The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Making of Mona, by Mabel Quiller-Couch

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Title: The Making of Mona

Author: Mabel Quiller-Couch

Illustrator: E. Wallcousins

Release Date: November 4, 2009 [EBook #30402]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF MONA ***

Produced by Lionel Sear

THE MAKING OF MONA.

BY MABEL QUILLER-COUCH.
(Author of 'Troublesome Ursula,' 'A Pair of Red-Polls,' 'Kitty Trenire,'
'The Carroll Girls', Etc., Etc.)

ILLUSTRATED BY E. WALLCOUSINS.

LONDON
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

[Illustration: Granny stood staring at her broken treasures.]

CHAPTER I.

The kettle sat on the hob, and Mona sat on the floor, both as idle as idle
could be.

"I will just wait till the kettle begins to sing," thought Mona; and
became absorbed in her book again.

After a while the kettle, at any rate, seemed to repent of its laziness,
for it began to hum softly, and then to hum loudly, and then to sing, but
Mona was completely lost in the story she was reading, and had no mind for
repentance or anything else. She did not hear the kettle's song, nor even
the rattling of its cover when it boiled, though it seemed to be trying in
every way to attract her attention. It went on trying, too, until at last
it had no power to try any longer, for the fire had died low, and the
kettle grew so chilly it had not even the heart to 'hum,' but sat on the
black, gloomy-looking stove, looking black and gloomy too, and, if kettles
have any power to think, it was probably thinking that poor old granny
Barnes' tea would be scarcely worth drinking when she came home presently,
tired and hungry, from her walk to Milbrook, for Mona, even if she
realised that the water had boiled, would never dream of emptying it away
and filling the kettle afresh, as she should do.

But Mona had no thought for kettles, or tea, or granny either, for her
whole mind, her eyes, her ears, and all her senses were with the heroine
of the fascinating story she was absorbed in; and who could remember fires
and kettles and other commonplace things when one was driving