Mary Finley Leonard

“ When one afternoon they saw her in her scarlet jacket, looking over the garden wall, Walter waved his hand and Thompson grinned broadly over the back of the chair, while Caro nodded and smiled in response, quite as if they had been old friends.
“Don’t you want to see your picture?” Walter asked; “they are on the library table, Thompson,” he added.
As the man went off Caro swung her feet over on the Grayson side of the fence, and then in another minute she had slipped down and was beside Walter’s chair. “I mustn’t stay long,” she said. ”

“ Can’t my girl do that?”
“Marjorie said you meant ‘be good.’”
“Well—yes, only I should say be loving and kind. There are so many sad, lonely, worried people in the world, who need a little cheer. The very best way to be a candle is to love people, Caro.”
“I love you, grandpa!”
“And you bring a great deal of cheer into my life, dear.”
[20] “Do I?” with a pleased laugh. She put her arms around her grandfather’s neck and pressed her cheek to his for a moment, then with a sudden change from seriousness to mischief, she turned to Trolley. “Pussie,” she said, “you must be a candle too. ”

“ The excitement was growing when Marjorie made a discovery. “Caro!” she cried, “the feathers are coming out!”
Sure enough on one side of the mattress there was a long rip, and from it the feathers were beginning to fly.
“It is like a snowstorm,” exclaimed Caro, taking her turn at jumping.
“Goody, a snowstorm! Let’s pretend it’s snowing,” Marjorie cried, and Tom clapped his hands and danced with joy at the idea.
Such active exercise was heating, so they put up the windows and then the fun grew fast and furious. Around and around they went ”

“ This was just at the time when the Graysons and some others were bringing suit to prevent the laying of a trolley line on the avenue, and between the progressive people who wished more rapid transportation than the stage which passed back and forth once an hour, and the old-fashioned residents who feared to have the beauty of their street destroyed, and their quiet disturbed by clanging bells and buzzing wheels, feeling had grown exceedingly bitter. ”

“ Trolley as if to expostulate against being disturbed, tucked his head almost out of sight and curled up tighter than before. No one could have had the heart to disturb him.
“She is the child we saw on the fence the other day, Thompson,” Mr. Grayson explained as Caro ran off.
“Yes, sir;” Thompson replied, watching till the red jacket disappeared in the distance; “She’s visiting here—she’s Dr. Barrow’s granddaughter; I have seen her playing about. Shall I take you down through the garden sir?”
As he was wheeled along the sunny path there was a smile on Walter’s face. ”

“ Barrows glanced up at the portrait of a sweet-faced young woman in an old-fashioned gown, as he replied.
“This candlestick belonged to your grandmother, Caro, when she was a little girl, and now I am going to give it to another little girl who has her name, and who sometimes reminds me of her. You are to put one of the candles in it and put it on your dressing table, and when the gas is out after you go to bed you can [13] have a little candle-light to keep you from being lonely.”
“You are the dearest, sweetest, goodest grandpa in the world!” Caro exclaimed with a ferocious hug. ”

“ So it was in the Barrows orchard, for years a favorite playground for the children of the family.
Marjorie had some paper dolls and a new book to show Caro, and these they carried with them.
“Let’s run, so Tom won’t see us and want to come,” she said.
Little Tom Turner who lived next door, was in her opinion only useful as a playmate when she had no one else, or to make up the necessary number in some game, usually it was more fun to run away from him. So they raced through the long grass, brown curls and flaxen braids bobbing up and down in their haste. ”

“ After Caro reached home she began to be afraid that Trolley would not come back and the thought made her rather unhappy, but just as the lunch bell rang he came trotting across the lawn. She was watching at the window and ran to open the door, giving him such a warm welcome that the president who saw it, remarked to Aunt Charlotte, “I don’t know what Caro would do without that cat.” ”

“ OLD FRIENDS
“There is one thing I don’t understand,” remarked Aunt Charlotte at the breakfast table, “and that is how one of the Grayson servants happened to come over here to ask about the children yesterday.”
“It was Thompson, I guess,” said Caro who was eating her oatmeal, stopping every other minute to smile at her grandfather.
“Who is Thompson?” he asked.
“He is the one who takes care of Walter, and he is very nice. Why grandpa, he is almost as good as Kellar; he can do all sorts of sleight-of-hand tricks!” ”

“ The cold kept Walter Grayson housed for the greater part of the time but he was enlivened by frequent visits from the children. For his benefit they built a remarkable snow man on the lawn outside the library windows and Miss Elizabeth said not a word, although her order-loving eyes found the grotesque object almost painful. It amused Walter, and so she could endure it.
He and Caro spent hours over plans for the Christmas party, to which his sister had offered no objection, but she asked no questions and shrank from having anything to do with it. ”

“ Marjorie had a great deal to tell about her [17] visit, and as she listened Caro’s eyes presently made a discovery. “Why there’s a gate! where does it go?” she asked.
The boundary line of the Barrows’ grounds was marked by a rough stone wall, against which grew currant and gooseberry bushes, and almost hidden by these she noticed now for the first time a gate.
“Why Caro I’ll tell you, the people who live over there aren’t nice at all. They got mad at papa because of the trolley line, and they won’t give any money to the seminary because they are mad at Uncle Charles too.” ”

“ Then Caro remembered that she had not told anyone about all that had gone on in the garden, and she couldn’t think where to begin.
[70] “Can’t you answer your aunt,” said her grandfather.
“Why yes—Aunt Charlotte,—I know them,—I got acquainted with them a long time ago.”
“With Walter Grayson? Why no one ever sees him; you must be mistaken,” Miss Barrows exclaimed.
“But I went to see him,” said Caro. “It wasn’t wrong, was it grandpa? You know you said to be a candle was to take a little cheer to lonely people—and I was sure he must be lonely. ”

