“Anne go to your room and stay there until I come up,” said Marilla,recovering her powers of speech with difficulty.
Anne, bursting into tears, rushed to the hall door,slammed it until the tins on the porch wall outside rattled in sympathy,and fled through the hall and up the stairs like a whirlwind.A subdued slam above told that the door of the east gable had been shut with equal vehemence.
“Well, I don’t envy you your job bringing _that_ up, Marilla,” said Mrs. Rachel with unspeakable solemnity.
Marilla opened her lips to say she knew not what of apology or deprecation.What she did say was a surprise to herself then and ever afterwards.
“You shouldn’t have twitted her about her looks, Rachel.”
“Marilla Cuthbert, you don’t mean to say that you are upholding her in such a terrible display of temper as we’ve just seen?” demanded Mrs. Rachel indignantly.
“No,” said Marilla slowly, “I’m not trying to excuse her.She’s been very naughty and I’ll have to give her a talking to about it.But we must make allowances for her. She’s never been taught what is right.And you _were_ too hard on her, Rachel.”
Marilla could not help tacking on that last sentence,although she was again surprised at herself for doing it. Mrs.Rachel got up with an air of offended dignity.
“Well, I see that I’ll have to be very careful what I say after this, Marilla,since the fine feelings of orphans, brought from goodness knows where,have to be considered before anything else. Oh, no, I’m not vexed--don’t worry yourself.I’m too sorry for you to leave any room for anger in my mind.You’ll have your own troubles with that child.But if you’ll take my advice--which I suppose you won’t do,although I’ve brought up ten children and buried two--you’ll do that ‘talking to’ you mention with a fair-sized birch switch.I should think _that_ would be the most effective language for that kind of a child.Her temper matches her hair I guess. Well, good evening, Marilla.I hope you’ll come down to see me often as usual.But you can’t expect me to visit here again in a hurry,if I’m liable to be flown at and insulted in such a fashion. It’s something new in _my_ experience. ”
Whereat Mrs. Rachel swept out and away--if a fat woman who always waddled _could_ be said to sweep away--and Marilla with a very solemn face betook herself to the east gable.
On the way upstairs she pondered uneasily as to what she ought to do.She felt no little dismay over the scene that had just been enacted.How unfortunate that Anne should have displayed such temper before Mrs. Rachel Lynde, of all people!Then Marilla suddenly became aware of an uncomfortable and rebuking consciousness that she felt more humiliation over this than sorrow over the discovery of such a serious defect in Anne’s disposition. And how was she to punish her?The amiable suggestion of the birch switch--to the efficiency of which all of Mrs.Rachel’s own children could have borne smarting testimony--did not appeal to Marilla.She did not believe she could whip a child. No,some other method of punishment must be found to bring Anne to a proper realization of the enormity of her offense.
Marilla found Anne face downward on her bed, crying bitterly,quite oblivious of muddy boots on a clean counterpane.
“Anne,” she said not ungently.
No answer.
“Anne,” with greater severity, “get off that bed this minute and listen to what I have to say to you. ”
Anne squirmed off the bed and sat rigidly on a chair beside it,her face swollen and tear-stained and her eyes fixed stubbornly on the floor.
“This is a nice way for you to behave. Anne!Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?”
“She hadn’t any right to call me ugly and redheaded,” retorted Anne, evasive and defiant.
“You hadn’t any right to fly into such a fury and talk the way you did to her, Anne.I was ashamed of you--thoroughly ashamed of you. I wanted you to behave nicely to Mrs. Lynde,and instead of that you have disgraced me.I’m sure I don’t know why you should lose your temper like that just because Mrs.Lynde said you were red-haired and homely. You say it yourself often enough.”
“Oh, but there’s such a difference between saying a thing yourself and hearing other people say it,” wailed Anne. “You may know a thing is so,but you can’t help hoping other people don’t quite think it is.I suppose you think I have an awful temper, but I couldn’t help it.When she said those things something just rose right up in me and choked me. I _had_ to fly out at her.”
“Well, you made a fine exhibition of yourself I must say. Mrs.Lynde will have a nice story to tell about you everywhere--and she’ll tell it, too.It was a dreadful thing for you to lose your temper like that, Anne.”
“Just imagine how you would feel if somebody told you to your face that you were skinny and ugly, ” pleaded Anne tearfully.
An old remembrance suddenly rose up before Marilla.She had been a very small child when she had heard one aunt say of her to another,“What a pity she is such a dark, homely little thing.” Marilla was every day of fifty before the sting had gone out of that memory.
