We Girls: a Home Story

it?" asked Mrs. Holabird,

h t

icular has happened, to remember any day by, since the first, and then count up. So, as things don't happen much out here, I'm never sure of

p in her room,-that pious thing that whops over. It has the

lau

o tease her for?"

thinks it's funny. She laug

n. "It wasn't onl

what

ink yo

ldn't I know? I

ures are the smallest part of the differe

his eye twinkled. He saw t

ds when they go by. And besides, it's like the man that went to Van Amburgh's. I sh

she did not want to tease Stephen in her turn; but there was a little quiet smile just under her lips

ipture texts printed in large clear letters,-a sheet for each day of the month,-and made to fold over and drop behind the black-walnut rod

basket, with its cotton-ball and darner, and maplewood egg, and small sharp scissors, o

thing to think a

the other side of the three-feet passage which led straight through from the front staircase to the back of the house. The front staircase was a broad, low-stepped, old-fashioned one, with a landing half-way up; and it was from this landing that a branch half-flight came into

e beyond. This staircase had landings also, and was lighted by a window high up in the wall. Behind Ruth's, as I have said, was the whole depth

one long shine, from its south window at the end, right through,-except in such days as these, that were too deep in the s

so very bedroomy. And we wanted pretty places to sit in, as girls always do. Rosamond and Barbara made a box-sofa, fitted luxuriously with old pew-cushions sewed together, and a crib mattress cut in two and fashioned into seat and pillows; and a pa

iddle of the afternoon, when she unfastened all the doors again and set them wide, as they have for the most part remained ever since, in the daytimes; t

plain hemmed cover of the same; a great discarded toilet-cushion freshly encased with more of it, and edged with magic ruffling; the stained top and tied-up leg of a little disabled teapoy, kindly disguised in uniform,-varied only with a narrow stripe of chintz trimming in crimson arabesque,-made pretty with piles of book

th its oblong of carpet,-which Mrs. Holabird and she had made out before, from the brightest breadths of her old dove-colored one and a bordering o

anyhow, doesn't

estle in, in the midst of people; and she never minded their coming through, any mor

-chair to-day, to think about A

, at the other house, had a couple of college friends visiting him; and both places were merry with young girls,-several sisters in each family,-always. The Haddens were there a good deal, and there were people fr

rning to night, as these others were among themselves; for one thing, the little daily duties of their life would not allow it. The "jolly times" on the Hill were a kind of

, gladsome knack at music; and I suppose sometimes it was only Ruth herself who realized how thoroughly the fingers earned the privilege of the rest of her bodily presence. She did not mind; she was as happy playing as Rosamond

ond's measured itself a good deal by the accepted dignity of others; Barbara's insisted on its own standard; why shouldn't they-the Holabirds-settle anything? Ruth

street" to do some errand, and had walked on with her very affably.

to hear Mrs. Van Alstyne sing, and she would like your playing. There won

he knew the Marchbanks parlors were always full of an evening, and that the usual set would be pretty sure to get together, and that the end o

she hardly thought she could to-night; they had better not expect

uitous compliment. She would remember higher reason, also, than the quid pro quo; she would try to be glad in this little special "gift of ministering"; but it puzzled her about the others. How would they feel about it? Would they like it, her being

f hers that could be counted in to make them all more valued, she would not take it from the family fund and let it be counted alone to her s

sk Mrs. Holabird anything about

as anybody. It was always "we girls" in her heart, since girls' mothers never can quite lose the

where they were cutting the first hay in old Mr. Holabird's five-acre field, the click of the mowing-machine sounding like some new, gigantic kind

er done anywhere else. There was something in the fair, open, sunshiny roominess and cosey connection of these apartments, hers and

rous space was almost splendid in its effect, as you looked through, esp

aintily appointed dressing-table (which was only two great square trunks full of blankets, that could not be stowed away anywhere else, dressed up in delicate-patterned chintz and set with her boxes and cushions and toilet-bottles), and the other, in "the girls' room," opposite; these made magnificent reflections and repetitions; and at night,

iece," Barbara would

look Mrs. Roderick's way," Rosam

hes-yard of a Monday morning, to see just how many

is off

e little figure in the white chair, midway in the long light th

s. I believe I've done, pretty nearly. I guess I s

where you left off,

en you speak suddenly out of a 'think.' I wonder what alone really means. It doesn't ev

