 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's Father "Alas! by some degree of woe We every bliss must gain; The heart can ne'er a transport know That never felt a pain." -- Lyttleton "What is your middle name, Stanley?" asked Pansy one warm afternoon as they lay on the grassy slope under the willow tree, and she ran over the pages of a book he had brought her on the fly leaf of which was written Stanley B. Winthrop. "Ask me anything else and I will tell you, but I am a little sensitive about that," he answered. "I wouldn't be half as interested in anything else. Tell me what it is!" she teased. "Well, if you must know, its van Bibber, written with a B." A little rippling laugh came from Pansy. "That's fine," she said. "Sounds as if you might be some connection of Rip Van Winkle whom Richard and I know intimately and keep on the parlor shelf. When I want to call you something particularly nice, twill be van Bibber." "When I am much disgusted with things, I call myself van Bibber. Mother and Julia are Dutch, but father and I are New Englanders." "How can you say that?" asked Pansy in surprise. "Wasn't father born and bred in this very neighborhood and wasn't I born in the State of Connecticut?" "But you've never lived here!" "I'm here now," he answered doggedly. "When is your birthday?" "August 2nd. I will be eighteen." "That is the same month as Richard's birthday. He was born on August 15th which was Napoleon's birthday. You both come under the sign of the zodiac known as Leo, the Lion. That should give you strong intuition and ability to overcome obstacles." '"Let me ask you something, Pansy, what would you rather have than anything else in the world?" "A college education," came the prompt response. Stanley was taken by surprise, but like a good examiner, did not show it, and continued: "You will, of course, have that the same as Ruth." "I always think I will." After some hesitation she added: "After father died mother received a thousand dollars insurance, and she took this money and sent Ruth to college, but there isn't anything left for Richard and me. Uncle Herbert Alden in Kansas City sends mother twenty dollars every month to help take care of us, and with what we make on the farm we get along very well, but there isn't much left over for luxuries." "When did your father die, Pansy?" "It will be five years in September. It was the summer Mr. Rice's barn was struck by lightning and burned, and he was building a new barn. The neighbors used to go and help him with the work, and one day father was there up on the roof shingling. The scaffold gave way and father fell to the ground and was injured. They brought him home on a cot, and the doctor came every day. Then one morning father sent for Richard and me, and when we came and climbed up on the bed, Richard on one side and I on the other, father said, "Do not leave me children," and we answered we would not leave him. After a while he said, "Children, repeat the twenty-third psalm." And we repeated the psalm for him. Then he went to sleep and when he awoke he asked, "Is Pansy here? Is Richard here?" and we answered, "We are here , father." The doctor came and stayed, and the minister came and said a prayer and went away. All day we laid there with our heads on father's pillow, and whenever he would wake up he would ask, "Is Pansy here?" Is Richard here?" and we would answer again. "We are here, father." At night mother and Ruth came to take us away, and we would not go away, because father might ask for us. He was in what the doctor called a comatose state, and we stayed all night, and in the morning after it grew light, father began to look strangely, and his breath went in little puffs, and it grew slower and slower until it stopped, and we knew father had gone. Richard and I slid off the bed and went out the back door and down where the brook runs through the pine trees and lay down on the pine needles. And we thought we would starve to death, because there was no one to buy food for us, and after a while we remembered Elijah by the brook Cherith. And we stayed there until nearly sun down, and Mr. Bright and Mr. Parish came and found us. And we could not walk, and Mr. Bright and Mr. Parish carried us to the house. Then we had his funeral, and all the neighbors came, and the people from the church came, and the grangers came, and they all brought flowers. And the minister said father was not dead but only sleeping until the glorious resurrection. And they put him in the hearse and we all went to the grave yard. When they were ready, the bearers stepped back, and mother and Ruth and Richard and I went and stood by father's grave. It was lined with white muslin and green boughs, and the flowers the neighbors had brought, and the people from the church had brought, and the grangers had brought were laid about, and it looked as I hope paradise will look. And Richard and I repeated the psalm father had asked for: 'The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou are with me: they rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou prepareth a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou annointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.' Then we came home, and all the relatives were here. When it came time, Richard and I went up stairs and changed our clothes, and got the milk pails and went to the barn and after the cows, and Uncle Will came out and said he was going to attend to that for us, and he has been with us ever since." Pansy's voice, always peculiarly sympathetic, showed deep feeling as she recited the story of her loss, and when she had finished, she lay back on the grass for sometime without moving. Then she and Stanley arose, and when they reached the house, he took off his hat, and without saying a word, went toward his home while she walked slowly in to get supper. Click Here for Chapter 10 |