“I don’t say that I think Mrs. Lynde was exactly right in saying what she did to you, Anne,” she admitted in a softer tone. “Rachel is too outspoken.But that is no excuse for such behavior on your part.She was a stranger and an elderly person and my visitor--all three very good reasons why you should have been respectful to her.You were rude and saucy and”--Marilla had a saving inspiration of punishment--“you must go to her and tell her you are very sorry for your bad temper and ask her to forgive you.”
“I can never do that,” said Anne determinedly and darkly. “You can punish me in any way you like,Marilla. You can shut me up in a dark, damp dungeon inhabited by snakes and toads and feed me only on bread and water and I shall not complain.But I cannot ask Mrs. Lynde to forgive me.”
“We’re not in the habit of shutting people up in dark damp dungeons,” said Marilla drily,“especially as they’re rather scarce in Avonlea. But apologize to Mrs.Lynde you must and shall and you’ll stay here in your room until you can tell me you’re willing to do it. ”
“I shall have to stay here forever then,” said Anne mournfully, “because I can’t tell Mrs.Lynde I’m sorry I said those things to her. How can I?I’m _not_ sorry. I’m sorry I’ve vexed you; but I’m _glad_ I told her just what I did.It was a great satisfaction. I can’t say I’m sorry when I’m not, can I?I can’t even _imagine_ I’m sorry.”
“Perhaps your imagination will be in better working order by the morning,” said Marilla,rising to depart. “You’ll have the night to think over your conduct in and come to a better frame of mind.You said you would try to be a very good girl if we kept you at Green Gables,but I must say it hasn’t seemed very much like it this evening.”
Leaving this Parthian shaft to rankle in Anne’s stormy bosom, Marilla descended to the kitchen,grievously troubled in mind and vexed in soul. She was as angry with herself as with Anne, because,whenever she recalled Mrs. Rachel’s dumbfounded countenance her lips twitched with amusement and she felt a most reprehensible desire to laugh.
CHAPTER X. Anne’s Apology
MARILLA said nothing to Matthew about the affair that evening;but when Anne proved still refractory the next morning an explanation had to be made to account for her absence from the breakfast table.Marilla told Matthew the whole story, taking pains to impress him with a due sense of the enormity of Anne’s behavior.
“It’s a good thing Rachel Lynde got a calling down; she’s a meddlesome old gossip, ” was Matthew’s consolatory rejoinder.
“Matthew Cuthbert, I’m astonished at you. You know that Anne’s behavior was dreadful, and yet you take her part!I suppose you’ll be saying next thing that she oughtn’t to be punished at all!”
“Well now--no--not exactly,” said Matthew uneasily. “I reckon she ought to be punished a little.But don’t be too hard on her, Marilla. Recollect she hasn’t ever had anyone to teach her right.You’re--you’re going to give her something to eat, aren’t you?”
“When did you ever hear of me starving people into good behavior?” demanded Marilla indignantly. “She’ll have her meals regular,and I’ll carry them up to her myself. But she’ll stay up there until she’s willing to apologize to Mrs. Lynde, and that’s final, Matthew.”
Breakfast, dinner, and supper were very silent meals--for Anne still remained obdurate.After each meal Marilla carried a well-filled tray to the east gable and brought it down later on not noticeably depleted.Matthew eyed its last descent with a troubled eye. Had Anne eaten anything at all?
When Marilla went out that evening to bring the cows from the back pasture, Matthew,who had been hanging about the barns and watching,slipped into the house with the air of a burglar and crept upstairs.As a general thing Matthew gravitated between the kitchen and the little bedroom off the hall where he slept;once in a while he ventured uncomfortably into the parlor or sitting room when the minister came to tea.But he had never been upstairs in his own house since the spring he helped Marilla paper the spare bedroom, and that was four years ago.
He tiptoed along the hall and stood for several minutes outside the door of the east gable before he summoned courage to tap on it with his fingers and then open the door to peep in.
Anne was sitting on the yellow chair by the window gazing mournfully out into the garden.Very small and unhappy she looked, and Matthew’s heart smote him.He softly closed the door and tiptoed over to her.
“Anne,” he whispered, as if afraid of being overheard, “how are you making it, Anne?”
Anne smiled wanly.
“Pretty well. I imagine a good deal, and that helps to pass the time. Of course,it’s rather lonesome. But then, I may as well get used to that.”
