 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     |
The Language Understood by All "To err is human, to forgive divine." -- Pope Once again back battling with the snow and cold of a Maine winter, Pansy and Richard had much material with which to enliven the long winter evenings. Many times their mother and Uncle Will referred to the unexpected meeting with their uncle in New York, and as often as the matter was talked over, would remark, "Herbert will surely come and visit us now." Happiness radiated from their faces at the prospect of seeing again a long absent brother, and their faith in the power of the two youngest members of the family to bring him to the east was implicit. To Stanley, Pansy and Richard wrote long letters full of the bright hope of youth and of the humor that is characteristic of the Down East Yankee. Very frequently they alluded to the visit that had opened so many new vistas to them and been such strong proof of how true was Stanley's friendship. More than ever, they were anxious to excel at school and to fit themselves for lucrative positions in life. As a senior, Pansy tried to do her part in upholding the dignity of the class, but things would happen that were undignified and nerve-straining at times. One day several ladies residing in the town visited the school and were present during the recitation in Rhetoric and English Composition. The general subject was Description, and each pupil was required to read aloud a short sketch he had written of some favorite character in history, fiction or of a contemporary. After several pupils had read their sketches creditably, Len Frost was called upon, but declined to take part in the recitation. His decision was inopportune. Professor Thayer did not propose to allow any insubordination in the presence of visitors, and with blanched face, insisted that Len proceed, while Len as sullenly refused. Things were at a dangerous pitch, when Pansy arose and, walking across the recitation room, took the sketch from Len's hand and said very quietly, "Professor, Len is only frightened because there is so many present. Please let me read his paper for him." The surprise of every one was great. Both men relaxed, and the professor's head bowed slightly. With a voice that did not falter, Pansy read the composition from beginning to end. Then she laid the paper back in Len's hand and resumed her seat. For more than a year she had studiously avoided Len, and she will knew that he might resent such interference in a most vindictive manner. Also, she knew that she would be laughed at and teased by her class-mates for having gone to his assistance, but she was more composed than any one else when the ordeal was over. "How could you do such a thing?" asked Grace Stone of Pansy when they were getting their wraps in the cloak room. "It just might have been Richard," answered Pansy. "He isn't usually shy, but he might be if ladies whom he knew to be critical came to visit his class. Trifles was hasty, and Len is a great overgrown boy who can face drowning better than he can face ladies." "But, Pansy, you don't like Len, and everybody says he nearly killed that young Mr. Winthrop on your account." Pansy turned her back on Grace, hastily put on her hat, and left the cloak room. The other girls said Pansy's face had turned red and purple, and they hurried to a window to see what would happen when she left the building. She soon emerged with Ruth and Richard, and they watched her climb into the school team and be driven away. "I feel blacker than dirt to think I said such a thing," said Grace Stone, turning away from the window with a much disturbed countenance. "Pansy was awfully hurt, but I don't believe she'll hold it against you," said Eva Goodwin. "Gracious, I'd like to see myself standing up for Len Frost after what he did," said Mabel Lawson. "The Bradfords won't admit anything, but Mrs. Frost told my mother, that Pansy was sick in bed after Len got after that city chap who has a summer home out her way." "My father says, if it's true, that he doesn't believe Len used fair means, because he has seen young Mr. Winthrop around the village, and he's as smart a chap as he ever set eyes on," said Frances Stuart. "I wish I could telephone Pansy how sorry I am, but they don't have a 'phone in their house," said Grace Stone, still very much disturbed at the slip she had made. "Grace," said Eva Goodwin, "Pansy's just daffy about flowers, suppose we each bring her a bouquet tomorrow as a token of our appreciation of her having settled the altercation. I was trembling all over, and I'm sure from your looks, the rest of you girls were, too, when Pansy got up so coolly and marched right into the lion's den." "That's a good idea," said Grace, brightening up. "I'll ransack our street to get the very prettiest and sweetest." So when Pansy arrived at school the next morning, after a somewhat unhappy night, for she abhorred being the subject of village gossip, she found her desk covered with flowers, mostly geranium blossoms, tied up with fragrant leaves, from window pots that she knew some one had been tenderly watering during the cold winter days. The girls of her class were waiting not far away to see what would happen. Instinctively, she put her face down close to the flowers and drew a deep breath, then she