Amy Ella Blanchard

“ It was very hard to do right in this world, she thought. If she were loyal to Mary she must lose Polly's companionship, and she did love to be with Polly more than any one she had ever known. If she clung to Polly, she must give up Mary at a time when Mary most needed her.
She looked after Polly skipping over the hummocks to Grace Wharton's and wished she were going, too. It was so lovely in the woods. As if reading her thought, her Aunt Ada came up and put a hand on her shoulder. "Suppose we all take our luncheon in the woods to-day," she said. "It is too lovely to stay indoors a minute. ”

“ It is easy to be brave for a minute, but not for so long."
"Fancy living in such a wild country," remarked Mary.
"Oh, but it is beautiful," said Polly enthusiastically. "The mountains are bigger than anything you can imagine, and it is so fine and free. Oh, you don't know till you see it."
"I am quite sure I should like England better," declared Mary positively. "London is much finer than New York, which is very ugly, I think, and our dear little villages are so pretty. I never saw such queer tumble-down places as you have here in the country. ”

“ Her Uncle Dick, however, at last did remark that Mary had not much to say. "I am afraid grown-up parties are too much for Mary," he said, after breakfast, drawing her to his side in the hammock and cuddling her to him. "Are you sleepy, Mary, or don't you feel well?"
Mary leaned her head against his shoulder. "I don't feel sleepy," she told him, "and I am only a bit tired. Uncle Dick, are diamonds the preciousest things in the world?"
"Those glittering out there on the grass, do you mean? They are fairy diamonds, you know, and they disappear as soon as the sun gets high up." ”

“ But at last the every-day commonplaces grew too dull for Polly, and she suddenly exclaimed: "I'm tired of just visiting and talking about measles and nurses and mustard plasters! I'm going to take the Roseberry family down to the shore. They're going to have an adventure."
"Oh, Polly, what? Can ours go, too?" cried Molly. "I would like to have the Applebys meet an adventure, too."
"And I'd like Mr. and Mrs. Hips to have one," echoed Mary.
"Are they very wicked, black-hearted people?" asked Polly, darkly. ”

“ Oh, Polly, we could have lovely times playing with something alive like that."
"Wouldn't it be jolly to have a real live baby for a doll," put in Mary.
"I see you are not to be put off," said Miss Ada, laughing, "so I will allow you to undertake the charge for a week, and at the end of that time if I think it is too much for you, I shall have to insist that you give it up."
"Oh, we'll never think it is too much," declared Polly with conviction, and the others echoed her.
So they all trooped out to Ellis. "We have the loveliest plan," Molly began eagerly. ”

“ Mary looked serious, but Molly laughed. "Don't you want to go down on the rocks with us?" asked the latter.
"I think I would prefer to sit here," said Mary.
"All by yourself?" said Molly, surprised.
"Oh, yes, I like to be alone."
This was too decided a hint for the others not to take, so they marched off together. "Well," said Polly when they were out of hearing, "I don't think much of her manners, and I don't think I shall trouble her much with my company. She likes to be alone; well, she will be, as far as I am concerned." ”

“ She decided that she could do so without betraying Mary's confidence. So she stepped down-stairs ahead of Polly and joined her Uncle Dick who was energetically walking up and down the porch.
"Hello, Mollykins!" he cried. "I'm getting up an appetite for breakfast. Come and join me."
"As if you ever had to do anything to get up an appetite," retorted Molly, slipping her hand under his arm. "Oh, you take such long steps I have to take two to keep up with you."
"So much the better, then you work twice as hard and can have twice as much. ”

“ This was too much for Dick who could not keep his face straight as he rose from the table quickly. "Who's for the rocks, the cove or the woods?" he asked.
"The rocks, the rocks, first," cried both little girls.
"I want to show Polly the dear little pools where the star-fish are, and the cave under the rocks where we found the sea-urchins and where those queer bluey, diamondy shining things are," said Molly.
Polly squeezed her hand. "Oh, I'm so excited," she said. "I have been just wild to see all those things." ”