Anne smiled again, bravely facing the long years of solitary imprisonment before her.
Matthew recollected that he must say what he had come to say without loss of time,lest Marilla return prematurely. “Well now, Anne,don’t you think you’d better do it and have it over with?” he whispered. “It’ll have to be done sooner or later, you know,for Marilla’s a dreadful determined woman--dreadful determined, Anne. Do it right off, I say, and have it over.”
“Do you mean apologize to Mrs. Lynde?”
“Yes--apologize--that’s the very word,” said Matthew eagerly. “Just smooth it over so to speak. That’s what I was trying to get at.”
“I suppose I could do it to oblige you,” said Anne thoughtfully.“It would be true enough to say I am sorry, because I _am_ sorry now.I wasn’t a bit sorry last night. I was mad clear through, and I stayed mad all night.I know I did because I woke up three times and I was just furious every time.But this morning it was over. I wasn’t in a temper anymore--and it left a dreadful sort of goneness,too. I felt so ashamed of myself. But I just couldn’t think of going and telling Mrs. Lynde so.It would be so humiliating. I made up my mind I’d stay shut up here forever rather than do that.But still--I’d do anything for you--if you really want me to--”
“Well now, of course I do. It’s terrible lonesome downstairs without you.Just go and smooth things over--that’s a good girl.”
“Very well,” said Anne resignedly. “I’ll tell Marilla as soon as she comes in I’ve repented.”
“That’s right--that’s right, Anne. But don’t tell Marilla I said anything about it.She might think I was putting my oar in and I promised not to do that.”
“Wild horses won’t drag the secret from me,” promised Anne solemnly.“How would wild horses drag a secret from a person anyhow?”
But Matthew was gone, scared at his own success.He fled hastily to the remotest corner of the horse pasture lest Marilla should suspect what he had been up to.Marilla herself, upon her return to the house,was agreeably surprised to hear a plaintive voice calling, “Marilla” over the banisters.
“Well?” she said, going into the hall.
“I’m sorry I lost my temper and said rude things, and I’m willing to go and tell Mrs. Lynde so.”
“Very well.” Marilla’s crispness gave no sign of her relief.She had been wondering what under the canopy she should do if Anne did not give in. “I’ll take you down after milking.”
Accordingly, after milking, behold Marilla and Anne walking down the lane,the former erect and triumphant, the latter drooping and dejected.But halfway down Anne’s dejection vanished as if by enchantment.She lifted her head and stepped lightly along,her eyes fixed on the sunset sky and an air of subdued exhilaration about her.Marilla beheld the change disapprovingly.This was no meek penitent such as it behooved her to take into the presence of the offended Mrs. Lynde.
“What are you thinking of, Anne?” she asked sharply.
“I’m imagining out what I must say to Mrs. Lynde,” answered Anne dreamily.
This was satisfactory--or should have been so.But Marilla could not rid herself of the notion that something in her scheme of punishment was going askew.Anne had no business to look so rapt and radiant.
Rapt and radiant Anne continued until they were in the very presence of Mrs. Lynde,who was sitting knitting by her kitchen window. Then the radiance vanished.Mournful penitence appeared on every feature.Before a word was spoken Anne suddenly went down on her knees before the astonished Mrs.Rachel and held out her hands beseechingly.
“Oh, Mrs. Lynde, I am so extremely sorry,” she said with a quiver in her voice.“I could never express all my sorrow, no, not if I used up a whole dictionary.You must just imagine it. I behaved terribly to you--and I’ve disgraced the dear friends,Matthew and Marilla, who have let me stay at Green Gables although I’m not a boy.I’m a dreadfully wicked and ungrateful girl,and I deserve to be punished and cast out by respectable people forever.It was very wicked of me to fly into a temper because you told me the truth. It _was_ the truth;every word you said was true. My hair is red and I’m freckled and skinny and ugly.What I said to you was true, too, but I shouldn’t have said it. Oh, Mrs. Lynde, please, please,forgive me. If you refuse it will be a lifelong sorrow on a poor little orphan girl, would you, even if she had a dreadful temper?Oh, I am sure you wouldn’t. Please say you forgive me, Mrs. Lynde.”
Anne clasped her hands together, bowed her head, and waited for the word of judgment.
There was no mistaking her sincerity--it breathed in every tone of her voice. Both Marilla and Mrs.Lynde recognized its unmistakable ring.But the former understood in dismay that Anne was actually enjoying her valley of humiliation--was reveling in the thoroughness of her abasement.Where was the wholesome punishment upon which she, Marilla, had plumed herself?Anne had turned it into a species of positive pleasure.
