Hildegarde's Neighbors

ied Hildegarde, peeping through

bicycles stood at the door, glittering in the sunlight; five rid

eather. "Wish you could come too, Miss Grahame. You will certainl

already perched, ready for the start; and Phil and Gera

e out on the steps, w

she said. "And don't forget the boot

what boots?" aske

at breakfast that you must be sure to remember the boots

e ce chapeau?" inqui

I will not endure slang that

be; but I want to know, because, really,

ar me!" she said, "it is a basket, sure enough. That is very curi

green leaves in it," she said; "it will be all right. But I sent it to the minister's wife, and I fear she wi

and it was a detestable lesson. I am SO tired of h

bout forty years ago, and Titus Labby was on the hill then. I

itatively. "Always on a hill; why, so he is! T

eather. "I desire to depart. If Caesar had ha

the bogs. Then came Vercingetorix on a '91 Columbia, weighing seventy-three pounds, and said, 'How in

nearly sending him from his seat. Gerald whirled off in pursuit; the others fo

to mount one. Somehow her views had changed since she had seen the Merryweathers on theirs. She began to think that it would be uncommonly pleasant to go skimming along like a swallow, swoop

both coming over this

ly. "I mean this eveni

usic. Kitty, my dea

en

" asked Hilda, rousing herself from a little reverie.

said Mrs. Grahame. "Yes; let us have our work, by all means. There a

ng over the smooth road, with the wind lifting her hair and breathing cool against her cheek. And here was her mother sitting alone, and the new tablecloths to hem, and-and

e interest in business matters." Hildegarde wondered what was coming; her mother looked very grave; she held in her hand a square grey envelope. "I shall be

rt still throbs with terror. Are you all comfortable, my own? Your little feet all tucked up beneath your petticoat, so that they cannot steal in and out? Don't you want a glass of milk, or a cra

me awfully jolly concerts this spring, and I have been going to them, and practising four hours a day, and having lessons and al

he great violinist's performances,

with myself, and no end cocked up because you liked it. Hilda, I ought to have been taken out and shot for daring to touch it! When the maestro (they call him maestro here, so you mustn't think me Frenchified), when he played it, the world seemed just to melt away, and

kly. "We must not touch upon the boy's c

most gratifying, I assure you. 'Not tell any living sou

lad! of course I shall like to hear it. Go on,

ajor; your heart seems to sweep up with it, and you find yourself in another world, where everything is divine harmony. I'm talking nonsense, I know, but that piece just sends me off my head altogether. Well, at last I finished it and came down from the clouds, and when I turned around, Hilda, there was the maestro himself, standing and listening. Well! you can't go through the floor and all that sort of thing, as they do in the fairy-books, but I did wish I was a mouse, or a flea, or anything smaller that there is. He stood still a minute. Perhaps he was afraid I would be

ours. I guess you can tell pretty much how I behaved, though I really am getting to be not quite so much of a muff. Anyhow, he

g once in a while to explain to me, and to describe this or that shade of expression or turn of the wrist. It was the most splendid lesson any one ever had, I believe. But that is not the best, and I hardly like to tell even you the rest. You may think I am just bluffing, and a

change two others,' he said. 'The fat English lady has shortness of breath, and cannot keep my hours of work, and the young

wonder why everything is done so for me, and such happiness given to a fellow like me, when there are hundreds of other fellows who deserve it a great deal more. I know what you and your mother would say, and I do feel it, and I am thankful, I truly think, with all my heart, and I hope I shall be a better fellow in every way, and try to make some return. I c

iest fellow in the world! Best love to your mothe

your aff

AC

at the lovely Rose was going to marry Dr. Flower; but I guess it is all right. You see, she must be very sweet and all that; but after all, I never saw her, and you say she has no ear for music, and I am afraid that wo

slanged the U. S. I got a cut on my left arm, but then,

student duels are not apt to be serious affairs nowadays, I believe, but s

rse, mammina, it isn't like a real, dreadful duel, is it? I mean, it is more a kind of horrid bear-play? But oh, to think of our Jack cutting off a piece of a man's ear! It al

arties seem to take in all our little circle. See! there come the riders back again, Gera

her mother, and put her ar

e two women laughed and kissed each