A Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite's Life.
st every mile. They left the great towns gradually behind; each succeeding one seemed more simply rural. Young girls were gathered on the platforms at the little stations where they
fair and abundant hair, at least, had not been made use of to take down the severe primness of her outward style. It did take it down in spite of all, the moment the gray straw was removed. The great round coil behind was all real and solid, though it was wound about with no thought save of security, and fastened with a buffalo-horn comb. Hair was a matter of course; the thing was, to keep it out of
ctive means, it seemed persistent; and she was forced at last, just as her party was going in to dinner, to acknowledge that this traveler's misery had befallen her, and to make up her mind to the pain and wretchedness and ugliness of it for hours, if not even for days. Her face was quite disfigured already; the afflicted eye was bloodshot, and the whole cheek was red with tears and rubbing; she could only follow blindly along, her handkerchief
as if she would speak; and at last, leaving her own dinner unfinished, she suddenly pushed back her chair, got up, and came round. She touched Elinor Hadden on the shoulder, wit
f the poor, one-eyed man in the cars; and presently, with a little hesitation, Mrs. Linceford and Jeannie co
bag-a veritable, old-fashioned, home-made carpet thing-open on a chair before her, and in her hand a long, knit purse with steel beads and rings. Out of this she took a t
all the worry; and by and by it'll drop out of itself, cinder and all. They're terribly teasing things, cinders; and somebody's always sure to get one. I always keep thre
accepting the offered aid of their unknown traveling companion; bu
e up your mind, if you'd rather." With which she darted her head quickly from side to side, looking about the room, and, spying a scrap of paper on a table, had the eyestone twisted in it in
rrying eyestones about, and putting
takes fire, persons get in who never did before; and perhaps a suffering eye may come into the catalogue of misfortunes sufficient to equalize differences for the time being. But it is queer for a woman to make free to go without her own dinner to offer help
of the thronging hills was like an ever-moving panorama; as, winding their way farther and farther up into the heart of the wild and beautiful region, the horizon seemed continually to fill with always vas
xulting whisper, to the river; passing it always, yet never getting by; tra
usly, pointing away to the north and east where the
losing it all!" said Elinor
try the eyeston
tely putting that great thing in her eye,
e. The good woman of the gray bonnet had com
ind if you'd just let me see you easy before I go. Besides, if you don't do something quick, the cind
her unknown friend, taking the little twist of paper from the hand still fast closed over it with t
stone was between Elinor's lips before she could refuse or be aware. Then one thumb and finger was held to take it again, while the other made a sudden p
I get out. And there they all are to meet me." And then, the cars stopping, she made her way, with her carpet-bag and paraso
u suppose it ever will come out again, Augusta?" cried Elinor, in a
w. "Don't be under the least mite of concern about anything but
eager young welcomers and claimants, and a whole history came out in the
! I don't know as Emma Jane would hav
ure you'd ge
Nisby woul
t got his new ones, and he gets about first-rate. Bu
is 'L
' got back, we all know, if you hadn't gone after him." It was a young m
a little more mystery-"there's the veil to fix. She says you're used to wedd'n's and know about veils; and you was down to Lawrence at
s the one without whom nothing could ever be done,-more tenderly yet, as one but for whom some brave life and brother love would have gone down. In the midst of it all she had had ear and answer, to the very last, for the stranger she had comforted on her way. What difference did it make whether she wore an old bonnet with gr
these things Leslie Goldthwaite had learned from her,-these things she laid by silent
t, in an ignorance at once blessed and pathetic, "Oh, if Littleton should only be like this, or if we could stop here!"-yet where one cannot stop, because here there is no regular stage connection, and nothing else to be found, very probably, that travelers might want, save the outdoor glory,-Wells River and Woodsville were left behind, lying in the evening stillness of June,-in the grand and beautiful disregard of things greater than the world is rushing by to seek,-and fo
n outlook upon anything of all the magnificence that must yet be lying close about them; and here was only a tolerably well-populated country town, filled up to just the point that excludes the picturesque and does not at
ir seats, giving their checks to the driver, who disappeared with a handful of these and others
drawn out in a fashion regardless of covers and corners. The large russet trunk with the black "H,"-the two linen-cased ones with "Hadden" in full;-the two square bonnet-boxes,-these, one by one, were dragged an
ere is a high black French tru
n to be lifted up,-a long, old-fashioned gray hair trunk, with letters in brass nails upon the lid, and as antiquat
e! There's some dreadful mistake
re. Don't often happen. B
an instant in a breathless de
omebody changed their minds on the way,-Plymouth, most likely,-and stopped with the wrong baggage. Wouldn't worry, ma'am; it's as bad for one as for t' other, anyhow, and they'll be along to-morrow, no kind o' doubt. Strays allers turns up on this
I want to-night,-my dressing-box and my wrappers and my air-cushion; they'll be sure no
ng her unknown stage companions at any length with her fine-lady miseries. Only, just before they reached the hotel, she added low to Jeannie, out of the unbro
and said quickly, glad of the little power to com
lost her one trunk also! "You are a phoenix of a traveling companion, you young th
or their party, with a bottle in her hand and a pair of pillows over her arm. "Ours is a double-bedded room,
lt a gratefulness, and the contagion and emulation of cheerful patience under a common misfortune. She bent over and kissed Leslie as she took the bottl
sleeve-buttons, while her own were single; moreover, the brown silk net, which she had supposed thoroughly trustworthy, had given
fe and spirit underneath, to keep this sweet and pleasant, and the fruit of it a daily good, and not a bitterness; if she could begin by holding herself undisturbed, though obliged to wear a collar that stood up behind and turned over in front with those lappet corners she had always thought so ugly,-yes, even though the waterfall should leak out and ripple over stubbornly,-though these things must go on for twenty-four hours at least, and these twenty-four hours be spent unwillingly in a dull country ta
her life, taking her out of the trade-currents of vanity? Might she have it in her, after all? Might she even be able to come, if need be, to the strength of mind for we
ays been: "These things have been borne, are being borne, in the world; how much of the least of them could I endure,-I, looking for even the little things of life t