Mary Minds Her Business

are not dally here. Still, I am going to find time to say that all the love and affection which Miss Cordelia and Miss Patty had ever woven into the

by, Mary's nose h

el Holder, Soap Holder, Temperature Taker and all and sundry) she suddenly sent the two maids and the nurse away and, casting dignity to the

ling away and hugging the blessed child

said Miss Patty, watch

. And I know why her nose turns up at the end, too. That naughty Mis

otested Miss Patty, all

le star twinkling there, and the moon said 'Little star! Little star! What are you doing there in Mary's bed? You come up here in the sky and twinkle where you belong!' And all night long, Mar

nger sister's part to dress her. So Miss Patty put her arms out with an authority which would

re have

y young

e surprised when I tell you that Miss Patty's cheeks had a downright glow on them-and I think her heart had something of the same glow, too, beca

e, was all str

iss Cordelia kept for the purpose) or that she had ever been atomized all over with Lily of the Valley (which Miss Patty never did again because Ma'm

er, this quality

ight. "She has a mind of her own. Everything

why, but Miss Pat

turned to her with those eyes of hers-you know the way she does-'Ma'm Maynard,' she said, 'have you seen all the other s'inga bushes in the world?' And only yesterday I said

g things like that when

ll looking

imes think that if you and I had been

r a time, each consulting he

last, "there are worse things in t

uld have agreed with he

at same

s old-a rather quiet, solemn child-though she had a sm

father who seemed taller and gaunter than ever. Mary seldom saw him, but she knew that every night after

rful company," she once h

Miss Patty, and dropping her voice, never dreaming for a moment that Mary wa

ad come to the conclusion that there are worse things in the world than being old-fashioned, Mary waited until she knew that dinner was over and then, escaping Ma'm Maynard, she stole downstairs, her

was sitting

on which confronted him. Mary had closed the door and stood with her

suddenly brought the tears to Mary's eyes, or it may have been that her womanly little breast guessed the loneliness in her father's heart. Whatever it was, she unsteadily crossed the room, her

a'm Maynard came searching for her charge and stood quite open-mouthed in the doorway, Josiah waved her away, his finger on his lip, and later

he factory, he heard the front door open and shut behind him and there stood Mary, her little straw bonnet held under her chin with an elastic. In the most mat

which he had once used to his sisters, "After seven generat

as he looked at the li

ly been a boy!

of the driv

go back

ry and tried

ood there irresolute, Mary's fingers pulling him one way

to see it sometime. Perhaps better n

r and sat he

an," he said as they gra

take you this morning,

he office, and not go w

promise

im she nodded her head in silence and promised him with a kiss. He set her down, her h

st affording a bird's-eye view of the buildings below-lines of workshops of

s. Long lines of trucks stood on the sidings outside. Wisp

s of the factory came that humming note of industry which, more than anything else, is

ust which had been handed down to him, that he had broken the long line of fathers and sons which had sent the Spencer reputation, with steadily increasing fame, to the corners of the earth. As he walked down the hall that Saturday morning, his s

missed anything of what went on. Clerks, business callers, heads of departments came and went. All ha

rd expected back?"

-thirty, fr

met. He was now the general manager of the factory, and had always thought that fate was on his si

anced at

, lifting Mary on his arm, he left the

the enormous presses reminding her of elephants stamping out pieces of metal, the grinders which sang to her, the drilling machines which whirred to her, the polishing machines which danced

out of hearing. Here and there one would stop smiling an

workshops, Mr. Spencer

k to the office," he

, she kicked her littl

!" But that was past all sighing for, and in the distance he saw C

nd had formed against him one of those instinctive dislikes which few but children know.

ws?" ask

Son start out for a thing, they get it." You could tell that what he meant was "When Stanley Woodward starts out for a thing, he gets i

face hidden against

tle lady wit

raid I've ti

ose from hi

ot tired? Then turn aro

Stan

hen just before their fingers would have touched, she quickly clasped her ha

em to take to y

e touched Mary's cheek with the back of his finger. "N

g with quick concern. "You're

"I'll see you at the office later," he said, and with a bow at the little figure on Jos

back to the office, his e

p, either. But a girl... Oh, well, as it happens, girls don't count.... And a good