 A Real New England Girl by Anna I. Parsons 1. The Shower 2. Oxford County 3. The Stranger and the Girl 4. The Youth and the Girl 5. Pansy and Richard Go Trading 6. The Marvelous Storyteller 7. The Dinner 8. The The Minister Comes for Tea 9. Pansy's Father 10. Pansy and Her Mother 11. Poland Springs 12. The Birthday Cake 13. Ned Patterson Comes for a Visit 14. The Blue Berrying Party 15. The Beginning of Wisdom 16. The Tempted and the Penitent 17. The Concert 18. Stanley's Ride 19. The Bench by the Wayside 20. The Banker and the Widow 21. The Bag of Nuts 22. How They Kept Thanksgiving at Little Farm 23. Hardly a Merry Christimas 24. A Call Down and a Caller 25. The Pride of Mrs. Bradford 26. A Happy New Year 27. Amusement and Winter Sport 28. Kim 29. Richard, the Lion Hearted 30. A Tour of the White Mountains 31. Talking Over the Trip with Henry Bright 32. Thoughts That Lie Too Deep for Words 33. Economics 34. His Toast 35. The Busy Haunts of Man 36. Christmas in New York 37. The Last Night of Their Visit 38. The Language Understood by All 39. Sugaring Off 40. Correspondence 41. Commencement 42. Conclusion Afterward     |
Poland Springs "Wealth, Beauty and Caprice Build this stately portal; Graceful women, chosen men Dazzle every mortal." "It's just like a castle without a moat only instead of being built on a hill, it has acres of green grass stretching out before it and back of it is a grove. "Ned and Toots Patterson showed us over the hotel the first thing. Ned is eighteen and Toots is thirteen, and they have manners like Stanley only there is more of it. "I asked Ned to show us the dunjon tower, and he said just now it is full of sleepers, but he wished it wasn't, as he'd like to lock some of us in it and keep us from getting away. "We walked down the esplanade -- I didn't know as that is what they call it, but assuming it is a real castle, that is what it would be called -- to the spring and had some water to drink. It looks just like our water, but it hasn't any taste and you do not feel as if you were drinking anything. "Ned took our picture in front of the spring house and in about a dozen other places, except once Toots snapped the kodak so Ned could be in the picture. We walked all about the house and through the grove, and then it was time to go in for dinner. "There were ten of us, and we all sat at one big table. I was seated between Stanley and Ned. I wanted to sit beside Richard, but they didn't arrange it that way. "First we had soup. Ned read off the different kinds to me, and I said Richard and I would take puree of something or other. I hadn't the faintest idea of what it was like, but 'puree' had such a nice soft sound that I thought it must be good, and it was. "Then Ned read off the different kinds of fish, and there was salmon, and I knew Richard and I wanted that, because we had read about it in books, but had never had any and wondered if it were as good as mackerel. When it came, it looked so pink and white and pretty I wanted to keep mine, but Ned said, 'If you don't like it, Miss Pansy, we will order something else,' so I had to eat it up. "Then Ned laid a printed card down in front of me and asked me what I wanted for my dinner. Without looking at the card I said, 'Richard and I like potatoes, corn, peas, beans, onions, beets, squash, turnip, cauliflower, parsnips, brussel sprouts, lettuce and tomatoes, but we do not care for carrots and cabbage.' "Ned looked sort of flabbergasted, and said, 'But, Miss Pansy, all those things are not on the menu,' and I said some of them would do. "Stanley was marking the printed card, and he gave it to the waitress and said we would all have the same things, so we didn't have to bother any more about ordering. Last of all, we had ice cream. Then we washed our hands and faces in pretty glass bowls, and went out onto the piazza. There were lots of people standing around with their good clothes on, and it looked just as it does after church. "There was a kind of stout man with white hair, but not old looking, near us, and he put his hand on Richard's head and said, 'Been camping, land? How do the fish bit?' Before Richard could answer, a man called Mr. Ricker said, 'Don't you know Maine granite when you see it, Judge? That boy doesn't live more'n fifteen miles from here. How about it, land?' The man called Mr. Ricker said, 'I told y you so!' and the man called Judge said, 'Looks as if he might go the way of some of the other Maine boulders -- Blaine, Hamlin, Dingley, Tom Reed.' "I said, 'We have seen Hannibal Hamlin's house.' The man called Judge looked at me and then he looked at Richard and he said, 'Viola and Sebastian! Viola and Sebastian! Put ribbons on you, lad, and there'd be no telling you apart.' So many people were looking, I took Richard by the sleeve and we went and sat down some distance off. Stanley and Ned came and sat down with us, and the others came and sat down. "After a while there