y on metaphysics? You'r

gain. "I can't help it

the answer abo

Ruth came t

e asked me just to play. And they might have asked somebody with me. Of course it would have been as y

bird understood. Mothers get to understand the older idiom, just as they do baby-talk,-by th

would be a good plan to l

uth," said Mrs. Holabird, affecti

ve I think it's rather nice to settle that I c

rward, that Mrs. H

oldthwaite walked over, to ask the girls to

aps of cloth and velvet; and these tops would go on to any stray soles she could get hold of, that were more sole than body, in a way she only knew of;) and she would have the sitting-room at the last point of morning freshness,-chairs and tables and books in the most charming relative positions, and every little leaf and flower in vase or basket just set as if it had so peeped up itself among the others, and all new-born to-day. So it was her gift to be ready and to receive. Barbara, if s

cing into the door-way from the dining-room, with unexpected little bobs, a cake-bowl in

ngton called; but she could not resist the Haddens and Leslie Goldthwaite; besid

to make their own beds, but they could no

could, she would make up hers all over the house, just where

a very red face, doing raspberries; and she made them sit down there in the shaker chairs, while she ran to get her hat and boots, and to cal

them there,-somebody in a dar

skimmer, looking after them,-"that must be the brother from

king on comfortably together, asked Ruth Holabird if it had not been she

ith him, at the moment, behind the others,

think I could come. I am the youngest, you see," she said with

I fancied you w

d that is why I always catch my brea

pursued this young man, who seemed

vitation, you know.

n't

kie Thayne was very polite; but his eyebrows went up a little-just a

ears at West Point were not all his experience; and h

group of people he had got among interested him. He liked problems and experiments. They were what he excelled in at the Military School. This was his first furlough; an

Ingleside were old friends; almost a

orld of girls about her. In the "each and all" of their pretty groupings and pleasant relations she was like a bit of fresh, springing, delicate vine in a bouquet of bright, similarly beautiful flowers; taking little f

f the century or the third. They called her "grandmotherly" sometimes, when a certain quaint primitiveness that was in her showed itself. And yet she was the youngest girl in all that set, as to simpleness and

ver that and everything else gentle and beautiful, down to the bend of her neck; and her dress suggested always some one simple idea which you could trace through it, in its harmony, at a glance; not complex and bewildering and fatiguing with its many parts and folds and festoonings and the garnishings of every one of these. Sh

; and the trouble with the new fashions is that they never stop. To use a phrase she had picked up a few years ago, "something always got crowded out." She had other work to do, and she must choose the finishing that would take the shortest time; or satin folds would cost six dollars more,

d so met them one by one, and decided them half unconsciously as she went along, that now, for the great puzzle of the "outside," which is setting more and

ary starching and ironing and perking out that must be done for them, beside the simple hem and the one narrow basque ruffling of Leslie's cambric morning-dress, which had its color and its set-off in itself

hella, and the wee feathery fronds that hid away their miniature grace under the feet of their taller sisters. They were so pretty to put

ooms to dust and no tables to set, in all the great sunshiny world; but as if dews freshened everything, and furnishings "came," and she herself were clothed of the dawn and the breeze, like a flower. She never cared so much fo

epidity, when she hadn't the least idea what there would be to give them all if th

me with their flowers; and Mrs. Ingles

lea branches, and looking "awfully pretty," as Dakie Thayne sa

and to see that Katty hadn't got the table-cloth diagonal to the square of the room instead of parallel, o

ood behind

ut of my points when I heard you! Old Mrs. Lovett has been here, and has

ttle fellow. Aren't

! that great s

feet. He's barely eighteen.

kie Thayne said, going down the hill.

the town, and I can come out-and not die-on the Hill. I like

hbanks with her cou

e Holabirds," said Da

come last night? We really wanted he

"She isn't quite amphibious yet. She don't come out from under w

Things that belong get together. Peop

ed us all to play croquet and drink tea with them t

ay and multitudinous,

ot home,-Harry Gold

in her own keeping; there was no responsibility of telling or wi

time, Rosamond asked Barbara

wear, Barb, to-morro

stance, the usual unpert

ven it, there would have been the end. And among us there would generally be a muslin waist, and perhaps

that in the big world to-morrow there w

perhaps; but it was one