neat
little jump, and tipped gracefully around the long stoop, right into the
upper crust society of New York.

Sisters, it was like wading right into a flower-bed! Everybody there had
on her good clothes--I may say, her bettermost clothes of all. Red,
green, purple, blue, white, black--every color or shade of color to be
found in the sky, in flowers, in fruit, or in water, rustled against
each other. Sisters, it was gorgeous! But one thing struck me as
peculiar--most of these female ladies had the loveliest pink color in
their cheeks all the time. While my face was turning red and white, as I
grew warm or comfortable, theirs kept one steady pink. Ladies with hair
as yellow as gold had ink-black eyebrows and lashes--things we never see
together in the country. I don't understand it. Well, we had but just
got seats on the largest stoop when the people below us let off a squad
of horses that seemed to fly; for the mud was soft as mush on the road,
and their hoofs made no more noise than as if they had trod on velvet.

Just before these horses made their first dive, Dempster came up to us
with a person who carried a white hat in his hand, and held it out as if
he wanted something put into it. I thought that somebody had been
cheating the poor fellow, for there was nothing but little, crumpled
bits of paper in the hat. Of course I did not want to equal these
treacherous people in meanness, so I took out my pocket-book and dropped
a five-cent piece into the hat, smiling benignly on the good-looking
suppliant as I did it. I really was ashamed of Cousin E. E.; for instead
of giving the poor fellow a trifle of money, she just nipped up one of
the crumpled bits of paper, and, opening it, called out, laughing like a
girl:

"I've drawn the favorite! Oh, isn't that splendid!"

I declare I was mortified by such silly nonsense, and wanting to keep up
the credit of the family, dropped another five-cent piece in the hat,
and nodded toward E. E., as much as to say: "Never mind; I give it for
her."

Instead of thanking me, the man stared and turned a trifle red, as if
the gratitude that filled his heart were trying to burst through his
face. It was a noble feeling, and I appreciated it by another kind nod
and smile.

Then he held out the hat to "that child," and she, too, snatched up one
of the papers and began to giggle over it. I declare you might have
lighted a candle by my face, it burned so.

"Is there no end to such meanne