Gretta

“ It makes people see and feel to have a hard time—unless it's a hard enough time to dull them," said Gretta. "That's one reason, and the other is that you have a home here this year. I never was away from here, but I'm pretty sure no other place ever looks the way home does. You wouldn't see this road as you do if you didn't feel your home was at one end of it."
Happie turned in her seat to look at Gretta. She considered her clever, but she was perpetually surprised at the insight this girl betrayed, now that she dared reveal herself. ”

“ I think you need a friend, Gretta, and I want you to look at me hard and see if you don't think I could be she. The girls in New York rather liked me."
She thrust her head forward, inviting inspection as she applied for the position, and Gretta looked into the laughing eyes, and into the sweet, dimpling face bent towards her. Her own dark eyes lighted with pleasure in what she saw, and in spite of her shyness, she laughed a little.
"You don't want me for a friend; I'm different," she said. [125]
"You look nice," announced Happie emphatically, "and I'd like to have you try me. ”

“ Gretta was blossoming out under the new happiness and companionship; she was full of a quiet humor that delighted Happie, and she imitated her little niceties of speech with a quickness that rarely needed a second hint. But Happie had not thus far been able to overcome her shyness sufficiently to get her to meet any of the other inmates of the Ark, whom Gretta avoided under one head, as "the rest." ”

“ Gretta perched herself on a chair beside the latter, fanning herself with her sunbonnet and twisting a corner of the apron which she never discarded when she came on an errand, as she never wore it when making a social call, thereby marking the difference between the two.
"I'm sure I don't know what Happie is trying to tell me," she said with a whimsical twist of the lips. "She always talks so fast that I have to listen with every bit of me—I'm used to folks that talk slow, you know. But this time an automobile couldn't keep up with her! ”

“ Happie explained, "this is a girl of our own age, or about that, whom Gretta knows; it isn't like a stranger, or a full grown teacher! And won't it be funny to see us so solemn and dignified, and Gretta talking Dutch 'yet,' as they say up here, and the girl teacher not knowing her? ”

“ As many can tell."
"Why, that's the very thing, Gretta! I'm surprised that none of the rest of us thought of it. How queer that the same piece of advice, in one form or another, has been given to us ever since we were little girls, and that we have just begun to realize what it all means!" said Fannie.
"What have you, Ernestine?" said Miriam.
"I took mine from Ecclesiastes," was the reply. "'When thou vowest a vow unto the Lord, defer not to pay it.'"
"I like that, too," said Gretta; "but I think Miss Benton's pretty card is helping me more than anything else." ”

“ Gretta nodded hard, and Happie began to protest that she would never dare do such a thing when Gretta cut her short.
"You don't know what I mean," she said. "I mean go just for fun, and all dressed up. We'll get the queerest clothes we can find, long skirts, bonnets, old-fashioned jackets, and thick veils. Then we'll go down to the schoolhouse and knock at the door. One of the children will open it, and we'll walk in. Hattie won't know you anyway, and I'll risk her finding out who I am till I'm ready to have her. ”

“ Gretta and she always omitted Reba from allusions to home affairs, she being but Eunice's reflection. "What relation is she to you?"
"She isn't any relation to me; she's Eunice's second cousin on the other side—her mother's side," said [253] Gretta. "Here are some big chestnuts! She's a young girl no older than we are, and if they don't have a poor school this winter it'll be queer! Why, she can't keep order any more!"
"Is she graduated as a teacher?" asked Happie, wondering. ”

“ She's made up her mind either you've got to take Gretta and keep her, or let her to the miserable, lonely times she was havin' when Happie took a fancy to her. She's threatened Gretta more'n once to drop her and leave her fine friends look after her, if they think so much of her! Gretta's been awful worried fer fear Eunice'd say something to you yet. Poor girl, she hain't got much of her cousins into her ”

“ Gretta.”
“When I had finished my head swam, and I felt but one mad desire, and that was to fly. I acted on the impulse and after pinning a note to the letter saying, ‘Ned, I knew some of this before, now I know all. I am going away where you will never see me or hear from me again. You must do your duty no matter [191] what the sacrifice. A lifetime of devotion cannot repay her for her loss. ”

