The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Copy-Cat and Other Stories, by
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

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Title: The Copy-Cat and Other Stories

Author: Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

Release Date: April, 1999 [Etext #1716]
Posting Date: November 20, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COPY-CAT AND OTHER STORIES ***

Produced by Judy Boss

THE COPY-CAT

AND OTHER STORIES

By Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

CONTENTS

THE COPY-CAT

THE COCK OF THE WALK

JOHNNY-IN-THE-WOODS

DANIEL AND LITTLE DAN'L

BIG SISTER SOLLY

LITTLE LUCY ROSE

NOBLESSE

CORONATION

THE AMETHYST COMB

THE UMBRELLA MAN

THE BALKING OF CHRISTOPHER

DEAR ANNIE

THE COPY-CAT

THAT affair of Jim Simmons's cats never became known. Two little boys
and a little girl can keep a secret--that is, sometimes. The two little
boys had the advantage of the little girl because they could talk over
the affair together, and the little girl, Lily Jennings, had no intimate
girl friend to tempt her to confidence. She had only little Amelia
Wheeler, commonly called by the pupils of Madame's school "The
Copy-Cat."

Amelia was an odd little girl--that is, everybody called her odd. She
was that rather unusual creature, a child with a definite ideal; and
that ideal was Lily Jennings. However, nobody knew that. If Amelia's
mother, who was a woman of strong character, had suspected, she would
have taken strenuous measures to prevent such a peculiar state of
affairs; the more so because she herself did not in the least approve of
Lily Jennings. Mrs. Diantha Wheeler (Amelia's father had died when she
was a baby) often remarked to her own mother, Mrs. Stark, and to her
mother-in-law, Mrs. Samuel Wheeler, that she did not feel that Mrs.
Jennings was bringing up Lily exactly as she should. "That child thinks
entirely too much of her looks," said Mrs. Diantha. "When she walks past
here she switches those ridiculous frilled frocks of hers as if she were
entering a ballroom, and she tosses her head and looks about to see if
anybody is watching her. If I were to see Amelia doin