we only have the maid bring in the dishes
+from the kitchen, for we like to wait on each other," she said, helping
+them to chicken croquettes, cold ham, and delicious muffins, as Winnie
+passed around the chocolate in dainty china cups.
+
+How they all enjoyed that supper! They were just like girls in a book,
+Miriam said. Everything seemed so different from ordinary occasions.
+Even the orange jelly tasted so much better than at other times, because
+of the orange baskets in which it was served. They sat at the table
+a long time, for both Mrs. Benton and her daughter encouraged their
+visitors to talk; and while they were eating their candy and nuts, they
+played the game of rhymes and "yes and no."
+
+Then Miss Kitty sent them into the parlor with her mother, excusing
+herself and Winnie for a few moments. When they entered the parlor, they
+found Mrs. Benton with her silk socks in her hands, knitting as rapidly
+as she was talking. She was giving them an account of the old turkey
+gobbler that used to chase her when she was a little girl, and they were
+all laughing heartily.
+
+This anecdote led to Miriam's giving an account of a goat which one of
+her aunt's friends had presented to her little boy, and which was the
+terror of the neighborhood.
+
+"My aunt and I," said Miriam, "were making an afternoon visit at Mrs.
+Kincaid's, and, as it was warm and pleasant, we were invited into the
+yard to look at the flowers. My aunt was very enthusiastically admiring
+a fine Yucca which, for a wonder, was in bloom, when the goat was seen
+peering through a gap in the fence which divided the front from the back
+yard.
+
+"Mrs. Kincaid immediately took to her heels, and I was about to follow,
+when Aunt Jennie said, 'Miriam, I am surprised that you should be afraid
+of a goat. Even if he were to come near you, you would only have to
+seize him by the horns; it is the easiest thing in the world to conquer
+a goat.'
+
+"By this time Mrs. Kincaid was safe in the house, tapping loudly on the
+window, from which she was viewing the scene, for us to come in, and
+'dancing crazy' (as the girls say about things), because we were still
+outside.
+
+"My aunt was walking in a leisurely and dignified manner toward the
+house, holding her head a little higher than usual, and I was following
+very meekly for me--for I hate to be thought a coward--when the goat
+gave a sudden bound, broke another picket in the fence, and went
+straight toward her with his head down, and his bob tail switching.
+
+"Well, Aunt Jennie did turn and face him, and she really did take the
+vicious little beast by the horns. But was he conquered? You wouldn't
+have thought so, had you been there; he just raised himself on his hind
+legs and shook himself loose. Aunt Jennie suddenly dropped her dignity,
+and flew, rather than ran, toward the house, the goat after her, and
+she just escaped him by Mrs. Kincaid's pulling her inside the door and
+slamming it shut.
+
+"As for me, I went through the hole in the fence to the back yard,
+rushed pell-mell into the kitchen door, without stopping to knock, and
+dropped into the nearest chair, where I sat and laughed till the tears
+ran down my cheeks, to the astonishment of the kitchen girl and the
+washerwoman, who were enjoying a cup of tea.
+
+"I was wicked enough to laugh afterward, for Aunt Jennie did not lecture
+on courage or dignity for a month after that, and I notice now that when
+we pass a livery stable she keeps a quiet but effective lookout for 'the
+horned monarch of the livery stable,' as I once heard him called."
+
+"Well, I'm afraid of goats myself," said Miss Kitty, "and I think there
+ought to be a law against their being allowed inside the city limits.
+What with the small boy who torments the goat, and the goat which cannot
+distinguish between his tormentor and any other member of the human
+race, every passer-by is certain of being made ridiculous, if nothing
+more serious occurs. But to change the subject, would you young
+giant-killers like to hear a story that I have written for you?"
+
+Of course they were delighted, and, the softly-shaded lamp having
+been adjusted, and Mrs. Benton seated so that the light fell upon her
+knitting, Miss Benton took her seat at the other side of the table, and
+read the following allegory:
+
+
+GIANT PROCRASTINATION.
+
+Stretching off far as the eye can reach, lies a vast plain, intersected
+by many roads of various widths, from the narrowest foot-path to those
+wide enough for three or four vehicles to pass abreast. Pleasant roads
+they seem to be, too; wild-flowers of brilliant hues grow along their
+sides, birds of beautiful plumage twitter their varied notes, and pretty
+little squirrels and rabbits dart here and there. But when the saunterer
+along one of these by-paths plucks the blossoms, they fall to pieces
+in his hands, and, on near approach, the birds circle for a few moments
+about the head, and then fly away and are seen no more.
+
+These by-ways continually lead into and cross one another, but all at
+last meet in one broad road, and this is the road of "By and By," which
+leads to the castle of "Never." This castle stands at the entrance to
+a dark and gloomy forest, through which no path has ever been cut,
+and which is so dense and wild that one draws back in fear, finding it
+impossible not to think of it as inhabited by beasts and serpents and
+insects as wild and poisonous as those which infest the South American
+forests or the jungles of India.
+
+At the right and left of the castle rise huge cliffs unscaled by mortal
+foot during the lifetime of the present owner, and seldom attempted even
+during the ages gone by, when his ancestors, in a more or less direct
+line, held high orgies, while with demoniac laughter they tortured their
+victims.
+
+The present owner and occupant of the castle is a giant, so skilled in
+the art of metamorphosis that he is constantly deceiving and deluding
+his victims, each of whom he approaches in a different manner. With some
+he wears an air of haughty though courteous dignity, and gives them fair
+and sweet promises of granting their every desire as soon as his plans
+are perfected and he is ready. With others, he puts on a smiling, joyous
+look, points out to them the birds and flowers along the roadside,
+and tells them that to-morrow all these pleasures shall be theirs. A
+different face and garb for every deluded follower, who ever ends in
+becoming his victim; for, just at the entrance to the castle, still
+covered by the seemingly fair flowers, is a frightful morass, out of
+which the wanderer is helped only by the giant himself, and taken by him
+thence into the castle, from which there is no escape.
+
+The dreadful Castle of Never! And yet, how fair it looks to those who
+stand just outside its gates! Its battlemented towers, decorated with
+flags and banners floating gayly in the air, its many windows, catching
+and reflecting every ray of sunlight, its majestic proportions, make it
+seem a dwelling much to be desired. And either because it is enchanted,
+or from some strange property of the surrounding atmosphere, it often
+appears to be raised high in the air, so that at a very great distance
+it shows larger, if less distinct, than when viewed near by.
+
+It is early morning. The sun himself has not yet risen, although his
+approach is heralded by lovely green and rose tints on the eastern
+horizon. The great Giant Procrastination lies stretched upon his huge
+bed, dreaming uneasily, for he groans and starts many times, but still
+sleeps on. The inside of the far-famed castle shows not so fair as the
+outside. There are many things lying about on tables and chairs, or
+tucked away under articles of larger furniture; some of them are pretty,
+some elegant, but all unfinished.
+
+The morning wind, rising as if it, too, had lain asleep during the
+night, shrieks and whistles as if in wrath, or moans and sighs as though
+in mortal anguish. And hush! What other sound is that which rises above
+the roar of the wind and fills one's soul with terror? Alas! it is the
+shrieks of despair from the prisoners in the dungeon, and one hears,
+mingled with their groans, the dreadful words, "Too late! Too late!"
+
+But who are these descending the heretofore unscaled cliff? And how
+comes it that thus unguided they have escaped the dangers of the forest,
+and that, now stealing upon their sleeping foe from the unguarded rear,
+they are not dashed into pieces as they make the steep and terrible
+descent? Ah! they have an invisible Guide, who goes before and smooths
+every difficulty; and their feet are shod with a divine determination
+which leads them securely over the most dangerous places.
+
+And yet they move with caution. Clinging now to the bushes that grow
+along the cliff, now stepping carefully on some jutting crag, they come
+one by one. Now they have reached the bottom, and stop a moment to take
+breath and consult as to the next movement. For behold! five little
+maidens, scarcely in their teens, have come to give battle to one of the
+strongest enemies of mankind, and to attack him in his own stronghold.
+Brave as they are, however, and resolutely as they have nerved
+themselves to the task ahead of them, they cannot repress a shudder as
+they gaze upon the frowning mass before them. For, never dreaming of
+attack in the rear, the giant's ancestors had taken no pains to make
+that part of the castle beautiful or to endow it with the enchantment of
+illusion, so all is dark and strong and terrible.
+
+Regaining courage, the five young warriors kneel upon the rocky path and
+ask their invisible Guide for succor and strength. They rise encouraged
+and hopeful, and each assists the other to readjust her armor. Wonderful
+armor! light to wear, but stronger than mailed steel.
+
+They advance to the heavy door. It is all unguarded, and even stands
+partly open, so that all their strength is saved to them for the combat.
+One by one, and noiselessly, they climb the iron stairs, and, guided
+by his snores, they find themselves at last in the presence of their
+sleeping enemy.
+
+If they can but strike now! One blow from either of their swords, and
+he would lie slain before them. But alas! they hesitate for one short
+moment, and in that brief space of time the wind bangs a heavy shutter
+against the iron casement, and, at its fearful clang, the giant awakes
+and rises to his feet. He stares about him for a moment, stupefied, but
+there is no mistaking the fact that he is in the presence of an enemy;
+for their armor, their uplifted swords, their resolute mien, all
+proclaim their errand to be one of war. Then, gazing upon their
+diminutive forms, he laughs a horrid, blood-curdling laugh, as he gloats
+over the prospect that he will soon have five more victims to languish
+in his dungeons.
+
+He springs forward to seize the foremost of his youthful foes, but her
+fear has vanished. Raising her shield for protection, she strikes
+with her sword, and the giant receives a fearful gash in the hand
+outstretched to grasp her, and starts back, howling with pain. The five
+girls close around him at once, but so immense of stature is he, that
+they soon perceive it will be impossible for them to reach a vital part
+unless he can be thrown.
+
+Fast and furious they rain the blows upon him, and not in vain. He
+has no armor on, his usual weapons are beyond his reach, and he knows
+instinctively that his usual powers of metamorphosis are useless. One
+blow, at last, inflicts a ghastly wound in his ankle; he clutches at
+the bed for support, but misses it, and falls, groaning heavily, at full
+length on the floor, where, taken at a disadvantage, a sword is thrust
+into his heart, and with horrid struggles he dies.
+
+The maiden warriors embrace each other joyfully, and, kneeling together
+in that moment of victory, give all the praise and glory to that
+invisible Power which has enabled them, weak girls as they are, to
+conquer.
+
+But their work is not yet done. Taking the keys from under the pillow
+of the dead monster, they pass down a winding staircase, until they find
+themselves so far beneath the surface of the earth, that not a ray of
+light shines over their pathway.
+
+One of them lights a tiny lamp which she has brought with her, and they
+proceed. At length they reach the foot of the stairs and find themselves
+in a dark, narrow passage, with many windings and turnings. Along this
+they proceed carefully, until they stand before the massive doors of
+the dungeon. Trying one key after another, they find one that turns the
+lock, and the door swings open. What a sight meets their sorrowful gaze!
+Bones--human bones--lie scattered everywhere, and, as they become more
+accustomed to the darkness, they distinguish human forms still living,
+with haggard faces, and despair written on every feature.
+
+"Your enemy is dead!" say the maidens. "We have come to set you free,
+and then we are going to burn the castle, for thus has our Guide
+commanded us."
+
+As they all stand once more in the glad sunlight, they set fire to the
+mighty structure, and see the leaping, victorious flames devour it, even
+to the flags and banners which had so short a time before streamed gayly
+from its towers.
+
+
+"Thank you, Aunt Kitty," said Winnifred, as Miss Benton laid down the
+manuscript. "I don't see how you ever thought of all that."
+
+"Well, Winnie, we all know that the idea is taken from the book you have
+recently been reading, but where no pretense is made to originality,
+imitation is not deception."
+
+"But do you really think, Miss Benton," said Ernestine, raising her
+eyes, "that we can so completely conquer our faults?"
+
+"Alas, no! I'm afraid we never can completely conquer them, but by
+striving constantly we can strike many a blow, each one of which leaves
+the enemy weaker, and ourselves stronger. The great pity of it all is,
+that we can kill only our own giants, and destroy their strongholds for
+ourselves; we can never do it for others, dearly as we may love them."
+
+"Well," said Fannie, in her decided manner, "I wish that Procrastination
+were the only giant to fight; but I have some enemies which are
+still harder for me to conquer;" and she blushed slightly, as she
+involuntarily glanced toward Ernestine.
+
+"It is a great gain, however," said Mrs. Benton, pausing in her
+knitting, "when we have learned to do that which must be done, without
+unnecessary delay. Procrastination, it is quite true, is the least
+vicious and the least malicious of all the faults; but stronger, almost,
+than any other, and holding more people, young and old, under its
+control. If this be overcome, the struggle with the others grows easier.
+Indeed, it is surprising how many little misdeeds are the outcome of
+that one fault. Untidiness, fits of temper, disobedience, prevarication,
+and sometimes even downright untruth, might often be avoided if things
+were done in time."
+
+"But it is hard always to remember," sighed Miriam. "Ernestine, how do
+you keep from forgetting?"
+
+"Oh, I forget oftener than you know," said Ernestine, flushing under
+her delicate skin; "but I have had mamma to think of, and have tried to
+please her and make her happy; then, too, I had a nurse in Louisiana who
+taught me to remember that there is One 'who is a very present help in
+time of trouble.'"
+
+"That is the best help of all, girls, and one that you can carry with
+you always. I find mottoes and texts a great help, too, when I want
+to succeed in any one particular thing. How would it do, at your next
+meeting, for each one to contribute a text from the Bible, and, if
+possible, a quotation from one of the poets, applicable to this same
+wheedling fault?" said Miss Benton.
+
+"I should like that very much," replied Ernestine.
+
+"So would I!" "And I!" "And I!" replied Miriam, Fannie and Winnie.
+
+Gretta only was silent, but Miss Kitty judged it best to pass her
+silence by without remark.
+
+At this moment, Mr. Fred Benton entered the parlor and was introduced to
+the girls, and very soon they were all escorted to their homes by their
+friend's uncle, who proved himself as good an entertainer of these
+little women as was his sister.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+STRUGGLES.
+
+
+"Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home," carolled Winnie, as
+she descended the stairs the next morning, feeling happy and contented,
+and as if the world were a pleasant place in which to live and love and
+to succeed in being good. She felt at peace with everybody, and had such
+a sense of security that she imagined her giants all conquered, and saw
+in rosy hues a future of beautiful and pleasant right-doing.
+
+What was her surprise when she entered the dining-room, expecting to
+find the usual tempting breakfast on the table, to see not the slightest
+signs of it, and to find the room unoccupied except by little Ralph, who
+was sitting in front of the empty grate in his night-clothes; and a very
+cross little boy Winnie soon found him to be, for he set up a howl the
+moment he saw her.
+
+"'Innie, I 'ants to be d'essed, and it's ugly izout any fire, and I
+'ants my b'eakast."
+
+"Whatever is the matter?" said Winnie. But she received no answer except
+the whining refrain, "I 'ants my b'eakast," until she began to feel so
+irritated that she would have liked to shake the child.
+
+This, however, she did not do, simply because she did not dare. But
+instead of attempting to soothe him, she went into the kitchen to find
+out from Norah the reason for this unusual state of affairs. Instead of
+Norah, she found her mother heating water and making mustard plasters,
+with an anxious look on her face.
+
+"What is the matter, mamma?" asked Winnie; "and where are papa and
+Jack?"
+
+"They had important business at the store and couldn't wait, but will
+take breakfast downtown. Norah was taken very sick in the night, but
+she said nothing about it, and came down as usual this morning to get
+breakfast, and I found her in a dead faint on the kitchen floor. Your
+father and I got her upstairs between us, and Jack went for the doctor.
+He says it is nothing serious, but that Norah will have to keep still
+for two or three days. Help me carry these things to Norah's room, and
+then you will have to come downstairs and get some breakfast for us."
+
+Winnie took the pail of water which her mother handed to her, and
+started upstairs, feeling a strange sense of resentment against Norah,
+as if she were to blame for this unpleasant condition of affairs.
+
+When they reached Norah's room, her mother said, "Put down the pail,
+Winnie, and make haste downstairs and see if you can't get things into
+some kind of order; it's getting very late."
+
+Winnie put the water down so hurriedly that it splashed over the floor.
+Then she went out, but instead of hurrying, went down clinging to the
+balusters as if she could not and would not make any exertion.
+
+When she opened the dining-room door Ralph said: "I sink Norah's mean
+to det sick; she dust did it a-purpose, so Ralph touldn't have any
+b'eakast."
+
+"Why, Ralph," said Winnie, "you ought to be ashamed of yourself! Of
+course it's no fun for Norah to be sick." But as she spoke to Ralph, her
+conscience reproached her, for she knew in her heart that she had had
+the same feeling, if not the same thought. This startled her, as if she
+had suddenly had a mirror held up before her mind, and she spoke to the
+little boy more pleasantly, telling him to come into the kitchen
+with her and watch her make the coffee and cook some ham and eggs for
+breakfast.
+
+But although aware that her conscience was speaking to her, Winnie had
+not in the least succeeded in overcoming her irritable feelings. She
+had made plans for such a pleasant day! She had intended to practice
+faithfully, and get through all her little duties early in the
+afternoon, so that she could take Ralph through market--something that
+she particularly liked to do; it was always so exciting to her to see
+the people jostling each other, to hear them haggling over the price of
+something, to see the strange types and characters, and to imagine
+the different motives which brought these different people together.
+Besides, she had been saving her money to surprise her mother with a
+pot of English violets from the flower market, which would be sure to
+be particularly lovely this afternoon, for the sun shone out brightly,
+giving promise of an unusually warm day for March.
+
+"How could people do their duty, if they never knew what it was going
+to be?" she mused, as she measured out the coffee and put it into the
+filter. But as she went to turn the water over it, she remembered that
+her mother had emptied the hot water from the kettle into the pail.
+
+"I should think mamma might have taken the water out of the tank for
+Norah!" she said, half aloud, although she knew very well that the water
+in the tank was scarcely warm, as she proceeded to fill the kettle.
+
+She poked the fire viciously, feeling as if here she could give her
+impatience some vent.
+
+The ham, fortunately, Norah had sliced the evening before, otherwise
+in her present state of irritation Winnie would certainly have cut her
+fingers.
+
+Now, when Winnie chose, she could be a very nice little housekeeper;
+but this morning, as may well be imagined, everything went wrong, as she
+said, never thinking that perhaps her own impatience might be at fault.
+She burnt the ham, the eggs did not break open nicely, she cut her
+finger in slicing the bread, and altogether it took her so long to
+get breakfast that poor little Ralph, still running about in his
+night-clothes, was, as he expressed it, "starved 'mos' to death."
