The Iron Woman

their Latin-and a few other things, too! He had found Mrs. Richie in tears because, under the big hawthorn in her own back yard, David had blacked Blair's eye, and had hi

lack eyes, and Blair will loosen one o

was speechles

l make sure there isn't any young-eyed cherubin business about David. He has got to go to boarding-school, and learn something besides his pr

y could be too good,"

but a man oughtn't to be,"

enced his first stogie-with a consequent pallor about the gills that scared Mrs. Richie nearly to death. But Robert Ferguson's jeering reference to apron-strings resulted in his being sent to boarding school. Blair went with him, "rescued" from the goodwoman regime of Cherry-pie's instruction by Mr. Ferguson's advice to Mrs. Maitland; "although," Robert Ferguson admitted, candidly, "he doesn't need it as poor David does; his mother wouldn't know

go to a day-school in Mercer, Cherry-pie's entire deposition as a teacher being brought about because, poor lady! she fumbled badly when it came to a critical moment with Elizabeth. It all grew out of one of the child's innumerable squabbles with David-

said, and pirouetted around

l be joyful, j

at wil

yesterday," she interrup

r, the best jumbles in the world could be purchased at the agreeable price of two for a cent. Elizabeth, who was still congratulating herself on having "nicer hair than Nannie," and who loved the river (and the jumbles), was as punctual as a clock in arriving at the covered bridge where at the toll-house wharf they were to meet and embark. She had even been so forehanded as to bargain with Mrs. Todd for the hire of the skiff, in whic

ne astonished, faltering instant; and in it, of course, Blair shot ahead! It must be confessed that in his rage at being beaten David promptly forgot Elizabeth again, for though she waited still a little longer for him and his apology, no David appeared, he and Blair being occupied in wrangling over their race. She went home in a slowly gathering passion. David had forgotten her! "He likes Blair better than me; he'd rather race with anoth

ate him. I'll never speak to him agai

ng lady I never even heard such words. Oh, my lamb, if you don't co

ling-salts, and the instant she was alone Elizabeth ran across the room and stood before her mirror; then she took a pair of scissors in her shaking hand and hacked off lock after lock, strand after strand, of her shining hair. When i

he pile of gleaming hair on the bureau, the wicked, tear-stained, laughing face brought the poor lady's he

ays hurting my feelings! And I can't bear to have m

temporary. The next morning she waylaid David to offer him some candy, w

illis's," he said casually; and

y box, winced; then said, bravely, "Tak

'm sorry I

up his freckled nose and glancing at her with

so sort of horrified when I've been provoked. It a

nks it's dre

out my hair?" E

earth should I mind? If I were a g

e said, in a whisper; "

all

cut off your hair. Only I shouldn't think you'd want to look so like 'Sam Hill.' But I tell you

very little, t

ppose you were d

so terribly disappointed. You needn't flatter

h," he coaxed, "th

; you didn't want-" she choked, and flew back into th

fore breakfast, and Mr. Ferguson-who had not time to read his Bible for pressure of business-had gone out into the grape-arbor in his narrow garden to feed the pigeons. There was a crowd of them about his feet, their rimpling

almost in tears-"she says she is g

d Elizabeth's uncle, grim

I don't care about Elizabeth's temper; she'll get over that. And I don't care a continental about her hair or her religion; she can wear a wig or be a Mohammedan if it keeps her

ibbling with horror,

to tell his nei

her?" he groaned. "She

unded; "but why? How

irrational'; say

control her temper," Mr

hat. "She's vain; that's what worries me.

said; "why not send her to school?" And the harassed uncle sighe

for granted; she was not complacent about it; she did not credit it to "temperament," she was merely matter of fact; she said she "couldn't help it." "I don't want to get mad," she used to say to Nannie; "and of course I never mean any of the horrid things I say. I'd like to be good, like you; but I can't help being wicked." Between those dark moments of being "wicked" she was a joyous, unself-conscious girl of generous loves, which she expressed as primitively as she did her angers; indeed, in the expressi

he said, breathing hard. She had come into his library after supper, and was stan

