red to hear some thrilling chapters of Parkman. Margaret and Bell had their sewing, Gertrude her drawing-board

ns, and shut in by walls of dusky pine, soft and fragrant. The tree-trunks made excellent (though sometimes rather sticky) chair-b

ture of the rest of the family. "How strange it seems, sitting here in this green pea

nd of thing, wading in snow-water up to his knees, and sleeping on the frozen ground, rolled in his blanket, while his clothes dried and froze stiff on the trees! think of him standing alone aga

y, Peggy?" asked Bell,

the Conqueror, and all those people used to bore me dreadfully, though M

but you never would admit that they were real pe

I really am improving. 'Hereward' brought William alive for me, it truly did; and this Parkman book delights me. Oh! I should like to have

tragedy?" said Gertrude. "I could n

!" cried Bell. "A new game! two minutes for reflection

trude. "But the

nk ran across the brown carpet, and pausing midway, sat up on his haunches and surveyed the new and si

will begin with you. With all histo

ou come to think them over, there is something against every one; I mean something one woul

be sorry to marry her husband. The story would have been somew

ng about!" said Peggy,

oo

peare and Raphael. I have to be both; they lived

irl!" said Bell. "K

!" said Kitt

ed this time, Mis

ell, then-Fr

aren't you, Kitty?" sai

ried Kitty, indignantly

as l'autre, in thos

lf, Bell!" said Marga

ways William the Silent. I should be Beethoven if it wer

, don't you?" observed

you are the only one

" cried Peggy, throwing grammar to the w

ed Margaret, her soft eyes lighting up

-you told me I might say 'wager,' Margaret!-that none of the other girls would hesitate a minute if they had the chance. I wouldn't!

hing I think about is the freedom, the strength, the power to go right ahead and do things!" and, as she spoke, Bell threw her head back and stretched her arms abroad with a vigorous gesture. "O

Bell, isn't the very weakness part of our strength? Isn't it just because women know the-the things they cannot do

will outlast the man nine times out of ten, I believe; and I heard Doctor Strong say once that women would often bear pain quietly that would set a man ra

she?" ask

ed out, in a most terrible storm, to the reef on which the vessel had been wrecked, and saved the nine men, all that were left out of sixty-three, who were clinging to the rocks, waiting for death. Why wasn't that just as fine as commanding an army

you say, Betsy, but it makes no difference,-does i

"I wouldn't have been M

't any!" sa

e same," said Peggy, "as

tdoor, athletic way. More than I ever dreamed they could do. It really seems to me that, except just for the petticoats, you

could walk, he has always taken us out into the woods and fields, and made us use our eyes an

everything!" said Margaret. "

said Gertrude, decidedly. "Wha

tter from her pocket, a

e," she said, smiling.

cried all

re he remembered to post it!" she said. "I judge from the date, and the appearance of the envelope.

found out, I tell you! It was white hornets, about ten thousand of them, and the dogs had rolled in a nest of them, and they were stinging their noses, and they flew at us with perfeck fewry, I mean the hornets did. I hollered and ran, but Susan D. said wait she knew what to do, so she said "Come on," and we ran down to the brook and she took mud and put it on my stings before she touched her own, and it took a good deal of the pane out though not all. And then she put it on

asi

r boy!" cri

ry dearest boys that ever lived, Gertrude; so manly and honest, and so funny, too. Gera

'brick' expresses what I mean. Girls, I appeal to you. Margaret wants me to talk like a professor a

heartier than the same thing in what my mother calls good English. Still-I

r piece of baked clay!'" said Ger

e do? It would sound awfully stiff and poky. I don't mean that it sounds so when your mother t

t does seem to me a terrible pity, with all our great, glorious language, to use so little of it, and to use it so oft

t I think you carry it too far. What would you say instead of

ld say he was a nice, manly

ice' is niminy, you know

is that it is one word, and 'nice manly boy' i

say to that, Margaret? Find one word in your

'Trump' is the only one I can think of, an

its own for twenty years, it isn't slang

was heard; a long, ringing blast,

and trumps-I'll race you all to the tents!" And off they went with a flash of p