Girls -- Fiction; Harpeth Valley (Tenn.) -- Fiction
But after this, when I know anything that all the world can't know I'm
going to wear a horsehair ring, like Belle makes Mamie Sue do, to
remind me not to forget and tell. I thought I was stronger-minded than
that, but I see I'm not. You see, leather Louise, I must be more
trustworthy than just any girl; for if I'm untrustworthy, then it will
be a tragedy, because it will prove that I inherited it and so be an
evidence against Father in my own mind and the world's too.
Since I have been with Roxanne so much, and seen so many things which
prove that God is looking directly after her, as my getting the apple
plan shows, I feel so much nearer to Him. I am going to pray to Him to
help me to help Father, and take both our honors in His keeping. Amen!
Goodnight!
Of course, the whole spring keeps springing wonderful days on a
person, each one lovelier than the last; but the one that came down
from over Old Harpeth, as the tallest hump on the ridge is called, was
so lovely that it was hard to believe that I was not just seeing it
with Roxanne's eyes. If it was so beautiful, with its orchard smells
and blooms and buzzing of bees and soft little winds, to me, I wonder
what it did look like to _her_. And to think that Roxanne was
almost in tears before it was nine o'clock.
The interurban that runs by Byrdsville and out over the ridge to the
city has cars only every two hours, so if we didn't catch the
eight-ten one, we couldn't go until the ten-ten, and that would make
it very late for the Scouts to go through all the kinds of drills they
had planned for. Some of us had to sprain ankles and make believe to
step on snakes, and then Mamie Sue had to be lost and traced, only she
didn't know it yet; so Tony said that we would have to start very
early. It was about half past seven when he came for me while all the
rest of them waited at the corner for us. We then trooped down to get
Roxanne and Lovelace Peyton; but disaster met us at the door. It was
Lovelace Peyton dancing and yelling like a wild Indian while Roxanne
tried to quiet him and unbutton his white linen dress-up at the same
time.
"Please everybody go on. We can't come," Roxanne called to us at the
gate. "Lovey sat down on one of the hot pies that Uncle Pomp had just
taken out of the stove for me to put in the basket, and it burned him
through his trousers and blouse and all. Uncle Pomp has got a dreadful
fit of asthma, and the pie is all over everything where Lovey ran
around and around. I've got to scrub him and the whole house. Please
go on and don't be late for the train." And as Roxanne looked out at
us over the dancing Lovelace Peyton that was the first time I had ever
seen her face without its dimple on the left side of her chin, or her
head down out of the rosy cloud.
"It always happens just this way, Roxy," said Belle in a reproving
tone of voice. "You promised to begin to get ready last night, so as
not to delay anything or anybody. We're just not going to wait!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account