“ There's cheatin' somewheres, but we couldn't never prove nothin'. 'Twan't his to give; we're certain of that. It ought to belong to Gretta here, and if she had it she could rent it out, or maybe take a couple of summer boarders after a year, or a couple of years more, instead of bein' a cost to us who need all we kin make for ourselves! Gretta, you git off that there bonnet and git up the potatoes. What you standin' round fer? Hain't there always work to do, I'd like to know? ”

“ You know that girl down to Neumanns'? She takes all I give her. Down in the city, folks uses such a stuff, and you'd ought to look nice like them city girls. Say not? No? Well, then! You go on mit your school, my good girl, und we'll wait a little to sell you zings." Gretta smoothed her ridiculously long-fingered gloves complacently, and bridled. Happie had not looked for such clever acting from quiet Gretta. "Leave me hear what you teaches deze little folks," she added. ”

“ Bob and Ralph, slip out to the barn and don't show yourselves until you come around with the horse—then there'll be something to talk [150] about, and she won't be shy with you. Margery, you come out after me, soon, and speak to her without my introducing you—you know how. Smile at her and speak in your soft voice, and she'll never be frightened. I'll take Penny out with me; Gretta loves babies, and Polly is too little to mind, so she can do what she likes. And mama and Aunt Keren might slip out when we are in full swing with Don Dolor, and Gretta may not realize she's meeting you. ”

“ Gretta said, as emphatically as her shyness of the stranger—who was not really a stranger at all—would allow. “Dad does need cheering up so badly, and you see he knows all about you. The ‘Little House,’ and the——” She stopped, thinking that perhaps she had said too much. ”

“ She was very quiet for a while, and then plucked at Greta's gown suddenly.
"Greta," she said eagerly, "something tells me that if I could only see Ralphie I should save him."
Greta started up in terror. "No, no, no; you must not think of it," she said.
"But something whispered it. It must have been God himself. You know we ought to obey God always."
"Mercy, it was not God who said that. It was your own heart. You must not heed it."
"I'm sure it was God," said Mercy. "And I heard it quite plain."
"Mercy, my darling, think what you are saying. Think what it is you wish to do. ”

“ Hans and Greta looked at each other. “Wilt thou?” asked the husband, in an uncertain voice.
“Never,” answered Greta, quickly. “Oh, if thou only knowest how happy I am, that at last I may be old! And, also, it would be impossible on account of our children and grandchildren. No, gracious forest-sprite, a thousand thanks for your good deed, but we remain as we are. Is it not so, Hans?”
“Yes,” nodded Hans, “we remain old. If thou couldst but know, Greta, how well your gray hair becomes you.” ”

“ Greta did not notice his correction, and went on: "I suppose there are hardly any people who only live to please themselves, are there, Mr. Tracy?"
"A good many, I think. And after all, why should we not? If we are single men and women with no family ties, who is there to think of except ourselves?"
"I thought God told us in the Bible we weren't to do it," said Greta a little shyly. "Becca is always saying it to me—'For none of us liveth to himself.'"
"Oh, well, if we gauged our life by the Bible, I suppose the world would be a different place," said Rufus, lightly. "Is that your motto, Greta? ”

“ Warren shook her head.
And Greta hastened to say, "Aunt Catherine, you know I love to be with you, so don't talk of keeping me from gaiety."
"How is it," Rufus said one day, as they walked across the moor together, "that duty and right is such a strong principle with you? Do you put it all down to your early training? I don't believe your own wants or wishes are ever consulted. I am longing to hear you say, 'I like, I want, I shall have,' but I listen in vain for the words."
"I don't think I ever do want anything different to what I have," Greta replied, laughing. ”

