 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     |
Pansy and Richard Go Trading "But they whom Truth and Wisdom lead Can gather honey from a weed." --Cowper It was just after dinner on Saturday, and the horse and wagon stood at the door ready to take Pansy and Richard to the village, for Mrs. Bradford needed her stock of groceries replenished. Various boxes and cans were placed in the back of the wagon, and Pansy climbed in and seated herself. "I think one of the cows must be out," said Mrs. Bradford, shading her eyes with her hand, "for I see something dark moving in the field." "It's Janet Beecher!" said Richard. "Now, Pansy, you'll have to wait until I get her back in the pasture." Richard was gone for sometime, and came back in not a very amiable frame of mind. He took the reins, climbed in and with a "Get up" to the horse they were off. "How did Janet get out?" inquired Pansy. "Knocked the top rail off and then jumped through a little gap there was in the wall right over into the clover field. If mother hadn't seen her just in time, the whole herd would have been in there. This is the third time Janet has gotten out this summer. She's a chronic fence breaker, and when the butcher comes again from Lewiston, I'm going to tell Uncle Will to sell her." "Richard, how can you be so cruel?" To his surprise, Pansy burst into tears. This disconcerted him very much and he attempted to apologize. "Didn't mean to hurt your feelings, Pansy. We won't sell Janet, not if we have to build a fence as high as the meeting house steeple." Pansy wiped her eyes: "It hurts me very much to say it, Richard, but you haven't the affection for Janet that a good cow deserves." "Probably you wouldn't care so much about her if you had to milk her twice a day as I do." "There are many things I have to do that perhaps I would not if I had my choice, but -- do I like potatoes any less because I have to dig them, or the green vegetables from the garden because I have to pick them?" This argument was unanswerable, so Richard wisely changed the subject. "What are you going to buy with the ten cents we have to spend for ourselves?" he inquired. "I haven't thought about that yet," answered Pansy. "If we buy a coconut, it will cost ten cents. We might spend five cents for peanuts and five cents for candy, or perhaps you would rather have two oranges?" "I'll leave it to you, Pansy." When they arrived near the market place of the village, a number of girls walking down the street began waving their hands frantically. "Pansy Bradford!" came in a chorus of girls' voices, not so loud as a warhoop, but considerably louder than well brought up young ladies usually employ. Richard stopped the horse, Pansy climbed out, and was soon the center of a little circle on the sidewalk. Richard went on and hitched the horse in front of a grocery store, and went in with the list of provisions he was to take back to Little Farm. When these were all packed into the wagon, he went about the village doing various errands, so that some little time elapsed before he was ready for the return trip. Pansy with a number of her school friends was waiting for him on the sidewalk in front of the grocery. "You can all ride to the foot of the hill," said Pansy. "Two of you get in back and sit on the sugar box, two of you scootch down in front. You are so little Mabel you can sit on the seat with Richard and me. Frances you can sit in my lap, and Eva you will have to stand up behind." "It takes a lot of sugar to sweeten your family," said one of the girls directed to sit on the sugar box. "We don't buy sugar every few days same as you city folks do. Now, Richard, we're ready." Slowly the horses walked down the village street and crossed the bridge of the Little Androscoggin River. Now and then some lad on the street shouted a halloo to Richard, but things were pretty quiet considering the load of exuberant young girls the horse was drawing. "Old Billy isn't anxious to part company with us," said Grace Stone. "He has good sense like the rest of the Bradford family. I'm sure the slightest jar would throw me off my perch," said Eva Goodwin, who was standing in the back of the wagon clinging to the seat. When they reached the foot of the hill, the horse stopped of his own accord. How those girls laughed! "Wants to get rid of us after all," said Grace Stone. They all climbed out, and with many good byes and a promise to see Pansy at Sunday School on the morrow, went their several ways. Pansy and Richard, having induced Old Billy to resume the journey, found time to discuss the bits of news they had collected about the village. This occupied sometime, then Pansy said, "For library books, Richard, I got 'The Last Days of Pompeii' and 'David Copperfield.' Which do you want to read first?" "Why -- which do you want to read first?" "So we won't waste any time deciding the matter after we get home, I'll place them behind me and mix them up and you say which hand you will have." "The left one," said Richard when Pansy was ready. "You get 'The Last Days of Pompeii' and I get 'David Copperfield.' Now that we've got that settled, we might begin eating the refreshments." She took up a neat looking package wrapped in white paper and tied with a pink string and commenced to unwrap it. "I got a pint of peanuts, and Mr. Prentiss sold me all this candy for five cents," she said, holding up what looked to be at least a pound. "He gave me this orange for myself, but, of course, you will get half of it. Ever since I pulled Harry from under the runaway horse, he always gives me something extra when I go there. You remember the forenoon recess the horse ran away -- bit broke or something. Little Harry Prentiss was in the middle of the street, and he tried to get out of the way and fell down. The horse was coming like man, and I ran and grabbed him and threw him out of the way just in time. Only hurt my arm a little. It tore Harry's blouse, and he was afraid his mother would scold, so I went up with him at the noon hour and explained to her what had happened, and instead of scolding him, she took him on her lap and cried." "How did you ever get away from those girls with this candy, Pansy?" said Richard, helping himself from the box. "I told them, Richard, that half of what I bought belonged to you, and on that account I could not offer to treat them. They said it was all right; that they are coming out to the farm some day to eat me out of house and home. I told them, in that event, they had better let me know a day ahead, so I could get permission to camp on Mr. Parish's cornfield." "Guess we'll get home 'bout half-past five," said Richard. Click Here for Chapter 6 |