Charlotte E. Chittenden

“ When Sunday comes 'round we grow very meek.
"I hope, Beth," said Ethelwyn, who always woke up first, "you will remember to-day is Sunday, and not quarrel with your sister," But Beth cuddled down in the pillows and refused to answer a word. After a while, Ethelwyn, watching the sunbeams dancing on the pink wall, went to sleep herself, and opened her eyes only when her mother kissed her awake. ”

“ As she hurried towards the porch, Mrs. Rayburn smiled to herself.
Nan's mother waited, and walked up with Bobby's grandfather. Over her had come a great and happy change; her eyes were now full of earnest light, and she had forgotten her headaches and other small ills.
She now looked up into the banker's face.
"After all, life to be beautiful and to reach rightly towards eternity should be helpful, and self-forgetful; do you not think so?" she said. ”

“ When we're young they loiter; when we're old they race.
It began with a bad time; and so did the next day, as things sometimes do, even though they turn out all right at the end, like a rainy morning that clears off into a blue and gold afternoon. Ethelwyn and Beth did not fall out very often, but then they didn't have a birthday very often, nor Christmas, nor any other of the days when the land flows with ice cream and candy, and is bounded on the next day by crossness and pitfalls. ”

“ Then Ethelwyn got down, and went over to squeeze in on the other side of her mother. She knelt on the cushions and patted the dear face until the little smile they loved, came out again, and drove the care lines away.
"Children are such a worry, mother," she said in a funny, prim fashion, "that I should think you'd be sorry you ever bought us."
"But we are going to be good from now on, so good you'll nearly die laughing," said Beth, getting up to pat her side of the face. ”

“ This she felt was a finishing touch, so she softly crept down the stairs and past the old ladies, who had entirely forgotten her, and out on the lawn; then she walked down the circular driveway and out into the road, where presently the clergyman, striding along to where his pony was tied, overtook her.
He looked with astonishment at the quaint little figure in the silk frock, but when the disguised parlor maid looked out from the depths of the great bonnet, he went off into peals of laughter again.
"You seem to laugh a great deal," said Beth. ”

“ Poor little Dick, lying day after day on his hard bed, with no care except what the kind-hearted washerwoman could give him, felt that life was an ill thing at best, and he was fast hastening out of it, with the assistance of ill nutrition and bad ventilation. Dick's own mother and father were dead, and his stepmother, a rough-looking creature, when she remembered him at all, looked upon him as a useless encumbrance, and by her neglect was making him very unhappy. ”

“ You get prettier all the time you are getting old, mother. You'll be a beautiful angel when you are very old."
"Thank you," said her mother laughing. "Come on now, do you know your verse?"
"I did," said Ethelwyn, "but the verse hasn't any sense: it's about St. Peter's wife's mother being sick with the fever—"
"And St. Peter cut off the priest's right ear, and then he went out and crew bitterly," said Beth, jumping up and down to see how high she could splash.
"Elizabeth!" said her mother, going off into spasms of laughter. "You are a heathen! Can't you ever get things right? ”

“ Ethelwyn had intended to have a most unhappy day, so after her mother and Beth went, she lay face down in the hammock with a very damp ball of a handkerchief squeezed up tightly against her eyes. But by and by she heard Aunty Stevens calling her. "Here I am," she answered, at once sitting up.
"Do you feel well enough to help me make some apple pies?" Ethelwyn rolled out of the hammock, and ran into the kitchen in a trice.
"O if you only knew how I love to cook, Aunty Stevens," she cried. "And nobody will hardly ever let me. I can make the bestest cookies if any one else just makes the dough. ”

“ Beth stopped to ask, "does it say Precious Julias when it's 'bout Mary Deemer, sister?"
"Middle name, prob'ly," answered Ethelwyn; "anyway that's Mary Deemer," pointing to a picture of Murillo's "Magdalene," "and the reason that she's loved by children, is because she is pretty and good. If you are good, Elizabeth, people will love you."
"I'm as good as you are, anyway," began Beth wrathfully, when she saw Nan in the doorway.
"May I come in?" she asked, wistfully. "Mother has a headache, father's gone fishing in a boat, and I've a toothpick in my side." ”

“ In the Rayburn sitting-room one evening, the children were looking over a portfolio of photographs.
Aunty Stevens as usual was knitting, and laughing with them over the pictures.
Ethelwyn was showing them, for she had seen them before.
"This is Beethoven," she announced, holding up one of the great masters. "He isn't very pretty, but I s'pose he made up in being clever."
"He is sort of kind-looking," said Beth, who always liked to say something nice about every one.
"He is better than pretty," said Ethelwyn. "He's a very good musician. He can play the piano." ”

