tion to the onlooker, I
manifested always in her presence without suspicion of being observed. I
was alert to win her notice by any sort of indirection, and embarrassed
to speechlessness when I had won it. There were certain occasions when I
could count on having her for my companion, when we found ourselves
together by some inevitable attraction. These were on the excursions
which my sister was fond of taking with her whole school to places of
interest in the vicinity of Norwich. The holiday freedom, the
excitement, made it easier for me to be more demonstrative than usual
toward the new-found Launa. Yet we were still too young and sensitive
for indulgence in the physical tokens of affection. We often walked hand
in hand, yet under cover of that which was a permissible and usual
gallantry among all the children of the school, the secret attachment of
any pair was pleasantly and sufficiently hidden even from themselves.
Wondrous were the places we visited; places of historic or natural
interest; to Groton by steamboat, where we saw Fort Griswold and its
monument to the heroes of the Revolutionary fight, and its still
surviving heroine, Mother Bailey, who tore up her petticoat to make
cartridges for the gunners. We called upon the venerable woman in her
neat, little cottage. She was very proud of her fame. She related the
story of the fight, not omitting her part in it. "Do you think I am a
very old woman?" she said to us. "Well, see," and in an instant she was
whirling around the room in an old fashioned jig. Then we returned to
the Fort, and in its enclosure we opened our baskets and ate our cakes
and apples. I sometimes think that was the happiest day of my life.
Certainly it was the very beginning of what is called seeing the world.
What, is not the first steamboat ride, and with your sweetheart, the
first fort, the scene of a battle and the most celebrated heroine of the
Revolution something? My sweetheart was the only thing not entirely
novel; her smiles ever recalled the memory of Launa Probana. All the way
home we stood on deck, leaning over the rail, watching the swirl and
foam from the paddle wheels, and our tongues were loosened. As usual, in
my attempts at seeming superior to girl companions, I undertook to
explain things about which I knew nothing. Now, any boy could put me
down in a minute with, "how big you talk;" but my gentler hearer led me
on with her acquiescence and her trusting, wondering eyes. The tea