“ Shelton, "for now I shall be here to receive Arthur and Mary, and can bring Mary up with me on the way to Rangeley. Aunt Ada will be perfectly delighted to know she is to have a visit from Mary, for she has asked so many times that her parents would lend her for a summer."
"It will be just lovely to expect her," said Molly hospitably. "I do hope we shall like her, mother, and that she will be as easy to get acquainted with as Polly is. I feel as if I had always known Polly; she is just like a sister." ”

“ Molly gave Polly a little nudge; it seemed a very tame experience after Polly's wild ride.
"I am afraid Mary is something of a little prig," said Miss Ada to her brother when the little girls had gone to bed.
"Polly will broaden her views if any one can," aid Uncle Dick. "Don't let her flock by herself too much, Ada; it isn't good for her, and she needs a little Americanizing."
"I don't think Polly will be harmed by Mary's gentleness. She has such a charming voice and Polly might well subdue hers."
"They'll do one another good," repeated Uncle Dick. ”

“ Molly shook her head. "No, it's east instead of west, Polly. Mother and I are going to England with Mary and Uncle Arthur."
"Oh!" Mary jumped to her feet and clasped her hand ecstatically. "Oh, Molly, I am so glad. Aren't you?"
"Yes, I am except for one thing; I know I shall be scared to death of Miss Sharp. Is she really so very, very strict?"
"My word! but you'd think so. Fancy never being allowed to run, nor to climb nor to do anything one really likes to do, and, oh, Molly, I wonder will you eat your meals in the nursery with us children. ”

“ Polly assured him.
"Yes, we truly are," Molly insisted. "We adore babies. When can you bring her over, Ellis? Shall we keep her day and night, Aunt Ada, and may she sleep with me?"
"Oh, Ora's sister says she can take her at night," Ellis hastened to say. "She can't leave home very well, and she is too busy during the day to look out for her, for she has a lot of children, but none of them are little small babies; the youngest is three, and she says she doesn't mind having the baby at night." ”

“ There were not very many children present, and the cousins felt quite like grown-ups when they danced with Uncle Dick and other young men of his age, the music being furnished by whoever would volunteer to play two-steps and waltzes. Mary felt the necessity of crossing the room a great many times that she might have the pleasant consciousness of the train sweeping behind her. Polly as a dancer did not excel except in funny whirls and figures and in a Spanish dance which she had learned from her father's Mexican servants, and which won her great applause. ”

“ I used to play with him when I was only four years old," said Molly. "He is a very nice boy. Aunt Ada says that he has been very well raised and that any mother could be proud of him. He is real bright, too: why, he can manage a sail boat as well as a man, and he's always so ready and willing to do anything he can for any of us. He is very different from some of the others who just can't bear the summer people."
"Never mind about him; I suppose he is all right; it is Mary I am bothered over." ”

“ Go on, Polly." Molly was enjoying her cousin's inventions.
"Well, they go out in a boat on stormy nights and when a vessel is in distress, instead of helping, they don't do anything but just wait till the vessel is wrecked and then they help themselves, to what they can get. They have, oh, such a store of diamonds and rubies and precious stones in their cave, and they have their own vessel that flies a black flag."
"Then they're pirates," said Mary recoiling. "I don't want the Hips to be pirates." ”

“ Molly rushed in one morning, her face all aglow with the importance of the news she had to tell. "Oh, Aunt Ada," she cried, "they are going to have a dress-up party at Green Island hall, fancy costumes, you know, and we are all invited, you and Uncle Dick and we children. The Ludlows have come and it is Miss Kitty's birthday. Will you go? and what can we wear?"
"Oh, mayn't I be a grown-up lady and wear a long skirt?" asked Mary. "I have always longed to do that." ”