+
+Mrs. Burton came down before Winnie had finished setting the table, and
+a glance at the little girl's flushed face was sufficient to tell the
+observant mother the true state of affairs. As usual in such cases,
+however, she said nothing, but called Ralph and took him upstairs to
+be dressed, telling Winnie that she would be down in ten minutes for
+breakfast.
+
+When they came down, Mrs. Burton said:
+
+"This morning we will not say our verses till after breakfast, as I am
+sure we are all of us too hungry to receive any benefit from them now;"
+and she proceeded to pour the coffee. Then Winnie saw that she had
+forgotten the cream and jumped up to get it.
+
+"Your coffee is very nice, Winnie," said her mother.
+
+"Oh, mamma, I didn't think anything would be nice! I had such a time!
+The fire wouldn't burn, and I burnt my fingers and afterward cut them,
+and everything was horrid generally."
+
+"I had a defful time gene'lly, too," said Ralph. "I was so hung'y I
+toudn't wait, and 'Innie 'ouldn't div me a tracker, and said I'se a
+bodder. Is I a bodder, mamma?"
+
+"Not when you're a good boy, my pet. Sister doesn't always think so,
+either; but you see, this morning she had so much to do."
+
+"Did Norah det sick so 'Innie have to 'ork so hard? Poor 'Innie!" And
+the little fellow stroked Winnie's hand, while she scarcely knew whether
+to laugh or cry.
+
+Altogether it was quite an unusual breakfast. Ralph ate three eggs, and
+more bread and butter than he had ever been known to eat before; and
+Winnie felt her own impatience dying away to some extent, as her hunger
+diminished, although she had not realized before that she was hungry.
+
+After breakfast Mrs. Burton gave her text, and then called upon Winnie
+for hers. Up to that moment Winnie's text had entirely left her mind,
+and she recited it with a feeling of shame as she remembered the
+contrast between her morning conduct and the somewhat puffed-up feeling
+with which she had selected it: "He that ruleth his own spirit is
+greater than he that taketh a city."
+
+"Perhaps only the One above knows how hard it is for people to govern
+their own spirits. The temptation to yield to self is so strong that it
+sometimes seems as if there is nothing that will conquer it," commented
+Mrs. Burton.
+
+"But mamma, everybody says, 'Do the duty that lies nearest thee.' How
+are we to do this, when we never know what is going to happen from
+one day to another? This morning I thought I was going to get my music
+lesson, and now how can I do that?"
+
+"That is where we all make mistakes, Winnifred. We lay our plans, and
+are annoyed and vexed when something occurs to change them. We are like
+soldiers placed on the field of battle. Some of us would like an easy
+place; some would rather stay behind and guard the rear; others, in
+spite of danger, wish to press forward where 'glory waits them.' But we
+cannot choose either our own places or the attending circumstances. All
+we can do is to fall to 'with might and main.' God will take care of the
+ordinary duties, but there are some things which brook no delay. Do we
+not know how the Savior turned away from the chosen way to heal the sick
+or comfort the afflicted? But I think that my present duty is to cut my
+sermon short, for both you and I will have a great deal to do to-day. I
+will attend to things upstairs, and will be down to do the baking by the
+time you are through the work here."
+
+So saying, Mrs. Burton rose from the table and left the room. Winnie
+still felt a sense of disappointment, but the little sermon, arising, as
+it did, from the text she herself had selected, had been good for her,
+and she went to work cheerfully and systematically, and the difficulties
+which an hour ago had seemed so great, all disappeared.
+
+Ralph, too--who was so unlike most children of his age as not to be fond
+of doing anything that appeared in the least like work--seemed animated
+by the spirit of the occasion, and trotted back and forth between
+the kitchen and dining-room carrying a plate or a cup and saucer, and
+feeling that he was helping greatly.
+
+As for Winnie, she had none of the feeling of some girls who are ashamed
+to be seen doing housework, for her mother had taught her, both by word
+and example, the folly and sinfulness of such a notion, and that it is
+the worker who degrades the work instead of the opposite; and as a very
+little girl, Winnie had learned Herbert's fine lines:
+
+  "Who sweeps a room as by God's laws,
+  Makes that and the action fine."
+
+Now that she was working cheerfully, she even found a pleasure in
+dish-washing, as who should not, given plenty of hot water, clean
+towels, a pleasant kitchen with the sun shining in, and a little cherub
+of a brother chattering on with his cunning tongue, which finds so much
+difficulty in pronouncing the consonants?
+
+So, when Mrs. Burton returned to the kitchen, everything was in fine
+order, and a bright fire had prepared the oven to do its share in the
+Saturday baking.
+
+When noon came, Winnie really felt that she had had a pleasant morning,
+although it had been spent in beating eggs and grating lemons; besides,
+she had for once had her mother all to herself, and she sat down to the
+lunch she had prepared feeling quite happy.
+
+She did not get an opportunity to leave the house all that day, except
+to do two or three errands in the neighborhood. She took Norah's toast
+and tea up to her, and spent the greater part of the afternoon in her
+room, trying to make amends for the morning's impatience by bathing the
+sick girl's head, changing her pillows, and moistening her parched lips.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+RALPH'S BIRTHDAY.
+
+
+A few days after the events narrated in the last chapter, a bright,
+sunshiny morning ushered in Ralph's fourth birthday anniversary, and a
+fine time he had receiving, in the first place, four little love taps
+and then four kisses from each member of the family in turn.
+
+Norah had entirely recovered from her illness, and had baked a cake
+especially for him, lighted by four wax candles, which was placed in
+front of Ralph's plate at breakfast time. His father gave him that toy
+most delightful to the average boy--a mechanical engine. Jack's gift
+was a basket of fruit, his mother's a humming top, and Winnie's a little
+autograph album, in which she had copied the following verse, written by
+Aunt Kitty:
+
+  "Many tiny sunbeams fill the world with light,
+    Tiny drops of water make the ocean's might;
+  Tiny bits of goodness, that tiny laddies do,
+    Fill our homes with gladness and make our hearts glad, too."
+
+Ralph was much pleased at having a little book all his own, with a verse
+in it made on purpose for him, and he had Winnie read it over and over,
+until presently he could say it himself.
+
+But the crowning gift of all was sent to the house just as they were
+at dinner, labeled "From Grandma, Aunt Kitty and Uncle Fred." It was a
+handsome velocipede, just the right height to fit the little short legs.
+Strange to say, Ralph learned to manage it at once and rode right off on
+it, and when Aunt Kitty came to take him and Winnie to the park, it
+was with great difficulty that he could be prevailed upon to leave it
+behind. Finally they effected a compromise by allowing him to take his
+humming top, which he insisted on stopping to spin every few rods,
+much to the amusement of Aunt Kitty and the intense though unexpressed
+disgust and mortification of Winnie.
+
+When they reached the park they sat down on one of the benches to rest
+awhile, and watched Ralph feed the swans with some crumbs from the cake
+which he had brought. After that Aunt Kitty took them to the pretty
+dock, and, having selected a boat, rowed them around the lake, to the
+great interest of some boys, who called out to each other, "Come and see
+a girl row a boat!"
+
+Suddenly Ralph gave one of his tremendous howls, and Winnie grasped him
+just in time to keep him from pitching headlong into the water. He had
+dropped his top in the lake, and was trying in vain to seize it before
+it sank.
+
+It was some time before he could be pacified, and it was not till his
+aunt had him sit beside her and take hold of one oar and help her row,
+that he could be comforted. The remainder of the boat ride was very
+pleasant, and they supposed the child had forgotten all about the loss
+of his top. When they went home to supper, however, and Mr. Burton
+asked: "Well, my little man, what have you done with your birthday?"
+
+"I took it to the park and lost it in the lake, papa!" was the
+unexpected reply.
+
+"Fortunate child!" exclaimed Aunt Kitty, catching Ralph up, and
+laughing. "How happy the rest of us would be if we could dispose of our
+yearly reminders of the lapse of time in the same way! We might fancy
+ourselves blessed with the gift of eternal youth if it were not for our
+birthdays."
+
+But Ralph was not yet through celebrating. It was very seldom that Mrs.
+Burton allowed him to go out in the evening, but this was a special
+occasion, and as there was an opportunity for him to have a treat, she
+thought it only right for them to take advantage of it. There was to be
+a stereopticon entertainment at their Sunday-school, and they were all
+going. Ralph had not been told until supper was over, and even then,
+short as the time was until they should start out, he could hardly
+restrain his impatience.
+
+[Illustration: They watched Ralph feed the swans.--See page 42.]
+
+Aunt Kitty took him on her lap and told him the story of Red Riding-Hood
+and the Fair One with the Golden Locks, and repeated "Mother Goose"
+jingles to him, and thus managed to keep him somewhat contented until
+time to start.
+
+The walk through the lighted streets was a great pleasure to the
+little fellow. They went down Central Avenue, and, all the stores being
+lighted, it seemed to the child a different and mysterious world, more
+full of lights and people than the one he had been accustomed to.
+
+"Now, Ralph," said his father, "we are going to see a great many
+beautiful things to-night. But this is different from most times; for
+generally, the more light we have, the better we can see; but these
+pictures can be seen better in the dark, and they put out all the
+lights. When that happens, some foolish boy or girl may cry, but I want
+my little man to keep hold of papa's hand and not say one word till he
+sees the beautiful pictures."
+
+"I doesn't twy, papa!" said Ralph, indignantly. "I'se a big boy now--not
+a dreat big boy, but a little big boy. And I hasn't twied--oh, not for
+twenty-ten days, I dess."
+
+"Very well," said papa, "be sure to remember that by and by."
+
+When they reached the church it was still quite early, and the few
+people already there were laughing and chatting and having a pleasant
+time. This was very much to Ralph's disapproval. He did not attend
+church often, but when he did go, he had been talked to so much about
+keeping still, particularly by Winnie, that he thought it very naughty
+to make a noise in church, so now he said in a loud whisper:
+
+"Papa, I sink dose people is very naughty, to talk out loud in church."
+
+"But this isn't Sunday, Ralph," his father said; "you may talk, too, if
+you like."
+
+Ralph was so surprised at this that he had nothing to say for some time.
+
+Presently some of the girls of Winnie's Sunday-school class came and she
+went away with them, and Miss Benton stepped across the aisle to
+speak to some friends. This secession grieved Ralph very much. "I sink
+auntie's weal mean, to go and stay wiz dose ozzer people!" he said.
+
+"Aunt Kitty will come back in a few moments, Ralph," said mamma.
+
+By and by all the people stopped talking and took their seats, and Aunt
+Kitty came back and sat down beside Ralph. Two men entered and placed a
+big screen in the front part of the church. The organist began to play
+something slow and sweet and solemn, which made one think of things sad
+but not unhappy.
+
+The lights were suddenly turned out, and Ralph had just time to draw his
+breath quickly, and seize his father's hand and snuggle up close to him,
+when a picture appeared on the screen, and his father lifted him up that
+he might see it better.
+
+On the screen they saw a lonely, desolate mountain, which two persons
+were slowly ascending, one of them bearing an armful of wood. One
+represented an old man; the other was a young, slender boy. The organ
+was now giving forth minor strains, in queer, broken time, full of
+heartache.
+
+The next picture showed Abraham binding Isaac on the altar, and the look
+of surprise and terror on the face of the boy was equalled only by the
+intense but submissive expression of sorrow on the face of the old man.
+
+The organ was still sounding its sad tones, when the picture changed
+again, and this time the angel was staying Abraham's hand. And now the
+organ pealed forth tones of joy and gladness.
+
+The next views thrown on the screen appeared to be scenes in
+Switzerland. These Ralph did not seem to be at all interested in, until
+they saw a representation of Lake Lucerne, showing some children rowing
+a boat. This reminded Ralph of the loss of his humming-top, and he said,
+quite loudly, "Do you sink, papa, that little boy lost his birfday,
+too?"
+
+"If he did," said Aunt Kitty, "he will probably find another one to make
+up for its loss."
+
+The next picture was that of Jacob's Dream; a tall ladder, reaching to
+the sky, with the bright-winged "angels ascending and descending on
+it," as the narrative so simply tells us. Jacob lay with his head on
+its stony pillow, a wondering but happy look on his face, and his arms
+outstretched as if he would fain seize the lovely vision.
+
+The dreamy tones of Schumann's "Traumerie" stole upon the air, and
+changed from that, with skillful modulations, into a grand anthem, and
+the big chorus choir, which till now had been silent, burst into joyful
+but majestic strains: "The Lord reigneth; let the people tremble."
+
+Ralph knew this picture quite well. He had seen it many times in the big
+family Bible, and it was always a favorite with him, and now he clapped
+his little hands. This was an unintentional signal, and there was such a
+round of applause that the whole thing was repeated.
+
+The next picture showed Jacob wrestling with the angel; and in the
+following one, Jacob, kneeling, receives the desired blessing. Then came
+a series of comic pictures, which made everybody laugh. Then the words
+"Good-night" were thrown on the screen in immense letters, and it grew
+light in the church as suddenly as it had before grown dark, making
+everybody rub his eyes on account of the sudden glare.
+
+The people all began to hurry out as if it were necessary to reach home
+without a moment's delay. Winnie soon joined her family, and in a short
+time the "Green Line" had taken them all home.
+
+Ralph rubbed his sleepy eyes as he said his evening prayer, but was not
+too sleepy to thank God for his nice birthday.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ERNESTINE.
+
+
+"Mamma," asked Ernestine Alroy, "may I ask the girls to have their next
+meeting here and take tea with us?"
+
+Mrs. Alroy looked at her daughter with some hesitation as she
+said: "Ernestine, you know I would like to please you, but have you
+sufficiently considered the matter? All of your friends are very
+comfortably situated, and it will be impossible for us to entertain them
+as they do you. Besides, I cannot be at home until after six, and it
+will make tea very late."
+
+"I know all that, mamma, but I am sure I can make them have a pleasant
+time. I do not think we ought to be ashamed of being poor, when we think
+of the One who 'had not where to lay His head.' For your sake, poor
+mamma, I wish we had more money; but as for myself, I feel just as happy
+as if we were worth millions. I don't care a bit whether my friends
+have money or not, and I don't see why it should make any difference to
+anybody."
+
+"My poor child!" said her mother, and she sighed as she remembered
+that at Ernestine's age she had never even seen apartments so poorly
+furnished as theirs, "you have much to learn; you will find that there
+are many people in the world to whom it will make a great deal of
+difference."
+
+"Well, mamma, we don't care for the Madame Mucklegrands of the world,
+and Winnie Burton and all of her folks are as 'real folks' as any in
+Mrs. Whitney's book. Do let us have them!"
+
+"Well, dear, I don't exactly like to have you accept hospitalities which
+we are not willing to return, and if you think you can make it pleasant
+for your friends, you shall do as you wish."
+
+The next day, therefore, Ernestine told the four girls that her mother
+sent her compliments and would be much pleased to have them to tea on
+Friday evening. In the afternoon the girls all accepted, and Fannie said
+that if agreeable to Mrs. Alroy, her father would call for them at nine
+o'clock and see them home.
+
+After school that day, as Fannie and Ernestine were walking down Court
+Street together, they met a little girl, dirty and uncombed, carrying a
+basket of soiled clothes. Two of the boys of their class, racing wildly
+down the street, boy-fashion, ran against the child, upset the basket,
+and the clothes, not being very tightly packed, fell out. There was
+quite a strong wind, and some of the napkins and handkerchiefs lying
+loose on top were caught up and sent blowing here, there and everywhere.
+
+The boys ran on, totally indifferent, if not unconscious. The child,
+commencing to cry, gave chase to the wind-blown articles, and the basket
+rolled entirely over, and nearly every article fell out.
+
+Fannie stood laughing, her sense of the ridiculous overcoming any pity
+she might have felt for the girl. Ernestine hesitated a moment. She was
+daintiness itself, and the sight of the soiled clothes, belonging to no
+one knew whom, was not an attractive one. But for three years she had
+been earnestly striving to follow the Golden Rule, so she righted the
+basket, picked up the soiled clothes, rolled them together more tightly,
+and replaced them in the basket by the time the child returned with the
+recaptured napkins. She also helped put these in, and with a few kind
+words sent the girl on her way far happier than she would have been if
+obliged to struggle with her burden alone.
+
+Fannie had moved on some distance, much ashamed of being mixed up in
+such a scene to even so slight a degree, and feeling inclined to
+leave Ernestine entirely, for she knew that her mother would have
+characterized the whole affair as "plebeian," and she felt half angry
+with Ernestine.
+
+[Illustration: Ernestine righted the basket.--See page 46.]
+
+When the latter rejoined her, she said with some irritation, "However
+could you touch those horrid, dirty clothes or go near that dirty
+child?"
+
+"I didn't like to touch them," said Ernestine simply; "but Christ did a
+great many things he did not like to do."
+
+"Well, you are a queer girl, Ernestine! I'm sure I can't make up my mind
+that it is my duty to be pleasant to every dirty little beggar who comes
+along. There might have been small-pox in those clothes!"
+
+Ernestine smiled at that, but made no reply, and the two walked on in
+silence till they reached the corner where they separated.
+
+Fannie went on, swinging her books by the strap, and thinking that dirt
+could not be so repulsive to Ernestine as to her; but if she could have
+seen Ernestine go straight to the kitchen sink the minute she reached
+home, before she stopped to touch anything, Fannie might have realized
+something of the self-restraint her friend had exercised in the matter.
+But few of us can be brought to believe that things we find unpleasant
+are often quite as unpleasant to other people.
+
+Friday afternoon came, and five o'clock found the four girls entering a
+side yard in a pleasant if not an aristocratic neighborhood. They went
+up the stairs leading from a side hall, and were met at the top by
+Ernestine, who was holding open the door.
+
+She led them into a tiny bedroom, not much larger than a closet, but
+scrupulously dainty and clean, from the white spread and pillows on the
+bed to the fresh towels hanging on the rack above the washstand.
+
+Here she helped the girls remove their wraps, and then they went into
+the adjoining room, which was a pleasant surprise, particularly to
+Fannie. So pretty and pleasant and homelike it appeared that, at first,
+it almost seemed elegant, until one had time to observe that there was
+not an expensive article in the room. The floor was covered with a blue
+and white checked matting, the chairs and rockers were simply "cane,"
+and the only piece of upholstered furniture was the lounge. But there
+were some engravings, plainly framed; hanging baskets at both of the
+windows; a window-box of lilies-of-the-valley, just beginning to bloom,
+and in the other window a similar box of mignonette, which filled the
+whole room with its delicate fragrance.
