Nan was polishing the tumblers at the pantry window, outside of which John Osborne was leaning among the vines. His arms were folded on the sill and his straw hat was pushed back from his flushed, eager face as he watched Nan’s deft movements. Beyond them, old Abe Stewart was mowing the grass in the […]

“I declare, it is a real fall day,” said Mrs. Stapp, dropping into a chair with a sigh of relief as Mrs. March ushered her into the cosy little sitting-room. “The wind would chill the marrow in your bones; winter’ll be here before you know it.” “That’s so,” assented Mrs. March, bustling about to stir […]

“How beautiful!” said Mary Seymour delightedly, as they dismounted from their wheels on the crest of the hill. “Ida, who could have supposed that such a view would be our reward for climbing that long, tedious hill with its ruts and stones? Don’t you feel repaid?” “Yes, but I am dreadfully thirsty,” said Ida, who […]

“Auntie, I have something to tell you,” said Lina, with a blush that made her look more than ever like one of the climbing roses that nodded about the windows of the “old Churchill place,” as it was always called in Lower Wentworth. Miss Madeline, sitting in the low rocker by the parlour window, seemed […]

North Point, where Freda lived, was the bleakest settlement in the world. Even its inhabitants, who loved it, had to admit that. The northeast winds swept whistling up the bay and blew rawly over the long hill that sloped down to it, blighting everything that was in their way. Only the sturdy firs and spruces […]

Will Barrie went whistling down the lane of the Locksley farm, took a short cut over a field of clover aftermath and through a sloping orchard where the trees were laden with apples, and emerged into the farmhouse yard where Curtis Locksley was sitting on a pile of logs, idly whittling at a stick. “You […]

The Ingelows, of Ingelow Grange, were not a marrying family. Only one of them, Elizabeth, had married, and perhaps it was her “poor match” that discouraged the others. At any rate, Ellen and Charlotte and George Ingelow at the Grange were single, and so was Paul down at Greenwood Farm. It was seventeen years since […]

The Newburys were agog with excitement over the Governor’s picnic. As they talked it over on the verandah at sunset, they felt that life could not be worth living to those unfortunate people who had not been invited to it. Not that there were many of the latter in Claymont, for it was the Governor’s […]

“Oh, dear! oh, dear!” fretted Nan Wallace, twisting herself about uneasily on the sofa in her pretty room. “I never thought before that the days could be so long as they are now.” “Poor you!” said her sister Maude sympathetically. Maude was moving briskly about the room, putting it into the beautiful order that Mother […]

Selwyn Grant sauntered in upon the assembled family at the homestead as if he were returning from an hour’s absence instead of a western sojourn of ten years. Guided by the sound of voices on the still, pungent autumnal air, he went around to the door of the dining room which opened directly on the […]

Margaret paused a moment at the gate and looked back at the quaint old house under its snowy firs with a thrill of proprietary affection. It was her home; for the first time in her life she had a real home, and the long, weary years of poorly paid drudgery were all behind her. Before […]

Matthew was having a bad ten minutes of it. He had come into the kitchen, in the twilight of a cold, grey December evening, and had sat down in the wood-box corner to take off his heavy boots, unconscious of the fact that Anne and a bevy of her schoolmates were having a practice of […]

Alan Douglas threw down his pen with an impatient exclamation. It was high time his next Sunday’s sermon was written, but he could not concentrate his thoughts on his chosen text. For one thing he did not like it and had selected it only because Elder Trewin, in his call of the evening before, had […]

Dr. Clark shook his head gravely. “She is not improving as fast as I should like to see,” he said. “In fact–er–she seems to have gone backward the past week. You must send her to the country, Miss Langley. The heat here is too trying for her.” Dr. Clark might as well have said, “You […]

Melissa sent word on Monday evening that she thought we had better go round with the subscription list for cushioning the church pews on Tuesday. I sent back word that I thought we had better go on Thursday. I had no particular objection to Tuesday, but Melissa is rather fond of settling things without consulting […]

“Look here, Burton,” said old John Ellis in an ominous tone of voice, “I want to know if what that old busybody of a Mary Keane came here today gossiping about is true. If it is–well, I’ve something to say about the matter! Have you been courting that niece of Susan Oliver’s all summer on […]

Katherine Rangely was packing up. Her chum and roommate, Edith Wilmer, was sitting on the bed watching her in that calm disinterested fashion peculiarly maddening to a bewildered packer. “It does seem too provoking,” said Katherine, as she tugged at an obstinate shawl strap, “that Ned should be transferred here now, just when I’m going […]

Clifford Baxter came into the sitting-room where Patty was darning stockings and reading a book at the same time. Patty could do things like that. The stockings were well darned too, and Patty understood and remembered what she read. Clifford flung himself into a chair with a sigh of weariness. “Tired?” queried Patty sympathetically. “Yes, […]

“Are you going to answer Gilbert’s letter tonight, Anna?” asked Alma Williams, standing in the pantry doorway, tall, fair, and grey-eyed, with the sunset light coming down over the dark firs, through the window behind her, and making a primrose nimbus around her shapely head. Anna, dark, vivid, and slender, was perched on the edge […]

Patty came in from her walk to the post office with cheeks finely reddened by the crisp air. Carry surveyed her with pleasure. Of late Patty’s cheeks had been entirely too pale to please Carry, and Patty had not had a very good appetite. Once or twice she had even complained of a headache. So […]