Josephine Dodge Daskam

“ You’ll see more grass in a minute there than you can hunt up here in a week. Come on, Cousin Jule!”
“I believe I will!” said Miss Trueman, with conviction.
“Just pack up a bag for your aunt, Carrie, while I get a cab,” said Mr. Bean from the doorway. “We’re going up to the old place—I’m thinking of buying it. I expect we’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Your cousin appears to be a person of decision,” Mrs. Ranger suggested to the still dazed Elise, as the cab rolled away.
“I don’t understand Aunt Ju-ju at all,” Carolyn interpolated crossly. She had not been in the habit of packing her aunt’s bag. ”

“ I haven’t any folks of my own, and not a chick nor child, and I love every stick and stone of that farm. I love the country, and I love Connecticut country best of all, I don’t care if it is rocky. You can’t make farming pay in New England any more. ”

“ Miss Trueman returned, the finality of her tone indicating that she had explained any possible idiosyncrasy of the lady in question.
“Oh, I see. And the little red-haired one, does she write books, too?”
“No; she’s an artist. She smokes too, though. Not cigars, like yours, but cigarettes. She’s supposed to be a very good painter, but she doesn’t make what Carrie—lyn makes. The girls have very good positions in Miss Abrams’ school.” ”

“ And, anyway, it was different then.”
“The girls were just as pretty, I guess,” he insisted. “And there were plenty of buggies, if anybody had designs.”
There was a pause, and the buzz of voices from the other room rose loudly.
“They’ve neither of them got their mother’s looks,” he observed; and then, with apparent irrelevance: “When will they be considered safe to go about alone?”
“I don’t know exactly what you mean,” she began a little coldly, but his laugh reassured her.
“Oh, yes, you do,” he contradicted, “and don’t you be getting cross at your Cousin Lorando Bean! ”

“ The first six months of her sojourn had been almost entirely occupied with accustoming herself to the absence of an attic and a cellar; long days of depression they learned, finally, to trace to this incredible source. Later she dealt with the problem of subsisting from eight till one on two rolls and a cup of coffee; successfully, in the ultimate issue, as surreptitious bits of fried ham and buckwheat cakes, with suspicious odors, winked at discreetly by her nieces, witnessed. ”

“ She looked reproachfully at him.
“And I tell you this, Cousin Jule: neither of those girls will ever get up a color like that!”
She shook her head, but she was not displeased. He took out a fat chocolate-colored cigar and fingered it wistfully.
“I suppose I mustn’t smoke?” he queried.
Her quick answer surprised herself.
“I should hope you could, if that woman can!”
“Which one?”
“That Mrs. Ranger, the one near the samovar—that big brass thing. Liz—Elise didn’t introduce her to you. They don’t introduce people the way they do at home, Cousin Lorando—I hope you didn’t mind. ”

“ First place, I’m a rich man, Cousin Jule.
“Oh, I don’t mean one of these multimillionaires you have about here, for I haven’t even seven figures opposite my name; but short of that I did very well for myself out West there, and I earned it all fair, too—though I was pretty lucky, and that counts.
“Anyhow, never mind about that. Only I’ve got enough to have anything I want, and to give my friends something, too. So as soon as I got back. East I went straight down to the farm. ”

“ Ranger,” said Aunt Ju-ju flatly, to the absolute amazement of her nieces and the tolerant amusement of the assembly. “I guess you haven’t lived in the country much, or you wouldn’t talk so. And primroses don’t grow in fields here, anyway. ”

“ Miss Trueman insisted severely. “ I don’t understand how she could have done it—I would have died first. And she seemed to think it was a great joke to have her friends give her a dinner—I think it was terrible.”
“Why, Aunt Jule, how ridiculous! We were delighted to do it—it was perfectly dear of her to let us, too. And think of the people we met there—Rawlins and Mr. Ware! You don’t mind being poor if such men will come just out of interest in you, I tell you. Do you remember, Elise, how Mr. Rawlins called her ‘little girl’? Mr. ”