Josephine Lawrence

“ Aunt Grace took them into the house and it was absolutely the nicest house they had ever been in—both Elizabeth Ann and Doris said so. In the first place, there were no stairs—there were ladders. Not the ordinary ladders that you see in barns, to be sure, nor yet the kind of ladder your mother may stand on when she hangs the curtains. No, the stairs in Uncle Hiram’s house were firm enough, but they were ladders for all that—you looked right through the steps as you went up and down. ”

“ He helped Elizabeth Ann and Doris out and then looked at the basket in which Tony was fastened.
“How do we feed the cat?” he asked.
Elizabeth Ann had traveled with Tony before. She knew how to take care of him.
“If there is a quiet place, I can take him out of the basket,” she explained. “He likes liver and milk, but he won’t eat if there is much noise, or many people looking at him.”
“He’s a cat after my own heart,” declared Uncle Hiram. “I can’t enjoy my food if a crowd has to sit and stare at every mouthful I take. We’ll see what we can do.” ”

“ But Elizabeth Ann liked to do her own thinking, and she remembered what Uncle Hiram had said about Roger.
“I think he is a nice boy,” said Elizabeth Ann, “and I mean to speak to him. He lives on the farm next to us; Uncle Hiram said so.”
“He only lives with the Bostwicks who own the farm,” said Catherine scornfully. “Roger is a taken boy—didn’t you hear me tell you that yesterday? He used to live at the poor farm, until the Bostwicks took him. He works for them, and the only reason they send him to school is because the Board of Education makes them.” ”

“ Now if Elizabeth Ann had been all alone, or if Doris had been alone, each little girl might have felt a bit homesick at that moment—riding away in a strange car with a strange uncle. But two little girls can’t feel forlorn when they have each other; and besides, as Elizabeth Ann wrote to Uncle Doctor later, it took a great deal of time to understand what Uncle Hiram was saying. Because he talked like a sailor, and neither Elizabeth Ann nor Doris understood sailor talk. ”

“ Elizabeth Ann hadn’t heard about the bus, and neither had Doris.
“You’re going to a consolidated school,” explained Aunt Grace. “When I was a little girl they didn’t have them—we went to a little school house near this farm. There was only one room, and my older sister taught all the grades. But now they have combined a number of these small schools into one large one. A bus goes through the country gathering up the scholars, and in that way one school building can be made to do the work of six or seven one-room buildings.” ”

“ But Roger stayed the rest of the day in school and rode home with Dave in the afternoon bus and told him about Elizabeth Ann.
Uncle Hiram explained to Elizabeth Ann before she went to school the next morning, that now, as long as she knew Catherine wouldn’t hurry and didn’t care how many friends she made late for school, that she was not to wait for her again.
“She must learn her own lessons,” said Uncle Hiram. “Perhaps if she finds no one will wait for her, she’ll teach herself to be on time. You can help people just so much, Elizabeth Ann; after that they must help themselves.” ”

“ Oh, that was Catherine Gould—Elizabeth Ann had no doubt of it.
“We want to march!” called Aunt Nan, when everyone had come up and spoken to her—as they weren’t expected to find the real hostess till the time to unmask came.
By the time Elizabeth Ann and Doris had reached Aunt Nan and had shaken hands with her, the fairy princess had disappeared. Now Elizabeth Ann looked around expectantly, for of course Catherine could play the piano. She talked about her music lessons all the time.
“Is there anyone here who will play for us?” ”

“ Aunt Grace said. “So the pupils gather in certain places where the bus driver knows they’ll be, and he picks them up in groups. You and Elizabeth Ann and the other children who live around here, have to walk to the nearest cross-roads—your uncle will tell you what time the bus passes there and what time you have to leave the house. If there’s a bad storm or it rains too hard, he will take you in the car as far as the cross-roads; but your Uncle Doctor wrote to tell me that he wanted both of you to walk whenever it is possible.” ”

“ Then little Miss Gilly came to the rooms of the Society, the only home Linda knew, and took the girl home with her. A new life begins for Linda, and she finds, to her surprise and delight, how to get along with people, how to make friends, and slowly and surely how to be happy. ”

