Princess Polly's Gay Winter

ny child ever lived in, and if the sky was blue, or if clouds hid

e shore, but she remembered that she always felt

dark and sullen, and the great gulls flew far over the sea, he

rgeous fall flowers, and Sprite thought Avondale looked as if it were one huge garden, th

arlier than usual, and Spr

hat she had progressed in her studies, under her mother's guidance, so that, altho

e meeting them as they tripped along together, marvelled that t

ng she appeared with the news that she should attend school all the

ma make you go to schoo

!" declared Gwen sharply. "I guess t

you say?"

ll," declared Rob,

Gwen, and she rudely

ced to talk to

was saying, but she wished Rob Lindsey to think

ely out for a stroll, and she entered the schoolroom after all the others were seated. The new teacher th

ticed, Gwen at once decided

tle for study, and she would have been placed in a mu

en made clear to her that her small daughter was not fitt

ced in the class with Princess Polly, Rose Atherton, and Sprite Seaford, and

ving that Gwen's stay in the class wo

he thought herself very smart, she could, by listening to what o

estion in Geography that she answered, m

wen stared for a moment, then she

one know

said the

as sur

pected to

azon river. She caught the name, and later when asked to name the

Ama

e asked, turning angrily to

n, and decided to tell her mother that

se that will make mamma sure to ta

at, and thought that she would not tel

se Miss Kenyon, just before closing for the afternoon, stated that on Friday of each

a chance to shine, an

her ears, when a lady calling at her home had

"and while she has a positive talent for reciting fine poetry, h

replied, in a manner that

the upper hall, and drank in every

pils arrived with compositi

od, others were neither very good, nor very bad, but all o

f her age, it was largely the fault of her silly mother, whose beauty,

blind love, she of course, could never correct these defects that she

ild, with an even sillier mother could do, in the way

eful little bow, and then, nodding to the clas

Ost

o in a big city where I went once, and he must ha

, and so he ought to have

n their hats,-" She paused to note what impression

-o-

and commenced

the big white owl in a cage near hi

iggled, and one in th

ere was any differe

ich is gr

at this absurd statement

ful!" whis

ss Kenyon, her voi

ea!" said Dic

ned these strange ideas about

rds, or did someone tell you the

n ideas," Gwen a

ays I'm a genius, and she read this composition, and she

ing what she said, rushed from the school-house, intent u

n rude to laugh, or make comments when anothe

also knew that Gwen's com

with her compos

arcourt praised

ary child could do that, but to evolve such odd ideas! Why that is genius

school again to-mo

l send you, hereafter, to private school,

who was far more uncom

r been, and

they were years younger than he, they had already spent more hours in the class room than he ever had, and pag

tramps over field and meadow, through forest and valley, and in h

" he muttered, u

e I caught a fox, but what kin I do here? Nothing but hold a ol' book!" A sh

e at school, but he thought that she wished him to be there, because sh

him to," he whispered, thus showing how angry were his thoughts, and h

to keep him at home, alth

go to a place where he could neither earn nor steal foo

he so feared the policeman who h

ould be sent to jail! Jail was the only thing that Gyp thought worse than school. He considered himself a prisone

r jail, I'll go t

nd unhappy. Then something occured that made him change his

dly to him. Wild, careless Gyp fairly worshipped the blue eyed, golde

ndition, until the pupils reached a place where they must cro

a little mud could not make them look worse. He sat on the wall and laugh

No, geese!" he cried,

on't hu

eached the sidewalk, Prince

, but Sprite, not quite ready, had asked Polly to go al

oming, and st

ated. "Somebody oug

later h

a minute, will ye?

did

e flew to where Polly was standing, placed his tiny plank over the puddle, and felt the

to do that for me! Thank

-house that she might not see his confusion. One thought filled his mind. He would go to school! Yes, he would go to school every d

would work at his studies. He woul

n age, for then he would be nearer Princess Polly, and thus able t