Good Mrs. Lynde, not being overburdened with perception, did not see this.She only perceived that Anne had made a very thorough apology and all resentment vanished from her kindly, if somewhat officious, heart.
“There, there, get up, child,” she said heartily. “Of course I forgive you.I guess I was a little too hard on you, anyway. But I’m such an outspoken person.You just mustn’t mind me, that’s what. It can’t be denied your hair is terrible red;but I knew a girl once--went to school with her,in fact--whose hair was every mite as red as yours when she was young,but when she grew up it darkened to a real handsome auburn.I wouldn’t be a mite surprised if yours did, too--not a mite.”
“Oh, Mrs. Lynde!” Anne drew a long breath as she rose to her feet. “You have given me a hope.I shall always feel that you are a benefactor. Oh,I could endure anything if I only thought my hair would be a handsome auburn when I grew up.It would be so much easier to be good if one’s hair was a handsome auburn, don’t you think?And now may I go out into your garden and sit on that bench under the apple-trees while you and Marilla are talking?There is so much more scope for imagination out there.”
“Laws, yes, run along, child. And you can pick a bouquet of them white June lilies over in the corner if you like. ”
As the door closed behind Anne, Mrs. Lynde got briskly up to light a lamp.
“She’s a real odd little thing. Take this chair, Marilla; it’s easier than the one you’ve got;I just keep that for the hired boy to sit on. Yes, she certainly is an odd child,but there is something kind of taking about her after all.I don’t feel so surprised at you and Matthew keeping her as I did--nor so sorry for you, either.She may turn out all right. Of course, she has a queer way of expressing herself--a little too--well,too kind of forcible, you know; but she’ll likely get over that now that she’s come to live among civilized folks.And then, her temper’s pretty quick, I guess; but there’s one comfort,a child that has a quick temper, just blaze up and cool down,ain’t never likely to be sly or deceitful. Preserve me from a sly child, that’s what. On the whole, Marilla, I kind of like her.”
When Marilla went home Anne came out of the fragrant twilight of the orchard with a sheaf of white narcissi in her hands.
“I apologized pretty well, didn’t I?” she said proudly as they went down the lane.“I thought since I had to do it I might as well do it thoroughly.”
“You did it thoroughly, all right enough,” was Marilla’s comment.Marilla was dismayed at finding herself inclined to laugh over the recollection.She had also an uneasy feeling that she ought to scold Anne for apologizing so well; but then, that was ridiculous!She compromised with her conscience by saying severely:
“I hope you won’t have occasion to make many more such apologies.I hope you’ll try to control your temper now, Anne.”
“That wouldn’t be so hard if people wouldn’t twit me about my looks,” said Anne with a sigh.“I don’t get cross about other things; but I’m _so_ tired of being twitted about my hair and it just makes me boil right over.Do you suppose my hair will really be a handsome auburn when I grow up?”
“You shouldn’t think so much about your looks, Anne. I’m afraid you are a very vain little girl.”
“How can I be vain when I know I’m homely?” protested Anne. “I love pretty things;and I hate to look in the glass and see something that isn’t pretty.It makes me feel so sorrowful--just as I feel when I look at any ugly thing. I pity it because it isn’t beautiful.”
“Handsome is as handsome does,” quoted Marilla. “I’ve had that said to me before,but I have my doubts about it,” remarked skeptical Anne, sniffing at her narcissi. “Oh, aren’t these flowers sweet!It was lovely of Mrs. Lynde to give them to me. I have no hard feelings against Mrs. Lynde now.It gives you a lovely, comfortable feeling to apologize and be forgiven, doesn’t it?Aren’t the stars bright tonight?If you could live in a star, which one would you pick?I’d like that lovely clear big one away over there above that dark hill.”
“Anne, do hold your tongue,” said Marilla,thoroughly worn out trying to follow the gyrations of Anne’s thoughts.
Anne said no more until they turned into their own lane.A little gypsy wind came down it to meet them, laden with the spicy perfume of young dew-wet ferns.Far up in the shadows a cheerful light gleamed out through the trees from the kitchen at Green Gables.Anne suddenly came close to Marilla and slipped her hand into the older woman’s hard palm.
“It’s lovely to be going home and know it’s home,” she said. “I love Green Gables already,and I never loved any place before. No place ever seemed like home. Oh, Marilla, I’m so happy.I could pray right now and not find it a bit hard.”
