The Project Gutenberg EBook of What She Could, by Susan Warner

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Title: What She Could

Author: Susan Warner

Release Date: October 1, 2009 [EBook #30146]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT SHE COULD ***

Produced by Daniel Fromont. HTML version by Al Haines.

[Transcriber's note: This is the first of a series of four novels by
Susan Warner, all of which are in the Project Gutenberg collection:

1. What She Could
2. Opportunities
3. The House in Town
4. Trading]

WHAT SHE COULD.

BY THE AUTHOR OF

"THE WIDE WIDE WORLD," &c.

LONDON:

JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET.

MDCCCLXXI.

"WHAT SHE COULD."

CHAPTER I.

"Girls, there's a Band!"

"A what?"

"A Band--in the Sunday-School."

"I am sure there is a careless girl in the house," put in another
speaker. "Go and wipe your feet, Maria; look at the snow you have
brought in."

"But, mamma----"

"Go and get rid of that snow before you say another word. And you too,
Matilda; see, child, what lumps of snow are sticking to your shoes. Was
there no mat at the door?"

"There was a cold wind there," muttered Maria, as she went to obey
orders. "What harm does a little snow do?"

But while she went to the door again, her sister, a pretty, delicate
child of fewer years, stood still, and adroitly slipped her feet out of
the snowy shoes she had brought in, which she put in the corner of the
fireplace to thaw and dry off; the little stocking feet standing
comfortably on the rug before the blaze. It was so neatly done, the
mother and elder sisters looked on and could not chide. Neatness suited
the place. The room was full of warm comfort; the furniture in nice
order; the work, several kinds of which were in as many hands, though
lying about also on chairs and tables, had yet the look of order and
method. You would have said at once that there was something good in
the family. The child in front of the fire told more for it. Her
delicate features, the refined look and manner with which she stood
there in her uncovered feet, even a little sort of fastidious grace
which