ooking at her blankly over his glasses,

Cherry-pie's new bonnet, and I told her sh

zabe

d

ou apol

uddy rubbers when she wasn't looking; and I gave her all my money for a new feather"-she stopped, and sighed de

ichie the next time he went to see her. He went to see her quite often in those days. For the convenience of David and Elizabeth, a doorway had been cut in the brick wall between the two gardens, and Mr. Ferguson used it frequently. In their five

ntimacy between her and her stepmother. Mrs. Maitland was invariably kind to her, and astonishingly patient with the rather dull little mind-one of those minds that are like softly tangled skeins of single zephyr; if you try to unwind the mild, elusive thoughts, they only knot tightly upon themselves, and the result is a half-frightened and very obstinate silence. But Mrs. Maitland never tried to unwind Nannie's thoughts; she used to look at her sometimes in kindly amusement, as one might look at a kitten or a canary; and sometimes she said to Robert Ferguson that Nannie was like her o

," said Blair; Blair's pleasant, indolent mind found the appeal to chance the easiest way to settle things, but he was always good-natured when, as now, the verdict was against him. "Come on," he commanded, gayly, "I'll shell out!" Mrs. Todd, who had begun to dispense pink and brown ice-cream, for them when they were very little children, winked and nodded as they all came in together, and made a jocose remark about "handsome couples"; then she trundled off to get the ice-cream, leaving them in the saloon. This "saloon" was an ell of the toll-house; it opened on a little garden, from which a flight of rickety steps led down to a float where half a dozen skiffs were tied up, waiting to be hired. In warm weather, when the garden was blazing with fragrant color, Mrs. Todd would permit favored patrons to put their small tables out among the marigolds and zinnias and sit and eat and talk. The saloon itself had Nottingham-lace window-curtains, and crewel texts enjoining remembrance of the Creator, and calling upon Him to "bless our home." The tables, with marble tops translucent from years of spilled ice

ceiling, suddenly saw the sunshine sparkle on Elizabeth's hair, and his spoo

imself, put out a hesitating finger and touched a shimmering curl; upon which Elizabeth ducked and laughed, and dancing over to the old tin pan of a piano pounded out "Sho

nd muttered under his breath, "Tell that to the marines!" But into Blair's face had come, suddenly, a new expression; his eyes

th laughter. "Listen

o remember Miss White. "I'm going to take Cherry-pie some ice-cream," he said; and all the way back he was so absorbed in trying-unsuccessfully-to keep the pallid pink

was the elemental instinct, the everlasting human impulse. The boys, hobbledehoys, both of them, grew shy and turned red at unexpected moments. The girls developed a certain condescension of manner, which was very confusing and irritating to the boys. Elizabeth, as unaware of herself as the bud that has not opened to the bee, sighed a good deal, and r

ral, and Elizabeth in particular; they said she was terribly stand-

?" He said that, for his part, he didn't mean to fool around after girls. "But I'm older than you, Blair; y

r with his mother at the office table with its odds and ends of china. (As the old Canton dinner service had broken and fire-cracked, Harris had replenished the shelves of the china-closet according to his own taste limited by Mrs. Maitland's economic orders.) Blair found everything hideous, or vulgar, or uncomfortable, and he said so to Nannie with a violence that betrayed real suffering. For it is suffering when the young creature finds itself ashamed of father or mother. Instinctively the child is proud of the parent, and if youth is wounded in its tenderest point, its sense of conventionality-for nothing is as conventional as adolescence-that natural instinct is headed off, and of course there is suffering. Mrs. Maitland, living in her mixture of squalor and dignity, had no time to consider such abstractions. As for there being anything unwomanly in her occupation, such an idea never entered her head. To Sarah Mai

ave everything he wanted, so that he should the sooner be a man. Money, she thought, would give him everything. She herself wanted nothing money could give, except food and shelter; the only use she had for money was to make more money; but she realized that other people, especially young men, like the things it woul

t with painting lessons?" she said to the entreating sister. Bu

you, mother; you are awfully good"; but he shut his eyes when he kissed her. He was blind to the love, the yearning, the ou

s an interest, and his voice began to be a delight to him; he used to sing a good deal, making Nannie play his accompaniments, and sometimes

ritation came to him-a boy still in year