“ When life is new.
By constant and hard work, the house was ready for occupancy on Ethelwyn's birthday.
Two or three days before it was finished, Nan's mother came over, the melancholy look on her face somewhat lifted. She brought with her the deed of the land adjoining the cottage and sloping down to the sea. This land she at once undertook to have equipped for a playground with swings, tennis courts, a ball ground and all the things that delight young hearts. ”

“ At first they were stiff and shy, but under the vigorous leadership of Nan, Ethelwyn, and Beth, they were soon organized into a Rough Riders Company, and slid down the banisters, and shot out into the playground with shrill yells of delight.
Dick was general, for he was not yet strong enough to run, so he sat in his wheel-chair, and directed the others.
"We made him general, for generals never have anything to do but boss others; they are never killed or anything," explained Nan. ”

“ Besides, I don't like mice myself, and I was so afraid I'd see one or two."
"No danger; his bawling will keep them away," said Hannah, grimly.
"O, well then, his crying is some good, after all," returned Ethelwyn, triumphantly. "That's a good deal nicer than killing the poor little things."
"Humph!" said Hannah.
But Grandmother Van Stark had given orders that Johnny Bear—so named from one of Ernest Thompson-Seton's illustrations, which Ethelwyn thought he resembled—was to be treated tenderly and fed often, because Ethelwyn loved him, and she herself loved to feed hungry people and animals. ”

“ Mrs. Rayburn came back presently to a realizing consciousness of the two anxious faces opposite hers, and with a smile dismissed the sentinel lines.
"God never makes mistakes," said she, with refreshing faith and emphasis. "It is we who do that."
"I think," said Beth, slowly pondering on this, "that the old surplus in the garden of Eden who bothered Adam and Eve has something to do with it."
"Serpent, child," said Ethelwyn crushingly, beginning on cake.
"Surplus, I mean," said Beth, getting out a piece of cake for herself. ”

“ And then she told her about the pumpkin pies.
"Well, child, I am thankful you told me," said grandmother with a sigh, "for when you are as old as I am, and have a reputation for doing things, it goes hard to make a failure of them, and I should have been much mortified. Fortunately there are plenty of pie shells, and there is more pumpkin steamed, so that I can season and put them together in the morning. But I am glad, dear child, that your conscience wouldn't let you sleep comfortably until you had told; be careful, however, never again to break your word. ”

“ There! now it is ready to go in the oven."
"O isn't it sweet?" said Ethelwyn. "Nobody can cook like you, Aunty Stevens. Nobody. I think it's a great—great appomplishment."
"Thank you, dear. Now sit down, and when I have cleaned up things a little, we'll go out on the west porch, and I am going to tell you something. I have saved it for a secret for the little girl who couldn't go to town to-day, but who gave up her birthday presents for the sake of others."
"O goody," said Ethelwyn, beaming with joy. "Next to cooking, I love to hear secrets. ”

“ If your grandmother, my dear, should leave me out, till my hair soaked off—say, sister," she broke off suddenly to ask—"what keeps our hair on?"
Ethelwyn never at a loss for an answer, said promptly, "Dust, child"
"I haven't any," said Beth, feeling her short brown curls cautiously for fear they would come off.
"It's small in small persons, and big in big persons," said Ethelwyn, with a patient air of having given much thought to the subject.
"Ho!" said Beth. "Well if Ariminta's going to be dry for Billy Boy's funeral, I'll have to dry her in the oven." ”

“ Beth lost Ariminta, her composition doll, and she went down into the garden early to find her. She looked in Bose's kennel, but it wasn't there; then she saw a robin in the path digging worms, and he looked so wise that she followed him to the early harvest apple-tree, and sure enough! there was Ariminta on a lower branch where she had put her the night before. She was very wet, for it had rained, and her wig was quite soaked off. So, filled with remorse, Beth went after the glue-pot.
"I never knew such a mean mother as I am," she said, "I haven't any thinkery at all, worth mentioning. ”

“ Away goes every care.
When they started to return the next day, Beth in triumph mounted Ninkum. She had a little difficulty in turning around to wave a farewell to dear grandmother on the porch, because the pony took this opportune time to munch the grass at the road-side, and Beth nearly went over his head.
"Dear me, Ninkum, you are very rude," she said, much vexed. "You try to spill me off, besides making Grandmother Van Stark feel as though you didn't have enough to eat while you were visiting her!" ”

