That Miss Nelly was about nineteen; that
she had not given away much of her back hair, which hung in two massive
chestnut braids over her shoulders; that she was a shade too pale and a
trifle too tall; that her hands were nicely shaped and her feet much
too diminutive for daily use. He furthermore observed that her voice was
musical, and that her face lighted up with an indescribable brightness
when she smiled.

On the whole, the small boy liked her well enough; and, satisfied that
she was not a person to be afraid of, but, on the contrary, one who
might be made quite agreeable, he departed to keep an appointment with
his friend Sir Pepper Whitcomb.

But the next morning when Miss Glentworth came down to breakfast in a
purple dress, her face as fresh as one of the moss-roses on the bureau
upstairs, and her laugh as contagious as the merriment of a robin, the
small boy experienced a strange sensation, and mentally compared her
with the loveliest of Miss Gibbs's young ladies, and found those young
ladies wanting in the balance.

A night's rest had wrought a wonderful change in Miss Nelly. The pallor
and weariness of the journey had passed away. I looked at her through
the toast-rack and thought I had never seen anything more winning than
her smile.

After breakfast she went out with me to the stable to see Gypsy, and the
three of us became friends then and there. Nelly was the only girl that
Gypsy ever took the slightest notice of.

It chanced to be a half-holiday, and a baseball match of unusual
interest was to come off on the school ground that afternoon; but,
somehow, I didn't go. I hung about the house abstractedly. The Captain
went up town, and Miss Abigail was busy in the kitchen making immortal
gingerbread. I drifted into the sitting-room, and had our guest all to
myself for I don't know how many hours. It was twilight, I recollect,
when the Captain returned with letters for Miss Nelly.

Many a time after that I sat with her through the dreamy September
afternoons. If I had played baseball it would have been much better for
me.

Those first days of Miss Nelly's visit are very misty in my remembrance.
I try in vain to remember just when I began to fall in love with her.
'Whether the spell worked upon me gradually or fell upon me all at once,
I don't know. I only know that it seemed to me as if I had always loved
her. Things that took place before she came were dim to me, like events
that had occurred in th