FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   >>  
observed Cynthia, wisely, "takes so long to get ready." "Does it?" said Lulu, beginning to pick with all her might. She was a sweet little thing, and she hated to have her friend left out of the good time. As for Cynthia, the sunbonnet fell back on her neck, showing a pair of soft eyes swimming with tears, and a sorrowful little mouth quivering in its determination not to cry. "I won't be a baby!" she said to herself, resolutely. Presently there came a sharp call from the house. "Cynthia Elizabeth! are you never coming with those beans? Make haste, child, do?" Aunt Kate said "Cynthia Elizabeth" only when her patience was almost gone; so, with a quick answer, "Yes, Aunt Kate, I'm coming," Cynthia left Lulu and ran back to the buttery, sitting down, as soon as she reached it, to the weary task of stringing the beans. Lulu, meanwhile, who was an idle little puss--her mother's pet--sauntered up the road and met Effie Dean's mother, who was driving by herself, and had stopped to gather some late wild roses. "If there isn't Lulu Pease!" she said. "Lulu dear, won't you get those flowers for me? Thank you so much. And you're coming this afternoon?" "Yes, 'm," said Lulu, with a dimple showing itself in each plump cheek; "but I'm so very sorry, Mrs. Dean, that my dearest friend, Cynthy Mason, has to stay at home. Her Aunt Kate can't spare her. Cynthy _never_ can go anywhere nor do anything like the rest of us." "Cynthia Mason? That's the pretty child with the pale face and dark eyes who sits in the pew near the minister's, isn't it?" said Mrs. Dean. "Why, she must not stay at home to-day." And acting on a sudden impulse, the lady said good morning to Lulu, took a brisk turn along the road and back, and presently drew rein at Mr. Mason's door. She came straight into the buttery, having rapped to give notice of her presence, and with a compliment to Miss Mason on the excellence of her butter, she asked whether that lady could supply her with a few more pounds next week; then her eyes falling on the little figure on the doorstep, she said: "By-the-way, Miss Mason, your niece is to be one of Effie's guests to-day, is she not? Can you, as a great favor, let her come home with me now? I have to drive to the Centre on some errands, and Cynthia, who is a helpful little woman, I can see, can be of so much use if you will part with her for the day. It will be very neighborly of you to say yes. I know it's a good deal
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   >>  



Top keywords:
Cynthia
 

coming

 

Elizabeth

 

Cynthy

 

mother

 
buttery
 
friend
 

showing

 
minister
 

acting


morning

 

errands

 
impulse
 

sudden

 
helpful
 

neighborly

 
pretty
 
Centre
 

supply

 

guests


butter

 

figure

 

pounds

 

doorstep

 

excellence

 

presently

 

falling

 

straight

 

presence

 

compliment


notice

 
rapped
 

gather

 

resolutely

 

Presently

 
determination
 

sorrowful

 
quivering
 

patience

 
swimming

beginning
 

observed

 
wisely
 
sunbonnet
 

flowers

 

afternoon

 
dearest
 

dimple

 
stopped
 

reached