Faith Gartney's Girlhood

now if I do ch

fortune fa

t, and se

nt of

nursery door, which opened from her room, "don't let Hendie

can help it. I dare say he'd get up a Revolution of '76, over again

chairs, so that I shall have to demolish my way bac

e that there was delicious roast beef smoking on the table, and Christmas pies arrayed upon the sideboard, while upstairs the bright ribbon and tiny, shining, old-fashioned buckles were waiting to be shaped into rosettes for the new slippers, and the lace hung, half baste

leigh's dressing room; their hurried chat and gladsome greetings distracted with the drawing on of gloves and the last adjustment of shining locks, whil

t that had their own flattering weight and charm; for the lady was a sort of St. Peter of fashion, holding its mystic keys, and admitting

he joyous whirlpool of the dance, till she had breathed in enough of delight and excitement to carry her quite beyond the thought even of ices

room in one great circle; and suddenly a hush of the music, at the very poising instant of time, left them motionless for a moment to burst out again in the age-honored and heartwarming strains of "Auld Lang Syne." Hand joining hand they sang its chorus, and when the last

'witching hour' t

threshold of a little inner apartment that o

arge and beautiful volum

everybody who care

s, arranged by numbers, and to be chosen thereb

as such a charm! Especially with them to whom the past is but a prelude and beginning, a

ed and crowded eagerly about her. "Fate doesn't give out her revelations in

ing the crimson-covered book of destiny upon an inlaid table, brought forwa

the rhyme or stanza indicated; and who shall say how long those chance-directed words, chosen for the most part with the elastic ambiguity of all oracles of any establis

came up among

are there to choos

xty-five. The number

umber of the day; the last-n

, not untouched with the grave beauty of its own words, and the sweet, ear

high and holy

ngel's happin

earth while in

n by thee whi

iver run, and

o a specially accorded grace of music. Faith stood, thoughtfully, by the table where the book was closed and left. She quietly reope

oracle, then?" as

look as of a wise and watchful angel, though it came through the eye and

-it is co