picked up one of the bouquets and read Grace Stone's name on the slip of paper attached to the same. A beam of a smile broke over her face as Grace and the other girls gathered quickly around her desk. "I was dreaming about you girls last night," she said, "and it seemed as if I were out in a boat near the shore of Pennesseewassee Lake, and you were throwing pebbles at me; it is so much nicer to find you were planning to shower me with blossoms." Pansy tenderly gathered the flowers up in her hands. Frances Stuart brought a jar of water in which to keep them, and for the rest of the day, their brightness and fragrance gladdened the school room. If Pansy was a little quieter than usual, there were the flowers to remind everybody that the misdeeds of one member of the class only served to strengthen the bonds of friendship between some of the other members. "Pansy, Len wants to see you," said Richard, when the school session was over. "I told him he could come up to the house tonight, and you and I'd be studying in the kitchen, and he needn't see any one else if he didn't want to." "Very well, Richard. It is a long time since he has favored us with a call." They both smiled significantly. "He was awful sober when asking me, Pansy. Something seems to be troubling him." When Len let himself into the Bradford kitchen that evening through the woodshed door, something indeed seemed weighing heavily on his mind. He sat down and tilted back in his chair, after the fashion of country men, but showed no inclination to disclose the object of his visit, or even to say anything at all. Pansy and Richard laid down their books and discussed lessons and school matters, but nothing would induce him to break the silence. Finally Pansy suggested to Richard that he go into the living-room and set the victrola in action, and very reluctantly Richard left her alone with Len. For sometime the music played without visible effect on the caller, but it was soothing and sweet to listen to, and at last his tongue was loosened and the words poured out as water from the breaking of a dam. "Say, Pansy, I'm meaner than scum. I tried to put that Winthrop fellow where you wouldn't hand him any more smiles, and if he hand't a been game, I'd a done it, too. I always thought a little brass would go further than fists when it came to real boxing, but he'd have tuckered me out sure, if he hadn't a missed his footing and fallen, and I slugged him one when he was going down. I didn't waste any time computing the damage -- I'd had enough -- and I just made tracks for home, and I've seen that white face of his lying there in the snow more'n a thousand times since. And I've seen you and Richard a riding with him and his family, and he a treating you as if you were the fanciest pigeon that ever flew out of Poland Springs, just as you ought to be treated, but I couldn't get the knack in a thousand years. And I've seen you pass with a pained look on your face, as if it hurt you to think of what I done, or what I might do. And gosh-darn it all, when I takes that stage fright because a lot of old hens come pecking around the English class, you gets up and saves me from further disgrace by the darndest womanish thing I ever seen done. I ain't got much to recommend me; if what my mother tells me is true, I ain't even got title to the name of Frost; but I give you my word, Pansy, you needn't ever look frightened again on account of that Winthrop fellow; he's as safe as my best hunter, and you can tell him I said so, and that I'm darn'd cut up over the whole business." Len got up and was hurrying towards the woodshed door, but Pansy called him back. "Len," she said, "I never really knew before what happened between you and Stanley Winthrop that night after our Christmas party. When we were playing games, I was sent into the pantry, and while I was leaning against the door into the kitchen, I accidentally heard you tell John Swift, that you were going to give somebody a pair of black eyes. I was frightened, and tried to persuade Stanley to stay over night with Richard, but he only laughed at me. After he left, I went up stairs and watched out of my window, and I knew something happened at the half-way tree, because I could hear voices. Afterwards, I saw you pass along the road. The next day, about noon, Richard went down to the Winthrop house and found Stanley in bed with a bandage around his head, but he would never tell us what happened." Len, who up to this time had been standing up, suddenly dropped into a chair. "He never told you I lay behind that bench waiting for him?" "No." "He never told you I slugged him one when he was going down?" "No." "He never told you I left him like one dead in the snow?" "No." "O h ___!" The perspiration was standing in beads on the giant's forehead; he looked weak and exhausted. Pansy called to Richard who came hurrying from the living-room. "Richard, I'm going to make some chocolate, you get a pie, and we'll have something to eat before Len goes." It was not so much the food and drink he had, as the doing of ordinary things and the hearing ordinary talk that helped Len Frost recover his strength and composure again. He had been through a hard ordeal, but he felt happier when he was walking home that night than he had felt in more than a year. Click Here for Chapter 39 |