“ Part of the time you play. And when you are working away at those books with the great deal to learn in them, suppose you think of me, plugging away. I’ve a great deal to learn myself.”
Elizabeth Ann smiled a little. She knew when Lex was teasing her.
“I wouldn’t mind if I was learning to be a doctor—like you,” she said. “You like to study, because you want to hurry up and be a doctor.”
The car had come in sight of the house where Elizabeth Ann, her Uncle Doctor and Cousin Nellie had been spending the summer. ”

“ The farm belonged to Aunt Grace and she had lived on it all her life, she told the two68 little girls, who insisted on drying the dishes for her the next morning.
“Your Uncle Hiram,” said Aunt Grace, and while of course he was Doris’s uncle Elizabeth Ann felt as though he might be her uncle “a little bit” as she said, for Doris was her cousin. “Your Uncle Hiram was on a sailing vessel for forty years. It’s no wonder he can’t bear to get away from the sea. But when he retired, he came back to Gardner, where he lived when he was a boy, and we planned to be married. ”

“ That always made Doris declare hastily that she didn’t mind walking at all. Elizabeth Ann, who remembered how Uncle Doctor made his sick people take walks whether they wanted to or not, was glad that Aunt Grace was there to remind Doris about the party. For Doris could be rather stubborn, and she might say she wouldn’t walk to the bus—only she never in the wide world would say that if she knew she couldn’t go to Catherine’s party. ”

“ Linda admires independence above all other traits of character. She has plenty of that quality herself and she is the kind of girl who not only cheerfully fights her own battles, but those of the weaker who cannot defend themselves. ”

“ I went to sea when I was a young lad and I can’t pick up land ways. But we each do our way and get along splendidly. There’s more than one way of doing a thing and I haven’t much use for any man who thinks his is the only possible one.”
Elizabeth Ann thought that was very nice. If she learned to tell time by the bells that would be fine—she could surprise Lansing and Ted. But if she didn’t learn, Uncle Hiram wouldn’t be annoyed—he thought that the old way of telling time—by the old way, Elizabeth Ann meant the way she had been taught—was good, too. ”

“ Mattie explained. “Poor Roger gets only two sandwiches for his lunch. He’s almost always hungry. The Bostwicks don’t think he needs much to eat—my mother says they don’t eat much themselves, and they forget when a boy is growing he needs plenty to eat. Roger can eat his lunch in two minutes and it’s mean of Catherine to ask him if he’s afraid of getting fat. He’s the thinnest boy in school now.”
Yes, Elizabeth Ann could see that kind of thing was unkind for Catherine to say. ”

“ Elizabeth Ann replied. “Couldn’t Roger play the piano beautifully? He told me he plays by ear.”
“What’s by ear?” asked Doris, looking as though she rather suspected Elizabeth Ann might be teasing her.
“He hears people play, and he can play what they do,” Elizabeth Ann explained. “He can’t read music—not the way Catherine157 can, when she practices her music lesson.”
Aunt Grace came to the door and opened it.
“Catherine just telephoned,” she said. “She is coming over to see you; if you get too cold outdoors, you must bring her in. There is a nice fire in the fireplace in the parlor.” ”

“ Lyn said, “but I suppose I ought to. Your Cousin Nellie talked to me about school this summer. She says everyone ought to learn as much as they can.”
16 “My, yes,” agreed Elizabeth Ann seriously. “There is a great deal to learn. Maybe you never get through. My Aunt Ida who has a school—that’s where I went last winter with my cousin Doris—goes to school herself. She takes lectures during vacation and studies all the time.”
Lyn had never heard of a school teacher who still studied school books, and before she could think of anything to say, an old white horse came rambling up to the steps. ”

“ Elizabeth Ann admitted, “but we can’t help that. If Catherine thinks she is going to be scolded, she will never tell. And if we can promise her no one will say a word, she won’t mind telling. We want Roger to stop working for Mr. Gould—never mind about Catherine.”
“Yes, but how can you tell Uncle Hiram when you said you wouldn’t?” asked the practical Doris.
213 “I’m going to see Catherine now and ask her to let me tell,” Elizabeth Ann explained. “You go on to the house and tell Aunt Grace where I am; I’ll come as soon as I see Catherine.” ”

