Mary Ware's Promised LandJohnston, Annie F. (Annie Fellows)
General
Mary Ware's Promised Land
Johnston, Annie F. (Annie Fellows)
Young women -- Juvenile fiction
One literal minded woman who had overheard Mary's remarks about lairs
and new trails, and who had been on the watch for something wild all
across the state of Texas, looked up in disappointment. There was
nothing whatever in their appearance to suggest that they had lived in
queer places or that they were on their way to one now. The fifteen year
old boy who followed them was like any other big boy in short trousers,
and the young man who brought up the rear and was undeniably good to
look at, gave not the slightest evidence of being on a quest for
adventure. The only reason the woman could see for the name of Gulliver
being applied to the family, was that they settled themselves with the
ease and dispatch of old travellers.
While Jack was hanging up his mother's coat, and Norman storing their
suit-cases away in one section, Mary, in the seat across the aisle, was
pressing her face against the window-pane, watching for a parting
glimpse of the friends, when they should pass through the station gate.
A sudden tapping on the glass outside startled her, and the next
instant she was exclaiming excitedly to her elder brother, "Oh, quick,
Jack! Put up the window, please. It's Gay and Roberta! They're still
waiting out there!"
As the window flew up, and Mary's head was thrust out, passengers on
that side of the car saw two young girls standing on tiptoe to speak to
her. The one with beautiful auburn hair called out breathlessly, "Oh,
Mary! Bogey's coming! Pray that the train will stand one more minute!"
And the other, the one with curly lashes and mischievous mouth, chimed
in, "He's bringing an enormous box of candy! Mean thing, to come so late
that we can't have even a nibble!"
Then those looking out saw a young fellow in lieutenant's uniform sprint
through the gate, down the long station and across half a dozen tracks
to reach the place where Roberta and Gay stood like excited guide-posts,
wildly pointing out the window, and beckoning him to hurry. Red-faced
and panting, he brought up beside them with a hasty salute, just as the
wheels began turning and the long train started to puff slowly out of
the station. There was only time to thrust the box through the window
and hastily clasp the little gloved hand held out to him.
[Illustration: "THERE WAS ONLY TIME TO . . . HASTILY CLASP THE LITTLE
GLOVED HAND HELD OUT TO HIM."]
"Say good-bye to the others for me," he called, trotting along beside
the moving train. "Sorry I was late. I had a lot of things to tell you.
I'll have to write them."
"Do," called Mary, "and let me know--" But he was no longer in hearing
distance and the sentence was left unfinished.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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