While Caroline Was Growing

ail. The advantages of the woodshed were many: it was cool and dark, the stacked wood had a soothing odor and a neat, restful appearance, and one was

a negligible quantity, a background for thought, merel

, any time you prefer. Don't let her dawdle along, though; she's such a strange child-sometimes it will take her

Thoreau, smarting from the indignity of her brown, berry-stained hand circling

d tiresome lady around our nice mountain? I don't b'lieve you do. You can be called 'girlie' i

ion, subsided, and they trudged on in sil

ght's rain. They sniffed the damp, wholesome mold delightedly; from time to time Caroline kicked the rotten stump of some pithy, crumbling trunk or marked patterns with her finger nail in the thin new moss o

lmost oppressive. Caroline stepped suddenly out of the tiny path, pushed aside a clump of fern,

whispered delightedly. "I wish now I'd left 'em bo

Henry D. receiving every thir

ed our places, but this proves he don't," she announced, as the last cr

ood, following a devious course among the thick trees, and as they scrambled carefully under it, Henry D. pausing with accustomed gallantry while his mistress dise

tiny leaded panes, and double Dutch doors, evidently practicable. It had all the air of having retired from the other scenery to practice for its own act, and

Hubbard wrapper and a stiff, clean blue-checked apron, she was not in the least a peasant. Her figure was tall and spare, her hair gray and drawn into an uncompromising knot, her face

visitors. "How d'ye do?" she call

ine returned sociably, "I'v

dn't be: I'll have 'em back by Friday, sure. It'll be all I can do, thoug

bad to-day?" Ca

all to keep our tempers and not have secret thoughts preying on us night and day! Just now he told me the truth for once. 'I'm so worried I can't

"and it isn't as if you said it purposely, anyway;

tand it. But then, you understand everything, more or le

talking out there? What's g

t them, very much like a wiry Scotch terrier, and

posedly. "This little girl comes up to see me every once 'n a while-I do washing for

it, Luella! I might as well have eaten a shingle off the cottage-it's killing

Luella gathered her apron full of kindlings, "but you

loded the fi

id Luella firmly, "I ha

n, "you couldn't have poorer company.

bad," she reminded him,

tell me that, will you? Perhaps you imagine that when they're of age, legally men and women, and you've managed

rged pacifically, "that's awful. I always say the young ones mean well, mostly; the

e!" he thundered, and darted into the house, s

and then again he'll be real pleasant and amusin'-he'll say the cutest things. But he's perturbed to-day, and that's

ourney again, not a little depressed; he

fat hen-partridge schooling her brood under Caroline's very nose, the flame-colored, translucent lizards slipping under mossy roots at her feet, showed the neglect into which the trail had fallen. She pushed on, hardly certain now that she had not lost it, or that it had ever led anywhere, when she stumbled suddenly over a handsome

crossed at an uncomfortable angle. He was a pale young man with dark circles under darker eyes, and a

rked, holding out the

man starte

ed. "How did you get here? This is pri

" she returned placidly, "we came over

much," he said, extending a thin, brown hand, "I'

re," she answ

st the birch stump and cleared it further with

suggested, "w

ing the green scarab in his necktie an

's sake! Wh

cause he takes to the woods whenever he

e young man, "before that, I can't s

Meneptah, but the baby calls him Coo-coo; and there's Miss Honey's rabbits, they're all named Eleanor, because yo

to laughter and fell o

ed, picking himself up with great solicitude f

e's more to Edouard," she explained, "so they named him both, be

said the young m

y and boyish, darkened again, and his big ey

ce of principle, a sacrifice of truth, as it actuall

g the pipe decisively. Caroline waited for him to continue, but as he lit the pipe and puffe

and appeared to reconsider. "Oh, I don't know," h

storing ice or wood; but to-day a thin curl of smoke stained the blue above it and through the open door of the one living-room that formed its ground-floor she saw a scarlet Navajo blanket, on which reposed a magnificent snowy Angora cat. A great green bough

o. Stepping quietly over to the prostrate figure he encircled it once, looking for a point o

the girl drew a lo

uskily, "I didn't know you care

h, stiff coat and she started up in surprise. Caro

D. never bites-do yo

inkly, chestnut hair from her damp f

frankly, "yes, I do

" Carolin

the girl assured her solemnly. "I-I've b

wing with a stove, some tin cooking pans, a table full of s

of doughy fingers on oven and chairs and the burned, odorous wreck, resting in sog

eon. The woman promised to be here by ten o'clock, and I got the breakfa

she murmured. "Do you know anybody we could depe

akes lovely huckleberry bread. Shall I go get her? Old Gr'-the gentlema

hurried out, leaving Henry D. Thoreau, who seemed to feel res

itedly, while Luella methodically packed a market-basket with half a cold chicken, an u

een all tired out to make such a fuss over a tin o' huckleberry bread. I s'pose she hasn't got many breakfasts in her life. Ten to one 'twas Myra Tenny that disappointed her: it sounds like her. Always undertakin' more 'n any one woman c'd possibl

en door softly and they

ded to Caroline, "sometimes he'll sleep

t to greet them, the girl behind him, still flushed and swollen-eyed, bu

help her, continued easily, "well, I should say so! Got a little burnt, didn't it? Never mind, you ought to a' seen my first corn-meal muffins! Now you just step out and rest a minute, dear, and by the time you've called

's not my brother," the

e cat, ain't it? I've read of 'em-Angora, ain't it?-but I

nly. She seemed newly distressed; her lips, very red against her white c

rl, it seemed, for as she gathered the soiled dishes, coaxed the fire, filled the kettle and hastily rem

lly hardly more than a quarter of an hour before the kitchen rivalled Luella's in neatness and the pi

our husband, Miss-I didn't just ge

t for her eyes, which had followed every movement of the older woman. She

y," she declared, and ran

em possible he'd be mean to her. But o' course he wants his breakfast fit to eat, just the same. I put a place for you, Car'line, 'cause I know you c'n e

ay eyes on the ground, his black ones challenging the world. The

Remember, we are right, a

hand nervously, b

rged them hospitably, "yo

oyal glance at the girl, "I-I had

glowing in a parsley wreath, and he had broken one of the puffy rolls

he observed, "you and Matthew Arnold or John

barrassed and help

u, I am sure," he turned to address Luella, who wa

r hands in her lap,

e," she agreed

-it would be a great accommodation," he went on, with a worried look at th

ight my bringin' it, for the old gentleman never touches cold meat and the jelly's my own. There, that's right. I thought you'd like it, once you began. There's no need to

her cheeks, and she had even smiled at Henry D. Thoreau. Caroline had never seen anyone prettier. She had a great dimple in either cheek, and her gray ey

here every day, and I guess I can, if you'll be content to wait a little for your breakfast. My old gentleman don't have anythi

ortley," the young man

looked

none o' my business. I cert'nly thought she said Hartley, tho

oke in appealingly, but th

straight at Luella, he went on: "This lady's n

got up from her seat and going over to the young man seized his hand and pressed i

and rolled it mechanically into a bundle. Her face h

before," she said briefly

. "Tell her, Frank, please tell her

who your father is, Mr. Wortley, an' I guess I understand pretty well by now what his troubles are. If he forba

l-suppressed irritation at Luella, while he softly patted the girl's shoulder. "

with her han

ply. "Then it was your fol

"They b-begged us on their b-bended knee

uttered. Then turning fiercely

nough-" she began, but the young man-he wa

eness to his father, "I'm no more a scoundrel than you ar

appeared so righteously indignant, that Luella pa

ou married, the

calmly. "Because I-we disap

opened vaguely. Though she spoke no

are not such as to lead me-to lead us to suppose that as an instituti

tting her little hand over his opened l

all about you as a result of a chain that ought lon

oline, you get right up and come home. I never heard

gly; she thought Luell

d frankly before children, the sooner we shall have fewer unhappy men and women. There is nothing whatever in

niffed furiously,

rsued evenly, "I shoul

rupted roughly, "look me

wet and pleading, miserable, but full of love. Luella, with narrowed lids, bored into those clear young e

eyebrows relaxed, her hold o

closing the door and seating herself squarely in the chai

lutched at it, but it failed him, and with the air of a pupil addr

r nineteen, can you?" she demanded of the

your views ain't shared by most o' the world,"

boy stiffly, "but I have never been in the habit of

uella interpolated, "I thought

" he repeated with emphasis, "that may result from the course we hav

repared-you remind me o' my father, Mr. Wortley. He used to say he'd been prepared for death since the

beside him. "Dorothy and I think precisely the same in

d at the flushed arrogant young f

as his hand clinched and his eyes flashed danger

from your father!" she admonished him, a

nterfered with, if I can possibly avoid it. I told the man to get it ready for me, but just before we started he telegraphed that it was engaged for