Something warm and pleasant welled up in Marilla’s heart at touch of that thin little hand in her own--a throb of the maternity she had missed,perhaps. Its very unaccustomedness and sweetness disturbed her.She hastened to restore her sensations to their normal calm by inculcating a moral.
“If you’ll be a good girl you’ll always be happy, Anne.And you should never find it hard to say your prayers.”
“Saying one’s prayers isn’t exactly the same thing as praying,” said Anne meditatively.“But I’m going to imagine that I’m the wind that is blowing up there in those tree tops.When I get tired of the trees I’ll imagine I’m gently waving down here in the ferns--and then I’ll fly over to Mrs.Lynde’s garden and set the flowers dancing--and then I’ll go with one great swoop over the clover field--and then I’ll blow over the Lake of Shining Waters and ripple it all up into little sparkling waves. Oh, there’s so much scope for imagination in a wind!So I’ll not talk any more just now, Marilla.”
“Thanks be to goodness for that,” breathed Marilla in devout relief.
CHAPTER XI. Anne’s Impressions of Sunday-school
WELL, how do you like them?” said Marilla.
Anne was standing in the gable room, looking solemnly at three new dresses spread out on the bed.One was of snuffy colored gingham which Marilla had been tempted to buy from a peddler the preceding summer because it looked so serviceable;one was of black-and-white checkered sateen which she had picked up at a bargain counter in the winter;and one was a stiff print of an ugly blue shade which she had purchased that week at a Carmody store.
She had made them up herself, and they were all made alike--plain skirts fulled tightly to plain waists,with sleeves as plain as waist and skirt and tight as sleeves could be.
“I’ll imagine that I like them,” said Anne soberly.
“I don’t want you to imagine it,” said Marilla, offended. “Oh, I can see you don’t like the dresses!What is the matter with them?Aren’t they neat and clean and new?”
“Yes.”
“Then why don’t you like them?”
“They’re--they’re not--pretty,” said Anne reluctantly.
“Pretty!” Marilla sniffed. “I didn’t trouble my head about getting pretty dresses for you.I don’t believe in pampering vanity, Anne, I’ll tell you that right off. Those dresses are good,sensible, serviceable dresses, without any frills or furbelows about them,and they’re all you’ll get this summer.The brown gingham and the blue print will do you for school when you begin to go.The sateen is for church and Sunday-school.I’ll expect you to keep them neat and clean and not to tear them.I should think you’d be grateful to get most anything after those skimpy wincey things you’ve been wearing. ”
“Oh, I _am_ grateful,” protested Anne. “But I’d be ever so much gratefuller if--if you’d made just one of them with puffed sleeves.Puffed sleeves are so fashionable now. It would give me such a thrill, Marilla,just to wear a dress with puffed sleeves.”
“Well, you’ll have to do without your thrill. I hadn’t any material to waste on puffed sleeves.I think they are ridiculous-looking things anyhow. I prefer the plain, sensible ones.”
“But I’d rather look ridiculous when everybody else does than plain and sensible all by myself, ” persisted Anne mournfully.
“Trust you for that!Well, hang those dresses carefully up in your closet,and then sit down and learn the Sunday-school lesson. I got a quarterly from Mr.Bell for you and you’ll go to Sunday-school tomorrow,” said Marilla,disappearing downstairs in high dudgeon.
Anne clasped her hands and looked at the dresses.
“I did hope there would be a white one with puffed sleeves,” she whispered disconsolately.“I prayed for one, but I didn’t much expect it on that account.I didn’t suppose God would have time to bother about a little orphan girl’s dress.I knew I’d just have to depend on Marilla for it. Well,fortunately I can imagine that one of them is of snow-white muslin with lovely lace frills and three-puffed sleeves. ”
The next morning warnings of a sick headache prevented Marilla from going to Sunday-school with Anne.
“You’ll have to go down and call for Mrs. Lynde, Anne,” she said.“She’ll see that you get into the right class. Now, mind you behave yourself properly.Stay to preaching afterwards and ask Mrs. Lynde to show you our pew. Here’s a cent for collection.Don’t stare at people and don’t fidget. I shall expect you to tell me the text when you come home.”
