Ragged Lady, Part 1

must get out of the carry-all and ask at the house standing a little back in the edge of the pine woods, which road they ought to take for South Middlemount. Sh

ping first the sweet fern on one side and then the blueberry bushes on the other side of the narrow wheel-track. She declared at last that if he would not get out and ask she

ed, falling helpless against the back of her seat. "

usband. "I'm goin' to take you up to the dooa so

y out her threat, that she was obliged to take it in some sort as a favor; and while the vehicle rose and sank over the sur

er all, but the window-casings had been merely set in their places and the trim left for a future impulse of the builder. A block of wood suggested the intention of steps at the front door, which stood hospitably open, but remained unresponsive for some time after the Landers made their appeal

stood in the open doorway, looking down on the elderly people in the buggy, with a face as glad as a flower's. She had blue eyes, and a smiling mouth, a straight nose, and a pretty chin whose firm jut accented a certain wistfulness of her lips. She had hair of a dull, dark yellow, which sent out from its thick mass light prongs, or tendrils, curving inward again till they delicately touched it. Her tanned face was not very different in color from her hair,

we just wished to know which of these roads went to South Middl

go to South Middlemount'm; they join toget

o be represented, except where it came last in a word before a word beginning with a vowel; there it

ey?" said

hat's what made it in the beginning; sometimes folks take one hand side and someti

h her blue eyes seemed to illumine with a light of their own. She had got hold of the door, now, and was using it as if it was a piece of drapery, to hide

ng up his horse, Mrs. Lander added, "I presume you must be u

girl, gladly. "Almost eve

y place for a home, h

could see that the partitions of the house within were lathed, but not plastered, and the g

u," said Mrs. Lander, "if we h

he girl. "It a'

t suppose you get lonesome; young folks are plenty of compan

h a tender laugh, "I've

faces looking through the leaves at her and then flashing out of sight, with gay cries at being seen. A bo

he might hopefully suppose she had come to the end of her questions,

tha, too?" she

ldest of the boys;

oughtfully, "as I noticed how many

presentableness. She had contrived to get about her an overskirt which covered the rent in her frock, and she had got a pair of shoes on her feet. Stockings were still wanting, but by a mutual concession of her shoe-tops and the border of her skirt, they were almost eliminated from the probl

' here a great while, b

seem to be clea'

girl, "and we should have had moa, but fatha wasn't very well, t

. Lander, somewhat discontentedly, "though I can't see as it

Oh, yes,

rugged? She need to be, with

ught to keep more in the open air. That's what he's done since he came he'

penta?" aske

w how to express it-he like

of severity crept over Mrs. Lander's tone, in pr

s thought didn't agree with him. He bought a piece of land he'

you say

s ago, th

ou do befoa you b

d the fir

ped? In

ahtly a tent, a

thought you w

ooked in the shanty." She smiled at the notion in adding, "At fast the neighbas thought we

e asked, "But didn't it almost perish you, sta

was so dry, the air was, and the

pipe which had sent the girl to the Landers now

nder, politely, "You'll

to go t

round of the hallway without visibly casting any detail of her raiment, that she was not aware of her husband's starting up

th Middlemount. D

ff without waitin' to say thankye to t

e as if SHE

min' back! And

ough for one while. A

, perhaps, intimated itself to her. She said, "That's true," but by the time her husband had driven down one of the roads beyond the woods

back to the hotel, I g

e we come to. Dea'! The'e don't seem to be any houses, any moa." She peered out around the side of the carry-all

Mr. Lander looked round over his shoulder at her. "Hadn't

git to him. Will you? I want to speak to

e came within easy hail of the man in the hay-field, he pulled up beside the me

sounds she made, he came actively forward to the road, bringing his fork with him. When he arrived within easy conversational distance, he

ah', livin' back there in the edge of t

the scythe, and he put the stem of it between his teeth, where it moved up and down, a

me is." Mrs. Lander repeate

g, red-headed man, ki

't see t

skinny-lookin;

but I guess we hea'd her

s big as pa'tridges, runn

aring girl; about thi'teen o

more upright than before. "Yes; it's them," he said. "Ha'n't been in the neighbahood a great while, eitha. Up from down Po'tlan

demanded Mrs. Lander in

d seemed to think it mo

and he said with a gli

do-nothi

answered Lander

do-nothin'; he's a do-everything. I guess it's about as b

rom," the farmer began again, and Mrs. Lander, eager no

hat's what t

bowls, and u'ns for fence-posts, and vases, and sleeve-buttons and little knick-knacks; but the place bunt down, here, a while back, and he's been huntin' round for wood, the whole

usband had disputed the theory with his taciturn back. He made no

t up. But he don't seem to be in any great of a hurry, and they scrape along somehow. Wife takes in sewin' and the girl

had all inherited the father's smartness. The oldest boy could beat the nation at figures, and one of the young ones could draw anything you had a mind to. They were all clear up in their classes at school, and yet you might say they almost ran wild, between times. The

fire of conjecture and asseveration that was scarcely intermitted till they reached their hotel. That night she talked a long time about their afternoon's adventure

ve with us. Yes, I do! I wonder if we could get h

pened his mouth almost for the f

e you'd like it,

find you had your hands full, takon'

has just twined herself round my heat. I can't get

ou feel about it

om talked, but there came times when he would not even listen. One of these was the time after he had wound his watch. A minute later he had und