The English Orphans; Or, A Home in the New WorldHolmes, Mary Jane
General
The English Orphans; Or, A Home in the New World
Holmes, Mary Jane
Orphans -- Fiction
Mary hesitated a moment, for much as she liked Billy, there was
another whom she loved better, though he had never been one half as
kind to her as Billy had. After a time she answered, "Yes, I like, or
I did like George Moreland, but I shall never see him again;" and then
she told Jenny of her home in England, of the long, dreary voyage to
America, and of her father's death; but when she came to the sad night
when her mother and Franky died, she could not go on, and laying her
face in Jenny's lap, she cried for a long time. Jenny's tears flowed,
too, but she tried to restrain them, for she saw that Rose had shut
her book and was watching her movements.
Ere long, however, she resumed her reading, and then Jenny, softly
caressing Mary, said, "Don't cry so, for I'll love you, and we'll have
good times together too. We live in Boston every winter, but it will
be most six weeks before we go and I mean to see you every day."
"In Boston?" said Mary, inquiringly. "_George_ lives in Boston."
Jenny was silent a moment, and then suddenly clapping her hands
together, she exclaimed. "I know George Moreland. He lives just
opposite our house, and is Ida Selden's cousin. Why he's most as
handsome as Billy Bender, only he teases you more. I'll tell him about
you, for mother says he's got lots of money, and perhaps he'll give
you some."
Mary felt that she wouldn't for the world have George know she was in
the poor-house, and she quickly answered, "No, no, you mustn't tell
him a word about me. I don't want you to. Promise that you won't."
Loth as Jenny was to make such a promise, she finally did, adding, "I
guess I won't tell Rose either, for she and Ida are great friends.
George says he don't know which he likes best, though he thinks Rose
the handsomest. He like handsome girls, and so do I."
Mary knew she had no beauty of which to boast, but Ella had, so she
very naturally mentioned her sister, saying how much she wished to see
her.
"Why, you can see her at church," answered Jenny. "Why don't you ever
go?"
"I am going next Sunday, Sally and I," was Mary's reply. "Billy told
me the last time he was here that he would come and stay with Alice."
"Oh, I'm glad, and I hope they'll put you in my Sabbath school class,
for Ella is in it, but if they do I'll contrive to have Rose sit off a
good ways because,--because--"
Here Jenny paused, but seeing that Mary was waiting for her to finish
the sentence, she added, "She's proud, and sometimes laughs at poor
girls."
"Thank you, Miss Jenny Lincoln," said Rose, coming forward. "I'll tell
mother of this new intimacy, and she'll put a stop to it, I'll assure
you. But come along, I'm going home."
Jenny arose to obey, but whispered to Mary, "You'll find me most
any time in these woods. I'd ask you to come to our house, only
mother wouldn't let you sit in the parlor. I shall see you
Sunday,--Good-bye."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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