Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. MARY CARY _"FREQUENTLY MARTHA"_ BY Kate Langley Bosher FRONTISPIECE BY FRANCES ROGERS NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS Published By Arrangement With Harper & Brothers COPYRIGHT, 1910 BY HARPER & BROTHERS PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO VIRGINIA CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. AN UNTHANKFUL ORPHAN 1 II. THE COMING OF MISS KATHERINE 14 III. MARY, FREQUENTLY MARTHA 27 IV. THE STEPPED-ON AND THE STEPPERS 39 V. "HERE COMES THE BRIDE!" 50 VI. "MY LADY OF THE LOVELY HEART" 61 VII. "STERILIZED AND FERTILIZED" 70 VIII. MARY CARY'S BUSINESS 75 IX. LOVE IS BEST 85 X. THE REAGAN BALL 97 XI. FINDING OUT 103 XII. A TRUE MIRACLE 120 XIII. HIS COMING 133 XIV. THE HURT OF HAPPINESS 141 XV. A REAL WEDDING 155 MARY CARY I AN UNTHANKFUL ORPHAN My name is Mary Cary. I live in the Yorkburg Female Orphan Asylum. You may think nothing happens in an Orphan Asylum. It does. The orphans are sure enough children, and real much like the kind that have Mothers and Fathers; but though they don't give parties or wear truly Paris clothes, things happen, and that's why I am going to write this story. To-day I was kept in. Yesterday, too. I don't mind, for I would rather watch the lightning up here than be down in the basement with the others. There are days when I love thunder and lightning. I can't flash and crash, being just Mary Cary; but I'd like to, and when it is done for me it is a relief to my feelings. The reason I was kept in was this. Yesterday Mr. Gaffney, the one with a sunk eye and cold in his head perpetual, came to talk to us for the benefit of our characters. He thinks it's his duty, and, just naturally loving to talk, he wears us out once a week anyhow. Yesterday, not agreeing with what he said, I wouldn't pretend I did, and I was punished prompt, of course. I don't care for duty-doers, and I tried not to listen to him; but tiresome talk is hard not to hear--it makes you so mad. Hear him I did, and when, after he had ambled on until I thought he really was castor-oil and I had swallowed him, he blew his nose and said: