Up the Hill and Over

p being late, Esther! I

there. You kn

ned unspoiled but the small features, once delicately clear, appeared in some strange way to be blurred and coarsened. The fine grained skin which should have been delicate and firm had coarsened also and upon close inspection showed multitudes of tiny lines. Her fluffy hair was very fair, ashy fair almost, and would have been startlingly lovely only that it, too, was spoiled by a dryness and lack of g

ess too and she kept snapping the catch of her

. Mrs. Lewis talked and talked. That woman is worse than Tennyson's brook. She makes me want to scream! I wo

D

aragon-what's-his-

Amy wrongly. He thinks she should be

I must have heard it somewhere. There is a Dr. Callanda

ere for his health, and he has never taken the trouble to correct the impressi

fi

him. I have met

sue the subject. "Whoever he is," she said fretfully, "I hop

ng to cure

l, I hope he does! I

for a fe

ha

e I'm away. No one else can manage Jane pro

are not speaking

ther with her. Her measure will do quite as well. I wish you would call her. I've got some butterscotch somew

did you deci

n't matter, does it? I

me to come at once. It'

find anything! Anyway,

you get th

on mail, o

naccuracies" were becoming common enough. At first Esther had exposed and laughed at them as merely humorous mistakes; but that attitude had long been re

. I haven't a rag fit to wear and neither has Jane. But Detroit is better. Things are much cheaper across

? But where is the

lothes! And even if I could, there is another reason for the trip.

for which Esther had wa

here? I'm sure they are as ca

a particularly emphatic

ular prescription and hard to fill. As it means so much to me in my wr

the surpr

t it by mail,

try to get

. Perhaps it is not as difficult to fill as you think. Let me show the prescription to Dr. Callandar-" She stopped suddenly for Mrs. Coombe had grown white, a pasty white, and she broke in upon the girl's suggestio

d added more calmly, "What an impossible suggestion! I need no second opinion upon the remedy which your father prescribed for me and I shall take

e, but the widely opened eyes were still shining and as she turned to enter

omes of asking," s

of the prescription. For some reason Mrs. Coombe regarded it as a fetish. She would not trust it to Taylor's. She would not allow a doctor to see

he attitude of the sexes to that high thing called honour. Esther was both loyal and honourable. To deceive her step-mother, however good the motive, could not but be h

irmly, and went in to pr

lid as Esther came in with the tray. "I am so much better. That medicine th

like it,

don't want you staying home from school. That girl you get to

is st

ng scared out of their lives on my account. So I'll just get up as

er heard Aunt Amy refer to "her" m

, but sometimes I have felt a

lingered on the girl's voice was balm t

n I have felt-felt, I can hardly express it, but as if there were a little

Aun

ess it. It is a dreadful feeling, like night and thunder and no place to go. A black feeling

en what

-I'd be ma

d the trembling old creature close. "You must never, neve

you might have told Mary. If Mary knew of it she would be certain to be frightene

all ever send you away! And you wo

know aren't true. I know they are true, you see, but

! And here is your medicine

cheerfully to

me for was to ask me to lend her my ruby ring. She never understands why I can't lend it to her. I told her she might have the string of pearls and the pearl brooch and the ring with the l

r, don't try

. If I took it out now it would stop shining immediately. And it must be all red and bright when I die, li

woman before then! So old that I

ive it to you right now, Esther. But you know how it is. I can't. I

And you have given me so many prett

f course the ruby is the loveliest of all.

d Esther, hastily, for she knew quite

never dare to look at it. It makes the blackne

wels often give people st

Don't lift it out of the box. Just open the li

ts existence it was considered quite safe to keep it in the house. The box lay in a corner under a spotless pile of sweet smelling

el anythin

, after a second's pau

is so dark,

he window," s

es were panic-stricken. For her indecision had been only a ruse to give herself t

er," she said, closing th

k feeling?" w

ink i

out it at all. Except that she would like to wear it. She was looking at it when she

he paused and turning back as if upon impulse, said: "If it makes you feel like that, I would advise you not