TRIALS.
CHAPTER I.
HOW THE LITTLE PRINCESS MADE SUNSHINE.
It was raining fast, and it had rained for two days. This was the third.
Flora had become tired of the leaden sky and the wet earth. She had
watched the moving clouds and the swaying branches of the trees long
enough, and now she was ready for fair weather. But it seemed as if fair
weather would never come, and she looked in vain for a bit of blue sky.
There was not even a light streak. It was stormy without and it was
stormy within. The gray side of the sky was all that could be seen, and
the gray side of Flora's temper was out also. There was a sunny side to
both, but that was carefully hidden by the sober clouds.
Flora was tired of the big drops that chased each other down the pane.
She was tired of trying to look abroad through the wet glass and the
mist. When she did get a glimpse of the outer world there was nothing to
see, and that was the worst of it. There was nothing but muddy roads,
pools of water and little patches of green grass. It was not to be
borne.
Flora crept down from her high chair to the lowly footstool, leaned her
head upon her hand and sighed. Sister Amy had gone to school, and
Charley and Bertie were big boys. Of course they could go anywhere in
any weather, with "yubber" boots. How she envied them! Only she the
youngest of the flock, the Baby Pitcher, was forced to stay at home
because it rained. So she sighed. Mamma heard the sigh and said
inquiringly, "Well?"
"If I was a lady," said Flora, "a certain true lady, I wouldn't stay in
for the weather. I would put on my water-prooth and go a-fishing."
"In the rain?"
"I would."
Mamma laughed. Now Flora was not in a mood to be laughed at, so she shut
her eyes to keep back the tears, for she knew they would come if she did
not shut the covers down tightly. She did not keep them all back
however, for mamma saw two or three rolling slowly down her little
girl's cheek.
"Wouldn't go fishing without a water-prooth," she added, petulantly;
"might fall in and get wet."
Mamma did not laugh now. She was very grave. She had not had an easy
time of it since falling weather set in. She could do nothing right. All
her efforts had failed to amuse Flora. So mamma sighed.
Flora, forgetting that she must keep the covers shut down tightly,
opened wide her eyes and was astonished. Mamma looked so very sober. Was
she too going to cry because the pleasant sunshine staid away so
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