“ But I'd lots rather build a home."
"Let's see," said mother, "if you are as ready to give up something now. Elizabeth's birthday is next week and Ethelwyn's next month. I had thought we might take a short yachting trip,—all of us, Nan, Aunty Stevens—"
"O, mother," they cried, turning around to hug her.
"Then there is a doll in town that can walk and talk. Beth, deary, you choke me so I can't talk;—and a camera for sister. Would you mind giving up these things to help pay the hospital expenses, or to buy a wheel chair or some comfort for Dick?" ”

“ Rayburn's dear face, and back came the laughter the children loved. In Bobby's house they planned a most wonderful menu of fried chicken, candy, cake, and ice cream. Mandy baked spice cakes at Nan's and Bobby's special request, and nobody thought anything whatever about indigestion or after effects; for where everybody laughs and is happy, there is no need to fear indigestion. ”

“ Then came Beth in her Japanese costume, fanning vigorously.
Nan followed in a Turkey red calico wrapper, beloved of 'Vada's heart. She tumbled down every two or three steps, which might have been the fault of the wrapper, or part of the show.
Last of all was Bobby, very hot and sweaty, in a moth-ball smelling fur rug, and ringing a bell.
"It looks like the four seasons," said mother.
"O mother, but you are smart," said Ethelwyn; "we thought you couldn't possibly guess, so we were going to charge you another nickel!" she continued in a disappointed voice. ”

“ The first Sunday that the children were at the seashore was warm and beautiful.
Mrs. Rayburn and Mrs. Stevens went to church in the picturesque stone chapel built by a sea captain, as a memorial to his daughter who was drowned on the coast some years before this.
"We'll be really better girls to stay at home some of the church time," said Ethelwyn at breakfast, "we'll go this evening with Miss Dorothy."
"My dolls are needing a bath and their best clothes for Sunday-school," said Beth to Ethelwyn, who had decided to go down on the beach; "and I can do it all comfy and nice while you are gone." ”

“ Framed by earth and sky.
"Mistakes are very easy to make, I think," said Ethelwyn, with an uneasy look at her mother who sat opposite, thinking hard about something. The reason Ethelwyn knew her mother was thinking, was because at such times two little lines came and stood between her eyes, like sentinels.
"Do you think God made a mistake when He sent us here?" asked Beth.
They were in a Pullman car which was moving rapidly along in the darkness. ”

“ Some were cut round, others square, and all were without crust; inside they found minced chicken, creamy and delicious, also ham and a little mustard, and best of all were the small, brown squares with peanut butter between.
"It's like Christmas or a birthday, having these sandwiches," said Ethelwyn. "They're all different and all good, and each one seems better than the others."
Then they began on the cookies, and bit scallops out of the edges, while between times they thought about their last mistake and their mother's forehead lines. ”

“ So they woke up laughing, at least Ethelwyn did, and told Beth what the birds sang; but Beth was sleepy and uttered her usual "Uh huh."
"You are a very lazy child," said Ethelwyn in a superior tone, "and are not thinking about your presents at all, nor the making of good revolutions." ”

“ We can always buy more down at your bank," she concluded easily.
"You may not always think so, young lady, nor take such wide views of things. When you grow up, you may wish you had more money," said the banker, laughing.
"Does keeping money make folks happy?" inquired Beth, suddenly popping up. ”

“ Then there were two bicycles from Uncle Bob, some more candy, a pony, and some home-made molasses candy from their grandmother. The pony was a real live pony, and Joe, a dear friend of theirs, from a near-by livery stable was to take care of it.
"I feel thankful that we are a large family of relatives," said Beth, after a long and speechless period of rapture.
Their mother, being a wise woman, put away some of the candy, all but grandmother's molasses, and a box or two for friends. Then came little Nora, the niece of their dressmaker, Mrs. O'Neal, with a quart of pecans, for the birthday. ”

“ They had tea on the lawn, that evening, and, after a consultation with Mrs. Stevens, Bobby's grandfather sent a message over the telephone that was followed very shortly by a man with ice cream and a huge cake. When eight o'clock came, one of the teachers began to play a march on the piano in the hall. At once the children fell into line, marking time with their feet, and singing,
"Good-night, good-night,
Children and blossoms who sleep all the night,
Always will wake up happy and bright,
Good-night, good-night!" ”