+
+A bright fire blazed in the grate, and the four girls felt at home more
+quickly than they had done at either of the two places of their previous
+meetings, probably because Ernestine was their only hostess, her mother
+not yet having returned from the store.
+
+A late magazine lay on the table, together with a copy of that charming
+story, "Little Lord Fauntleroy," and Mrs. Whitney's "We Girls" and "Real
+Folks." Winnie could not help picking them up to see what they were, and
+it turned out that all of the girls except Gretta had read them, so they
+immediately began talking about them.
+
+"Mamma and papa and brother Jack took turns in reading 'Fauntleroy'
+aloud to us when it came out in the magazine," said Winnie, "and for a
+day or two in each month we hardly talked of anything else."
+
+"I liked the scene of the dinner party best, when the little lord talked
+to the guests, but stayed close beside the pretty lady and paid her such
+cunning compliments," said Fannie.
+
+"I enjoyed reading about him in the grocery store with Mr. Hobbs," said
+Miriam. "I can see them now; Hobbs was so funny! My sister said he was
+more of a child than the little hero of the story."
+
+"I think I liked him best when he was with his grandfather," said
+Ernestine; "it was lovely of him to think that wicked old man was so
+good."
+
+"My mother says that every child in the land, and particularly every
+boy, ought to read that story, if for no other reason than to learn
+what it is to be a real gentleman and a real lady. She says no depths of
+poverty could ever have made 'Dearest' and her son anything else."
+
+"I was just about frantic," said Fannie, "when I began to be afraid he
+wasn't the heir after all. It seemed horrid to think that that rough
+woman's son should own those fine lands and the title, and I felt almost
+as glad when it turned out all right as if he had been one of my nearest
+friends."
+
+"I wish I read more," said Gretta. "I do love my music; and if I didn't,
+I'd have to keep it up all the same. But I would like to read the book
+you are talking about."
+
+"You may take it," said Ernestine, "and keep it just as long as you
+wish."
+
+"Speaking of borrowing books," said Miriam, "reminds me that I did the
+most dreadful thing to-day. Miss Carter had lent me Mrs. Gaskel's 'Life
+of Charlotte Bronte,' and I had just returned it yesterday, feeling very
+grateful, for I think it is nice in Miss Carter to take an interest in
+so many girls. I should think she would just get to hating us, for it is
+the same thing year in and year out, and most of us are so trying.
+
+"But although I love her dearly, you know how angry she gets, and
+she was giving Josie Thompson such a lecture about there being no
+punctuation in her composition, and then she read a paragraph as it was
+punctuated--just 'like commas and periods shaken out of a pepper-box,'
+she said. The subject was 'Joan of Arc,' and Josie, as usual, had
+rather a mixed idea of her character, and what Miss Carter read sounded
+something like this:
+
+"'Joan of Arc, was a poor, girl who heard a great many, ghost stories
+and these turned her head and she imagined, that, it would be a great
+deal more fun to lead soldiers. To battle in the war. With England than
+to be spending her time tending sheep? on the mountains she thought she
+would enjoy herself better.'
+
+"That last was so much like Josie--who, as you know, is always talking
+about enjoying herself--that I could hardly keep in, and when Josie made
+a mouth at Miss Carter the minute her back was turned, three or four of
+us giggled out loud, and Miss Carter stopped lecturing Josie and turned
+her wrath on us.
+
+"That was yesterday, but this morning the whole affair was still fresh
+in my memory, and three or four of the girls in Miss Brownlow's room
+happening to come about the same time that I did, I began to tell them
+about it. I began in a high key, a great deal worse than Miss Carter
+ever uses, although she does pitch her voice very high when she is
+vexed. I said:
+
+"'Miss Thompson, I am surprised at you; in fact, I am more than
+surprised. It almost passes belief that a girl should begin to study
+punctuation almost as soon as her school life begins, as in our schools,
+and after six or seven years should not be able even to use a period, to
+say nothing of the more complicated marks; to know nothing, absolutely
+nothing, of her own language.'
+
+"Here I interrupted myself to show them the kind of mouth Josie made,
+and of course they all laughed, for they know how her mouth and nose go
+up at every little thing. Then I went on.
+
+"Miss Carter didn't see the mouth that Josie made, and she caught us
+laughing, and said, 'Can it be possible that there are girls in this
+class, girls of good rank and standing, and of moderately good behavior,
+who can laugh, yes, actually laugh, at the ignorance of one of their
+school-mates? Something is wrong, radically wrong,'--and here I made the
+gesture she always makes when she says 'radically wrong,' and--what do
+you think? There she stood, right behind me!"
+
+"What did she do?" asked Fannie.
+
+"Do? She didn't do anything, and I half thought she was smiling. But I
+felt as if I would like to sink through the floor, I was so mortified.
+And only yesterday I was walking down the street with her, talking
+to her as if I thought her my best friend! She'll think I'm a perfect
+hypocrite."
+
+"Why don't you apologize?" asked Gretta.
+
+"I can't go and apologize to someone for making fun of her as soon as
+her back is turned, can I? And I really didn't intend to make fun of
+Miss Carter, either; it was only that the whole affair seemed amusing to
+me."
+
+"She probably understands, and does not think any more about it," said
+Ernestine. "But now, if you'll excuse me, I'll have to go into the
+kitchen for a few minutes; or perhaps you'll come, too."
+
+"Oh, we'd like to come, if we won't be in the way," said Fannie. So they
+all trooped into the kitchen.
+
+What a tiny box of a place it was, to be sure! When all five of the
+girls were there, there was not room for anybody else. Fannie and Gretta
+squeezed close to each other on the box beside the window, Miriam sat on
+a chair in one corner, and Winnie stood in the doorway between the two
+rooms, watching Ernestine, and thinking how cross she had been only
+a week or two before because she had to do a little cooking in the
+morning, while Ernestine had to do it every day and go to school beside.
+
+But Ernestine did everything so easily and pleasantly that it was a
+pleasure to watch her. She did her cooking on a little oil stove, and
+there seemed so little to be done--for Mrs. Alroy and Ernestine had
+prepared things the day before--that her young visitors could not feel
+as if it were a bit of trouble to entertain them. It was as nice as a
+play, too, to see her cut the potatoes in delicate, thin slices and drop
+them into the boiling fat, and see them come out delightfully crisp and
+brown.
+
+Then the girls all followed her into the sitting-room, laughing and
+chattering as only girls can, while Ernestine set the table. The table
+linen was white and fine, and the cups and saucers were real old china,
+these being about the only things which Mrs. Alroy had saved from her
+past grandeur.
+
+Everything was ready and on the table, except the food which was to be
+served hot, when Mrs. Alroy came in, looking tired and reserved. She
+disappeared for a few moments into the bedroom, and when she came out,
+seeming somewhat refreshed, they all sat down to the table.
+
+To the surprise of the girls, Ernestine, in her simple, unaffected
+manner, asked a blessing on what was set before them. It seemed queer to
+them that if it were to be done at all, it should not be by Mrs. Alroy.
+But Ernestine's mother was not yet perfectly resigned to what had come
+upon her, and it was that, perhaps--yes, certainly--which made her
+burden so hard to bear; but at least she did not interfere with
+Ernestine in these matters.
+
+The girls were hungry, and everything tasted delicious, from the sliced
+cold ham and the potatoes which they had seen Ernestine frying, to the
+dessert of ice-cream and cake.
+
+When supper was over, the girls begged to be allowed to clear off the
+table, and Ernestine washed the dishes as they brought them out, while
+Winnie wiped them.
+
+Mrs. Alroy sat down and glanced over the newspaper. Fannie watched
+her curiously, and privately came to the conclusion that she was the
+proudest woman she had ever seen. This conviction came to her with
+something of a shock, for she had heretofore supposed that pride and
+wealth and fine living belonged together. She furthermore came to
+the conclusion that while pride might be fine, it was not especially
+charming, for though Mrs. Alroy had been pleasant when the girls were
+presented to her, her manner had been only polite, not interested.
+
+When the girls had finished washing and putting away the supper
+things, she roused herself and talked with them about their school and
+amusements, but as soon as Ernestine returned, excused herself and went
+into the little room and closed the door. Ernestine followed her, with a
+troubled look on her usually calm face. When she returned, she said:
+
+"Mamma has a severe headache, and begs to be excused for awhile, but
+hopes to feel better before you go home."
+
+"We were all to have a text or a verse to-night, weren't we?" asked
+Fannie. "The only thing I could find was our Golden Text for last
+Sunday, 'Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.' I spoke to
+papa about it, and, although he is not very religious, he said he didn't
+believe there was any better way of remembering our Creator than by
+trying to do what was right, and he was glad to see that I was thinking
+about such things."
+
+"Mamma says there are very few things said in the Bible about the
+dangers of delay," said Winnie, "but she gave me this one from Proverbs:
+'Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may
+bring forth.'"
+
+"I couldn't find anything in the Bible," said Miriam, "but I found a
+poem by Adelaide Procter which I copied, thinking you might like to hear
+it all, as I scarcely knew which verse to select. I will read it to you:
+
+  "Rise! for the day is passing,
+    And you lie dreaming on;
+  The others have buckled their armor,
+    And forth to the fight are gone.
+  A place in the ranks awaits you,
+    Each man has some part to play;
+  The Past and the Future are nothing,
+    In the face of the stern To-day.
+
+  "Rise from your dreams of the Future,--
+    Of gaining some hard-fought field;
+  Of storming some airy fortress,
+    Or bidding some giant yield;
+  Your Future has deeds of glory,
+    Of honor (God grant it may)!
+  But your arm will never be stronger,
+    Or the need so great as To-day.
+
+  "Rise! for the day is passing;
+    The sound that you scarcely hear,
+  Is the enemy marching to battle;
+    Arise! for the foe is here!
+  Stay not to sharpen your weapons,
+    Or the hour will strike at last,
+  When, from dreams of a coming battle,
+    You may wake to find it past!"
+
+"How much better we understand things than we did three months ago!"
+said Winnie. "I used to dream of the grand things I was going to do
+when I grew up." Then she added, blushing a little as she remembered
+her cross Saturday morning, "I do yet, sometimes, but I don't think I
+neglect quite so many things as I used to."
+
+"I never had much chance either to neglect things or to dream," said
+Gretta, "for papa or mamma or my sister was always reminding me that
+it was time to do this or that or the other. But I am beginning now to
+think of some of my faults. I couldn't find anything for this afternoon,
+except the Memory Gem we learned in the First Reader. You know I don't
+read a great deal myself, and we all seem to have so much to do at our
+house; when it isn't something else, it's practice, practice, practice!
+Even this little verse I don't suppose I should have remembered if I
+hadn't heard the children reciting it at the 'Colony':
+
+  "One thing at a time,
+    And that done well,
+  Is a very good rule,
+    As many can tell."
+
+"Why, that's the very thing, Gretta! I'm surprised that none of the rest
+of us thought of it. How queer that the same piece of advice, in one
+form or another, has been given to us ever since we were little girls,
+and that we have just begun to realize what it all means!" said Fannie.
+
+"What have you, Ernestine?" said Miriam.
+
+"I took mine from Ecclesiastes," was the reply. "'When thou vowest a vow
+unto the Lord, defer not to pay it.'"
+
+"I like that, too," said Gretta; "but I think Miss Benton's pretty card
+is helping me more than anything else."
+
+"I think that was lovely, too," said Fannie. "I liked the story ever
+so much, but it will be nice for us to do as she suggested, and take
+a motto this week. How would it do to take the one Winnie brought? It
+seems the easiest for us to understand."
+
+So they all learned it, and, at Miriam's suggestion, added the verse
+that Gretta had recited.
+
+Mrs. Alroy came back into the sitting-room just as the girls had
+finished reading their mottoes, and, though her eyes looked heavy, as if
+she were suffering, she joined the little band, and told them that she
+thought they were adopting a very good plan to help them over the rough
+places of life, and perhaps also enable them to make fewer mistakes than
+they might otherwise do.
+
+While she was talking to them, footsteps were heard coming up the
+stairs.
+
+"That's papa, I think," said Fannie, and she went with Ernestine to the
+door.
+
+Ernestine had seen Mr. Allen often, for he was one of the trustees of
+their school, but of course Mrs. Alroy had never met him, so the girls
+led him through the narrow hall into the room beyond.
+
+Mrs. Alroy met him at the door and extended her hand, as Fannie said,
+"My papa, Mrs. Alroy."
+
+Mr. Allen seated himself, at Mrs. Alroy's invitation, while the girls
+went to get on their wraps. As they talked of the weather and the usual
+subjects discussed by strangers, Mr. Allen looked at the lady in rather
+a puzzled manner, as if wondering where he had seen her before. Finally
+he said:
+
+"Excuse me, Mrs. Alroy, but may I ask what was your maiden name?"
+
+She told him, but rather coldly, as if she considered the question
+impertinent.
+
+He read her thought well enough, but unhesitatingly continued:
+
+"The Van Ortons of New York?"
+
+"Of New York, yes."
+
+"I thought so; it must be one of your brothers whom you so strongly
+resemble. I could not think whom you were like, the day of the
+celebration over at the school-house, but that, I see, was what puzzled
+me. I know your brother and his family quite well. I have had business
+relations with him for years, which have been very pleasant ones."
+
+"I am glad to meet someone who has seen my brother recently. I have seen
+no member of my family for years; it has been impossible for me to go
+home, and my circumstances have been such that I have managed to prevent
+their visiting me, for I had no desire to have them do so. Should you
+have any communication with him, I ask as a favor that my name may not
+be mentioned."
+
+"Your wishes, of course, will be respected, madam," the gentleman
+replied courteously.
+
+The girls appeared at this moment, ready for the walk home, and Mr.
+Allen rose, adding:
+
+"Permit me to thank you for the pleasure you have given my daughter, and
+to express the wish that you will allow her to make a return soon." Then
+they took their departure.
+
+Ernestine went into the little kitchen to prepare things for breakfast,
+and when she came back she was shocked to find her mother sobbing
+violently. It frightened her, too, for though her mother was never very
+cheerful, the girl seldom saw her shed tears.
+
+"Mother dear, what is it?" she said. "Have I been selfish? Was the
+evening too much for you?"
+
+"Selfish? No, dear," was the reply. "I am the selfish one, and I am
+grateful to know that you have such perfect faith and hope that all is
+well. Otherwise your young life would have been darkened long ago by
+my constant sorrow and regret. Poor child! It is a hard life for one so
+young."
+
+"But, mother, some day you will be happy again."
+
+"I hope so, dear," replied Mrs. Alroy. But she thought to herself that
+there was nothing in this world that could make life endurable to her,
+unless she could forget. And that, to her proud, sensitive nature,
+seemed impossible.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+EASTER-TIDE.
+
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Allen to her husband, after they had gone upstairs, "I
+hope you're satisfied and have had enough of Fannie's visiting around at
+tenement houses. Democratic ideas are all right enough, theoretically,
+but I think it is impossible for people to dwell long in poverty without
+losing refinement."
+
+"Some kinds of poverty, yes; and some kinds of people, yes. That comfort
+and luxury are refining in their influence goes without saying; but just
+as there are some people whom all the wealth in the world could never
+raise above vulgarity, so there are others whom poverty could never
+degrade. And the lady and her little girl whom Fannie has visited
+to-night are of this type. They are the kind of people who will have the
+refinements of life even at the expense of some of its comforts."
+
+"It seems to me that is queer talk. How can people have refinements
+without comforts?"
+
+"Had you been at Mrs. Alroy's to-night, I think you would understand how
+that could be. And as for the rest," Mr. Allen added dryly, "Mrs. Alroy
+is one of the Van Ortons of New York."
+
+"The Van Ortons of New York!" and Mrs. Allen dropped into her chair in
+astonishment, for the Van Ortons were people whom she was glad to visit.
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Her resemblance to her brother puzzled me, and, wondering where I could
+have met her, I asked her maiden name."
+
+"Why, I must call upon her soon."
+
+"I think you'd better not--"
+
+"Who's the aristocrat now, I wonder!"
+
+"--because," he added, as if he had not heard the interruption, "she
+would consider it an intrusion. Her pride has been made as hard and cold
+as ice by her misfortunes, and I'm afraid nothing will ever melt it."
+
+This was another new idea to Mrs. Allen. It seemed as if new things,
+starting with the little folks, were destined to be contagious. That a
+woman who lived in three small rooms and who supported herself and her
+daughter by selling goods across a counter, should resent a visit from a
+person so well known as herself, was somewhat startling to the lady.
+
+"Well," she said impatiently, "what are you and your philanthropy going
+to do about it?"
+
+"I think it is a case which my philanthropy, as you choose to call it,
+cannot reach. I know that her people would gladly have her come home,
+and there is no reason why they should be ashamed of either her or her
+daughter; but she manages to keep them in complete ignorance of her
+circumstances, and also, I strongly suspect, of her whereabouts."
+
+"Why don't you write to them?"
+
+"She has forbidden it, and in such a way as to make me feel that it
+would be a breach of honor to disregard her wishes. No, nothing can be
+done at present. But she is as frail as a reed, and her body, in spite
+of her will power, will break down under the pressure, and then----"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Then she will die--that is all."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It seems hard, at first thought, to bring the sorrows of older
+people--and sorrows, too, for which, as the words of Mr. Allen would
+indicate the above to be, there seems no earthly cure--into a book for
+girls; but perhaps it is, after all, a truer kindness to let them find
+out, while there is yet time, that life is a thing of earnest and real
+import, and that the impossible ideas of a romantic world where a few
+sorrows come simply as contrast, and then vanish forever, leaving the
+heroes and heroines surrounded by an everlasting halo of happiness
+and prosperity--which so many of the lighter novels teach--are more
+injurious than any statistics will ever show. They give views of life
+which, if followed out, as in the case of Constance Van Orton, are apt
+to end in sorrow and despair.
+
+But the saddest life must have some joy in it, and Mrs. Alroy probably
+had many happy hours, when she enjoyed the sunshine, or, in more sober
+moods, the gentle patter of the rain on the roof, her books (to which
+the poorest of those who live in our large cities can have access
+through the public libraries), and, above all, the companionship of her
+daughter, who was really that most remarkable of characters, a child
+good, and even pious, without priggishness or the slightest taint of
+affectation.
+
+And when all is thought and felt and suffered, above earth's joys and
+woes and hopes and dark despair is God, the eternal Good, and
+
+  What to us is darkness, to Him is light,
+  And the end He knoweth."
+
+And so the days rolled on and brought the anniversary of Christ's
+suffering and death and resurrection. The Burton family kept Easter with
+great rejoicing. They exchanged presents of pots of flowers, ferns and
+Easter lilies, mignonette and roses, which made the house fragrant and
+beautiful. The children received from their parents and friends at a
+distance Easter cards; and colored eggs, in which Ralph delighted, were
+not forgotten.
