We Girls: a Home Story

common people need n

d many days; and when Leslie came, or the Haddens, we did not so much mind; besides, they knew that we were busy, and they did not expect any "coil" got up for them. Leslie came right up stairs, when she was alone; if Harry or Mr. Thayne were with her, one of us would take a wris

ork was getting on; that was such an under-satisfaction; and Delia was having such a good time.

rk and patterns about. Lucilla brought a sack and an overskirt to make; she could hardly have been spared if she had had to bring mere idle work. She sewed in gathers upon the shirts for mother, while D

with closed blinds for the most part; but that is so beautiful in summer, when the out-of-doors comes brimming in with scent and sound, and

ile she tossed a long flouncing over her sewing-table. "I know now why people who never do their own work are obliged

untry, and that has its great yard full of trees and flowers around it now; and Mrs. Waters lives in a block, flat-face to the street, with nothing pretty outside, and not very much in; for they

Mrs. Ingleside's scholars. She is a poor girl, living at service,-or, rather, working in a family for board, clothing, and a little

omething approaching the new way, leaning back behind her in the class and tracing out the twists between the questions; for Lucilla can only afford to use her own, and a few strands of harmless Berlin wool under it; she can't buy coils and braids and two-dollar rats, or intricacies ready made up at the-upholsterer's, I was going to

Delia Waite, and went to sleep with

t the room when it looked as if anything in it had been used or touched. Ruth is pretty nice abou

on the stair-rail as they came down to breakfast,

, laughing, "of

ped," said Stephe

send people home to wish for them. But she made some of her "griddles trimmed with lace," as only Barbara's griddles were trimmed; the brown lightness running out at the edges into crisp filigree. And another time it was the flaky spider-cake, turned just as it blushed golden-tawny

cheny one; and would be quite at a discount when the grand co-operative kitchens should come into play; for who cares to pu

s week; "it was so nice," she said, "to entertai

she had a secret misgiving that we were being very vulgarly comfortable in an unde

our house that she did not get some

All the Waites between them had dropped away,-out of the world, or into homes here and there of their own,-and Arabel a

ven now, with her old eyes; but she never had adapted herself to the modern ideas of the corsage. She could not fit a bias to save her life; she could only stitch up a straight slant, and leave the rest to nature and fate. So all her people had the squarest of wooden fronts, and

quaint things in their way of living. Everybody has a way of living; and if you can get into it, every one is as good as a story. It always seemed to us as if Delia brought with her the atmosphere of mysterious old houses, and old, old books stowed away in their by-places, and stories of the far past that had been lived there, and curious ancient garments done with long ago, and packed into trunks and bureaus in the dark, unu

in the very thick of our work, and Lucilla's too, walking straight up stairs, as aun

ng falling inflection, "are any of

, gravely, handing he

e that was to go each side of it upon a little round jacket for her blue silk dress, made of a piec

toss over, more or less, everything that lay about,-"to

s," repeated she, as she turned back from th

e showed them, in her pride, to Mrs. Roderick; and we knew afterward what her abstract report had been, in Grandfather Holabird's hearing. Grandfather Holabird knew we did without a good many things; but he had an impression of us, from instances like these, that we were seized with sudden spasms of reckless

t place, she has got into the habit of carrying home all the news she can, and making it as big as possible, to amuse Mr. Holabird; and the

ghtforward explanation; and it showed, she truly believed, two

rchbankses had other visitors,-people whom we did not know, and in whose way we were not thrown;

; "without any widening or narrowing or counting of

very best thing about Rose was, that she never put on anything, or left anything off, of her gentle ways and notions. She would have been r

t restless and began to think there was no way out of the family hedge. "Have everyth

nnets on, and sit at the wi

e front windows. A great deal that is good-a gr

oor to their life, as we did. They hardly se

was ajee," no

it, though, just the same, and

r chief variety was in sending for ol

mmon in the twilights, with mother, and makes a table at whist, at once lively and severe, in the evenings, for father. At t

y-Robinson-ish," that got us all together over it, in the hilarity of enterprise and the zeal of acquisition. Miss Trixie could appreciate homely cleverness; darning of carpets and covering of old furniture; she could darn a carpet herself, so as almost to improve upon-certainly to supplant-the original pattern. Yet she always had

t after breakfast, one cool morning. Then Katty washed up the dark floor-margin, and the table had its crimson-striped cloth on, and mother brought down the brown stuff for the new sofa-cover,

wning suggestion. It was not far to send, and she was not long in coming, with her second-

terproof, nor had Miss Trixies to spend the day. Th

with our story every day; but we don't mean to tell you all their stories; so you can bear with the momentary introduction when you meet the

Leslie and he came in with Ruth, when she came back from her hour with Reba Hadden. It

he said. "Won't you all com

nd Quebec; perhaps up the Saguenay; and then back, up Lake Champlain, and down the Hudson, on ou

id mother, re

ought of it till I'm almost tired of it. I don't m

ch," said Mrs. Holabird, c

ght in the middle," said B

ne. "There's to be a Westover column in Lesli

at him with a p

n I was afraid that would be impertinent. When a fellow has only eight weeks in the year of living, Mrs. Holabird, an

d so motherl

sing his first name for the first time. "You

u," in a tone that re

much. Homes and mothers are beautiful thi

see before. Then Rosamond went out with him and Leslie,-as it was our cordial, countrified fashion for somebody to do,-through the hall to t

and then he came quite back, and said it last of all, once more, to litt

n," said Miss Trixie, when we all picked up our br

since mother had said "Dakie." When anybody came close to mother, Barbara was touched. I think he

nce had come on, and wonderful how quickly it had subsided; more c

with another set of things. This was the way it was with us; we had things we must

noons, and ask Aunt Roderick and Miss Bragdowne in to tea with us. Aunt Roderick always expected this sort of attention; and yet she had a way with her as if w

ough, over the transition. We, a

dden, one morning. "We had been very much engaged among ourselves. We

paper, while this was saying. She lifted up her eyes a little, cornerwise, without moving her head, and gave a twinkle of mischief over at m

rential calculus to compute it. Circles are wonderful things; and the science of

ting circles and arcs and ellipses, against whose curves and circumfer

at the sides. You may be just tangent for a minute, and then go off into space on your own account. You may have your centre barely

d Rose, coolly. "Orbits don'

I couldn't work it all out. But I suppose t

pened freshly, rather,-which also had to do with our orbit and i

perturbations! Here's one. We're used to it, to be sure; but we never know exactly where it may come in. The girl we live with

other, anxiously,

lace again." And she sat down resignedly on

said Ruth, coming round. "I've thought

r a chance! I believe she put the lumina

Mr. Aaron Goldthwaite's ward. I do not belie