That Little Girl of Miss Eliza's: A Story for Young People

crop of stones and stumps, I ever saw," someone else had said. Everyone sm

d they get such a name?" the elderly gentle

as the only one that could travel the miserable roads. They were mere

tance, the branch of the W. N. P. and P. wound along the edge of the river. Both roads avoided Shintown as though it had the plague. The name was quite enough to discourage anyone. Nature had done its best for the place, the people had done their worst.

e storm had beaten upon them for so many years that all trace of paint was gone. The chimneys sloped as far as the la

as it had had twenty years before. The whole countryside was suffering from lack of ambition. Crops were small, and food and clothes were meag

e different from other people in the community. Everyone conceded that point without a question. She was just a little different. The house was all in shades of golden brown; brown that suggested yellow when the sun shone. It was a color that not a man in Shintown or a painter at the Bend or Port would have thought of putti

ho could be independent enough to choose what color she would, in defiance of all

been known to mention her birthdays as "I was twenty-nine yesterday. How time does fly!" And she said it afte

here was a knowing smile now and then, a sage nodding of the head. Now and then som

she had been born and bred in the little place. But do as she could, her own self would break loose every now and then. In

ecome like them. But she argued in this fashion: if all these hundred souls lived in one way and declared that to be the r

asturtiums climbing over a pile of rock; wistaria clinging to the trunk of a dead tree; wild cucumber vines on a trellis shiel

ded them and seemed as proud of them as though they had just been purchased from Griffith's "five and ten." But she couldn'

ad enclosed with cotton fly-net, and she stuck a bunch

else in the country put flowers on the table. Indeed, no o

wasted so much time on worthless things. Two acres was all

. When Sam Houston suggested it to her, saying in his blunt way, "If you'd plant less of the 'dern foolishness,' you'd have mor

A man couldn't reason with a woma

well-fixed." This meant not that she had millions, or even a hundred thousand, but there was money enough out at

n except Eliza could boast so much. Sam Houston was the only one in the countrysid

liarities a little more bearable. They were

of black silk. How miserably awkward she felt with the caricature of black lace and purple pansies, which custom called a bonnet, on her head. But she had been r

envied her the possession of such a mark of gentility and declared that Eliza had a good

e shopping before she came home. Quarter day fell on the first of July. The sun

comfortable dress for a hot day. Yet she let Old Prince take his time. The flies bothered him considerably, and he shied like a young colt at every

ve and strong hand could manage. But age had made him tractable. He went home at a steady gait w

turned the wheels deep in the ditch. Eliza steadied herself and seized the r

hes which grew up along the hillside. It was a beautiful rather than a fearful sight which met her eyes. A big woman with great braids of yellow hair sat in the shade of the underbrush. El

ts of the valley. A small traveling bag lay beside the woman. Her hand res

ad was not a safe sleeping place for a woman and child. Eliza recognized her duty. Leaning forward, she t

ou," said Eliza. "The road i

before she could get her bearings. When her eyes fell on the child, she smiled and

you going?"

d her brows and at last said

it was reasonable to suppose that the woman was cutting across country t

re thicker than huckleberries. Climb in and

g of Miss Eliza's moving to the opposite side of the seat an

le demon. The two were too much for the old horse, who had been a thoroughbred in his time and had never known the touch of a whip. He reared on his hind feet,

he could manage him, the rein on the hillside snapped. The tension on the other side turned the animal toward the edge of the bank. Eliza dropped the useless rein, seized the