Amy Ella Blanchard

“ Don’t I fly into the kitchen when Prue is out, and with real housewifely mind make gingerbread and ‘other country messes,’ like the neat-handed Phyllis in L’Allegro? And doesn’t papa always send me to pay bills when he cannot go himself? And—why, mamma, I’m not queenly like Lisa, nor seraphic like Mellicent. I am just plain me, the least good-looking of your trio. I am the mortal, Lisa the queen, Mellicent the fairy. But a mortal can love you just as hard; can’t she, mamma?”
“Very hard,” laughed her mother, as a kindling glance of Persis’s eye showed signs of a second energetic attack. ”

“ A green crab scuttled out of sight under some pebbles; a purple star-fish crept softly from behind a bunch of waving crimson weeds; a sea-anemone opened and shut its living petals; by peering under the shelving rock one could see the dainty shell of a sea-urchin.
Polly gazed astonished at the pool's wonders. "It is like fairy-land," she whispered. "I never saw anything so beautiful. Can we come here every day and will the little pools with these queer creatures always be just this way?"
"We can always come at low tide," Molly told her. ”

“ It was one day when Paulette had gone off to her work that Lucie was busy with her knitting, looking off between whiles at the bright clouds floating over the tops of buildings and lending a radiance to a spire here, a window there, when somehow the whole view made her think of an evening with her mother just before the sad breaking up came. “Always look up, dear daughter, and find a bit of sky,” her mother had said. “One’s soul is seldom absolutely shut in. Between branches and roofs one can generally find a shining piece of sky.” ”

“ A kind hand was laid upon her shoulder. “My child,” said Joachim van der Deen, “why are you here alone? God has not forsaken you.”
Alaine dropped her head on the good man’s arm. “I am desolate, desolate,” she moaned. “If we had but died together; but now, this moment, he may be enduring tortures such as I never dreamed of. Ah-h!” she shrieked in her despair and fell to the ground, hiding her face, as if she would shut out the frightful possibilities that her misery suggested to her. ”

“ Do you know, Mary Lee, I am only beginning to wake up to the tremendous possibilities of Japan. Every little while I come upon the description of some famous shrine or temple, some wonderful view, some queer custom, or fascinating festival. I am beginning to get more and more bewildered, and shall have to sift this information so I can gather together the few grains which must serve us while we are here. It would never do to go away with merely a hodge-podge of facts not properly catalogued in our minds. ”

“ After her festivities, Mitty could not be expected to appear before nine o'clock, consequently, the matter of breakfast depended entirely upon Nan. She was sufficiently rested after her night's sleep to look upon the day's prospects with more calmness than had seemed possible the night before. The storm had passed; all the fears and dreams vanished in the sunshine. The whole world appeared fairer. The heavy rain had washed the dust from the leaves; the grass sprang up in livelier green; the morning-glories over the porch were fresh and beautiful; the very earth looked refreshed. ”

“ Do, dear Aunt Helen, pick out a nice, pretty, amiable somebody whom we can respect and yet who isn't the bossy kind."
"You'll have to reconcile yourselves to obeying a governess, Nan," said Miss Helen smiling.
"Oh, we'll obey all right; see if we don't, but Jack and I do hate to be visibly bossed. We don't mind it so much when people don't make a sharp point of things in that severe kind of way some people, like Aunt Sarah, for instance, have. We don't have much respect either for people who let us walk over them, so please get a governess that is just right." ”

“ I pity us. That's just like you, Janet. You are always ready to pity anything from a mangy cat or a spider to an erudite professor. You'll find the one to be pitied is your precious self."
"Allee samee, I don't believe he'll find it an easy berth," persisted Janet.
"Well, I am sorry enough to give up Professor Gaines. He is such a well-meaning old soul, and one doesn't have to fight for every inch of the way in his class. I never heard him say a sarcastic thing in my life."
"I never heard Professor Satterthwaite say a sarcastic thing, but—" Janet paused tellingly. ”

“ For all Miss Ri's decided announcement that he might even perjure himself for one he loved, that was something Berkley Matthews would never do. No, there was no help for it; facts were facts, and he must let them be known. Could he ever expect to win Linda's love and respect, if he had won her by such unworthy means? Would he not always be playing a false part, and would not the result fail of good to him and to her? No, a dishonorable transaction, no matter what its motive, would never do to base true love upon. Let things take their course, and let the best man win. ”

“ The ground, sodden with moisture, oozed water at every step Gwen took, and the tufts of meadow grass were surrounded by small pools. The girl paused first at one point, then another, each outlook fascinating her. At the most rugged point where a giant stairway led down to a fierce turbulence of whirling breakers, she stood transfixed. It seemed strange within sight and sound of that howling sea to see little wild strawberries spotting the hummocks and to hear a song-sparrow's blithe notes above the noise of the pounding waves. ”

“ THE OLD KENTUCKY HOME THE sun was shining gloriously across level sweeps of blue-grass meadow-land, and sending its beams through the windows of a plain, substantial, country house, where it made squares of brightness on the whitewashed walls, sharply outlining the shadows, and touching to gold the fair hair of a girl who sat motionless on a low stool near the window. ”

“ I was Nancy Loomis and am now Anita Beltrán. You whom we called Donald Abercrombie have become our own Pepé Beltrán." She threw her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. "You do love me a little bit, don't you, brother?" she said, wistfully. "You are getting used to me?"
He put her hand to his lips. "I love you very much. Every day I awake and say: I am so rich. I have a mother and a sister whom I love."
"We can do many things together," Anita went on. "We shall do our music together, you with your violin; I with the piano, and we can dance. ”