Helen Leah Reed

“ Before they drove to the railroad station, Amy asked the driver to take them through Chestnut Street, where Julia lost her heart to the elegant, stately mansions that seemed to speak of the leisurely lives of those who dwell in them to-day.
“Even to-day,” she said, “Salem is a little out of the current of the ordinary work-a-day world. I might not like to live here always, but I believe that I should enjoy a year or two in Chestnut Street. Would n’t you, Brenda?”
“Not I,” replied her pretty cousin, shaking her head. “While I’m in the world, I want to be in a place that’s alive. ”

“ How different it was with Amy! With her veil tied tightly over her hair, with a cape that the boys brought up from the cabin thrown over her shoulders, sitting on the floor of the deck with her back braced against the cabin, she enjoyed every minute. This was something that she had never hoped to enjoy, to have a sail in a real yacht—and she might have added “with real people,” so seldom had it been her good fortune to have the society of young persons of her own age. ”

“ It happened that Nora and Brenda were standing together, when Arthur Weston gave to them each her piece of wedding cake.
“Now, choose,” he said, mischievously, balancing a plate on each hand. “I should not for a moment dare to make the choice for you, as in that way I might be settling your fate for you.”
“Oh, Brenda would n’t mind that,” replied Nora; “she rather likes to have her future read for her.”
“Indeed!” exclaimed the young man, with a searching glance at Brenda. “Perhaps she traffics with fortune-tellers.” ”

“ Some people, to be sure, enjoy rambling from country to country, and others like to have glimpses of various summer resorts; but in the end each one thinks his own country the very best, and in her secret heart every girl believes some one spot—it may be seashore, it may be mountains—far lovelier than any other. Brenda, at first, had objected to leaving Cohasset; but one season at Rockley had reconciled her to the change. ”

“ Weston read statistics from a guide-book, and Julia quoted poetry, and they yielded so far to Brenda’s wishes, as to take her down to a hotel, where she could sit on the piazza, and see a crowd of young people wandering back and forward to the beach, to the rocks toward the Golf Links, and where at last they had dinner in the vast dining-room into which the strains of a small orchestra wandered, in a rather hopeless competition with the clatter of dishes, and knives and forks. ”

“ If any one had asked Amy to say which of these great men she preferred, she would have found it hard to answer. She was fond of them all, and she had begun to make Fritz feel a part of her enthusiasm. When Amy was enthusiastic on any subject, she could quickly bring others to her point of view; and it was no wonder, then, that Fritz, too, had begun to follow her in her admiration for the great poets.
But Amy and Fritz were both fond of fun, and as they sat this day at Mrs. Redmond’s little dining-table, they showed that their spirits were running high. ”

“ Amy wisely made no reply. She knew that it was not worth while to argue with cousin Joan. The old lady had her own way of looking at things, and Amy had been brought up to treat the opinions of her elders with respect, even when she could not agree with them perfectly.
“Do not pretend to agree with a person, if you find that your opinion is absolutely unchanged. But do not argue with an older person. You may be right, but you are even more apt to be wrong, and it is much more important to show a proper respect for the opinions of older persons.” ”

“ Nora quickly joined Amy, and introduced Edith, and the five young people went back in the same carriage to the house.
“How young Agnes looked!” said Edith; “hardly more than seventeen, with all those little ringlets curling around her forehead.”
“And she’s really twenty-three,” said Nora.
“Is it possible?” exclaimed Edith, and both girls sighed, as young girls will sigh, to whom “twenty years of age” seems to mark the boundary of youth and youthful enjoyment. Indeed, to many girls of fifteen and under, eighteen seems the climax of happiness. ”

“ Finally, came the crowning event of the feast,—the cutting of the wedding cake, which had been the conspicuous decoration of one end of the flower-trimmed table. It was a real old-fashioned bride cake, with tiers and tiers of corrugated frosting, surmounted by a pagoda-like structure, within which was the tiny effigy of a bride with a flowing veil. At the corners of the cake were groups of cupids and doves, and, altogether, it is doubtful if the North Shore had ever seen a more elaborate and tempting wedding cake. ”

