id
not like being separated from her a whole fortnight. She was such a
nice, quiet, well-behaved little girl. Children were trained in those
days. Some of them actually took pride in being as nice as possible and
obeying the first time they were spoken to, without even asking "Why?"

The little girl sat on a stool sewing patchwork. This particular pattern
was called a lemon star and had eight diamond-shaped pieces of two
colors, filled in with white around the edge, making a square. Her
grandmother was coming to "join" it for her, and have it quilted before
she was eight years old. She was doing her part with a good will.

"To New York?" she repeated very deliberately. Then she went on with her
sewing for she had no time to waste.

"Yes, Pussy." Her father pinched her cheek softly. The little girl was
the most precious thing in the world, he sometimes thought.

"What, all of us?" You see she had a mind to understand the case before
she committed herself.

"Oh, certainly! I don't know as we could leave any one behind."

Then he lifted her up in his lap and hugged her, scrubbing her face with
his beard which gave her pink cheeks. They both laughed. She held her
sewing out with one hand so that the needle should not scratch either of
them.

"I can't--hardly--tell;" and her face was serious.

I want to explain to you that the little girl had not begun with
grammar. You may find her making mistakes occasionally. Perhaps the
children of to-day do the same thing.

"Would we move everything?" raising her wondering eyes.

"Well, no--not quite;" and the humorous light crossed his face. "We
couldn't take the orchard nor the meadows nor the woods nor the creek."
(I think he said "medders" and "crick," and his "nor" sounded as if he
put an _e_ in it.) "There are a good many things we should have to leave
behind."

He sighed and the little girl sighed too. She drew up her patchwork and
began to sew.

"It is a great deal of trouble to move;" she began gravely. "I must
consider."

She had caught that from Great-Aunt Van Kortlandt, who never committed
herself to anything without considering.

Her father kissed her cheek. If it had been a little fatter she would
have had a dimple. Or perhaps he put so many kisses in the little dent
it was always filled up with love.

I don't know whether you would have thought this little girl of past
seven pretty or not. She was small and fair with a rather prim face and
thick light