“ But Uncle Hiram had overheard Catherine’s remark. And if Elizabeth Ann and Doris had ever wondered whether he could be really cross, they knew the answer now. Uncle Hiram was not at all pleased.
“I don’t know what your father would say, Kitty, if he heard you make a remark like that,” said Uncle Hiram. “Roger Calendar is80 a fine boy in every respect. I hope the other pupils in school don’t feel toward him as you do.”
“Oh, no one pays any attention to him,” Catherine replied. “He keeps to himself. I guess he doesn’t feel just right among the rest of us. ”

“ Miss Owen said that would be a dreadful thing to do and Catherine’s own daddy, when he heard of the plan, said he would not let such a thing happen.
“If you plan to invite the entire class, you’ll have to invite every one of them,” said Mr. Gould to his daughter, firmly. “I won’t have anyone deliberately slighted; I like Roger Calendar, and the boy gets little enough fun. Ask him to your party.”
110 “He won’t have anything to wear,” objected Catherine.
“He can wear what he pleases to a Hallowe’en party,” Mr. Gould said. “Ask him, anyway.” ”

“ He’s gone to ask the man who owns the restaurant if he can go down in the cellar and hunt for you.”
And just then Uncle Hiram parted the curtains and looked in at the two girls. He saw Elizabeth Ann and he said to her, exactly as Doris had, “Where have you been?” Only he added, “I thought I asked you to wait till I came back.”
“I went to look for Tony,” said Elizabeth Ann. “I thought he might have gone down cellar to hunt for mice. And a lady thought I was Esther stealing jam and she told me to put out my hand and she hit me three times with her ruler.” ”

“ She sat beside her mother and drank her milk when she saw Uncle Doctor looking at her, but she didn’t touch her plate and Elizabeth Ann was surprised to see that she didn’t eat her dessert either when Emmy brought that in. Elizabeth Ann was never allowed to have dessert if she didn’t eat her dinner; but here was Doris, who could have apparently what she wanted, refusing to eat a chocolate éclair. ”

“ Doris announced indignantly, after she had heard what had happened, “I wouldn’t have anything to do with170 the silly old fair. Or else ask Miss Owen if you can help me get some dolls. The girl who is my partner is afraid to ask people, and so am I.”
At first Elizabeth Ann thought she would do that. But Uncle Hiram and Miss Owen said no, when she asked them. They said that it was “high time” that Doris learned how to ask people for the things she wanted.
“She can’t have you to help her all her life,” said Uncle Hiram to Elizabeth Ann. ”

“ Lawton’s kitchen was most pleasant, though not, Elizabeth Ann decided, quite as nice as Aunt Grace’s kitchen which Uncle Hiram would call the galley. But the Lawton kitchen was large, and there was a great fire86 in the range and oh, my, how deliciously the room did smell.
“I’ve made forty glasses of grape jelly this morning,” said Mrs. Lawton proudly. “I’d like you to try some on bread and butter; I always think jelly tastes better on bread and butter than any other way you can eat it. ”

“ For Girls from 7 to 12
Elizabeth Ann is a little girl whom we first meet on a big train, travelling all alone. Her father and mother have sailed for Japan, and she is sent back East to visit at first one relative’s home, and then another. Of course, she meets many new friends, some of whom she is quite happy with, while others—but you must read the stories for yourself. Every other girl who reads the first of these charming books will want all the rest; for Elizabeth Ann is certainly worth the cultivating. ”

“ Catherine sat on the grass, eating her lunch with several of the grammar grade pupils. Catherine never would climb a tree, Mattie whispered to Elizabeth Ann. She said that only boys liked to climb trees.
“Why, I like to climb ’em,” said Elizabeth Ann, meaning the trees. “So does Doris, though she can’t climb a very high tree. Lots of girls like to climb trees.”
“Of course they do,” Mattie agreed. “Catherine only says that, because she doesn’t like to climb trees. And she’s mad because Roger’s writing was the best in the class this morning, and Miss Owen pinned it on the104 board. ”