all she knows. It's
just too bad not to be able to get more education. I'll just take my
own way, if Auntie crowds me too much. I don't care if she don't like
it. If my father and mother were alive, she wouldn't be my boss. I can
get on in another place with what I know about a good many things.

"But oh, that girl that's coming has so much better times than I.
Those lovely city schools! no one can help learning there, they take
such pains with you."

She looked down the road upon which the slanting red light of the
declining sun was shining, and there she saw a cloud of dust. This
road was not a great thoroughfare, and she knew that was the stage,
and it probably would bring the undesired summer guests.

She shrank visibly back into the shadow of the tree as it came on, and
smoothed out her faded calico dress and pulled her sun-bonnet farther
over her face.

The coach came rolling past, and a girl in the back seat directed the
attention of a fashionably-dressed lady to herself, she thought, and
laughed as though immensely pleased, at the same time pointing at her.
A little boy, who sat in the front seat with the driver, and who was
playing upon a harmonica, stopped, and looking in her direction,
laughed too.

"It's my outlandish sun-bonnet they're making fun of," she thought. "I
suppose this is the beginning of it."

[Illustration: SHE SAT DOWN ON A BANK BY THE ROADSIDE UNDER AN OLD
TREE.]

Now this ungentle girl was mistaken in her surmise, as she was about
many things that caused her unhappiness. What the people in the stage
were really interested and amused with were a couple of lambs in the
field back of Lucindy, and their playful gyrations were a novel sight
to them, and they had come for the very purpose of being pleased with
country sights and experiences. Lucindy felt sure these were the
summer boarders, and, taking a short cut across the fields, arrived at
her aunt's just as the guests were alighting.

Lucindy stood at the back corner of the house, and heard the sprightly
talk of Mrs. Randolph and the merry laugh of the daughter, as her aunt
bade them welcome, and she knew they were being conducted to the upper
rooms that had been prepared with such thoughtful reference to their
comfort.

Her aunt came down very soon, and seeing Lucindy, bade her wash her
hands and smooth her hair, and put on a white apron, and prepare to
get ready the tea. This duty Lucindy had always done, and a little
curiosit