ful. "I reely don't k

, there ain't nobody here will come, by the day, or any other way-I sh'd s'pose you'd known that. And as for any o' the cottage peop

cowed by Luella's stern face, Dorothy put

y, "don't send her away-don't,

"you see how 'tis, Mr. Wortley. Do

ou at all," said the young man

ou, Mrs. Judd, that if Miss Hartley wishes to marry me, she has but to say the word, and it shall be done insta

she cried triumphantly, "now

irl broke in furiously. "How dare you intimate-as if I didn't

utiful world of ours! Catch your man and tie him tight before he has time to change his

ometimes, though," Lu

understand? Don't you know that my-that Frank has studied this question very deeply

the position I take, if we are actually obliged to take the matter into our own hands, and-and run away,

id gravely. She rose to her feet, beckoning to

n to college, yourself, and you've prob'ly learnt a lot about the mistakes that's been made in the world-a lot that I wouldn't understand. But I want to tell you one thing. I'm old enough to 'a been your mother, Mr. Wortley, my oldest boy'd 'a been twent

moment with

likely you ever will. I was married when I was nineteen-" Her eyes fell on the girl and softened lovingly, "'an what that means in the country with seven children an' no help, an' the winters what they are here

ping dog stirred the air. The girl sat as if turned to stone, her arm hard about C

he said, in a hollow thin li

need money more'n you ever will, but let me tell you there's things money can't buy. Can

be too-too miserable," she concluded softly, and utterly to herself; she had absolutely forgot

trong young figure. "I never heard 't

he concentration of his thoughts; his fingers s

o hardship, no merely personal suffering should prevent ... t

Wortley!" Luella cried. Her expr

rove that you c'd raise biscuits without the bakin' powder-I was terrible headstrong; I kn

make th' experiment,' I says, an' sh

r you to make th' experiment, but I'm the o

, Mr. Wortley-you'll make th

s anothe

ed thoughtfully, "it don't

self suddenly, like a d

is hands relaxed, his shoulders drooped. "It seemed the best thing only this morning-is tha

l clasping Caroline, and he knelt

s wrong," she said brokenly, but with a brave effo

er hand tight in his. Luella's mouth

papers-we c'n read 'em, that's enough an' more'n enough. There's things that ought to be changed, I know, but not the way you want to change 'em-oh, not that way! It can't help any, not marryin', don't you see-folks must just take p

ght," he said slowly. He appeared unaccountably older; small, wor

n an attempt to regain t

are right!" he announced, "that is, in this particular instance. I ha

ace; his lips tigh

s go on like this, putting off, putting off, letting this shameful, unsatisfactory

out it," Luella an

damned cowards, all of us!" he c

triumphant, he stooped for his harness

ravely. "It's-it's a very difficult thing

ited pa

ow why it seems so difficult to me now; ... they talked enough, all the others, and of course I shall neve

again and drew th

ne, "I-we have been mistaken. It wouldn't do. I think-" he looked anxiously at Luella-"t

man-new here. Car'line, you run right down cross-lots to that first white house an' there he'll be, callin' this

id Caroline but her eyes

his shoulder; she clung to him tightl

y, "you believe I am doing it for the best? You w

e woman she would be in ten years. A little tender smile curved her lips;

best, Frank dear," sh

derstand!" Luella muttered nervousl

felt all the pathos and dignity of Luella's appeal, the young man seemed to her mysterious and noble.

bly. "I understand all about it, just as well as you do! D

la g

demanded; "it's perfectly awful the things you city

he didn't know whether he'd marry her at all! And they cried and they begged 'em, and I was to be a flower girl and wear my white silk stockings, but still they wouldn't. And Cousin Elizabeth cried, too, and she said she'd never feel married in a travelling dress, but Cousin Richard said he guessed she would. And everybody was terribly angry with them, but they just had it i

eath and smiled im

rm over her fat

aid and my flower girl,

he possibility of any refusal, and though he started, scowled, and shook his head, he

ertain curiosity, the impeccable riding breeches of the groom, and the bride's looped-up linen

hat this will mean to us this winter," he finished. "No, I thank you, Mr. Wortley, I thank you sir, but

uella, who sat mopping her e

-why can't I? Do you think my mother'll let me keep this pin? What did you cry for, Luella? What was it he said to you? He's going to drive me down to the village to write some telegrams to New York with him, after they've started. And

eaped on the kitchen table; her cheeks were deeply flushed and he

, I guess, an' stop off a

then," with a humorous twinkling of her deep-set eyes, "I hadn'