Meanwhile, the one pedestrian on the lavender road was going swiftly
on. She was clothed in a blue checked pinafore and a sunbonnet of the
same material, which absorbed the blue light and glowed with vivid
color. Beneath the sunbonnet hung a long heavy braid of shiny brown
hair, with a reddish streak down the middle of it. The pinafore was
tucked up round the owner's waist to form a bag, in which were carried
a pair of stockings and strong, copper-toed boots, three very wrinkled
apples, a bunch of wilted marigolds, and a cake of maple-sugar. The
small person clutched this bundle in her arms and held up her short
skirts in a highly improper manner, while she went splashing through
the puddles singing a loud and riotous song.

This was Elizabeth. And this unseemly manner of peregrination
displayed just one of Elizabeth's trying peculiarities. For four years
she had been faithfully taught that little girls should never go
barefoot outside their own gardens, and that when they were on the
public highway they must walk quietly and properly on the grass by the
roadside. When she remembered, Elizabeth strove to conform to the laws
of home and social usage, for she was very docile by nature; but then
Elizabeth seldom remembered. When she did, it was only to recall
hopelessly her aunt's many times reiterated statement that Lizzie had
the wild streak of the MacDuffs in her, and what could you expect? The
Gordon family had generally been genteel enough to keep this
objectionable MacDuff connection hidden, but occasionally it came out
in red hair, deep gray eyes, and a wild, erratic disposition. To be
sure, little Elizabeth's hair was not red, but a deep nut-brown,
shading to rich yellow at the ends, where it curled upwards. But down
the middle of her heavy brown braid ran a thick strand of reddish gold,
quite enough to account for the vagaries of her behavior. And there
was no doubt about Elizabeth's eyes--those unfathomable gray eyes that
looked steel blue or soft gray or deep black, according to the owner's
mood. Yes, Elizabeth had the two fatal badges of the wild MacDuffs,
coupled with dear knows what inheritance from her mother's people, the
fighting MacDonalds, who had been the scandal of the whole countryside
in the early days.

Having heard all this many, many times from her aunt, Elizabeth had
finally accepted the sad fact that she had "a wild streak" in her, just
as she accepted the variegated color of her