+
+Mrs. Burton and Winnie, also, on the day previous, did their share
+toward decorating the church they attended. There was always a big
+pyramid of bouquets on the pulpit stand, which were taken down after
+service and distributed to the children of the Sunday-school. It was a
+great treat to the children to go to church on this day and join in the
+responsive service and hear the joyful anthems. This Easter Day was no
+exception to previous ones, in point of joy and thanksgiving.
+
+There were some little extra surprises at the Burton home, among them
+being a panel of Easter lilies and maidenhair fern, painted in oil
+for Mrs. Burton by her sister Kitty; and from the same source Winnie
+received a smaller one of lilies-of-the-valley and wild violets, with
+the motto below: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek
+and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." In the
+afternoon they held a service of their own in the sitting-room. Mrs.
+Burton and Aunt Kitty sang Abt's duet, "Easter Day," and they had two or
+three fine quartettes.
+
+Norah had not been forgotten, either, in the distribution of the
+flowers, or in an invitation to join the family circle in the afternoon.
+She was anxious to do something in return, and so had prepared another
+surprise which greeted them at tea-time. On each plate lay an egg,
+which, when examined, was found to be a wooden candy-box, full of
+home-made candies. All were pleased, even to grandma and Mr. Burton,
+and Norah's face shone with delight when she saw that her gifts were
+appreciated.
+
+It had been a long day for Ralph, however, and Winnie and Jack stayed
+at home with him while the other members of the family went to evening
+service. The child was tired and restless, yet too much excited to be
+sleepy, and was very unwilling to go to bed when the usual hour arrived.
+Winnie was quite weary, too, but she dared not allow herself to be
+impatient on a day like this, so she told him Bible stories and sang to
+him, and at last the heavy eyelids closed, and she was at liberty to go
+downstairs with her book.
+
+This time it was "Pilgrim's Progress," which she was reading for about
+the dozenth time. She dropped, with a sense of luxury, into the same big
+chair in which we have seen her on a former occasion. Jack also had an
+interesting book, and they read on in perfect silence for half an hour,
+when suddenly they heard a crash, and then Ralph's voice in a frightened
+cry.
+
+Dropping their books, they ran upstairs. Jack turned up the gas, and
+they found that poor little Ralph had rolled out of bed, and was lying
+stretched on the floor, but far more frightened than hurt. He said he
+had had bad dreams, and they could not quiet him nor induce him to go
+back to bed. At last Jack wrapped him up in a shawl, and Winnie sat down
+in the big chair and took the frightened child in her arms.
+
+Jack settled himself again with his book and forgot all about them
+both, until his father and mother came home and found them asleep. Mrs.
+Burton's face showed disapproval until Jack explained the circumstances,
+and she could then enjoy the pretty picture they made, without feeling a
+regret that it was the result of disobedience.
+
+Jack took Ralph in his arms and once more carried him, still sleeping
+soundly, upstairs. They did not waken Winnie until it was time for them
+all to go to bed, when she was gently roused by her mother. She looked
+around in bewilderment, and it was some time before she could realize
+what had happened.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A VISIT TO THE ZOO.
+
+
+The days were growing longer and pleasanter. The trees were all dressed
+in green now, and the maples in front of the Burton home bent their
+green boughs and shook their leaves at the invitation of every little
+zephyr.
+
+The evening star shone over the western hills, followed closely by the
+slender new moon. The sun sank to rest behind those same hills, some
+nights gorgeously attended by crimson and gold and purple clouds; on
+other evenings, dropping out of sight suddenly, as if in a hurry to get
+to China, as Winnie was fond of telling Ralph.
+
+Winnie often sat with Ralph on the front steps these days, and showed
+him the bright star and tried to explain to him that it was a big world,
+perhaps full of people; or she would put on her roller skates and skate
+up and down the flagged pavement, while he rode his velocipede.
+
+Winnie thought she had never known a spring so beautiful as this one.
+She felt as if she could stay out of doors forever, and found it even
+harder to keep her resolution of conquering self-indulgence and sticking
+to her duties now than when she liked so much to sit by a bright fire
+and read.
+
+She had her pretty card and her motto in the looking-glass in her room,
+but she found it so hard to remember--or to want to remember, perhaps,
+which every one knows is quite a different thing--that she pinned a
+little piece of stiff paper with the word "Now" written on it, inside
+her dress. On the whole, however, she kept pretty well to her resolution
+of having a time for everything and doing everything in its time.
+
+But she had never before felt such a desire to be out of doors, and she
+imagined she heard fairies beckoning to her from the woods and hills. So
+one day, when Aunt Kitty came over and invited Ralph and herself and the
+other four girls of her little band to go to the Zoological Garden the
+next Saturday, the girl's delight was unbounded, and she was in a fever
+lest something should happen to prevent their going.
+
+She delivered her message to the other girls. Miriam and Fannie at once
+said they thought they could go, but Ernestine did not feel sure she
+could arrange her Saturday duties so that no extra burden would fall on
+her mother, while Gretta told them she would have to ask her father to
+excuse her from the extra practice on Saturday, as they were to take
+their lunches and stay all day.
+
+Fortunately Gretta found her father in very good humor. She had been
+making excellent progress with her music, and he was very willing she
+should have a holiday. Ernestine, also, had arranged with one of the
+neighbors in the building to take care of her little children on
+the succeeding Saturday, in return for her help in doing some extra
+household work.
+
+Saturday turned out to be a warm, pleasant day, and in their eagerness
+the girls arrived at the Burtons' a little ahead of time, and had to
+wait till Miss Benton came, which she did soon, looking very happy. As
+for Ralph, his eyes were as bright as stars, and he was the very picture
+of joy and good humor.
+
+They walked up to Elm Street, and from there took the car to the Mt.
+Bellevue inclined railway. When they entered the car of the latter, all
+stood at the front end of it and looked out of the window, and had the
+strange sensation, which no familiarity therewith seems quite to deaden,
+of being lifted suddenly into another region, and of seeing the great
+city sinking down, down, until one wonders where it is going. Then, all
+at once, the car stopped with its usual jerk, and there they were, at
+the top of the hill.
+
+There were very few people about the Bellevue House. They took a walk
+around the grounds and through the building, and stood looking at the
+city, covered with its workaday smoke from the many manufactories, till
+it almost seemed as if it were seen through a cloud.
+
+"How strange it is," said Miriam, as they entered the street-car at the
+top of the hill, "to see the houses just as close together here, and
+to have it seem like a city of itself, and yet so different from the
+business part of Cincinnati below that it is hard to imagine the two are
+any part of each other!"
+
+"There is something strange about such things," said Miss Benton. "It is
+just like people's lives. Their daily business, which brings them bread
+and butter, and which is really the largest and most important part
+of existence, seems to sink into insignificance or to be forgotten
+altogether when social relations are taken up. But, after all, I like to
+live in the city itself, where there is something of the past lingering
+about. Everything seems so new here."
+
+"I don't know," said Ernestine. "I think I would like to live up here;
+the air seems so much purer. But I would want a bigger yard than these,
+where I might have a garden."
+
+"It's cleaner, too, up here," said practical Gretta, who was neatness
+itself. "I visit my aunt on Vine Street Hill, and things always looks
+so much nicer and newer at her house than the same ones at ours. And
+it isn't because we don't try, for we do twice the amount of work; my
+mother and sister are always going about with a duster." And Gretta, who
+had made a long speech for her, finished with a sigh, at which they all
+laughed.
+
+"Gretta would like a house where everything had a glass cover," said
+Miriam. "As for me, I like things jolly and comfortable, and if they get
+grimy and sooty, and nobody's to blame, what's the use of making one's
+self unhappy about it? I'm afraid I'm a good deal like Josie Thompson,
+for I do like to enjoy myself."
+
+"Well, no two of us are alike, and I don't think it was intended that we
+should be," said Miss Benton. "That is what makes the charm of people's
+houses--that they should all partake of the individuality of their
+owners. When I enter even a little girl's room, I like to see some
+signs of her ownership there, and not have it all as her mother or older
+sister or the maid arranged it. I like to see something that looks as if
+she had an object in life, if it is nothing more than a charm string of
+buttons, (which, by the way, has gone out of fashion, I believe,) or a
+scrapbook."
+
+"Well, then, Aunt Kitty," said Winnifred, smiling at her own thought,
+"it must be a treat for you to go into Uncle Fred's room; for, if I were
+to see such a room at the North Pole, I would think of him."
+
+"Well," said Miss Benton, with a smile, "I might enjoy it better if
+it were in some other house. I think, in this case, it must be that
+familiarity breeds contempt. The fact is, girls, my brother's room is
+more of an old curiosity shop than a modern sleeping-room. He has always
+had a sort of magpie-habit of storing things away, and is continually
+having some new hobby; and as his hobbies are often changed, and each
+hobby is apt to take the form of making some sort of collection, he has
+queer things lying about. But from the time he was quite a little boy,
+mother always said, 'Oh, let him have that,' or 'do the other, and he'll
+be satisfied at home.'"
+
+"How many canes and walking-sticks has he, Aunt Kitty?"
+
+"Eight, I think, and each one has a history; and two or three of them a
+mystery, which he refuses to divulge. But here we are at the end of our
+journey, and Fannie hasn't had an opportunity to open her mouth."
+
+"It's probably very good for my tongue to get a rest; it works quite
+steadily as a usual thing--at least so my father says. But if Ralph
+hadn't been all eyes, this would have been dull for him."
+
+"I isn't all eyes!" said Ralph, indignantly.
+
+They now approached the entrance to the Zoological Garden, and the girls
+once more took out their pocket books; but Miss Benton was ahead of them
+again, and had settled for the party before there was time to demur.
+
+The first thing they spied were the mounds of the prairie dogs, and
+they stood watching these a long time. It was such fun to see the little
+animals running in and out of their holes and to hear their funny bark,
+which Miriam said was "the best part of them, and probably very much
+better than their bite."
+
+Our little party was fortunate enough to be at the cages of the
+carnivora just at feeding time. The great lions lay basking in the sun
+and looking so innocent and amiable that it was almost impossible to
+imagine they could be at all dangerous, when suddenly the man who fed
+them appeared with the raw meat. Then their roars were fairly appalling,
+and made the whole crowd jump, while Ralph clung tight to the hand of
+Aunt Kitty, who said:
+
+"I was just thinking how nice it would be to pat that quiet, majestic
+fellow on the head, as I would my Angora cat; but I think I'll wait till
+he's had his dinner."
+
+"Oh, Aunt Kitty," said Ralph, "I 'ouldn't let you; he'd eat you up!"
+
+It was an exciting but rather terrible pleasure to see the wild
+creatures quarreling and growling and fighting over their dinners, and
+was also a most effective object lesson on greediness.
+
+Like other visitors, although Miss Kitty laughed at them for it, our
+little party followed the keeper around from one cage to another as he
+fed the various animals.
+
+"I like the bears best," said Fannie. "They look like Eskimos when they
+stand on their hind legs, and they stare up at us and the other people
+as if we were here just for them to look at."
+
+"There is a something within me that, in spite of bears and all their
+attractions, tells me it must be dinner time," said Miss Benton, taking
+out her watch. "Yes, it is one o'clock; suppose we get our baskets."
+
+Ralph, in particular, manifested great approval of this part of the
+programme, and, having selected a nice grassy spot, they disposed of
+themselves as comfortably as possible, each with her basket at her side.
+
+As they opened the baskets, passing the thin sandwiches and pickles,
+Winnie made a suggestion.
+
+"Aunt Kitty, let's play 'I have a thought.'"
+
+"Very well," replied the lady; and, after a short explanation of the
+game, and a little time to think, she announced the fact that she had a
+thought.
+
+"Why is it like the sky?" asked Winnie.
+
+"Because it is round."
+
+"Why is it like a bear?" asked Miriam, her thoughts still on the bear
+pit.
+
+"Because--oh, Miriam, that is a hard one!--because it is sometimes
+white."
+
+"Why is it like me?" said Ralph.
+
+"Because everybody likes it when it is good." And Ralph wondered why
+they all laughed.
+
+"Why is it like the grass?" asked Ernestine.
+
+"Because it is greenest in the spring."
+
+Then the questions poured upon Miss Benton rapidly, as the girls began
+to see how the game was played.
+
+"Why is it like music?" asked Gretta.
+
+"Because it suggests pleasant thoughts."
+
+"Why is it like a novel?"
+
+"It is often highly flavored."
+
+"Why is it like an egg?"
+
+"Because it is an article of food."
+
+"Why is it like a cream-puff?"
+
+"Because the best part is inside."
+
+"Why is it like cheese?" said Fannie, putting a piece in her mouth.
+
+"Because it comes on with the dessert."
+
+"Why is it like a book?"
+
+"Because the best part is usually between the covers."
+
+"Why is it like a ring?"
+
+"Because people like to have a finger in it."
+
+At which there was a general shout, and they all said: "A pie, of
+course!"
+
+"But what kind of a pie, Miss Benton?" asked Miriam.
+
+"That you must find out, too," was the laughing answer; and the
+questions went on.
+
+"It can't be lemon or custard or pumpkin," said Fannie, "because we know
+it has two covers."
+
+"Why is it like a flower?"
+
+"Because it has various colors."
+
+"And is greenest in the spring," said Winnie, musingly. "Oh, it is an
+apple pie! And Miss Benton acknowledged that she had guessed correctly.
+
+Then Ernestine and Gretta consulted, and took a thought together. Their
+thought was a geography lesson, and of course the resemblances were most
+absurd, and it required all the ingenuity the two girls possessed to
+answer the questions.
+
+They were all so occupied with the game and their dinner that no one
+noticed Miss Benton had not yet opened her basket, and great was their
+surprise and delight when she passed around to each of them a grocer's
+thin platter filled with strawberries, for they were still very scarce,
+as it was early in the season.
+
+After dinner, Miss Benton took out a book and said she was going to read
+for a while, so the girls walked around, taking Ralph with them, and
+greatly enjoying the admiration he excited by his pretty dress,
+his beauty and his cunning speeches. They too, however, soon found
+themselves somewhat tired, so they went back to Miss Benton, and,
+sitting down for a rest, amused themselves by hunting for four-leaved
+clovers. In this Winnie and Miriam proved themselves the lucky ones.
+Fannie had not the slightest success, till finally she gave a little cry
+and held up a clover.
+
+But Miss Benton's quick eyes noticed a twinkle in Fannie's, and saying,
+"Oh, Fannie, I'm afraid you're a little cheat!" she reached over and
+adroitly separated one of the leaves from another, leaving only a common
+clover leaf.
+
+"Well," said Fannie, laughing at being discovered so soon, "if I don't
+have good luck, I'm not going to let everyone know it. My father tells
+me to make up my mind that lots of things will happen to me in this
+world which I'll best conquer by grinning and bearing them. And that's
+what I'm going to do."
+
+"A very good plan, my dear," said Miss Benton, "for even if the grin is
+a sickly one, it's better than a frown or a whine."
+
+"I guess I don't do that way," said Gretta, whose tongue and conscience
+both seemed to be awaking. "I'm afraid I go away and pout."
+
+"The worst of habits," said Miss Benton, with intentional decision.
+"That is the habit which is most disagreeable to everyone around,
+most full of unhappiness to the one who indulges in it, and the most
+difficult to break. I am afraid that ill-temper is as powerful a giant
+as procrastination, because it, too, assumes so many forms; there
+are pouting and whining, storming and scolding, and the various other
+manifestations which we all, more or less, indulge in. I do not think
+many people cling to the powerful Giant Hate, but it is 'the little
+foxes that spoil the vines,' and little fits of temper, long indulged
+in, might at last lead even to that. But, girls, I didn't inveigle you
+out here this lovely day to lecture you. So come, let's be moving on."
+
+They next went to the aviary. Here, although they enjoyed looking at
+the birds, they became more interested in a party of children, boys
+and girls, each one looking like the others, so far as clothes were
+concerned. Of course they must be from some charitable institution, but
+the girls did not know which one. Afterward, when our little company
+had gone to the monkey house and found a number of the same uniformed
+children, Miss Benton said to one of them, "What school is this, my
+dear?"
+
+The child looked at her a moment in surprise, and then replied: "Why,
+this is the monkey school, I think."
+
+"Where is the teacher?" asked Ralph, who mistook both question and
+answer, as the child herself had done.
+
+Miriam and Fannie were delighted at this, and, going up pretty close
+to one of the cages, Fannie, who had yellow bangs, said, pointing to a
+great monkey which was watching them in a very observant manner:
+
+"I think this must be the teacher."
+
+Just as she made the remark, the monkey stretched out his long arms,
+grabbed her bangs, and pulled out several hairs, which he smelled, and
+then threw down with an air of disgust.
+
+Fannie was somewhat startled at first, but, recovering herself, she said
+the monkey must have thought her hair was wisps of hay.
+
+Miss Benton did not seem very fond of the "monkey school," as they
+dubbed it for the remainder of the afternoon, and she proposed going to
+the pony track. This gave general satisfaction. Here, too, they found
+the uniformed children, all of them having a lovely time. Miss Benton
+found out, by conversing with one of the attendants, that they were from
+one of the city orphan asylums, and that the whole lovely day was a gift
+to them from one of its patrons--admission into the garden and a ride
+for each child on one of the ponies.
+
+[Illustration: Ralph was not in the least frightened.]
+
+They stood watching the orphan children for awhile, as they rode around
+the track, and Miss Benton asked if her guests would not like a ride,
+too. Fannie, Winnie and Miriam said that they would, and each selected a
+pony; Fannie, who had attended a riding-school, riding very gracefully.
+Ralph thought he would like a ride, too, so the riding-master brought
+his smallest pony, and two of the little orphan boys came up and begged
+permission to lead it around the track.
+
+Miss Benton consented, and, Ralph having been lifted into the saddle,
+they started off, a boy on each side of him. But the little pony started
+to run, and one of the boys was soon left behind; the other, who had
+hold of the bridle, kept up manfully for a time, but before the pony had
+gone round the track, he, too, was left behind. Ralph, however, held on
+to the bridle himself, and, not in the least frightened, kept his seat
+in the saddle as if it had been his velocipede. And the by-standers
+seemed to think it as cunning as did his partial aunt and the rest of
+her party. However, in spite of the courage he had shown, Ralph was
+quite willing to get off.
+
+They remained at the track a little longer, watching the other children
+riding, and feeling glad that, if children were left alone in the world,
+there were people noble and good and with means enough to gather the
+little waifs together, and that they, too, had happy holidays.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+DREAMS AND REALITIES.