was a ball game. I wanted to stay on the piazza with Julia and Mrs. Winthrop and Mrs. Patterson, but they didn't ask me to, and Stanley said I was to come with them, so we went and sat on the grass. "When they had played awhile, things got very exciting, and the boys stood up and waved their hats and shouted and forgot all about me sitting there on the grass. I thought I would just go up to the piazza for a little while and then come back. So I went and sat down near a group of girls on the side of the castle toward the grove -- not where we had sat before. There were two boys there no older than Richard, and those girls called these boys mister -- Mr. McCormack and Mr. Rogers. "Pretty soon some ladies came along and they looked at me and smiled, and one of them said, 'Quelle belle enfante!' I thought it was because my hair was short, so I put my bonnet on, but they smiled all the more and the lady said, 'Charmant!' What does that mean, Ruth, Quelle belle enfante and Charmant? "It means they thought you a nice little girl and that your bonnet was becoming." Pansy shook her head dubiously, "I think it was my hair," she said, then continued her story. "It was warm and pleasant there and I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew Richard had hold of me and Ned, Toots, Stanley, and Mr. Winthrop were all standing around, and Richard said, 'What did you run away for, Pansy?' They all looked so serious I had to tell them that it was because I wanted to watch the girls. Mr. Winthrop said, 'Stanley, you should have thought of that.' Ned said, 'Why didn't you tell us, Miss Pansy, and we would have all come back.' "Stanley said his mother wanted to see me, so I went up stairs with Mrs. Winthrop and Julia. We combed our hair and straightened out ribbons. I had gotten dirt on my white shoes and Mrs. Patterson's maid took them off to clean them for me, and Julia said, 'You have on white silk stockings, Pansy!' and I said, 'Yes, Cousin Lizzie sent them to me Christmas, and Richard has on the necktie she sent him.' "When we were ready, we all went down stairs and into supper together. Mr. Patterson is a lawyer, and they must be very distinguished people, because the table was set up in a large bay window and had a hill of flowers in the center and trailing vines all over it, and there wasn't anything else in that big banqueting hall like it. "There were more people for supper than for dinner. Stanley was with me, but Toots came and said he wanted to sit with Miss Pansy, so Stanley let him. There was Toots and I, Ned and Julia, Richard and the man called Judge and Stanley, Mrs. Patterson and Mr. Winthrop, and I think the next lady was the judge's wife, and a strange gentleman and Mrs. Winthrop. "Toots had on a little tuxedo, and I never saw anybody look so well in anything except Richard in his new suit. Ned told me what it was called. Ned had on white flannels the same as Stanley wore. "We didn't have to order anything at night, but the waitresses brought things, and as soon as we ate them up, they took away the dishes and brought something else. "Toots is just like a little man. Once he asked me if I wanted some more of a dish, and I said I did, and he told the waitress to bring Miss Bradford another portion of Lobster a lá Newburg, and he waited and didn't eat anything until I had finished. You have always insisted that Richard and I be very decorous at table, but we have lots to learn. "Ned can say such funny things. Once when I was watching the people come in, a man who looked very much battered up, like the old soldier who stayed on the Town Farm until he went to Togus, came down the center aisle, and Ned leaned over and said, 'That old game-cock used to be governor of Massachusetts.' "After supper we got ready to come away. Mr. Ricker, the man who owns the farm down there, was standing near the door, so Richard and I went over and I said to him, 'We have had a very pleasant time and thank you for it,' and he said, 'You must come again soon,' just like one of the neighbors. Then we bowed low and backed out of the door and went and got into the car. "Ned gave me this box of candy and he gave Julia one also. Stanley shook hands with Ned and said, 'You must come up and spend a week with me soon,' and Ned said, 'Bet your life I will, I must see that darling girl again,' meaning Julia I suppose. Then we all said bye and came home in the moon light. "I have had good time enough to last all summer, and I don't care if I don't go to anything else except the Sunday School picnic." Pansy breathed deeply and lay back in her chair for a moment after finishing her story, then went and brought two lighted candles, and shaking Richard who was drowsing lightly by the shoulder said, "Come," but before she went up stairs, she turned to her mother, "You won't cut my hair again will you," she said. "Not if you don't want it short," answered Mrs. Bradford. Click Here for Chapter 12 |