Mary Cary / Frequently Martha""

It does. The orphans are sure enough children, and real much like the kind that have Mothers and Fathers; but thoug

e down in the basement with the others. There are days when I love thunder and lightning. I can't flash a

alk to us for the benefit of our characters. He thinks it's his duty, and, just naturally loving to talk, he wears us out o

d not to hear-it makes you so mad. Hear him I did, and when, after he had ambled on unt

nd for everything you should be thankful. Are you?

. I was the only one that sat, and when he saw me, his sunk eye almost rolled out, and his good e

and up. Can you be thankful for toothache, or stomachache,

l still, and then

you mean to say you have not a thankful heart?" And he point

hinking it safer,

al red-in-the-face mad-"do I understand you are not tha

fe. I'd be much thankfuller to have a Mother and Father on earth than to have them in heaven. And there ar

ly didn't. Speaking facts is apt to make trouble, though-also writing them. To-day Miss Bray kept me in for putting something on the

are crazy a

are crazy

o let people know you know how queer they are. Miss Bray takes personal everything I do, and when she saw th

about, I don't mind being by myself every now and then. Miss Br

ys is risky to do to people, and that it's safer to keep your feelings to yourself. People don't really care about them, and there's nothing they get so tired of hearing about. A diar

ther on earth than to have them in heaven, but I guess I should have kep

ove to be close to me. I guess that is why, when I was little, I used to hold out my arms at nig

people what they don't want to know. I found that out almost tw

oked so funny that everybody stared, though nobody dared to even smile visible. All the children are afraid of Miss Bray; but at that tim

you say?" And she bent her

pering, not wanting the others to hear. "Only one side is pink-" But I didn't g

gment-day had come. "You little piece of impertinence! You shall be punished well for thi

etter than it's being done, and she walks like she was the Superintendent of most of it. But I could stand that. I could stand her cheeks, and her frizzed front, and a good many other things; but what I can't stand is her passing for being truthfu

e the ladies were having a Board meeting. I had come in to bring some water, and had a waiter full of

t she did.

s us out for adoption, and that morning they were discussing a request for Pinkie Moore, and, as usual, Miss Bray didn't want Pinkie to go. You see, Pinkie was very useful. She did a lot of disagreeable things for Miss Br

er, and she's so slow nobody would keep her. And then, too"-her voice was the Pharisee kind that the Lord must hate worse than all others-"and then, too, I am sorry to say Pinkie is not truthful, and has been caught taking things from the girls. I hope none of you will me

tare with mouth open and eyes out; and then it was the glasses we

rneo. "Oh, Pinkie, what do you think?" Poor Pinkie, thinking a mad dog had bit me, tried to make me stop, but stop I wouldn

d then crying so I couldn't speak. Bu

Miss Bray? Are you? I want the tru

her!" she said. "I hate her worse than prunes; and if somebody would only adopt me, I'd be so thankful I'd choke for joy, except

ome of my mad by sweeping the yard as hard as I could, wishing all the time Miss Bray was the leaves, and trying to make believe she was. I was full of the things the Bible says went into swine, and I knew the

e inside, and it made me tremble all over to find it could be so. Since then I have never pretended to be friends with Miss

. Sometimes I've thought I was really something, but I'm not. Nobody much is when you know them too well. It is a good thing for your pride when you keep a diary, special

the place where job-lot charity children live. And that's what I am, an Inmate. Inmates are like malaria and dyspepsia

was sorry for it; but that was before I understood her, and before Miss Katherine came. Since Miss Katherine came I know it's yourself that matters most, not where you live

o find out all about those million worlds in the sky, so superior to earth, and so much larger; but I think, now, I'll settle on Human Nature. Nobody ever knows what it is going to do, which makes it full of surprises, but there's a lot that's real interesting about it. I like it. As

ll forget mean things. I'd forget Miss Bray's if she'd tell me she was sorry and cross her heart she'd never do them again. But I don'