“ Slender and strong, in fair and shining youth, Greta stands amongst them like a bright birch-tree shot up in a thicket of withering, stunted under- growth. But all the wrinkled and worn old women feel, when they see her, a reflex of spring in their 'GOD'S PEACE' 335
own hearts, and their murmured admiration sets all their old heads nodding.
The room grows quiet as the grave when Greta sits down at the harmonium, strikes a few notes and starts her song. The air in the low, crowded room is thick and heavy. ”

“ The German Bible was a help in the worst of Greta’s troubles. Her great-grandmother must have been a good woman. But some time she would go away and then try to earn money to help her mother and the children.
Now Greta Klein was a pretty girl. Had she been dressed as well as Jean Gordon she might have looked not unlike the impulsive Jean. But her large, dark brown eyes had a sad look in them and her face was worn; for while the hard work she had been forced to do had given her a certain strength, there had been enough of it to amount to over-work, which is not good for growing girls. ”

“ She hurried home from school even faster than the day before. Chouse had to run, run, run to keep up with her bicycle. He barked and barked, as if he wanted to say, "Greta, don't go so fast." But Greta kept right on going. Nothing could stop her. She rode right up to the barn door and ran inside. Maybe the kittens had come back. But no, the bed of straw was empty.
Then Greta remembered that she had not looked in the garden. Maybe the kittens were out there playing, and the Nisser hadn't taken them at all. Joyously she ran across the courtyard, with Chouse close at her heels. ”

“ If a thing is round, it's round; you can't make it more or less round."
When they came to the entrance of Christiansborg, the guard told them that dogs were not allowed inside the castle.
"What will we do with him, Greta?" asked Anna. [Pg 172]
"He will have to wait here at the door for us," said Greta. Turning to the dog she spoke to him very sternly, "Chouse, you must be a good dog and stay right here until Anna and I come out." ”

“ Greta ran to the door, for she thought the old witch was about to strike her; but the black cat, who was sitting on the floor near by where Greta had put it, said: “Don’t you dare touch this girl; she has saved my life, and from this hour you are in my power, for a mortal has held me in her arms.
“If you would live call the good fairy that has been looking for me all these years. I shall find her, anyway, but it will save time if you use your magic power, and you will regret it if you do not obey me.” ”

“ Mercy would be blind forever! All was over and done. Greta's strong, calm spirit sunk and sunk. She saw the impostor holding to the end the name and place of the good man; and she saw the good man dragging his toilsome way through life—an outcast, a by-word, loaded with ignominy, branded with crime. And that unhappy man was her husband, and he had no stay but in her love—no hope but in her faith.
Greta stopped at the door of Hugh Ritson's office and knocked. A moment later he and she were face to face. He was dressed in his pit flannels, and was standing by a table on which a lamp burned. ”

“ The white fell rose sheer up to the grim, gray crags that hung in shaggy, snowy masses over the black seams of the ravines; and the moon's light rested on them for an instant. Without thought or aim he began to climb. The ascent was perilous at any hour to any foot save that of a mountaineer. The exertion and the watchfulness banished the vision, and his liberated mind turned to Greta. What was life itself now without Greta's love? Nothing but a succession of days. She was the savior of his outcast state ”

“ He had distinguished his sisters’ voices.
He leaned against the trunk of a tree and listened.
“Does he leave you in peace now?” one of the lovers asked, in a whisper.
“He has too much to do with his machine just now,” Greta’s voice replied; “even his unpalatable sermons he spares us.”
“You have never heeded them, anyhow!”
Greta giggled. “In spite of all his dignity he is only a stupid boy, and he understands nothing about love; as long as I can remember he has hung about Elsbeth Douglas; but do you suppose he has ever once dared raise his eyes to her? ”

“ Greta went to the woodpile and picked up the ax, but it was no use. She could not chop the wood. And fearing a beating if she did not do it, Greta ran away. On and on she ran until she came to a turn in the road which led into a forest. Here she decided to stop for the night, and she was just lying down by a rock when she heard a pitiful “me-ow.”
Looking in the bushes close by, Greta saw a big black cat holding up one paw as though it was hurt. “Poor pussy!” said Greta, taking the cat in her arms. “You look as unhappy as I feel. Let me bind up your paw.” ”