FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161  
162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   >>   >|  
ever. She hated to think of the vinegar she had taken in vain; she hated to remember Betty and the tidy and pin-cushion she had given her. Meanwhile the days passed quickly and the invitation she pined for did not come. What was to be done? Suddenly it occurred to her that, if she could only become possessed of certain facts which she now suspected, she might be able to fulfil her own darling desire. For Pen knew more than the other girls supposed. She was very angry with Pauline for not confiding in her on Pauline's birthday, and at night she had managed to keep awake, and had risen softly from her cot and stood in her white night-dress by the window; and from there she had seen three little figures creeping side by side across the lawn--three well-known little figures. She had very nearly shouted after them; she had very nearly pursued them. But all she really did was to creep back into bed and say to herself in a tone of satisfaction: "Now I knows. Now I will get lots of pennies out of Paulie." She dropped into the sleep of a happy child almost as she muttered the last words, but in the morning she had not forgotten what she had seen. On a certain day shortly after Penelope had recovered from her very severe fit of indigestion, she was playing on the lawn, making herself, as was her wont, very troublesome, when Briar, looking up from her new story-book, said in a discontented voice: "I do wish you would go away, Penelope. You worry me awfully." Penelope, instead of going away, went and stood in front of her sister. "Does I?" she said. "Then I am glad." "You really are a horrid child, Pen. Patty and Adelaide, can you understand why Pen is such a disagreeable child?" "She is quite the most extraordinary child I ever heard of in the whole course of my life," said Adelaide. "The other night, when she woke up with a pain in her little tum-tum, she shouted, 'Vinegar! vinegar!' She must really have been going off her poor little head." "No, I wasn't," said Penelope, who turned scarlet and then white. "It was vinegar--real vinegar. It was to pale me." "Oh, don't talk to her!" said Patty. "She is too silly for anything. Go away, baby, and play with sister Marjorie, and don't talk any more rubbish." "You call me baby?" said Penelope, coming close to the last speaker, and standing with her arms akimbo. "You call me baby? Then I will ask you a question. Who were the people that walked across the lawn on
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161  
162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Penelope
 

vinegar

 

Pauline

 

figures

 

shouted

 
Adelaide
 
sister
 

understand

 
discontented
 

horrid


Marjorie

 

rubbish

 
coming
 

question

 
people
 

walked

 
akimbo
 
speaker
 

standing

 

scarlet


turned

 

troublesome

 

extraordinary

 

disagreeable

 

Vinegar

 

suspected

 

fulfil

 

possessed

 

darling

 

confiding


birthday

 
supposed
 

desire

 

cushion

 

Meanwhile

 
remember
 

passed

 
Suddenly
 

occurred

 
quickly

invitation
 

managed

 
muttered
 
pennies
 

Paulie

 

dropped

 
morning
 

forgotten

 
indigestion
 

playing