+
+
+The following Friday Gretta and Winnifred were dismissed at recess, the
+Friday afternoon privilege of those who had had perfect marks for the
+week. As they passed out through the yard together, Gretta said:
+
+"I'm going to church to practice my organ lesson. Come go with me, Win."
+
+Winnifred hesitated. "If I had spoken to mamma about it this morning--"
+
+"Well, let's go and ask her now."
+
+"No, she won't be at home. She was going out to Walnut Hills to make
+several calls."
+
+"Then I don't see what's to keep you from going with me. No one will
+know whether you are with me or at school."
+
+Winnie knew very well that she had no right to be away without anyone
+at home knowing where she was, but she hesitated--and was lost. The
+temptation was too great; and beside, she reasoned, "What difference can
+it possibly make whether I am at school or at the church? If I had not
+had good marks I couldn't have gone home, anyway."
+
+So the two girls passed on up the street together. Winnifred soon forgot
+her scruples, and laughed and chattered away as usual. She had been
+reading Grimm's story of the boy who could not understand what it was
+to shiver. She had thought it very amusing, and now she narrated it at
+length to Gretta as they went along, so that they reached the church
+before Gretta had stopped laughing at the absurd climax.
+
+They went up the flight of steep stone steps and tried the side door
+that led to the choir gallery, but it was locked, and Gretta said,
+"We'll have to go the back way; come on, Win." So they descended the
+stairs again and went through the narrow side yard at the right of the
+church.
+
+At the back were two rooms which at this time were occupied by the
+janitor and his wife. Gretta knocked, and when the door was opened by
+a smiling woman, walked in with an I-have-a-right-to manner, simply
+saying, "I've come to practice." Winnifred followed somewhat bashfully,
+but recovered her sense of being herself when the door of the little
+living-room closed upon them. The two girls crossed a narrow passage and
+opened a door leading to a stairway. It was very dark here, but Gretta
+had traveled up and down these stairs so many times that she went
+swiftly now, while Winnifred, unaccustomed to them, groped her way along
+through the darkness very slowly.
+
+When she reached the top Gretta opened another door which led into the
+church itself, always filled with people when Winnifred had seen it
+before, but now empty and mysterious, with the light dimmed and deepened
+and transformed as it made its way through the stained-glass windows.
+She breathed a little heavily as she glanced up at the pulpit on the
+left, and almost felt as if she would hear a voice rise from the empty
+air and chide them for their boldness in entering so sacred a place
+on workaday business. But Gretta, entirely accustomed to independent
+errands connected with musical matters, passed on up the narrow side
+aisle, Winnifred following slowly.
+
+Then came another narrow staircase leading to the choir gallery, which
+faced the pulpit. When they reached the top they found the shades all
+down and the place quite dark except for a long, narrow beam of light
+which streamed through a crevice in one of the blinds. Winnifred stopped
+on the threshold with something like fear, which was yet pleasing
+because of the sense of mystery and romance which was blended with it in
+her imaginative young mind. Gretta, however, stepped in at once and went
+quickly toward the back of the gallery. Here she suddenly pulled up a
+shade, and Winnifred saw numbers of music books piled up on one of the
+long benches.
+
+Gretta opened the organ and sat down. She reached the pedals with some
+difficulty, being obliged to stretch her legs somewhat in order to do
+so; but this, like everything else with her, was a part of the musical
+education which was the chief business of her life and of all the
+lives nearest to her. She began to play a voluntary, softly, slowly and
+reverently, yet clearly, and with wonderful appreciation for a child
+just entering her teens.
+
+Winnifred climbed into the darkest corner she could find and gave
+herself up to enjoyment of the music and all the unusual surroundings.
+Forgetting all else, she began to weave herself and Gretta into a little
+story of a world separate and apart from the world she had always known:
+a world filled with visionary forms and faces, and in which there was no
+sound but that of music.
+
+"Over there in that pew just under the stained-glass window," she
+thought, "is a little girl who cannot see, but who has never missed her
+eyesight, because she does not need it. She lives only in this world,
+where there is nothing but sweet sounds. She will grow up some day and
+go out into the other world where Gretta and I lived yesterday, but she
+will be a poet like Milton, whose picture, when he was such a beautiful
+boy, I saw yesterday; but she will not be sad like him, because she
+knows only the world of poetry and music.
+
+"Over in that other pew," Winnie's dreams ran on, "is that poor, little,
+blind beggar girl I saw on the street yesterday afternoon. She isn't
+hungry now, for this is the fairyland of music where people do not need
+to eat. The music has gone straight to her heart--and see! she creeps
+softly over to the opposite pew--how did she know that the other little
+blind girl was there?--she creeps softly to the other pew, and they
+clasp hands and feel as happy as if they had looked into each other's
+eyes.
+
+"And who is that sweet-faced girl in the pew just in front of the
+pulpit? She is beautiful. She looks like Nydia, the blind girl in 'The
+Last Days of Pompeii,' but she can't be Nydia, for Nydia lived and died
+hundreds of years ago. But she listens to the music just as Nydia might
+do if she were here now. It is not so sad to be blind in a world of
+music. And yet--how would I know where they were sitting if I were
+blind, too?"
+
+And Winnie closed her eyes to try how it would seem not to be able to
+see. The music floated out upon the air; it grew softer and softer and
+sounded farther and farther away, and at last Winnie ceased to hear it,
+for the darkness and the gentle sounds had so soothed her senses that
+she went straight from day-dreamland to slumberland.
+
+Gretta all unconsciously played on until she had finished her allotted
+task, forgetting the existence of Winnifred as completely as the latter
+had forgotten hers. But by and by she had finished the last bar, and
+jumped up from her seat with a feeling of satisfaction. She looked
+around in surprise for a moment when she realized that Winnifred had
+gone to sleep. The next thing the latter knew Gretta was shouting into
+her ear: "Wake up! Wake up, Winnie! I'm all through my practice and
+ready to go home. Let's hurry! It must be late."
+
+They gathered up their school books, the sense of haste taking away all
+the feeling of mystery and romance. When they looked at the clock in
+the little room downstairs on their way out, Winnifred was dismayed and
+realized suddenly that she ought to have been at home an hour ago. She
+had a very uncomfortable walk home, particularly after she had parted
+from Gretta, but, as it happened, her mother had not yet returned and
+her absence had been unnoticed.
+
+She told her mother about it in the evening--of how sweetly Gretta
+had played, and how she had imagined a world made on purpose for blind
+people.
+
+Mrs. Burton only said, "I am glad you had such a nice afternoon, dear.
+It is one you will always remember. You were fortunate that nothing
+happened to spoil the pleasure of it. I am glad I was not at home,
+however, for I fear I would have been very uneasy about you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+ARBOR DAY.
+
+
+In nearly every household of the big city the children were astir early,
+all wearing an air of excitement, from the six-year-old in the primary
+school to the "big brother" or sister in the intermediate, for there was
+at last something new under the sun--the celebration of "Arbor Day" for
+the first time in their city and State.
+
+It was a day to be devoted to the trees and their planting. Every school
+in the city had had a plot of ground set aside for its use, and every
+school had had at least one tree planted, beside those in memory of the
+teachers who had passed away to the unknown land.
+
+There was no set time for departure and no special gathering place, so
+that at almost any hour after nine o'clock on that lovely May morning
+groups of children might have been seen wending their way toward the
+eastern hills. Those in the vicinity of Eden Park walked, a few drove
+over with their parents or friends, but the great majority filled the
+street cars to overflowing, laughing and chattering and enjoying a
+holiday as only school children can.
+
+Forming a portion of the last class were the pupils of the "First
+Intermediate," that old landmark which has guided so many embryo
+citizens of our great Republic through the intricate paths of fractions,
+decimals, and so on, to the crowning difficulty of cube root; through
+grammar and history and geography, before bidding them "Godspeed" as
+they entered the high-school or took up the story of their lives in some
+other direction.
+
+Among these last, lunch baskets in hand, were the five young warriors,
+but with their armor off and as great an air of being on pleasure bent
+as though they had never thought of anything more serious. Miriam as
+usual had the floor, and the entire car-load of girls and boys, nearly
+all of them her classmates, were laughing at her remarks.
+
+There was a change of cars at Fountain Square and again at the foot of
+the Mt. Adams incline, but the five girls managed to keep from being
+separated. Arrived at the top of the hill, they stopped to breathe in
+the fresh air and admire the beautiful landscape--the Kentucky hills far
+away in the distance, with the beautiful Ohio flowing placidly at their
+feet; Cincinnati, in its hill-encircled cup, making, with Covington
+and Newport and the various smaller villages, part of one great whole,
+linked by the bridges across the Ohio and the Licking.
+
+"This reminds me," said Ernestine, who was the historian of the little
+company, "of the name first chosen for our city--Losantiville, the town
+opposite the mouth of the Licking; 'ville,' town; 'anti,' opposite;
+'os,' mouth; 'L,' initial of Licking."
+
+"Dreadful!" said Miriam. "Imagine this great city designated as a town
+across the way from that little stream! It would be like the immense
+woman I saw the other day. I know she weighed over two hundred. There
+was a little man walking beside her, and he called her 'Birdie!' Indeed
+he did, and she called him 'Horatio!'"
+
+"Our city started about here," said Ernestine, after the girls had
+stopped laughing, "or just at the foot of the hill, and grew first along
+the river. Later on it spread northward, and Fourth Street was one of
+its aristocratic streets."
+
+"There comes Josie Thompson," said Fannie. "She's evidently bent on
+having a good time, and she's gotten up regardless. See that chain
+around her neck; plated, I'm sure."
+
+"Don't look so sober, Ernestine," said Miriam. "There wouldn't be any
+use in living if you could not make fun of people once in a while."
+
+"But perhaps Josie has never been taught any better at home," said
+Winnifred, suddenly thinking of the giants.
+
+"She has eyes, hasn't she?" said Gretta. "But it seems to me she can't
+have ears, or else she couldn't help hearing that dress she has on. I
+know that's what my father would say."
+
+Just then Josie came up to them. "Hello, girls! Going to have a good
+time? I tell you I am! Glad to have one day with no lessons to learn!"
+And she passed on with her friends, leaving the girls, even Ernestine,
+convulsed.
+
+"Let's go on to the park," said Ernestine.
+
+Accordingly they gathered up their baskets and other belongings. It was
+but a short walk, and they soon reached the spot where many of their
+schoolmates had already assembled.
+
+At twelve o'clock the schools had a few simple exercises. The children
+sang, "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," one of the girls of their grade
+recited "Woodman, Spare that Tree," and Fannie's father made a brief
+address. He talked to them of the part the forests play in helping to
+prevent drouths and disastrous floods. He told of the old Italian poet
+who called the trees "my brothers," and said that everyone, whether
+poet or not, should have especial tenderness and affection for these
+beautiful and useful bits of nature which grow up around us, relieving
+our eyes from the glare of day, shading us from the noonday sun, and
+giving us pleasure in many ways, so that their useless and wanton
+destruction becomes a sin against mankind.
+
+After the conclusion of this little talk (for it was that rather than
+a set speech), the children gathered up their lunch baskets and boxes,
+each party sought the spot that pleased it best, and soon the hillside
+was dotted with groups of boys and girls engaged in disposing of
+sandwiches, pickles, pies, cakes, fruit, and so on, with great enjoyment
+and good appetites.
+
+The afternoon was passed most pleasantly by Winnifred and her own
+special friends, reinforced by many of the girls and boys of her class.
+Games of all sorts were indulged in with unflagging energy and good
+spirits for two or three hours.
+
+About four o'clock Fannie's parents came for her in a carriage. Soon
+after Winnifred's mother arrived on the scene with little Ralph, and
+they were shown the trees which had just been planted and told about
+all the events of the day. By this time nearly every one was making
+preparations to leave, and by five o'clock the park was almost deserted
+and the happy day had become only a memory. But the seeds of thought
+planted there fell not altogether on stony ground, and were destined to
+bear fruit at some future day.
+
+Indeed, the very next morning Ralph insisted on having an Arbor Day of
+his own, and he put in the ground a branch of willow, which took root
+and thrived, growing so rapidly that in a few years it was taller than
+himself; and each spring, when it put forth its delicate gray-green
+foliage, it recalled to Winnifred that most delightful Arbor Day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+GRETCHEN'S KAFFEEKLATCH.
+
+
+Another year of Gretta's life had rolled around and brought with it her
+thirteenth birthday. The little club of "warriors" had not been without
+its influence upon her behavior, and she had become so ready to enter
+upon her duties, so cheerful in performing them, and so much less
+resentful in accepting the reproof which was perhaps too frequent in
+that busy and overworked household, that her elder sister--whom she
+had so complained of when the subject of forming their club was first
+mentioned--had decided that Gretta must have a little birthday party,
+and asked her whom she wished to invite.
+
+Gretta was greatly delighted, for she had long been wishing to have a
+meeting of the club at her home, but had hardly known how to broach the
+subject. She immediately gave her sister the list, and while the latter
+was somewhat surprised that it should be so small, it was something of
+a relief to find what she had thought would be quite an undertaking so
+greatly simplified. It was decided that the girls should be invited to
+come at four o'clock and that supper should be served at half past five.
+
+Promptly at the hour named Winnifred and Miriam appeared, followed
+soon after by Fannie, and then by Ernestine. The door was opened by the
+smiling-faced, German maid-of-all-work, and the girls were met at the
+foot of the stairs by Gretta, who took them up to the library on the
+second floor. "Here we will have no one to bother us," said Gretta. "My
+mother is out of the city on a visit to my uncle, and my sister has a
+music pupil in the parlor, so we'll have the library all to ourselves."
+
+"How jolly!" said Miriam, looking around. "Oh, here is a big
+reclining-chair! We'll call it the president's chair, and Winnifred
+shall occupy it, because she was the first one to think of this club."
+
+"Yes! yes!" they all insisted, so Winnifred climbed into the big chair,
+and the other girls ranged themselves in various attitudes around her.
+
+"Do you know," said Miriam, with a half laugh and a half sigh, "I don't
+find fighting such easy work as I thought I would. I like to dress up my
+'little observations,' as my brother calls them, just as much as I ever
+did, and I almost got into a temper this morning because my hair pulled
+when I began to comb it out."
+
+"And I have been wishing we were richer," said Ernestine, whose great
+ambition it was to be contented with all that came to her. "You know we
+had such a hot spell last week, and mamma ought to go away this summer.
+She is getting thinner and thinner, and she has those awful headaches
+more and more often lately."
+
+"I don't see why everybody can't have the things they want," said
+Fannie, feeling guilty to think she ever had a cross minute.
+
+"I said that to mamma last week," said Ernestine, "when I felt uneasy
+about her, and she said it all comes from something in ourselves. That
+didn't make it any easier for me; nothing did, until I thought of the
+One who had not where to lay His head. Then I felt ashamed."
+
+For a minute the girls were silent. Then Winnie said, "Well, I, for one,
+don't think I have quite killed that ugly old Hate. I can't bear to stop
+doing what I like, to please other people. I was reading 'Grandfather's
+Chair' last night, and I just hated to stop and tell Ralph his story
+before he went to bed. You know he always expects a story from some one
+of us, and last night nobody had the time but me."
+
+"I'll tell you what upsets me more than anything else," said their
+little hostess; "that is, to have to jump up from the piano to answer
+the bell. And there's never a day that I don't have to do it; sometimes
+three or four times."
+
+"What is your bugaboo, Fannie?" said Miriam; "or don't you have any?"
+
+"Don't I? I believe I have more than any of you," was the answer. "But
+the thing that grieves me most is that I can't wear prettier and more
+expensive dresses to school. You know, lots of the girls who haven't
+half as much money as we dress a great deal better. Mamma would not care
+so much, but papa won't hear of such a thing."
+
+"What awful troubles we all do have!" said Miriam, laughing.
+
+"Miss Embry would say you shouldn't use 'awful,'" said Winnie from the
+depths of the big chair.
+
+"There, you've hit it exactly!" said Miriam. "There is my bugaboo in a
+nut shell, and it really is an awful one. You know I like to make things
+sound strong, so I use all the strong-sounding words I can find; and I
+suppose I do exaggerate. Although I am reproved on all sides, it hasn't
+the slightest effect on me, except to make me wish that all the people
+who reprove me, or remind me of someone who does reprove,"--here she
+made big eyes at Winnie--"were hard of hearing when I am about. No, no;
+my motto is:
+
+  "'Tameness and slowness can't stay with me;
+  They and I will never agree.'"
+
+"And yet," said Ernestine, "there are a great many very interesting
+things told in very simple language and without getting away from the
+white truth."
+
+"Well," said Miriam, "to tell the white truth myself just this once. I
+don't know whether I want to conquer this or not. I don't believe it is
+really much relation to the Giant Untruth. I think it's only a little
+dwarfish imp, a Brownie, who simply 'growed,' like Topsy, and to me is
+just about as interesting."
+
+"And yet even you couldn't call Topsy beautiful," said Ernestine
+readily.
+
+"Hardly," laughed Miriam. "But now we've all owned up, let's parade
+rest, as we say in our broom drills;" and she threw herself back on the
+sofa, where she sat as if indeed resting from a hard-fought battle.
+
+The five formed a group of American girls good to look upon in their
+sweet springtime. Ernestine, with serious gray eyes, fair, slender,
+and tall for her fifteen years, sat erect but graceful in a straight,
+high-backed chair, her very pose denoting a peaceful courage. Fannie,
+with skin soft and rosy and eyes of a rare violet hue, occupied a
+low seat, her arms resting on the sofa against which she was leaning.
+Miriam, with dark, sparkling eyes and long, thick hair, looking brimful
+of life in spite of her present lazy attitude, sat just behind Fannie.
+Next came Winnie, small even for her twelve years, brown-eyed and
+dainty, looking fond of luxury, as she undoubtedly was and always would
+be, and yet good and high-minded. Last Gretta herself, a true German,
+with blue eyes and thick, light braids, a trim and compact little
+maiden. She sat near a table, her chin in her hand, with its flexible,
+square-tipped fingers--the fingers of the born and made pianist--for
+Gretta had "begun," as her mates used to tell, at the age of four.
+
+It was a pleasant room in which they sat; it had many books, German and
+English and a few in other languages, and where no book-cases rested,
+the walls were hung with pictures of musicians--Mozart and Bach and
+Mendelssohn and many others as companions; and on a pedestal stood
+a bust of Beethoven, whom--so Gretta told the girls as they looked
+around--her father considered the greatest of them all.