“ She kept Mary at her side after this, and when she was not doing something to entertain her, Dick was, till both Molly and Polly began to add jealous pangs to their other grievances, yet they would only sidle up to their aunt and uncle or would sit near enough to hear what was said without joining in the conversation.
"They are jealous; that's what it is, poor dears," said their aunt to herself. "I must gather them all together in some way." So the next evening when she and Mary were established in a cozy corner by the open fire, she called the other two little girls, "come here, lassies. ”

“ Run right up; I must speak to the maids."
By this time, the two little girls were in the room they were to share together, and in a few minutes Polly had made herself more presentable by the use of soap and water, and with Molly's help in changing her dress. Then the cousins faced each other and examined one another critically, and presently both burst out laughing. "You don't look a bit as I thought you did," said Molly.
"Neither do you," returned Polly. "I thought you would be fair, like a doll I have named Molly." ”

“ Polly looked down at the long ropes of seaweed which clung to the craggy places beneath them. "It makes the rocks look just like buffaloes or some strange kind of animals," she said. "I shall call that Buffalo Rock, and that other the Lion's Den, for it looks like a lion lying down."
"There is a dear place further down," said Molly. "It is sheltered from the wind and we have tea there sometimes. There is a cunning fireplace that Uncle Dick built there last year. ”

“ Polly sat looking into the fire for a moment before she said, "I think the time I was most scared was once when Uncle Dick and I were riding home on our ponies. It was most dark and the sun was dropping behind the mountains; it always seems lonely and solemn then anyhow. I wasn't riding my own pony that day for he had hurt his foot, so I had Buster, Ted's broncho: I'd often been on him before and I wasn't a bit afraid to ride him. ”

“ Uncle Dick was not so much of a novelty as Polly, but he was quite as ardently expected, for he was the jolliest fellow in the world, Molly thought, and, though he teased her unmercifully, he was full of jokes and funny quips and amusing anecdotes, besides being generous in the extreme and always ready to put himself out to do a kind turn. As for Polly, Molly had many conjectures concerning her. What sort of girl would she be who had always lived on a ranch far away from the rest of the world ”

“ You will probably join a college settlement when you are older, or at least write a paper on moral responsibilities."
"Oh, Uncle Dick, you do use such silly long words."
"I forget, when you tackle these abstruse subjects. I will come down from my lofty perch, Molly. What more can your wise uncle tell you?"
"If a person loses something very costly, something that has been lent to her, ought she to pay it back?"
"It is generally supposed to be the proper thing to replace it, but half the world doesn't do it; sometimes because they can't and sometimes because they don't want to. ”

“ There was no prettier table the length of the room than that at which Miss Ada presided, assisted by her three little nieces. Their Uncle Dick had cleverly helped them with the decorations as well as with their birch bark boxes in which were planted the little pine trees. These were so much admired that not one was left after the sale, and Mary had to bespeak some to be made for her to carry home. Some little packages of fudge and home-made candies went off rapidly, and of Luella's famous doughnuts not one was left. ”

“ Mary hesitated and looked to Molly for her cue.
"Do they have to be wicked to have an adventure?" asked Molly.
"If they join the Roseberries, they'll have to be, for the Roseberries are wreckers and smugglers." Polly spoke impressively, and at this flight of fancy Molly and Mary gazed at her admiringly. Yet they were not quite willing that their families should give up their morals to too great an extent. ”

“ They found plenty of bread and butter, ginger-snaps and stewed gooseberries, but not much else, so they sat down contentedly to this fare while the sunset turned from rose to purple and then to gray. It was late enough in the season for the evenings to become chilly after sundown, and Polly proposed that they should have an open fire. "We can sit around and tell stories," she said, "and we can go on with our work at the same time, so the time will pass very quickly till Aunt Ada comes back."
"I'll love that," declared Molly. ”

“ Smugglers aren't so wicked as pirates; they only bring in things that you ought to pay duty on, Uncle Dick told me, and Mary's father told her that in England almost everything comes in free, and that the United States is as mean as can be about making people pay for what is brought into the country. ”