Christian fiction; Families -- Fiction; Love stories
"Sit there, kitten, till your sister comes out," he said, looking at
her flower face admiringly.
Doris giggled.
"I ain't a kitty," she declared; "I'se a 'ittle gurrul!"
"Well, little girl, do you like to go riding?"
"Soor! I do 'ike to go widin'!" said Doris. "Oh! There goes muvver's
bed!" as the drayman came out carrying the headboard.
Shirley meanwhile was working rapidly, putting the last things from her
mother's bed into the box, tossing things into the empty clothes-basket
that had been left for this purpose, and directing the man who was
taking down the bed and carrying out the boxes and baskets. At last
all the things were out of the house, and she was free to go. She
turned for one swift moment, and caught a sob in her throat. There had
not been time for it before. It had come when she saw the young man
stoop and lift her mother so tenderly and bear her out to the car.
But the children were calling her loudly to come. She gave one happy
dab at her eyes with her handkerchief to make sure no tears had
escaped, and went out of the little brick house forever.
A little middle seat had been turned down for Carol, and Doris was in
her lap. Graham turned the other middle seat down for Shirley; the
boys piled into the front seat with him; and they were off. Mrs.
Hollister in her wonder over it all completely forgot to look back into
what she had been wont to call in the stifling days of summer her
"frying-pan," or to wonder whether she were about to jump into the
fire. She just lay back on her soft cushions, softer than any she had
ever rested upon before, and felt herself glide along away from the
hated little dark house forever! It was a wonderful experience. It
almost seemed as if a chariot of fire had swooped down and gathered all
her little flock with her, and was carrying them to some kind of
gracious heaven where comfort would be found at last. A bit of hope
sprang up within her, utterly unpremeditated and unreasonable, and
persisted so that she could not help feeling happy. As yet it had not
come to her to wonder who this handsome young man was that presumed to
lift her and carry her like a baby, and move her on beds of down to
utterly unknown regions. She was too much taken up with the wonder of
it all. If Doris hadn't been prattling, asking questions of her, and
the light breeze hadn't flapped a lock of hair into her eyes and
tickled her nose, she might have thought she was dreaming, so utterly
unreal did it all seem to her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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