Rebecca of Sunnybrook FarmWiggin, Kate Douglas Smith
General
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
Wiggin, Kate Douglas Smith
Aunts -- Juvenile fiction; Girls -- Juvenile fiction; New England -- Juvenile fiction
"Randall. My mother's name is Aurelia Randall; our names are Hannah
Lucy Randall, Rebecca Rowena Randall, John Halifax Randall, Jenny Lind
Randall, Marquis Randall, Fanny Ellsler Randall, and Miranda Randall.
Mother named half of us and father the other half, but we didn't come
out even, so they both thought it would be nice to name Mira after aunt
Miranda in Riverboro; they hoped it might do some good, but it didn't,
and now we call her Mira. We are all named after somebody in
particular. Hannah is Hannah at the Window Binding Shoes, and I am
taken out of Ivanhoe; John Halifax was a gentleman in a book; Mark is
after his uncle Marquis de Lafayette that died a twin. (Twins very
often don't live to grow up, and triplets almost never--did you know
that, Mr. Cobb?) We don't call him Marquis, only Mark. Jenny is named
for a singer and Fanny for a beautiful dancer, but mother says they're
both misfits, for Jenny can't carry a tune and Fanny's kind of
stiff-legged. Mother would like to call them Jane and Frances and give
up their middle names, but she says it wouldn't be fair to father. She
says we must always stand up for father, because everything was against
him, and he wouldn't have died if he hadn't had such bad luck. I think
that's all there is to tell about us," she finished seriously.
"Land o' Liberty! I should think it was enough," ejaculated Mr. Cobb.
"There wa'n't many names left when your mother got through choosin'!
You've got a powerful good memory! I guess it ain't no trouble for you
to learn your lessons, is it?"
"Not much; the trouble is to get the shoes to go and learn 'em. These
are spandy new I've got on, and they have to last six months. Mother
always says to save my shoes. There don't seem to be any way of saving
shoes but taking 'em off and going barefoot; but I can't do that in
Riverboro without shaming aunt Mirandy. I'm going to school right along
now when I'm living with aunt Mirandy, and in two years I'm going to
the seminary at Wareham; mother says it ought to be the making of me!
I'm going to be a painter like Miss Ross when I get through school. At
any rate, that's what _I_ think I'm going to be. Mother thinks I'd
better teach."
"Your farm ain't the old Hobbs place, is it?"
"No, it's just Randall's Farm. At least that's what mother calls it. I
call it Sunnybrook Farm."
"I guess it don't make no difference what you call it so long as you
know where it is," remarked Mr. Cobb sententiously.
Rebecca turned the full light of her eyes upon him reproachfully,
almost severely, as she answered:--
"Oh! don't say that, and be like all the rest! It does make a
difference what you call things. When I say Randall's Farm, do you see
how it looks?"
"No, I can't say I do," responded Mr. Cobb uneasily.
"Now when I say Sunnybrook Farm, what does it make you think of?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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