+
+Just then Winnie glanced up at the clock and saw that it was fifteen
+minutes past five. She made a motion to the girls, at which they all
+jumped up, and, joining hands, formed a circle around Gretta. Before she
+had had time to do anything but look astonished, Miriam stopped behind
+her, and, holding something over her head, said, "Heavy, heavy hangs
+over your head. What shall the owner do to redeem it?"
+
+Before Gretta had a chance to answer, Miriam had dropped into her lap
+a box of pretty note-paper, and replied to her own question by saying,
+"The owner shall redeem it by writing to the giver this summer a letter
+for each week they are separated."
+
+Then the girls circled about again, and this time Winnifred stopped
+behind Gretta, saying:
+
+  "Open your mouth and shut your eyes,
+  And I'll give you something to make you wise."
+
+Gretta did as she was bidden, and Winnie popped a big marshmallow into
+her mouth, depositing the remainder of the box in her lap.
+
+They circled about her for the third time, and Fannie stopped behind
+her, saying, as Miriam had done, "Heavy, heavy hangs over your head.
+What shall the owner do to redeem it?" and continued, "Read every word
+of it and enjoy it," and placed in Gretta's hand a copy of "Little Lord
+Fauntleroy."
+
+Yet again they circled about her, singing:
+
+  "A rosy wreath I twine for thee,
+  Of Flora's richest treasures;
+  Take, oh, take, this rosy, rosy crown,
+  Flora's richest treasures,
+  Flora's richest treasures,"--
+
+and Ernestine placed a crown of flowers on Gretta's brow.
+
+Gretta was quite overcome with pleasure and surprise, for the girls had
+so skillfully hidden their little gifts that she had not even caught a
+glimpse of them.
+
+Just then the door opened, and the hostess' sister appeared at the door,
+saying, "Tea is ready, Gretta." Before they did anything else, however,
+Gretta had to exhibit her presents. They were duly admired, and then
+Miss Josephine said, "Come on, now; I'll head the procession. Keep
+step."
+
+Through the open door came the sound of a lively march, which even
+Gretta had never heard before.
+
+"That is a new march which father composed in honor of your birthday. He
+calls it 'Gretchen's March.'"
+
+[Illustration: Winnifred popped a big marshmallow into her mouth.--See
+page 72.]
+
+They all felt very important as they marched down the stairs, headed by
+Miss Berger, who led them out into the long parlor and twice around it,
+while her father at the piano, with a merry twinkle in his eyes, kept on
+playing, and then out into the dining-room.
+
+The table was set for five only, and the girls, directed by Miss
+Josephine, took their seats, with Gretta at the head, to the inspiring
+strains of the lively march.
+
+It proved a most enjoyable little feast. Miss Berger left the room as
+soon as they were all seated, and then the same smiling-faced maid
+who had opened the door for them, also departed, and gave them an
+opportunity to look about.
+
+At Gretta's place was a set of cunning china cups and saucers, which had
+been sent her from Germany when she was quite a little child. The cups
+were just about the size of after-dinner coffees, and the smiling Mina
+had insisted on calling the little party "Gretchen's Kaffeeklatch."
+Miss Berger had been so amused that she fell in with the idea, and
+had decided that they really should have coffee and some of Mina's
+coffee-cake on the bill of fare.
+
+As Gretta filled the little cups, and the coffee and its delicious
+adjunct were passed around, five tongues chattered as fast as those of
+their elders might have done on a similar occasion.
+
+When the coffee-cake and sandwiches and chicken salad had been disposed
+of, Gretta touched the bell at her place, and Mina appeared. After
+clearing the table, she brought in a great cake with thirteen little
+candles on it burning away merrily, and a great bowl of lemonade. Miss
+Josephine came in and cut the cake and served the lemonade, and was as
+entertaining and companionable as any of them could have desired.
+
+They sat at the table a long time, then they went into the parlor and
+were introduced to Gretta's father. They shook hands with him timidly,
+for they had been so impressed by his strictness with Gretta in regard
+to her musical studies that they were a little afraid of him. Though
+they felt vaguely conscious that he was looking at them quizzically,
+he threw off the yoke of business entirely and entered into their games
+like a boy.
+
+Among the other enjoyable things they played "Magic Music." It was
+really the game of "Hunt the Slipper," and when the music was soft they
+were "cold," and when it was loud they were "hot." Mr. Berger played for
+them, and never before had these girls played this game to such music.
+
+The four girls walked home together in the Late twilight, declaring to
+each other that they had never had such a delightful time; and Fannie,
+who had once spoken so contemptuously of Gretta as a "music teacher's
+daughter," was loudest in her praise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE BOAT-RIDE.
+
+
+A few evenings after the meeting at Gretta's, Uncle Fred came in, and,
+pulling Winnie's ears according to his custom, said:
+
+"I think it's my turn to treat, Winnifred; at least Kitty says it is.
+She and I were out boating yesterday, and she suggests that I take you
+and the other Joans for a row Friday evening."
+
+"Oh, Uncle Fred," cried Winnie, "that will be grand! I'll tell the girls
+about it to-morrow. Who all are to be invited?"
+
+"'You-all,' as our Southern friends say, and your Aunt Kitty; us seven,
+and no more, as the poet expresses it."
+
+The girls accepted with eagerness. But on Thursday Ernestine did not
+come to school. Winnie went around Friday noon to learn the reason of
+such an unusual occurrence, and found that Mrs. Alroy was sick in bed,
+and although she had protested against her daughter's staying at home,
+Ernestine could not be prevailed upon to leave her.
+
+The other girls were, of course, very sorry not to have her go, but
+soon forgot their disappointment in the excitement of anticipation. At a
+quarter past six, the hour agreed upon, Fannie was ringing Mrs. Burton's
+door bell, while Gretta and Miriam were just entering the gate. Winnie
+and her uncle and aunt were quite ready, so they all started out. After
+a short ride in the "Green Line," they were transferred to the Covington
+and Newport cars on their way to the river. None of the girls had been
+in that neighborhood often enough to be familiar with it, and everything
+they saw had the interest of novelty for them. When they reached the
+bridge, Mr. Fred helped them out of the car and they went on down the
+bank of the river. They stood there for awhile watching the many boats,
+large and small, the people going and coming, none of whom seemed to be
+in the same hurry as those farther up in the city, and most of whom were
+men sauntering leisurely along with their hands in their pockets.
+
+Mr. Fred, who had left the girls for a few minutes, now came back, and,
+on his giving the command, they followed him to a pretty little dock
+where there were several row-boats. In one of these the five girls were
+soon seated, Winnie in the bow, Gretta and Fannie in the stern, while
+Miriam and Miss Kitty--who could both row--sat together where each could
+handle an oar, declaring that they meant to help provide some of the
+power. Uncle Fred took his place in the seat of "the crack oarsman," as
+he said, the smiling boatman on the wharf pushed them off, and soon
+they found themselves afloat. Fannie held the rudder and handled it
+very skillfully, although Mr. Fred kept a sharp lookout himself, for
+the river at this point was full of craft of all descriptions, from the
+large steamboats whose journey continues through the beautiful Ohio down
+through "The Father of Waters;" the ferry boats crossing between Ohio
+and Kentucky; little steam launches and row-boats, just starting out for
+pleasure; and fishing-boats returning laden from the day's work.
+
+At first Miss Kitty and Miriam splashed about a little, but soon they
+became accustomed to each other and pulled such a steady, even
+stroke that Mr. Fred was obliged to stop laughing at them, and even
+acknowledged that they were helping to make the boat go.
+
+All along the shores of the river were numbers of shanty boats, and as
+they approached the mouth of the Licking they saw more of these. Winnie,
+especially, was much interested in them, and enjoyed her seat in the
+bow as giving a good opportunity to catch a glimpse of some of their
+inmates--little boys with bare feet, girls with bright-colored dresses,
+many barking dogs, and an occasional cat, all of whom, in her eyes, were
+invested with a peculiar fascination.
+
+But soon they entered the mouth of the Licking, and, gradually leaving
+all these sights and sounds behind them, passed into an enchanted
+country, the domain of Nature herself. Miss Kitty started up softly,
+"My country, 'tis of thee," and the girls joined in, Miriam's contralto
+adding richness to the voices as they rose and fell on the still air.
+Miss Kitty and Miriam had already drawn their oars up into the boat, and
+Mr. Fred let his trail idly in the water as he listened.
+
+When they had finished the last stanza, Winnie said, "Aunt Kitty, won't
+you and Uncle Fred sing 'Juanita' for us? The moon is just rising behind
+those trees, and this is the very time for that duet."
+
+"What a romantic little thing it is!" said Fred, teasingly; but he
+joined his sister in the pretty duet, which has been sung on the water
+so many times as almost to be considered a boating song. After this they
+took to their oars again, and, pulling hard against the stream, advanced
+silently but rapidly.
+
+Presently Mr. Fred, with a strong pull on his left oar, turned the boat,
+in spite of Fannie's hold on the rudder, and it shot suddenly in toward
+the right bank, where was a little beach in a sheltered cove under an
+immense willow tree. Here Mr. Fred jumped out, and, after making the
+boat fast to the tree, assisted the other members of the party to
+disembark.
+
+"Follow me!" he commanded, starting up the bank, which here sloped
+gradually to the water's edge.
+
+The little company soon reached the top of the bank. The moon, nearly
+full, had just risen, and by its light, struggling with that of the
+dying day, they saw a little path leading up the green hillside. Along
+this they went, single file, wondering where Mr. Fred and Miss Kitty
+were taking them, when suddenly they were startled by the bark of a
+dog, and in a second a great mastiff jumped up almost to Mr. Fred's
+shoulders, and nearly knocked him down by the force of the spring.
+
+Winnie was struck dumb with fear, and the other girls screamed, but Mr.
+Fred said, in a tone which quite reassured them:
+
+"Down, down, Jasper! Don't let your joy make you forget your manners."
+
+Jasper wagged his tail as if to say, "All right, sir," and trotted along
+the path, with Mr. Fred's hand on his head.
+
+The path wound about through the trees, and when they reached the top
+of the hill they saw a large white house, and coming towards them a tall
+young man, who called out cheerily:
+
+"We've been looking for you for the last half hour. Come right along.
+Nellie and Rob can hardly contain themselves, they have been so afraid
+you wouldn't come."
+
+He led the way around the house, and soon had ushered the new-comers
+into a large, square parlor with long windows opening on a broad
+veranda.
+
+"Nellie, Rob," he said, "here are the 'Warrior Maidens,' of whom you
+have heard so much."
+
+The two children, Nellie about fourteen, and Rob a few years younger,
+bowed bashfully, and then looked appealingly at their elder brother, as
+they sat down on the two chairs farthest removed from those occupied by
+their guests. The moon was now above the tree tops, and shone into the
+room brightly through the long windows.
+
+[Illustration: They passed unto an enchanted country.--See page 75.]
+
+"A glorious night for a game of hide-and-seek," said the older brother
+suggestively, in answer to an unspoken appeal of the younger ones.
+
+"And this would be a grand place for it," said Miss Kitty. "I used
+to think a game of I-spy on a moonlight night the finest thing in the
+world. Suppose we try it now?"
+
+"Yes! yes!" they all exclaimed; and, headed by their young hosts, rushed
+out of doors, and for half an hour made the hills echo with their shouts
+of merriment.
+
+Such places as there were in which to hide!--a dark corner in the
+grape arbor, a nook in the vine-covered summer-house, a deep-shadowed
+projection from the stable or house or veranda: such chances to "make
+home" around the house, which stood in the center of the yard! Miss
+Kitty generally came in first, but once, after long searching, she
+was found in the hollow of a tree into which she had crawled, and from
+which, being caught in her own trap, she had to be pulled out by the
+united efforts of her brother and niece.
+
+Then Miss Kitty declared that it was high time they should start for
+home. But when they went into the house to get their wraps, they found
+the smiling mother of their hosts waiting for them with a great bowl of
+strawberries, picked, she said, just before the sun went down, and which
+they must really try. It was not a difficult task to persuade the guests
+to do this, and after they had all done full justice to the berries and
+the accompanying cake and rich, sweet milk, they set forth to embark for
+home, escorted to the river by the entire family of their new friends.
+
+The row home was enjoyed even more, if that were possible, than the one
+thither. The moon was now high in the sky, and hill and tree and rock
+and dimpling wave were beautified by its enchanting glamour.
+
+They all felt either too tired, or too happy, or both perhaps, to talk,
+and the trip was made almost in silence, although Miss Kitty stopped
+rowing once, and quoted softly:
+
+  "And the cares that infest the day,
+  Shall fold their tents like the Arab,
+  And as silently steal away."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+SAD NEWS.
+
+
+The next morning Winnie wakened early and lay for some time thinking
+over the pleasure of the evening before and the events of the past six
+months. It seemed to her as if a long time had elapsed since the evening
+on which she began to look upon life as something of a battle-field.
+She felt older, and yet light-hearted, as the gentle air of late May,
+stealing in through the open window, lightly stirred the thin curtains
+and brushed her face "like the breeze from an angel's wing," she
+thought.
+
+"How happy we all have been!" she said aloud. "And Ernestine--I wish she
+had been with us last night--is the happiest of all, because she is the
+best."
+
+Then she dozed off again, and did not awake until she heard little Ralph
+calling at her door: "Hurry up, 'Innie! B'eakast is 'most weady!"
+
+She sprang out of bed in haste then, and was in the dining-room in time
+to take her seat with the rest.
+
+"'He maketh the storm a calm, and the waves thereof are still,'" she
+quoted when it came her turn to give her selection. She had chosen this
+one for its gentle beauty.
+
+How pleasant it all was! How full of life and joy everything seemed,
+even to the carnations in the center of the table, with their spicy
+odor!
+
+She performed her Saturday morning duties cheerfully, and after lunch
+asked permission to take her books and go to Ernestine's to look over
+the lessons for Monday, for the end of the year--their last year in the
+Intermediate--was rapidly approaching, and, their course being almost
+completed, they would soon begin the heavy review in preparation for the
+high-school examination.
+
+Permission was readily granted, and Winnifred started off with a light
+heart. When she reached Ernestine's home, a gentleman came down the
+steps and passed out of the door just as she was about to enter the
+hall, so, somewhat surprised, she went up the stairs more slowly than
+usual and knocked softly. It was opened by a strange lady, who, in
+answer to Winnifred's inquiry for Ernestine, said: "Ernestine is with
+her mother, who is so ill that the doctor says she must either have a
+trained nurse or go to the hospital."
+
+"Oh, I must go right home and tell mamma!" said Winnie, and she went
+away without another word.
+
+When she reached home, she found her mother in the sitting-room doing
+the week's mending. On hearing her daughter's sad news she hurriedly
+changed her dress and set out at once for Mrs. Alroy's.
+
+She was gone an hour--an age, it seemed to Winnifred, unsuccessfully
+struggling to keep her mind on her lessons. When Mrs. Burton returned,
+her face was very grave, and she drew Winnie toward her with a warm
+embrace as she said:
+
+"Mrs. Alroy has decided to have a nurse; she says she has saved a little
+money for just such an emergency and prefers to be at home where she can
+have Ernestine with her. She asked me to send for Mr. Allen."
+
+"Fannie's father?" said Winnifred, surprised.
+
+"Yes, and I want you to go there now and leave a note for him." And
+seating herself at her desk, Mrs. Burton wrote a short note while Winnie
+was getting on her hat.
+
+Winnie felt very sober--and, it must be confessed, also somewhat
+important--as she hurried away to deliver the note. She found Mr. Allen
+at home, and, having sent up the note by the servant who answered the
+bell, she asked for Fannie, for she longed to talk the matter over with
+one of her mates. But Fannie, from her room at the head of the stairs,
+had heard Winnifred's voice, and now came running down to meet her.
+
+"What is it, Win?" she said.
+
+"Oh, Fannie," was the reply, "I'm afraid something awful is going to
+happen at Ernestine's house! Her mother is very, very sick. I went there
+this morning just as the doctor was coming away, and he said she must
+either go to the hospital or have a trained nurse. Mamma went over right
+away, and now Mrs. Alroy has sent for your father."
+
+"For papa! Isn't that strange? Come up to my room, Winnie, and stay
+awhile, can't you?"
+
+"I don't know," said Winnie, hesitatingly. "Mamma didn't say for me to
+hurry--"
+
+"Well, come on then," said Fannie, leading the way up the softly
+carpeted stairs.
+
+Winnie followed with scarcely a glance around. Although Fannie's father
+was much wealthier than her own, and his house finer in every way, her
+heart was too full for much interest in fine ornamentation; and besides,
+child though she was, she instinctively felt that culture and true
+refinement are at home anywhere.
+
+But it was the first time she had ever been in Fannie's own room, and
+this she found interesting in spite of the emotions which had troubled
+her heart during the day. It certainly was a charming nook, with its
+pink-curtained bed half hidden behind a large four-fold screen with the
+Seasons painted in oil upon its panels; the pretty white dressing-table,
+draped to match the bed, and filled with the dainty accessories of
+a girl's toilet; a low, well-filled book case and desk combined; the
+pretty matting and rugs; and the many pictures and other ornaments here
+and there.
+
+The girls sat down on a little willow seat, large enough for two, and
+Winnie had to begin all over again and tell what she knew about Mrs.
+Alroy's illness. In the meantime they heard Mr. Allen descend the stairs
+and go out of the street door before Fannie had time to call to him.
+
+"I wonder if papa has gone to Mrs. Alroy's now," said she. "Whatever can
+she want of him? Perhaps she is going to have him make her will."
+
+"But why should she do that?" said Winnie. "She can't have much to leave
+to anybody; and, if she had, Ernestine would be the only one to get it,
+wouldn't she? But what would Ernestine do if her mother should die? Who
+would take care of her? You know she has always said she would teach
+when she had finished school, and it will be years before she does that.
+Do you know, if the worst should happen, I'd love to have her stay with
+us, and I almost believe mamma would be willing."
+
+"I think that would be a good deal for your family to do," was the
+answer, "but maybe papa would help."
+
+"I don't believe Ernestine would be helped by anyone unless she did
+something in return. But how long I am staying! I must go right away."
+
+"Oh, stay just a minute longer," said Fannie. "I want to show you my
+hanging garden;" and she threw up the long window and stepped out to
+a little balcony, almost filled with flowers in pots and boxes, and
+baskets full of vines drooping over all.
+
+"Oh, how lovely!" exclaimed Winnie.
+
+"Yes, isn't it? I care more for this than anything else I have," Fannie
+replied, breaking off a bunch of heliotrope and pinning it to her
+friend's dress.
+
+"Oh, thank you!" said Winnie. "But now I must go."
+
+"Yes, I suppose you must," said Fannie, reluctantly. "I'll put on my hat
+and go a ways with you."
+
+They went down the stairs and out into the street together, talking
+alternately--as people do under such circumstances--of trivial things
+and of that which filled their hearts.
