FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52  
53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   >>   >|  
ybody else that is coming to make more work for us. I could stand the work, though, but I can't stand scolding all the time. Mother hasn't said a pleasant word to me to-day." "Sh--h!" said Florence. "Mother is sick and nervous. Don't you think if--if you wouldn't provoke mother so much it would be better? And then maybe"--Florence was almost afraid to speak her next thought--"don't you think you answer back a good deal sometimes?" "There! you just hush up," said Margaret. "I guess you needn't set up for a lecturer, too; two years younger than I am, you are taking a good deal upon yourself, I should say. I'm nervous, too. Young folks are called cross, but older ones always called nervous, when they are cross. I wish I could go off somewhere. I'd go anywhere to get away from home, for it's just dreadful. Mother don't care for me one bit. She don't scold anybody else as she does me. When I go over to Mrs. Blynn's it just makes me sick. Nettie and her mother are just like two sisters. They sit under the drop-light with their fancy-work and talk, or Nettie plays her new pieces over for her mother. I could play as well as Nettie if I had time to practice, but mother don't seem to care anything at all about my music. We might keep a girl like other people. Father is able to. I think it is too bad." "Oh, don't Mag! Don't say any more," said Florence. "It makes me shiver to hear you talk so. You know what it says about honouring parents. I'm sure something dreadful will happen to you. You will drop right down dead, maybe, or just think how you would feel if mother should die after you've talked so. Oh, Maggie," she said timidly, "if you only were a Christian, now, how it would help you." "Pho," said Margaret. "Mother is a Christian and it don't help her one bit." Then Margaret put her head down on the arm of the lounge and cried. She had wanted to cry all day, but there was no time. The door stood partly open between Mrs. Murray's room and that of her daughters. That ruined fruitcake had accomplished its work, the severe nervous headache had come and obliged her to go up to her room and lie down, while the girls supposed her to be still in the dining-room; so the talk came floating in to her while she lay on her bed pressing her aching temples. What a revelation was this! Was it possible that she was the person meant? One daughter blaming her, and the other excusing her. She almost forgot about her head in this new
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52  
53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
mother
 

nervous

 

Mother

 
Margaret
 

Nettie

 

Florence

 
called
 

dreadful

 

Christian

 
parents

lounge

 

wanted

 

honouring

 
happen
 
scolding
 

talked

 

pleasant

 

Maggie

 
timidly
 

pressing


aching

 

temples

 

dining

 

floating

 

revelation

 

daughter

 

blaming

 

excusing

 

forgot

 

person


supposed

 

daughters

 
ruined
 

Murray

 

partly

 
fruitcake
 

accomplished

 

coming

 

obliged

 

severe


headache

 

answer

 
afraid
 

thought

 

taking

 
younger
 

people

 
shiver
 
lecturer
 
Father