The Mystery of Choice

ins," said she, closing h

lence. Presently she opened her eyes, a

I am going to stay here unt

d Donald. "We will go to

nnounced. "Walter, w

and then at the little breech-loader

said, "but I won't

d to look at us; her mother arose from a

e asked, placing both hands

shoot, and Don wants me t

now what she w

said, flushing

something," hazarded Don

ly. "If you children don't go away at once and h

I asked m

up. "Oh, isn't he mean! isn't he ignoble!-

French?"

dignity of sixteen years, closed her eyes with superb insolence, and, clasp

r too much,"

ot to call her 'Sweetheart' when s

ack to school," said Donald. "Jack, she will hate you

nly conscious what an awful thi

ng across the lawn from the kenne

going up on the hill with his dust-shot and arsenic, and I'm going across the f

f we all went together," said Walter; "sh

erent things," began Donald. "You spoil my dogs by

and give Sweetheart a good day's tramp. It's a pity

odded un

d Sweetheart. Jack, you get your b

ross the lawn-big, clean-cut fellows, resembling e

ess, Donald, Walter, and I. As for Sw

e time was coming when we saw we should have to stop. A girl of sixteen with such a name is ridiculous, an

r Sweetheart sometimes, sometimes "The Aspen Beauty." Donald had given her that name from a butterfly in my collection, the Van

Aspen. We used the links, we galloped over the sandy roads, we also trotted our several hobbies, Donald, Walter, and I.

new states to conquer. Anyway, there were plenty of Aspen beauties-I mean the butterflies-flying about the roads and balm-of-Gilea

e branches. I thought, too, of Sweetheart, and wondered how she would look with her hair up. And while I sat ther

awn, gazing dreamily at the smok

hat for?"

ter my cousins will ask to accompany me on my walks; they need no longer charita

re,"

ye. I am goi

e too?" I ask

y, "if you put it in tha

guns?" asked Donal

?" I added, half am

ure, indifferen

om the piazza as we trooped after the Aspe

I was wondering how she would lo