+
+When Winnifred reached home, she found her mother seated at the open
+window of the sitting-room, darning a pair of stockings--a homely enough
+occupation, but to Winnie's eyes her mother had never looked so dear or
+so beautiful, and she went and put her arms about her neck. Her mother
+returned the embrace, holding her close for a moment, and then she said
+gently:
+
+"Have you your lessons for Monday, dear?"
+
+"Oh, mamma," said Winnie, "it does not seem to me as if I can ever study
+again!"
+
+"Is there any nearer duty, Winnie?"
+
+"I don't know--I suppose not. But, mamma, I can't put my mind on my
+lessons, when Ernestine's mother is so sick."
+
+"Can you help Ernestine any by neglecting your own duties, dear? You
+do not recognize Giant Despair when he comes in the guise of love and
+sympathy for your friends, but he it is who comes at these times. You
+know in Whose hands are the issues of life and death, of health and
+sickness. You cannot help Ernestine's future by worrying over her
+present; but you may mar a portion of your own by neglecting your
+present."
+
+Winnie could not help knowing that her mother was right. She took out
+her books, and was soon so hard at work that her disturbed emotions
+were quieted, and by supper time, though still full of sympathy for her
+friend, she was quite herself again, and ready to play the accompaniment
+to the new piece her brother was learning. And when she went to bed,
+it was to sleep peacefully, rather than to lie awake fighting unseen
+terrors, as Mrs. Burton well knew would have been the case with her
+high-strung child had she been allowed to brood over the events of the
+day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW.
+
+
+The next day at breakfast Mrs. Burton announced her intention of going
+to see Mrs. Alroy instead of attending church, and said that if she
+were not home to dinner they might know she had thought it necessary to
+remain.
+
+"Mayn't I go with you, mamma?" asked Winnifred.
+
+"I think it would not be best for either Ernestine or yourself, Winnie,
+and certainly not for Mrs. Alroy."
+
+Winnie at once saw that her mother was right, and instead of demurring,
+she went and gathered some beautiful clusters of lilacs for Ernestine,
+and cut the one white rose in bloom on her window-sill to send to Mrs.
+Alroy.
+
+Mrs. Burton set off, taking a basket of fruit and the flowers, but she
+sighed as she turned the corner leading to Mrs. Alroy's, for she felt
+that the fruit would never refresh the world-weary woman for whom it was
+intended.
+
+When she reached her destination she glanced apprehensively up to the
+second-story windows, for, although she said nothing about it to Winnie,
+she had on the previous day given up all hope of Mrs. Alroy's recovery.
+But the sorrowful banner which she had dreaded to see was not there, and
+she breathed more freely as she passed up the stairs.
+
+In answer to her low knock the door was opened by Ernestine, who smiled
+as Mrs. Burton took her hand, a sad little smile of welcome which went
+to her visitor's heart.
+
+"Mamma is resting quite easily now, but she passed a painful night. I
+will tell the nurse you are here. How beautiful the flowers and fruit
+are!" she said, as Mrs. Burton handed the basket to her.
+
+"Yes, dear; the lilacs are for you--you know their odor is too strong
+for a sick-room--but Winnie sent this rose from her own little monthly
+to your mother."
+
+Ernestine's lips quivered, as she took the rose without speaking, and
+went into the little bedroom, closing the door gently behind her.
+
+Mrs. Burton found a vase, which she filled with water to put the lilacs
+in, and sat down to await the nurse's coming. She had not long to wait.
+The nurse, entering, closed the door behind her as softly as Ernestine
+had done, and motioned Mrs. Burton to follow her into the little
+kitchen.
+
+"There is not the slightest hope," said she, in answer to Mrs. Burton's
+anxious inquiry. "The doctor says it may be a matter of hours only,
+although she may live for some days yet. It is neuralgia of the heart
+and she has been suffering exceedingly. However, she is resting easier
+now--which is not a good sign, you know--and wants to see you. She has
+asked me to send her daughter on some little errand, because she wants
+to see you alone."
+
+They entered Mrs. Alroy's room together, and Ernestine, at a sign from
+the nurse, followed her out of the room. Mrs. Alroy took Mrs. Burton's
+outstretched hand, and for a moment neither spoke. Then the former said
+quietly:
+
+"Please sit down, Mrs. Burton, for I have much to say to you. And I
+cannot speak long at a time, so you will have to be patient with me. You
+are not in a hurry?"
+
+"My dear Mrs. Alroy, I have the day at your disposal. Do not hesitate to
+command me."
+
+"You know something of my past life--so I found out yesterday. I need
+not touch upon it further. It is past now and I no longer regret it. But
+it is of the future I wish to speak. Not my own--that lies beyond our
+knowing--but of my daughter's--"
+
+The sick woman put her hand over her eyes a moment, and Mrs. Burton
+walked to the window to fight back the tears which were fast rising to
+her eyes. Mrs. Alroy was the first to regain control of herself, and as
+Mrs. Burton resumed her seat, she went on:
+
+"I had a long talk with Mr. Allen yesterday. He knows my family and I
+have placed my affairs in his hands. I have no doubt that Ernestine
+will be taken care of, but it is of her immediate future that I wish to
+speak. I would not have her go among strangers at once, and I am about
+to ask a great favor of you. The child loves you next to myself; your
+daughter is her dearest friend--"
+
+"Winnifred feels it an honor to be thought so. Nothing would please both
+of us, all of us, better than to have Ernestine make her home with us
+for as long a time as she may desire."
+
+"You give me courage to die. You could almost give me courage to
+live--but not quite. Yes, that is what I wish to ask of you, but only
+for the remainder of the school year. Preparing for the high-school
+examination will occupy my little girl's mind and help her to bear the
+separation, and after that--in the shadow of death pride vanishes, and
+I have requested Mr. Allen to write to my brother. They will settle
+everything else." She sank back on her pillows and closed her eyes
+wearily.
+
+Mrs. Burton could not immediately command her voice, but laid her hand
+gently on that of the sick woman. The latter, without opening her eyes,
+continued:
+
+"I shall not last long; this pain has too constantly been hovering about
+my heart; it cannot be driven back again; it must soon strike its last
+blow. But I do not fear it; it will be sharp but quick. Nor do I wish to
+live. Even my little daughter's wonderful love for me can no longer hold
+me. Besides, I know that from a material point of view she will only
+profit by my departure. She does not know that, and I am all she
+has--and I have not had the courage to tell her. This hard task I must
+ask you to do for me. I have only a hope--to you that hope is certainty.
+Your views are different; you can soften the blow as I cannot do. You
+will stay here awhile?"
+
+"Anything I can do for you is too little."
+
+"I have been loquacious, but I had long restrained myself. What time is
+it?"
+
+"Half past eleven."
+
+"Ernestine will soon be here, and I will tell her to make a cup of tea
+for you."
+
+"Oh, no--"
+
+"Yes, it will give her occupation and relieve the strain. There she is
+now."
+
+Ernestine came in with soft footsteps. "How do you feel now, mamma?" she
+asked gently.
+
+"Quite easy, dear. I think I shall sleep for a little while. Mrs. Burton
+will stay to lunch, and you may make a cup of tea for her and yourself.
+The nurse will stay with me now; you can call her."
+
+The nurse came, and Mrs. Burton and Ernestine left the room together.
+
+After the sad little lunch Mrs. Burton, summoning up all her courage,
+spoke.
+
+"Ernestine," she said, "your mother has asked me to tell you something
+which she would gladly spare you knowledge of, but which you must know.
+She is going on a long journey, from which she can no more return to
+you. But you will one day go to her."
+
+Ernestine's great eyes dilated wildly. "You mean that my mother is
+going--"
+
+"My dear, my dear! Your mother walks in the valley of the shadow of
+death, yet she fears no evil. You--and I and all who love you and
+her--are enveloped in its gloom, but if she fears not passing to the
+Unknown, shall we fear for her or for ourselves?"
+
+"I cannot do without my mother, Mrs. Burton! I cannot! I cannot! She is
+all I have--all I want!" and the girl burst into a tempest of tears.
+
+Mrs. Burton gathered her up in her arms and let her weep undisturbed for
+some minutes. Then she said gently:
+
+"Your mother wants to go. If she could live longer, she would seldom be
+free from pain. Besides, it is God's will."
+
+"Oh, my mother! my mother!" And Ernestine dropped upon her knees.
+
+Mrs. Burton went out and left her, knowing that the stricken child's
+hope was in a Comforter greater than herself.
+
+When Ernestine went in later, pale but quiet, her mother turned toward
+her with a smile.
+
+"Kiss me, my daughter, my baby!" she said, "and be at peace, as I am."
+
+The windows of the little bedroom faced the west, and toward evening
+Mrs. Alroy asked the nurse to draw back the curtains. "It has been a
+stormy day," she said, "but the sun is setting clear. I think I will go
+to sleep."
+
+And she closed her tired eyes, and "fell on sleep" without being touched
+by the dreaded pain.
+
+When they knew that it was indeed all over, they led Ernestine away, and
+she allowed them to put on her hat and went submissively home with Mrs.
+Burton.
+
+When she returned to her own home again, the little room had been
+transformed into a bower of flowers, and Mrs. Alroy slept under their
+fragrant covering, beautiful and serene, with a smile on her lips.
+Ernestine was met on the threshold by a tall, handsome man, who put his
+arms about her and said how glad he was to see his little niece. He had
+come at once in response to Mr. Allen's telegram.
+
+All was quiet and beautiful. A dozen or so friends gathered to listen
+to the sweet words of farewell to the dead and of benediction to the
+living; and then Mr. Van Orten took his sister home with him, that she
+might lie beside her kindred in the little old village on the banks of
+the Hudson.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+A BUSY MONTH.
+
+
+Mr. Van Orten left his niece behind him reluctantly, but Mr. Allen had
+convinced him that his sister had decided wisely, and that nothing
+could be better for Ernestine during the coming month than the calm and
+cheerful atmosphere of Mrs. Burton's home. Ernestine's own cot had been
+brought and placed in Winnie's room, and the two girls were tucked in
+every night by the same motherly hands. Little Ralph took Ernestine
+at once into his affections, made her smile at his quaint fancies and
+cunning little tongue, and his father and brother treated her as if she
+had always been one of them.
+
+The end of the school year was rapidly approaching, and there was a
+great deal of work to be done. Ernestine and Winnie were both anxious
+to do honor to their school and to the teachers who had worked with
+them hard and patiently, so every minute was occupied in some way, and
+Ernestine had no time for unhealthy grieving.
+
+On Saturday afternoons Fannie and Miriam and Gretta came to Mrs.
+Burton's, and they all went over the week's work together. Sometimes
+Mr. Allen and Fannie came and took Winnifred and Ernestine for a drive
+through the beautiful suburbs, and one evening they had another row on
+the river with Uncle Fred and Aunt Kitty.
+
+And so the weeks wore away and brought the bright June day when they
+all walked together to the high-school to take their examination
+seats. Their hearts beat high with hope and courage, and swelled with
+self-importance not altogether to be made light of; for it had been
+their aim for many months to gain this last fight of their school year
+on the very field on which they would plant their banners of occupation
+if they won. And win they felt sure they would, for this was but the
+supreme test to prove the force and earnestness of what had gone before.
+
+"On, on to victory!" laughed Miriam each morning, waving her hands high
+above her head. And "On, on to victory!" laughed the four other girls,
+echoing her cry.
+
+How they worked that week, their young heads bent over their papers,
+while their young eyes carefully perused those wonderful "printed
+questions"! The five, so different in manner, but so alike in aim and
+purpose--Ernestine, calm, deliberate, direct; Fannie, thoughtful but
+rapid; Gretta, neat, painstaking, and a little anxious; Miriam, dashing
+ahead impulsively, scratching out a word here or inserting one there,
+doing twice to thinking once, but thinking that once well; and Winnie,
+absorbed, thorough and confident--were noted with interest by the
+stranger teachers watching them, for they had learned to work with a
+definite aim which showed itself in their very attitudes.
+
+They took the questions home with them, and each day the five might
+be seen at the home of one or the other, again going over the work,
+replying one at a time and sometimes all at once to the oft-repeated
+query, "How did you answer this?" or "Did you prove that?"
+
+Sometimes the group was joined by one or more of their other classmates,
+and once Josie Thompson, wearing her brightest dress and biggest pin,
+called to them as she passed: "Isn't this a horrid old examination? I
+know I won't pass, and I don't care if I don't. My mother says if I fail
+she'll take me out of school, and I'll be glad of it. I can't see any
+fun in digging every minute, and what's the use of all this high-school
+stuff anyhow! I can have a better time without it."
+
+And on the last day she waved her hands to them across the street and
+shouted: "Good-by, girls! I know it's all up with me!"
+
+"Poor Josie!" said Ernestine, after they had gone home; "trying so hard
+to have a good time, and missing it after all."
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Burton, laying her hand gently on the girl's head,
+"like the dog in the fable, she is losing the substance to grasp at the
+shadow."
+
+"Tell me about the dog in the table, Ernie," said Ralph, pulling at
+Ernestine's dress to attract her attention.
+
+"I don't think I know, you little dear!" she said, laughing gently at
+his mistake. "We must ask your mamma to tell us both."
+
+"Then 'Innie must hear, too!" said the child, running to the door to
+call his sister.
+
+It was what Miriam called a "delicious" evening, and after tea she and
+Fannie and Gretta came strolling over to talk about the events of the
+week and reassure each other that "all was well." Ralph looked upon each
+of them as his own particular friend and in a sense his charge, and
+so he now proceeded to enlighten them on the subject of the dog in the
+fable as follows:
+
+"There was a dog and a table," he said, "but I don't know what the table
+was for, because he didn't eat on a table, you know, 'cause he was on'y
+a dog; but he stealed a bone, and he was wunning away wid it over some
+watah, and saw his shadow looking like anudder dog wid a bone, an' he
+was so greedy dat he dropped his bone to get de bone of de odder dog
+in de ribber, and so he lost his own bone and didn't get any odder, and
+Josie Thompson didn't get any bone eider."
+
+"Oh, Ralph," said Winnie, "you tell everything you know, besides much
+that you don't!"
+
+How the girls laughed when Winnie explained! And all the more as
+laughter came easy to them, with hearts light from the consciousness of
+a well-spent year which had brought its reward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+A TRIP TO MAMMOTH CAVE.
+
+
+One evening, shortly after the examination, Fannie said to her father:
+"Papa, I want to invite the club for a last meeting before Ernestine
+leaves us. I wish I could have something in the way of a treat different
+from anything we have had."
+
+"I don't know about that. Your mother is so busy getting ready for the
+summer, and we are going away so soon, that I hardly see how we can
+arrange it."
+
+Fannie looked at her father in blank dismay. But he went on unmoved:
+
+"In fact, Fannie, I have been thinking that these meetings, as you call
+them, are becoming somewhat monotonous." (Fannie's eyes opened wide.)
+"No, I don't think we can have it at all."
+
+This was too much, and Fannie's speechless indignation found voice:
+"Papa Allen, I didn't think this of you!" Then, seeing the well-known
+twinkle in his eyes, she perched herself on his knee and said, "Now,
+papa, what are you up to?"
+
+"Well, as the immortal Peter Pindar says, as reported by McGuffey,
+'I love to please good children,' and as you have all been 'kind and
+civil,' I have concluded to give you what I call a grand treat. So
+prepare for a shock."
+
+"Go ahead, papa. I'm not afraid of it at all; what I was afraid of
+was--none."
+
+"Well, what do you say to my taking all of you, the whole company of
+warriors, to Mammoth Cave?"
+
+Fannie sprang from his knee and fairly danced around the room for joy.
+Then she quieted herself and said, "When, papa?"
+
+"Just before the Fourth, I think. Your mother and I will go, and
+possibly Ernestine's uncle, who will be here by that time; and I thought
+we might invite 'Miss Kitty,' of whom I have heard so much."
+
+So it came about that on a warm afternoon in July, a party of eight,
+escorted to the boat by several friends, ascended the narrow staircase
+of the steamboat, and made themselves comfortable on deck until the
+"All aboard!" was heard, when the escort hurried down the stairs to the
+wharf.
+
+When the boat had floated entirely out of sight of the waving
+handkerchiefs of their friends, the party, taking their hand luggage,
+went into the cabin to find their staterooms and deposit their
+belongings. They had four staterooms in all. Fannie and Miriam occupied
+one communicating with that of Fannie's parents; and Ernestine, Gretta,
+Winnie and her Aunt Kitty had another similar suite. This duty over,
+they went on deck to enjoy the sweet, fresh air from the river and the
+beautiful scenery along its banks.
+
+Just after the short landing which had been made at Lawrenceburg, supper
+was called, and they were all ready to respond. The colored waiters were
+delighted to find such a party of young girls, and served them with the
+utmost alacrity, anticipating every want in a delightful manner.
+
+After supper they sat on deck till long after dark. Mr. Allen and Mr.
+Van Orten were exchanging reminiscences of their college days; and
+later, joined by Mrs. Allen, of summers passed at beautiful Lake George
+and in the White Mountains. To all of this the remainder of the party
+listened with absorbing interest. However, the air, which had first
+given them so good an appetite for supper, now made them sleepy, so that
+by ten o'clock the girls had all climbed into their narrow berths and
+were soon sound asleep.
+
+They had breakfast on the boat, so were ready to continue their
+journey by rail without interruption. After a pleasant ride through a
+picturesque country they reached Cave City, where they were transferred
+to a tram--an engine and one coach--which took them first up and then
+down hill over a road cut right through the woods, so that in some
+places the trees almost interlaced over the top of the coach. It was
+most delightful to all the party, and would have been only too short had
+it not been for what was to follow. It formed a fit introduction to the
+sublime and wonderful results of Nature's long and patient work which
+they were to see. Therefore, in spite of the novelty and beauty, they
+were glad to reach the hotel, a long, rambling, wooden building, so
+unlike anything the girls had ever before seen that the short stay
+within its quaint rooms, with their bare floors and whitewashed walls,
+was in itself an experience long to be remembered.
+
+After a night's refreshing sleep they were ready to start out bright
+and early for the first day's adventures. With many girlish giggles they
+arrayed themselves in the costumes provided by the Cave management--the
+short woolen skirts and loose blouses carrying with them a delightfully
+free and unconventional feeling--and then, at the sound of the gong,
+set forth with their guide; Mr. and Mrs. Allen in the lead, close behind
+them Miss Kitty and Miriam, next Fannie and Gretta, then Ernestine
+with one hand locked in that of her uncle and the other tightly holding
+Winnie's fingers, while the interesting and friendly dog, "Brigham,"--so
+called, the guide explained, because he was no longer young--divided his
+attentions between them, but seemed most inclined to make friends with
+Miss Kitty, who was accused of having a piece of meat in her pocket as
+the only way to account for her mysterious fascination for his dogship.