Anne started off irreproachable, arrayed in the stiff black-and-white sateen, which,while decent as regards length and certainly not open to the charge of skimpiness,contrived to emphasize every corner and angle of her thin figure. Her hat was a little, flat,glossy, new sailor, the extreme plainness of which had likewise much disappointed Anne,who had permitted herself secret visions of ribbon and flowers. The latter, however,were supplied before Anne reached the main road,for being confronted halfway down the lane with a golden frenzy of wind-stirred buttercups and a glory of wild roses,Anne promptly and liberally garlanded her hat with a heavy wreath of them.Whatever other people might have thought of the result it satisfied Anne,and she tripped gaily down the road, holding her ruddy head with its decoration of pink and yellow very proudly.
When she had reached Mrs. Lynde’s house she found that lady gone. Nothing daunted,Anne proceeded onward to the church alone. In the porch she found a crowd of little girls,all more or less gaily attired in whites and blues and pinks,and all staring with curious eyes at this stranger in their midst,with her extraordinary head adornment. Avonlea little girls had already heard queer stories about Anne.Mrs. Lynde said she had an awful temper; Jerry Buote, the hired boy at Green Gables,said she talked all the time to herself or to the trees and flowers like a crazy girl.They looked at her and whispered to each other behind their quarterlies.Nobody made any friendly advances, then or later on when the opening exercises were over and Anne found herself in Miss Rogerson’s class.
Miss Rogerson was a middle-aged lady who had taught a Sunday-school class for twenty years.Her method of teaching was to ask the printed questions from the quarterly and look sternly over its edge at the particular little girl she thought ought to answer the question. She looked very often at Anne, and Anne, thanks to Marilla’s drilling, answered promptly; but it may be questioned if she understood very much about either question or answer.
She did not think she liked Miss Rogerson, and she felt very miserable;every other little girl in the class had puffed sleeves.Anne felt that life was really not worth living without puffed sleeves.
“Well, how did you like Sunday-school?” Marilla wanted to know when Anne came home. Her wreath having faded,Anne had discarded it in the lane, so Marilla was spared the knowledge of that for a time.
“I didn’t like it a bit. It was horrid.”
“Anne Shirley!” said Marilla rebukingly.
Anne sat down on the rocker with a long sigh, kissed one of Bonny’s leaves,and waved her hand to a blossoming fuchsia.
“They might have been lonesome while I was away,” she explained. “And now about the Sunday-school.I behaved well, just as you told me. Mrs. Lynde was gone, but I went right on myself.I went into the church, with a lot of other little girls,and I sat in the corner of a pew by the window while the opening exercises went on. Mr.Bell made an awfully long prayer. I would have been dreadfully tired before he got through if I hadn’t been sitting by that window.But it looked right out on the Lake of Shining Waters,so I just gazed at that and imagined all sorts of splendid things.”
“You shouldn’t have done anything of the sort. You should have listened to Mr. Bell.”
“But he wasn’t talking to me,” protested Anne.“He was talking to God and he didn’t seem to be very much interested in it, either.I think he thought God was too far off though.There was a long row of white birches hanging over the lake and the sunshine fell down through them,‘way, ‘way down, deep into the water. Oh, Marilla, it was like a beautiful dream!It gave me a thrill and I just said, ‘Thank you for it, God,’ two or three times.”
“Not out loud, I hope,” said Marilla anxiously.
“Oh, no, just under my breath. Well, Mr.Bell did get through at last and they told me to go into the classroom with Miss Rogerson’s class.There were nine other girls in it. They all had puffed sleeves.I tried to imagine mine were puffed, too, but I couldn’t. Why couldn’t I?It was as easy as could be to imagine they were puffed when I was alone in the east gable,but it was awfully hard there among the others who had really truly puffs.”
“You shouldn’t have been thinking about your sleeves in Sunday-school.You should have been attending to the lesson. I hope you knew it.”
“Oh, yes; and I answered a lot of questions. Miss Rogerson asked ever so many.I don’t think it was fair for her to do all the asking. There were lots I wanted to ask her,but I didn’t like to because I didn’t think she was a kindred spirit.Then all the other little girls recited a paraphrase. She asked me if I knew any.I told her I didn’t, but I could recite, ‘The Dog at His Master’s Grave’ if she liked.That’s in the Third Royal Reader. It isn’t a really truly religious piece of poetry,but it’s so sad and melancholy that it might as well be.She said it wouldn’t do and she told me to learn the nineteenth paraphrase for next Sunday.I read it over in church afterwards and it’s splendid.There are two lines in particular that just thrill me.
“‘Quick as the slaughtered squadrons fell In Midian’s evil day.’