“ But many people drive very seldom, and the most of them, I dare say, only know horses by sight.”
“Oh, Frances was only thinking of people she knows. Every one in her set drives.”
“There, Brenda, that’s it. Frances never looks outside of her own set. Tell me honestly, now that you are so much broader-minded than you used to be, if you don’t think it’s very silly for a girl not to be willing to realize that there are people in the world besides those whom she knows best and considers in society?” ”

“ For there was the boat left high and dry upon the beach, and she saw that it was going to be very hard for her to push it off. Nevertheless, as she must make the attempt, she hurried down to it. Had the tide been high, as she had calculated, she would merely have untied the rope, leaning over from the end of the boat, pushed against the rock with her oar, and, presto, she would have glided off into deep water. But now!
Poor Amy looked about helplessly; first she must get her boat down to the water. ”

“ Her mother had approved of it, as well as of the other poem which he had read. There was this to be thankful for, and Amy appreciated it, as she thought of the events of that day at Marblehead.
“But it was very mean of Fritz, all the same,” thought Amy, “he broke his promise. That is to say, he broke the spirit, if not the letter of it, for he knew perfectly well that I don’t want any one else to know that I try to write poetry. The one thing in the world that I hate is to be laughed at, and they always laugh at girls who write poetry.” ”

“ But the comments and the explanations made by Julia and Amy when she read with them, their allusion to books, and to authors with whom she had no acquaintance piqued Brenda to such an extent, that she ceased to pride herself on her ignorance of what she called “deep books.” As a matter of fact, when a girl has reached this point, she is far on the road to wisdom. Only the girl who thinks her own way absolutely better than that of any one else is in danger of making no progress in knowledge. ”

“ I am to meet Amy and Fritz at the rocks, and at three o’clock the tide will be exactly right. I declare, I shall feel like staying in for an hour, it has been such a hot and tiresome day.”
“Oh, Brenda, I would really rather stay here; the breeze is coming round towards this side of the house, and this room is shaded. A book and an easy-chair are much more comfortable than a bath.”
“There, Julia Bourne, you can never say that you are not lazy. This is the one thing about which you are absolutely lazy. I believe that you dread the trouble of the bath!” ”

“ It had become a fixed habit for Brenda to call for Amy to go with them on these excursion drives, and she and Nora thought it no discomfort to share the back seat of the carryall with their new friend, while Julia occupied the front seat with Thomas. The North Shore was always revealing new beauties to Julia, for it was her first summer there, and she could never get over her surprise that so near the sea there should be woods that were so beautiful, and roads along which the loveliest wild flowers were to be found. ”

“ It really was very provoking to have to admit that he did not understand the engine of the little launch. A Harvard sophomore is supposed to understand everything; and yet, here was a miserable little boat which was acting much after the fashion of a balky horse. In his inward heart, Philip knew that he had undertaken more than he was justified in undertaking. It was Tom, and not he, to whom the mechanism of the little boat had been explained; and although the engine was not really very complicated, Philip had assumed that he could manage the small craft without expert knowledge. ”

“ She was unwilling to admit Julia to the charmed circle of “The Four,” which was made up of Nora, Edith, Belle, and herself. While she might have been unwilling to admit that she was jealous, she assumed that Julia felt a superiority to her that her year and a half of seniority did not warrant. When she learned that Julia intended to go to College she became ridiculously angry. No girl of her set had ever gone to College, and Brenda, like many other girls of fifteen, objected to having any one in her own family depart from the ordinary routine. ”

“ Several of the pieces of furniture, and some of the pictures on the wall were familiar to Julia. She had often seen them at Madame Du Launay’s house in town.
“That is it,” she said. “You are trying to make your grandmother feel perfectly at home by having all her own things about her. What a fine idea!”
“It is just the same in her bedroom,” said Miss South, smiling, “and I really believe that this is what makes her so contented. At her age, you know, it is very hard to be moved, even for a few months, far from one’s own familiar belongings. ”