+
+They had a short but beautiful walk through the fern-decorated woods,
+down a steep path, over a little bridge, till they found themselves on
+a stone platform directly in front of an enormous opening in the hill, a
+natural arch overhung with trees, rocks, ferns and wild-flowers--a sight
+never to be forgotten, so wonderfully beautiful and grand was it--and
+the party stepped back to admire it.
+
+When they went forward again in order to enter, they saw that what was
+an arch above was a gaping chasm below, which looked ready to swallow
+them, and down which there seemed no way to go except to fall headlong.
+Their guide watched their dismay with amusement, but presently Miriam
+discovered a narrow flight of steps cut out of the solid rock. Down
+these they went, shaded by the trees, under the sparkling cascade,
+beneath the black, overhanging rock, winding their way along to where
+the last bit of daylight is swallowed up, and then, with various kinds
+of sensations, watched the guide unlock the iron gate through which they
+were to pass on their way to the mysterious region of the nether world.
+As they took their lamps and the gate closed behind them with a clang,
+Miriam confided to Miss Kitty that she felt little shivers running up
+and down her back.
+
+As the darkness became more intense, Winnie slipped away from Ernestine
+to her Aunt Kitty, whose hand she seized with a breath of relief, as if
+feeling safer there; and Gretta and Fannie clung closely together.
+
+As they advanced, the sense of mystery increased, and for a minute
+the girls huddled together in a bunch. Brigham, however, sniffed once
+more--a little contemptuously, according to Miss Kitty--and then ran
+ahead on side trips of his own, returning to the party from time to
+time as if to reassure them that everything was all right and they
+might place implicit confidence in his knowledge of the Cave and his
+friendship for them.
+
+Their first stop was made in the Rotunda in order to examine the
+saltpeter vats, in which Ernestine, in keeping with her liking for
+history, was much interested when she heard that the saltpeter made here
+was taken to Philadelphia to be used in the manufacture of gunpowder
+during the war of 1812.
+
+Presently they entered Methodist Hall--so named, as they were assured
+by their guide, "because it's a heap too dry for the Baptis'." In this
+place was the natural pulpit from which--so tradition says--Booth once
+delivered Hamlet's soliloquy.
+
+Next they came to Gothic Avenue, where their way lay along piles of
+stone erected by admirers of famous men, States, and so on. There was
+one little pile which seemed to have been neglected, and Miss Kitty
+asked whose it was. On being told that it was the Old Maid's Monument,
+she exclaimed: "I shall find nothing nearer my heart!" and, picking up a
+stone, carefully balanced it on the top of the pile. But in spite of her
+care, it rolled off. "That's a shore sign, Miss, that you ain't gwine to
+be a ole maid."
+
+"Can it be!" she said, as the elders of the company laughingly
+congratulated her. "Once more I feel a breath of hope."
+
+By and by they reached Register Hall, which has been aptly described as
+a huge autograph album, for on its ceiling, smoked by burning candles,
+can be found names and addresses from all parts of the world, while
+address cards are placed in numberless nooks and crevices. Here Gretta
+sat in the arm-chair in which, so it is said, Jenny Lind once sat and
+sang.
+
+The next thing which pleased all of them, and particularly Fannie, was
+the water clock--a tick-tock sound made by the dropping of a little
+stream of water into a pool below--and they all laughed at William when
+he said, "But it ain't a eight-day clock, because it runs down every
+twenty-four hours."
+
+When they saw the Giant's Coffin they looked upon it with awe--for it
+was a gruesome sight enough--until Mr. Allen said in a loud aside to Mr.
+Van Orten:
+
+"This is the coffin in which the Warrior Maidens deposit the bodies of
+their victims."
+
+Mrs. Allen smiled faintly, but Miss Kitty--more at Mr. Van Orten's
+puzzled expression than at the speech itself--laughed outright. Winnie
+and Ernestine had not heard, and Gretta hardly knew whether to laugh or
+be offended, until Fannie and Miriam, catching the joke, re-echoed Miss
+Kitty's laugh.
+
+From a crevice behind the Giant's Coffin they went slipping and sliding
+down an incline, and then up and down, till they came to a small, round
+opening in what seemed to be a solid wall. "Stay here," said the guide;
+and he disappeared through the hole with his lights. Then he called to
+them, and, peering through the aperture, they found it to be a natural
+window opening into a great, beautiful chamber--Gorin's Dome, considered
+by many, said the guide, to be the finest room in the Cave, with its
+immense extent, measuring two hundred feet from floor to ceiling, and
+covering an entire acre of space.
+
+From here they went to the pits, and, standing on the Bridge of Sighs, a
+lowered ball of flame showed them that they were directly suspended over
+the deepest, known as the Bottomless Pit. Winnie and Gretta caught
+their breath quickly, and Ernestine's hand tightened on her uncle's arm;
+indeed, the whole party was glad to get away from that dangerous spot.
+
+The next place visited, however, made up to them for any amount of hard
+travel or moment of terror. Having retraced their steps till they came
+to the original passage, they went on for some distance until told by
+their guide to rest for a moment on a convenient stone seat, and wait
+there until he called to them. He then took away all of their lamps and
+disappeared. For a moment they felt the darkness something frightful,
+but before it had lasted long enough to be painful, they saw a vision
+overhead of numberless stars shining down upon them from a cloudless
+dome.
+
+That which for one moment in the darkness had almost provoked a cry of
+terror from more than one of the party, became a cry of delight; and
+then Mrs. Allen wondered aloud how they could see the stars so far below
+the surface of the earth. But even as she spoke, the scene changed.
+They no longer saw a clear sky, but the stars disappeared behind heavy
+clouds, and then they were again in that indescribably awful darkness.
+But gradually a soft light was seen, and they heard the bleating
+of sheep and the lowing of cattle as they wake in the early dawn.
+"Beautiful! Beautiful!" they said, and were almost sorry when they found
+out that these sounds were produced by their guide, who turned out to be
+something of a ventriloquist, and that the stars and rosy dawn are but
+optical illusions called forth by skillful manipulation of the light
+thrown on the crystals which sparkle in the dome with its coating of
+black oxide of manganese.
+
+From here they wended their way back, followed by Brigham, who had
+waited for them on the road to the Star Chamber, feeling that they had
+experienced and seen enough for one day.
+
+They rested all that day and the next, doing nothing that required more
+exertion than short walks through the woods or promenades along the wide
+galleries which surrounded both stories of the hotel. Here they swung
+hammocks, and rested in the open air between their little walks.
+
+But on the third day all the members of the party again set out for
+the Cave, starting in the morning, for they were warned that going and
+returning it would be a sixteen-mile walk. Presently they found that
+the road they had taken on the previous day diverged, and soon they were
+going through the Valley of Humility leading into Fat Man's Misery, a
+place but eighteen inches wide, five feet high, and changing direction
+eight times. Through the one hundred and five yards of this place they
+twisted and crawled, until they reached Great Relief. Here they stopped
+to congratulate Mrs. Allen, the stoutest of the party, and Mr. Van
+Orten, the tallest, on having successfully passed this ordeal.
+
+On again, now ascending a flight of stairs to a higher gallery, now
+descending to one below, always surprised at finding the immense columns
+piercing through from the highest galleries down to the very lowest of
+the five levels of the Cave. They passed through Bacon Chamber--which
+Winnie did not think at all "romantic"--and through various winding
+passages, to River Hall, where all the waters of the Cave collect, and
+where they gazed with awe on the deep lakes. Then they came to the
+Dead Sea, surrounded on all sides by massive cliffs, from which they
+descended by means of a stairway to the banks of the River Styx, which
+the party crossed by a natural bridge to Lake Lethe; then along the
+Great Walk, with its fine, yellow sand, to Echo River. Here they found a
+boat waiting for them, and, embarking, were paddled along over the clear
+water--thirty feet deep--singing, whistling, and shouting to waken the
+echoes from the rocky walls on either side, until it seemed--so Miss
+Kitty said--as if "Echo had been transferred from her former mountain
+home, with all her nymphs."
+
+But no, it was not the Mountain Echo, but her unknown sister who dwelt
+in these underground regions, as their guide proved to them by striking
+the long vault with his cane; for it had its own keynote, which excited
+harmonies of wonderful depth and sweetness, each sound being prolonged
+many seconds.
+
+Here, too, they saw the eyeless fish, and Gretta even went the length
+of pitying them, until Miss Kitty told her that, as they were not "fish
+with little lanterns on their tails,"--which she had once heard given as
+an explanation of some phosphorescent phenomenon on an ocean trip--and
+so could not see in those dark waters even if they had eyes, she need
+not waste her pity.
+
+Soon they reached Washington Hall, and perceived a waiter, who had been
+following them at a distance, emerge from the gloom, bringing with him
+a great basket of lunch. This was a pleasant surprise, and they
+partook heartily of the generous repast, unmoved for the time by their
+gnome-like surroundings in the semi-darkness of this great chamber, so
+dimly lighted by the various lanterns and torches.
+
+Beyond this place they found the crystalline gardens, where the crystals
+take the form of flowers and vines, and even grapes--as in Mary's
+Vineyard--and later they came upon a snowstorm in a chamber so thickly
+covered with snowy crystals that they were made to fall like flakes by a
+loud concussion of the air.
+
+And so they proceeded on their journey and came to the Corkscrew. After
+a brief consultation, they decided to take this short cut out of the
+Cave, instead of going over what is now somewhat familiar ground. So up
+they climbed, partly by means of the three ladders, now through cracks,
+again over huge boulders scattered here and there in wild confusion, now
+twisting up through round holes--five hundred feet of climbing, although
+they were assured by their guide that the vertical distance was only one
+hundred and fifty feet.
+
+At last they emerged on the edge of a cliff just over the main cave,
+and, as they stopped to take breath, wondered for a moment if they were
+in another Star Chamber, for the stars were shining bright above them!
+But no; this time it was no illusion, for though they had left the
+bright sunlight behind them when they made the descent into the
+lantern-lighted darkness, they had been all day in the cave, and were
+indeed glad that they had saved the mile and a half walk by their ascent
+through the Corkscrew.
+
+Altogether it was a trip long to be remembered; the more so that, at its
+close, when they were all back in "dear, old, smoky Cincinnati," as
+Miss Kitty fondly called it, came the first parting of the ways for the
+Warrior Maidens. Not the ordinary summer parting, but one which entirely
+changed the parallel grooves in which their lives had been running, at
+least for one of them, for Ernestine was to go home with her uncle to
+New York. The whole Burton family had become so attached to her that
+they would gladly have kept her with them as a much-loved member
+of their circle, necessary not only to their happiness but to their
+comfort, and Ralph expressed his opinion that Ernie's uncle was a bad,
+bad man.
+
+But, while in compliance with his sister's wish, expressed to Mr. Allen
+on that day on which Mrs. Alroy had sent for him, he had waited for the
+end of the school year before coming for his niece, he was now only too
+impatient to take to her kindred the lovely child--the last living link
+between their family and the sister whom he and his brothers had so
+loved and so mourned.
+
+And so, one bright morning in July, the little company, each wearing her
+badge of warriorhood, went to the station to see their dear friend start
+on her journey. There were tearful faces on the outside of the car, and
+a pale but earnest and loving face hidden behind a handkerchief on the
+inside, as the train slowly moved out of the station.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+AN EXCHANGE OF LETTERS.
+
+
+_Ernestine to Winnifred._
+
+  New York, Sept. 12.
+
+Dearest Winnifred:
+
+It seems a long time since I left you standing in the station, the
+afternoon I said good-by to the city which had been my home. I can never
+forget you nor the dear schoolmates who made my life there so pleasant,
+nor the friends who took me to their hearts in my great sorrow.
+
+I was happy and contented in my little home, so happy with my precious
+mother's care and companionship, that nothing can ever come into my life
+to bring greater happiness, or greater desire to do and be good, and our
+little society helped me.
+
+And yet, dear Winnie, I would not have my mother back to suffer. How
+much she must have suffered in her isolation from her people, I never
+knew until I came among them. Never could orphan have found more lovely
+relatives. I inclose in this my letter to the club, to be read at your
+next meeting. With my heart full of gratitude to your mother and all the
+rest, I am,
+
+  Your loving friend,
+
+  Ernestine.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Ernestine to the Warrior Maidens._
+
+Dear Girls:
+
+When you read this you will all be together at Miriam's and I know
+you will wish, as I do, that I could be with you. I am here at my
+grandmother's home, and a beautiful place it is, with its large rooms
+and fine, old-fashioned furniture. It is in a very quiet neighborhood,
+which will seem strange to you when I say that it is but a few minutes'
+walk from Broadway, with its crowds of people, who always seem in a
+hurry.
+
+When Uncle Morris and I first reached New York, we went straight to
+his home. His wife received me very kindly, and my cousins (one a young
+lady, another a girl about my own age, and two boys younger,) were kind,
+too, and they all wanted me to stay with them. But my grandparents said
+they must have me, and I was glad to come, for I felt strange with so
+many new cousins, and was afraid I would find it hard to fall into their
+ways.
+
+I have such a beautiful room, all my own. It has east windows which open
+over a little court, where the first thing I see when I throw back
+my shutters in the morning, is a fountain sparkling in the sun, with
+rainbows in its spray, and birds flying about and bathing in the pool.
+
+At first there was some talk of sending me to a school to prepare for
+Vassar, but my grandmother said she had just found me and could not give
+me up, and my grandfather--with tears in his eyes, which nearly broke my
+heart, for I knew what he was thinking of--said the same thing; so I am
+to have teachers right here at home, and have already commenced music
+and French.
+
+I am sure I shall be very happy; but, for all that, I imagine you all
+seated at your desks at school, or chatting with each other over your
+lunch, and that makes me feel very lonely. But I mean to make the best
+of my opportunities, and shall keep in mind our watchword, "Now," which
+means much more to me than when we first chose it.
+
+I hope we will all meet again sometime, and that you will always think
+of me with love, as
+
+  Your loving
+
+  Ernestine.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Gretta to Ernestine._
+
+Dear Friend:
+
+We all miss you very much, and it seems hard to wait for the "sometime"
+to come when we shall see you again.
+
+You remember the idea of "fighting giants" seemed silly to me at first,
+but I can see now that it did me a great deal of good, especially about
+my school work. I never stood so well in any other examination as in the
+last one for the high-school; and I never blamed myself, but always my
+"music." Now I see, though, that two things may be well done as well as
+one, if only we go about it in the right way.
+
+  Good-by,
+
+  Gretta.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Miriam to Ernestine._
+
+Dearest Ernestine:
+
+How we did miss you the first day of school, particularly when your name
+was read as having the highest per cent. in the whole city! And after
+the classes were formed, every teacher inquired for you, and all looked
+disappointed when they found that you had moved away.
+
+Our little Winnifred was only five behind you, and not one of us stood
+less than ninety. We went back to see Miss Brownlow one day last week,
+and she said she was proud of us. She asked for you and sent her love.
+
+We are struggling with x, y, z, and in Latin have reached "uterque,
+utraque, utrumque," which sounds about as sensible as onery, twoery,
+etc. I feel sorry for those people who must have found it no laughing
+matter to put a different ending to every word for every case, gender
+and number, and I must say that for myself I like plain English.
+
+I saw Josie Thompson the other day, and I laughed to myself when I
+thought of her trying to fight her way through such things as these. She
+said she was "enjoying herself gorgeously!"
+
+We mean to keep up with the record of last year if we can, especially
+the record of good times.
+
+  With lots of love,
+
+  Miriam.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Fannie to Ernestine._
+
+My Dear, Dear Ernestine:
+
+How strange it seems that your uncle and my father are friends, and have
+almost always been friends, and that just as you and I began to know
+each other you should have to go so far away! But papa says he means to
+take me with him to New York during the holidays, and then I will see
+you again.
+
+It seems strange to think that we really go to the high-school, and
+it makes me feel quite grown-up and as if I ought to be dignified; but
+Winnie is the same demure little puss and looks very small and childish
+among so many big girls, some of whom actually wear long dresses.
+
+Miriam is as lively as ever, and keeps us all laughing at lunch time.
+You know it isn't what she says so much as the way she says it that is
+so very funny.
+
+But it is time for me to get my algebra lesson, so I will close now.
+
+  Au revoir,
+
+  Fannie.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Winnie to Ernestine._
+
+Dear Ernestine:
+
+We had the first meeting for this year at Miriam's last Friday evening,
+and the first thing we did was to go up to Miriam's room and read your
+letter. I read it out loud first, but that wasn't enough, and it passed
+from hand to hand, each one reading it for herself.
+
+We had such a nice little meeting, and while we didn't talk quite so
+much as we did a year ago about fighting giants, I think we all felt
+that those we had been able to fight had made it easier for us to see
+and do our duties as they came to us.
+
+After we had read your letter and our business meeting was over, we
+went down into Miriam's yard and had a regular frolic. It was a bright
+moonlight night, and we had games and told stories and old riddles and
+tried to make up new ones--but didn't succeed very well--and by and by
+Miriam's brother came out with an enormous watermelon on a great, big
+tray. It was a warm night--you know how warm it is sometimes here in
+September--and I don't know which we enjoyed most, eating the cool,
+refreshing fruit or snapping the seeds at each other.
+
+We all miss you very much. Ralph still asks when you are coming back,
+and no one's paper dolls please him so much as yours did. Sometimes I
+feel very lonely without you, but Aunt Kitty says she is sure you will
+come to visit us some time, and that we are only twenty-four hours
+apart, which does not seem so very far, does it? So I shall look forward
+
+  Till we meet,
+
+  Winnie.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note
+
+The following modifications have been made:
+
+    page
+    original text
+    modified text
+
+  Page 6
+  She began with her greatest bugbear. United States History;
+  She began with her greatest bugbear, United States History;
+
+  Page 35
+  their uplifted swords, their resolute mein,
+  their uplifted swords, their resolute mien,
+
+  Page 44
+  "you may talk, too, if you like"
+  "you may talk, too, if you like."
+
+  Page 46
+  She also helped put these in. and with a few kind words
+  She also helped put these in, and with a few kind words
+
+  Page 77
+  "A glorious night for a game of hide-and seek,"
+  "A glorious night for a game of hide-and-seek,"
+
+  Page 85
+  Little Ralph took Ernestine at once into his afleetions,
+  Little Ralph took Ernestine at once into his affections,
+]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Girl Warriors, by Adene Williams
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIRL WARRIORS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 44133.txt or 44133.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/1/3/44133/
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+  www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+