“ With a book under his arm Dr. Barrows started out, so absorbed in thought of his small granddaughter that he passed through the gate without seeing her till she called, “Goodby grandpa!”
“Why Caro! Aren’t you afraid you will fall?”
[5] Caro shook her curls vigorously, and then leaning forward she said plaintively, “Grandpa—please don’t let Aunt Charlotte make me sleep in the dark.”
“I fear you are a foolish little girl,” replied the president meaning to look stern, but succeeding only in smiling fondly at the witch on the pillar, who appropriated the smile and ignored the words. ”

“ The weeks before Christmas were merry ones. As if to make up for his delay winter came in earnest with a heavy snow followed by [76] freezing weather, which made endless fun for the children. To Caro snow that lay on the ground for any length of time was a delightful novelty, and she wanted to be out from morning till night. ”

“ Caro insisted.
It was dark and chilly in the vestibule so they went back into the chapel where the air was still warm. Even here the light was dim, for the short afternoon was nearly over. The shadows looked so dark in the corners that Marjorie exclaimed, “Oh Caro I’m afraid!”
“I don’t think anything can happen to us, and they will find us pretty soon I’m sure,” [66] said Caro encouragingly, although she couldn’t help thinking how very dark it would be after a while.
“We’ll starve! I am hungry now,” Marjorie said tearfully. ”

“ My sister has given her consent to anything I wish, but it is hard for her.”
“She will be happier in the end. She is too fine a woman to shut herself in—the world needs her,” answered Dr. Barrows.
“She is good, nobody knows it so well as I,” said Walter.
“And now my boy anything I can do I will do gladly,” the president added.
“It is just to let my friends know that I [74] shall be glad to see them, and that on our side all feeling about the old quarrel is put away. And” he added almost gaily, “I think I shall get Caro to help me with a Christmas party.”
“A Christmas party here? how lovely!” ”

“ Caro was feeling a little shy, and the smile put her at her ease. She had lived all her life among people who loved and petted her, and it did not enter her mind that she could be unwelcome anywhere unless she was naughty.
“I thought maybe you’d like to see him,” she explained.
“He is very handsome; is he your cat?”
“Why just see! He likes you,” Caro exclaimed, [33] as after a few preliminary turns, Trolley curled himself up on the soft rugs and began to purr, thus expressing his unqualified approval of this resting place.
“Aren’t you the little girl I saw on the fence the other day? ”

“ He was one of my sister’s pets.”
“Do you suppose she’d like to see him?” Caro asked.
A smile flitted across Walter’s face as he replied, “I really don’t know; she is out this morning.”
The conversation was brought to an end by [35] the appearance of Thompson, who was no doubt greatly surprised to find a little girl and a striped cat with his master.
“I think I’d better go,” Caro said, “Aunt Charlotte might want me, but Trolley can stay awhile if you’d like to have him.” ”

“ Barrows walked down the street he reflected that he should have but a divided mind to give to seminary matters, if the present state of affairs continued, and the seminary needed his close attention just now.
It was two weeks since his granddaughter had arrived to spend several months in his home while her father and mother were traveling. “I am afraid we have spoiled her a little,” his daughter Elinor wrote, “and hard as it is for me to give her up I feel sure it will be good for her to be in Aunt Charlotte’s hands [6] for a time. ”

“ Marjorie replied in an offhand manner as she picked some Spanish needles from her dress.
“Candles aren’t good; that’s silly,” said Caro scornfully.
“I don’t care, he meant something like that; you ask him.”
She did ask him that evening. It was just at twilight and Dr. Barrows was sealing a letter to his daughter when Caro seated herself on the [19] arm of his chair. “Can I talk to you grandpa?” she asked; and as if he too wished to join in the conversation, Trolley, with one silent spring was on the study table, close to the president’s elbow. ”

“ Persons who could be angry at her grandfather certainly could not be nice, Caro thought. “But what was the gate for?” she asked.
“A long time ago when Sister Alice and Brother Charlie were little they used to play with the Graysons.”
“Oh, are there children there?”
“No, indeed; that was a long time ago; but Caro—” Marjorie’s voice sank to a whisper—“there’s a man over there who has something the matter with him. He can’t walk, and a servant pushes him around in a chair. Nobody ever sees him, but one day I peeped over [18] the fence and there he was, all wrapped up and—dear! ”

“ Barrows left town on seminary business and was gone several weeks. Hard times had effected the seminary, an effort must be made to increase its funds, and this was the task the president had before him. In this way it happened that he heard nothing of the visit to Walter Grayson.
Caro missed him very much, for although she and Aunt Charlotte were beginning to understand each other, they would never be [38] the intimate friends she and her grandfather were.
When Marjorie heard the story she exclaimed, “Why Caro! You had better not let Aunt Charlotte know; she’ll scold you like everything.” ”

“ They asked conundrums, and Thompson showed himself to be an accomplished sleight-of-hand man, finding silver dollars in impossible places, and making handkerchiefs appear and disappear, in a surprising manner. ”

“ I’ll never be lonesome any more.”
Aunt Charlotte shook her head and called it a compromise, when the plan was explained to her, but made no real objection to it.
There was a faculty meeting that evening in the president’s study, and two of the members had arrived and were talking with their host when a shrill voice was heard crying: “Go away Jane, I will call him! ”

“ Musical Journey of Dorothy and Delia. By Bradley Gilman.
Our Uncle, the Major. A Story of 1765. By James Otis.
Pair of Them (A) . By Evelyn Raymond.
Playground Toni. By Anna Chapin Ray.
Play Lady (The) . By Ella Farman Pratt. ”