Black-Eyed Susan

ip-tilted nose-that was Susan. A warm heart, a pair of eager little hands always rea

randfather, snuggling Susan up so close that hi

Susan's bobbing curls that simply couldn't be made t

Grandfather, from the crown of his big slouch hat to the toes of hi

f cinnamon cookies on the low shelf in the pantry? Yes, her jar of cinnamon cookies on the low shelf in the pantry, for, somehow, in Susan's m

hiting and Snuff the dog was a broad, low, white house that

the funniest name

covered the road from house to highway, she never tired of asking, "Grandfather, why do yo

there are feathers in a feather bed," Grandfather would

ather bed?" Susan would ask. "You must c

nd at work every day, coming up to the house only at meal-time. Inside there was one big room, not only lined all round with books, but with books overflowing their shelves and piled upon the

n on the floor would build houses of the heavy law books, using Gra

ap as he sat in front of the coal fire that burned in the

was staying with Grandfather until her return. Susan

mity' for me, please

her obedien

mity, he's a g

ens and puts

ggs and som

iar, lim

eese in

st, and one

over the cu

ther's cheek a pat

, please," was

r tuned up and sang i

ails and it's col

armer drinking

aper and I'll

e love, and righ

ght Susan to have Grandfather in great surprise disco

hing herself down after the vigorous

Chickamy,

well to wa

k the black-eyed

her in a myst

mplored Susan. "Don't you know who Chickamy was, or

Only I do think Chickamy was a foolish fellow to wash his toe just at that minute. Why did

, anyway, Grandfather, now tell about the time I came to live with you." And Susan re-settled hersel

ered with snow. All the little rabbits were snuggled down in their holes in the ground trying to keep warm. All the little birds

e," interru

n a sleigh, and the sleigh-bells went jingle jangle, jingle jangle,

randfather paused to spread his silk handker

as dressed in fur from head to foot. She wore a white fur coat and a white fur cap

as red," su

mittens on her hands, and her fee

ther it was a Featherbed Lane or not. Crunch, crunch, crunch, went the horses' feet, jingle jangle,

ere sat a grandmother and a

randmother laid

sleigh-bells in t

ather put d

ear horses' f

her rose and looke

ering out through the snowflakes

ather flung open th

an. "And I didn't c

the very thought. "You just winked and blinked in the li

d you say, G

little black-

said Susan with an air of satisfaction

who carried you in, for once upon a time he

o heaven, weren't you?" mused Susan. "And then my father went away to b

Whiting and Susan as they gazed into the fire

play with Flip awhile,

to fall into a doze, proceeded to set up housekeeping wi

playmates, for the house in Featherbed Lane stood a little wa

old Tallman house, empty since last autumn when Miss Eliza

little old schoolhouse, long ago abandoned for t

lively Snuff who could outrace her any day, who played a skillful game of hide and seek, and who returned tenfold the stren

on it. But to Susan, her brown eyes were the tenderest and her rosy lips the sweetest to be found anywhere, and it was into Flip's sympathetic ear that Susan poured her grie

ther little girls have done before. Feeling the newel post to blame for her fall, she pounded it with both hands and kicked it with both feet. And suddenly, in the midst of the pounding and kicking, Susan spied a big dent in the side of the post. Had she done that? Oh! what a mean, a cruel girl she was! She hurried upstairs for her new hair-ribbon, which she tied round what she called the newel post's neck, an

deserved her name. But now she was a dingy gray that not even frequent scrubbings with soap and water could freshen. Sh

randmother's shoulders or neatly folded on the hatbox in Grandmother's closet. But whenever Susan was a little ailing, Grandmot

s the teacher, and Flip and the hassock, who this after

ade you?" aske

wered Flip

talk in a squea

s two and two?" wa

t answer. Perha

two and two?" repeat

no a

ly at disobedient Benny, she went to Grandfather's desk to borrow his long black rule

d Susan. "Grandfather, wake

ith a shake and peered out of

Somebody's furniture is packed inside that wagon. Hello, they

t, watched the heavy van turn and jolt along

d Susan, whose sharp eyes spied

he back of the wagon were tied all the pieces of furniture

l they were directly opposite Susan's gate, and then,

ping up and down. "Look, Grand

ed saddle, was rocking away in the middle of the road

Grandfather's desk in her excitement. "Maybe I will have a ride on that

t both arms around Grandfather'

n. "It looks as if that rocking-horse was about your size, too. But here com

Grandfather had put on his hat and shut the office door Su

ain. "Miss Liza Tallman has rented her house for a year. And, Grandfa