. "But she may presently miss you and be
worried."

"O that's so," said Beth. "Let's hurry. I promised to take care of
grandmother," she added, in a remorseful tone.

But nothing had happened, and the picture proved a great success, many
of them being sold at the fair.

"I don't like it much," said Beth, when she saw one, "for it reminds me
of how I forgot to take care of my Grandmother Van Stork."

"It will do you good, I trust," said her mother.

"It'll improve my thinkery, I hope," said Beth.

_CHAPTER XV_
_The Lost Invitation_

A heartache when the heart is young,
Seems quite too big to bear;
But when it ends in laughter,
Away goes every care.

When they started to return the next day, Beth in triumph mounted
Ninkum. She had a little difficulty in turning around to wave a farewell
to dear grandmother on the porch, because the pony took this opportune
time to munch the grass at the road-side, and Beth nearly went over his
head.

"Dear me, Ninkum, you are very rude," she said, much vexed. "You try to
spill me off, besides making Grandmother Van Stark feel as though you
didn't have enough to eat while you were visiting her!"

There was another disturbing feature also, and that was sister, whose
countenance kept peering above the phaeton top, and who shouted
exceedingly unwelcome advice, until silenced and firmly seated by the
maternal command.

However, these were small things, compared with the bliss of galloping
down the smooth road, bordered by flowers and green fields.

"I am very fond of wild flowers," said Ethelwyn by and by, "because they
come right from God's garden, and they keep things so cheerful and
bright out in the country."

"I remember some verses about wild flowers and woods that a friend of
mine wrote," said mother, "and I intend sometime to put some of them to
music."

"O say one, mother," said Ethelwyn, who loved verses. So Mrs. Rayburn
began:

"I know a quiet place,
Where a spring comes gurgling out,
And the shadowed leaves like lace
Fall on the ground about.

"A tempting grapevine swing
Is swung from the near-by trees,
And life is a dreamful thing
Lulled by the birds and bees.

"Flowers at the great trees' feet
Are sheltered quite from harm;
For above the blossoms sweet,
The oak holds forth his arm.

"Perhaps if I lie quite still,
I may hear far down below,
The fir