Country life -- Juvenile fiction; Girls -- Juvenile fiction; Grandparents as parents -- Juvenile fiction
Launcelot looked up from the coin with a quick smile, which faded as
she gave a hoarse little cough.
"Go into the house, child," he ordered, "you will take cold out here--"
"Oh," in that moment Judy was herself again, tempestuous, defiant,
"don't be so bossy, Launcelot."
"Go in," he said again, but she threw up her head and lingered.
"What a beautiful morning it is," she said. "Look, Launcelot, the sun,
it is like a ball of gold through the mist."
But Launcelot was looking at her--at the melancholy little figure in
the trailing red gown, with the dark hair braided down on each side of
the white face, and hanging in a long braid at the back.
"Go in," he said, for the third time, peremptorily. "You are tired to
death, and you will be sick--"
CHAPTER XV
THE SPANISH COINS
Three weeks after Judy's exciting experience at the gipsy camp, an
interesting party of travellers were gathered on the platform at
Fairfax station.
There was a stately old man, imposing in spite of a tweed cap and sack
coat. By his side stood a slender girl in gray, who coughed now and
then, and near them, perched on a brand-new trunk, which bore the
initials "A. B." was a small maiden, resplendent in a modish blue
serge, a scarlet reefer, a stiff sailor hat of unquestionable
up-to-dateness, and tan shoes!
And the resplendent maiden was Anne!
"You must let her go to the seashore with us," the Judge had said to
Mrs. Batcheller. "Judy hasn't been well since she took that heavy cold
the night she stayed out in the pasture--and I know the child pines for
the sea, although she doesn't say a word. And I don't want her
separated from Anne. She needs young company."
The little grandmother consented reluctantly. She was very proud, and
although for years the Judge had tried to do something substantial to
help his old friend in her poverty, he had so far been unsuccessful in
breaking down the barrier of independence which she had set up.
One promise he had wrung from her, however, that when Anne was old
enough, he was to send her away to school, where she would be fitted to
take her place worthily in a long line of cultured people. This he had
demanded and obtained by virtue of his friendship for her father and
grandfather, and for the "sake of Auld Lang Syne."
"But Anne's things will do very well," said Mrs. Batcheller, when the
Judge tried tactfully to suggest that he be allowed to send Anne's
order with Judy's.
"No, they won't," the Judge had insisted, bluntly, "Judy's old home at
The Breakers is somewhat isolated, but there will be trips that the
girls will take together, and friends will call, and I can't have
little Anne unhappy because she hasn't a pretty gown to wear."
"Oh, well," sighed Mrs. Batcheller, "if you look at it that way. Now
in my day, if a girl had a sweet temper and nice manners, that was all
that was necessary."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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