Humorous stories; Love stories; Villages -- Fiction
"Do you think I could go through that gate," asked Cicely, "and drive
Mrs. Browning up that hill? There is going to be a grand sunset, and we
should get a fine view of it up there."
"No," said Ralph, "let us get out and walk up, and as Mrs. Browning can
see the barn, we will not worry her soul by tying her to the fence. I
shall let her go home by herself, and you will see how beautifully she
will do it."
So they got out, and Ralph having fastened the reins to the dashboard,
clicked to the old mare, who walked away by herself. Cicely was greatly
interested, and the two stood and watched the sober-minded animal as she
made her way home as quietly and properly as if she had been driven. When
she entered the gate of the barnyard, and stopped at the stable door,
Ralph remarked that she would stand there until Mike came out, and then
the two went into the field and walked up the hill.
"I once had a scolding from Miriam for doing that sort of thing," said
Ralph; "but you do not seem to object."
"I do not know enough yet," cried Cicely, who had begun to run up the
hill; "wait until I have had my lessons."
They stood together at the top of the little eminence.
"I wonder," said Cicely, "if Miriam ever comes upon this hill at sunset.
Perhaps she has never thought of it."
Ralph did not know; but the mention of Miriam's name caused him to think
how little he had missed his sister, who had seemed to live in his life
as he had lived in hers. It was strange, and he could not believe that he
would so easily adapt himself to the changed circumstances of his home
life. There was another thing of which he did not think, and that was
that he had not missed Dora Bannister. It is true that he had never seen
much of that young lady; but he had thought so much about her, and made
so many plans in regard to her, and had so often hoped that he might see
her drive up to the Cobhurst door, and had had such charming
recollections of the hours she had spent in his home, and of the travels
they had taken together by photograph, her blue eyes lifted to his as if
in truth she leaned upon his arm as they walked through palace and park,
that it was wonderful that he did not notice that for days his thoughts
had not dwelt upon her.
When the gorgeous color began to fade out of the sky, Cicely said her
mother would be wondering what had become of her, and together they went
down the hill, and along the roadside, where they stopped to pick some
tall sprays of goldenrod, and through the orchard, and around by the
barnyard, where Mike was milking, and where Ralph stopped while Cicely
went on to the house.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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