“ But persons who reason in this way have not witnessed the progress of a sudden intimacy between two very young girls. One of them, when a sudden fancy springs up, may attach more importance to it than to anything else which has come into her life. If she does not see her friend daily, she at least expects a letter, and a week’s silence is something absolutely inexplainable and hardly to be forgiven. Now the friendship of Amy and Brenda had at first been of this intense type, and of the two Brenda had seemed the more devoted. ”

“ When the shriek came again, cousin Edward Elston, who knew her peculiarity, rushed toward her, and seized the large fan which lay in her lap. “Don’t worry,” he cried, “it can’t be anything;” but when the third shriek came, he rushed to the back of the house, where Mr. Barlow had hastened at the first sound.
In a moment Brenda had followed them, filled with curiosity; while Julia remained with Mrs. Tolbaird and the little girls on the front piazza.
“It was probably one of the servants,” she said, reassuringly. “They are very excitable. Probably the cook has seen a snake in the grass.” ”

“ If Amy enjoyed the day at Rockley, the three girls and Mrs. Barlow were delighted with her.
“Really,” said Mrs. Barlow, “you have told me things about this neighborhood that I have never known, although I have spent so many summers here. I shall never drive through Swampscott now without thinking of Lady Humphrey. You say that the name of the long street running to Marblehead came from Lady Humphrey, and that she and her husband once owned all the country about us. I dare say that you know more about the town of Marblehead itself than Brenda does.” ”

“ Rosa had already reached the group, and Julia and Brenda looked at her in astonishment. There was no doubt that Shiloh had agreed with her. She stood more erect, her color was better, and her general appearance was neater than when they had last seen her. She had lost her former hopeless and unambitious expression.
“Awful glad,” she said, in her somewhat uncertain English,—“awful glad to see you. Come right in. Please ’scuse us,” she added, as the girls followed her,—“please ’scuse us if we ain’t all fixed up. We works in the garden every morning.” ”

“ Redmond, if you say that we cannot go over to Marblehead, I shall consider you the hardest-hearted parent that ever was,—I really shall.”
“Ah, Fritz,” replied Mrs. Redmond, with a smile, “I have n’t a word to say about your going to Marblehead. You know what your uncle would approve, and really I can’t see much harm in your going. But it’s so different for a girl.”
“Why, Mrs. Redmond, have n’t I heard you say that you believed that a girl ought to be as brave and fearless as a boy? and Amy is always preaching courage to me. ”

“ She was happy only when she could bathe in the surf, or splash about in fairly shallow water with a motion that was something between floating and swimming.
Brenda and Amy, on the contrary, were expert swimmers, at least for their age, and they found it very hard to understand Julia’s timidity. In July and August at the bathing hour, which varied each day according to the tide, the pretty little semicircle of beach was crowded with bathers, or with those who watched them. Old and young went in at the same time, and the scene on the sands was always a merry one. ”

“ JULIA’S RETURN As the train rolled toward Rockley after their day at Nahant, Nora and Brenda at first were rather quiet. Summer pleasuring is apt to be tiresome; and although they had not exerted themselves physically, their tongues and minds had been pretty active. ”

“ She realized that Frances had spoken foolishly. “It’s very seldom that my grandmother gives me a chance to drive, and a great many families have no carriage at all.”
“Oh, not among people we know,” replied Frances.
“Well, there are plenty of horseless people among those I know,” said Nora,—“plenty of them; really, Frances, you ought to know more about real life. For my own part, I walk most of the time, in summer as well as in winter.” ”

“ Now, even girls who are not book-worms will read in the summer. What else is there to do in the long hours of the middle of the day, when it is too hot to wheel or walk, or even to bathe? With a good book in her hand, a reader forgets to grumble about the weather, and two books a week is a small allowance for the average bright girl. The plan of the reading class pleased Brenda when she found that fiction was to have so large a place in the programme; and so, starting without any prejudice against the plan, she soon found herself enjoying the books that the others were reading. ”