Maida's Little Shop

Table of

e-session bell but it did not ring. Just before school began in the afternoon Rosie came into the shop. Maida saw at once that something

k's happened, Mai

h, what?" Maida

She said that mother had gone away for a visit and that she wouldn't be back for some time. She said she was goin

"But perhaps your mother won't stay

er. But of course

. Nobody is li

u. The W.M.N.T.'s are going to meet at Dicky's af

ole face sparkled. "That is, if G

r usual happy-go-lucky self. And when she left, Maida noticed

e prospective meeting of the W.M.N.T.'s. "Just think, Granny,

e" of a delicate, soft lawn. She kept rushing to the window to study the sky. It continued to look like the inside of a dull tin cup. She would not ha

, Granny," she faltered w

an," Granny re

lf said: "As if I was one of papa's carv

ut a hood on her head and a veil over that. She made her wear rubber boots

Granny," she threatened merrily, "I never can pick myself up. I'll either have to roll and roll

he edge and then ran as swiftly as her clothes and lameness would

and the puppy that she had rescued from the tin-can persecution. Rosie was gr

posite each other, work

oudly. "His name is 'Tag.' You wouldn't know him for the s

to Maida and stood looking at her with the most spirited air in the world, his head on one side, one paw up and one ear cocked inquisiti

," Maida said. "I wis

," Rosie went on, hugging Delia. "Oh,

tily. "Babies are so much more fun t

ress the contempt that wa

icky?" Maida asked, li

s," Dicky sai

tirely of paper. Some were of white paper and others of brown

Aren't they lovely? I never saw

he said, pointing to the different piles of things, "and those are steamships. Those are the old-fashioned kind with double

examined Dicky's work carefully. She could see that it was done with remarkable precision and skill. "Oh, what fun to do

sure," Dicky off

king so many for

every spring and every fall for the last three years. That's how we get our money for Christmas and the Fourth of July. Arthur whitt

h money?" Maida aske

I charge them ten nails a-piece for the easy things and twenty nails for

t nails for?" Maida

ails ar

hat's

r. "Don't you know what junk is

N

out of one of these fairs. One reason we're beginning so early this year, I've got something v

a no

street every winter-two dollars and ninetyeight cents. It seems an awful lot

ade ordinarily?" Mai

y cents a-piece bu

omes for you to hold your fair, I'll lend you my shop for a day. I'll take all the things out of the window and I'll clean all the shelv

" Dicky said soberly, "but somehow

e how to make things so that I can help you. You will take the shop, Dicky?" she pleaded. "

t seems somehow as if we oughtn't

t that they disliked her, she knew. What was it? She tried to put herself in their place. Suddenly it came to her what the difficulty was. They did not want to be so much in her debt. How cou

t me help you. Listen-the next holiday is Halloween. I want to decorate my shop with a lot of real jack-o'-lanter

faces li

will," Dicky

ld make some great lanterns

," Rosie said with enthusiasm. "I j

"And now you must teach me how to h

easiest. And, indeed she had very little trouble with anything until she came to the boxes. She had to do her first box over and over again before it would come right. But Dicky was

d. "I'd like to show it to my father when he com

se," Dic

en ever try to copy you

nswered, "but they neve

aughed. "They can't stand up straight. And thei

d and silver paper and colored stars and pretty fancy pictures for trimmings. You see if you're goin

! You go ahead and buy whatever you think is right, Maida,

. What do you w

d how to do in sloyd in school. I make bread-boards and rolling pins

Dicky burst in enthusiastically. "He makes t

I never heard anything like it!

lls' furniture you ever saw in your

last night?" Arthur turned sudden

plained to Maida. "They knew a place where they could get a whole lo

got the worst scolding and mother sent me to bed without my supper. But I climbed out the window and went over to see Maida. I don't mind! I hate school and as long as I live I shall n

hat she thought there might be trouble. And it seemed to her that she would do almost anything rather than lose Rosie's friendship. But Maida had b

uldn't,"

ve to go to school. You live the easiest life that anybody can-just sittin

nything on earth if I could go. I watch that line of children every morning and afternoon of my life and wish and wish and W

, even if you did go to school, that you'd ever do anything b

never have been a very naughty girl. You can't be very naughty with your leg all crooked under you." Maida's voice had grown bitter. The children loo

Maida put her head down

t a suspicious snuffle came from his direction. Arthur Duncan walked to the window and stood looking out. Rosie sat still, her eyes downcast, her litt

s so and I guess it's true. But I do love you and I wouldn't have hurt your feelings for anyt

e you! But just the same, Rosie, I hope you won't

subject. "I brought some molasses and butter and everything I need." S

though, when it was such a temptation to stop and eat it. But she persevered and succeeded in pulling hers whiter than any

lp Molly fish Tim out of the water and to prevent Betsy from giving a stray kitten a bath. Following Rosie a

ays when it was bad weather, they worked at Maida's house. Granny gave Maida a closet all to herself a

s. Maida often stopped her own work on the paper things to watch Arthur's. It was a constant marvel to her that such big, awkward-

k that I fell into the paste-pot every day. I wash it off my hands and face

ould be molasses-candy making by the capable Rosie at the kitchen stove and corn-popping by the vigorous Arthur on the living-room hearth. After the candy had cooled and

ere in French as in English and it was the wonder of the other W.M.N.T.'s that she could read a French story, translating as she went.

ness. Since the day that Laura had made herself so disagreeable, Maida had avoided her steadily. Be

conversations that were unintelligible to anybody else. When at first they used it in fun before Maida, she

added to it like MAN-an-may. BOY-oy-bay. GIRL-irl-gay. When a word is just one sound like I or O, or when it beg

could say

schay o-tay ay-day?" and mean simpl

da's grief, Rosie wo

g-gay o-tay ook-hay ack

in the W.M.N.T.'s too. He never missed

" Dicky asked him curiously one day w

girl in a fairy-tale that I read whe

like Maida?"

er

Rosie i

agic star. Nobody but fairies could see it but it was always there. Anybody who came within the light of Petr

oke for a

a's got the star al

fore him, he listened mystified. But to their great surprise he never asked a question. They

way uart-quay of-way ice-way-eam-cray, ese

en a deafening, "es-yay!" was shout