young sculptor, gave him the order wher~ he came, and filled his
soul with joy by adding, that, if it suited her when done, it should
be put into marble. She lived in the city, and Ralph soon arranged
his work so that he could give up his noon hour, and go to model
the child; for every penny he could earn or save now was very
precious, as he still hoped to go abroad.
The girls were so delighted with this good fortune, that they did
not stay for the races, but went home to tell the happy news,
leaving the boys to care for the cats, and enjoy the various matches
to come off that day.
“I’m so glad I tried to look pleasant when I was lying on the board
while Ralph did my head, for the pleasantness got into the clay
face, and that made the lady like it,” said Jill, as she lay resting on
the sofa.
“I always thought it was a dear, bright little face, but now I love
and admire it more than ever,” cried Merry, kissing it gratefully, as
she remembered the help and pleasure it had given Ralph.
Chapter 24 Down the River
A fortnight later, the boys were picking apples one golden October
afternoon, and the girls were hurrying to finish their work, that
they might go and help the harvesters. It was six weeks now Since
the new school began, and they had learned to like it very much,
though they found that it was not all play, by any means. But
lessons, exercise, and various sorts of housework made an
agreeable change, and they felt that they were learning things
which would be useful to them all their lives. They had been
making underclothes for themselves, and each had several neatly
finished garments cut, fitted, and sewed by herself, and trimmed
with the pretty tatting Jill made in such quantities while she lay on
her sofa.
Now they were completing new dressing sacks, and had enjoyed
this job very much, as each chose her own material, and suited her
own taste in the making. Jill’s was white, with tiny scarlet leaves
all over it, trimmed with red braid and buttons so like
checkerberries she was tempted to eat them. Molly’s was gay, with
bouquets of every sort of flower, scalloped all round, and adorned
with six buttons, each of a different color, which she thought the
last touch of elegance. Merry’s, though the simplest, was the
daintiest of the three, being pale blue, trimmed with delicate
edging, and beautifully made.
Mrs. Minot had been reading from Miss Strickland’s “Queens of
England” while the girls worked, and an illustrated Sliakspeare lay
open on the table, as well as several fine photographs of historical
places for them to look at as they went along. The hour was over
now, the teacher gone, and the pupils setting the last stitches as
they talked over the lesson, which had interested them
exceedingly.
“I really believe I have got Henry’s six wives into my head right at
last. Two Annes, three Katherines, and one Jane. Now I’ve seen
where they lived and heard their stories, I quite feel as if I knew
them,” said Merry, shaking the threads off her work before she
folded it up to carry home.
“King Henry the Eighth to six spouses was wedded,
One died, one survived, two divorced, two beheaded,’
was all I knew about them before. Poor things, what a bad time
they did have,” added Jill, patting down the red braid, which would
pucker a bit at the corners.
“Katherine Parr had the best of it, because she outlived the old
tyrant and so kept her head on,” said Molly, winding the thread
round her last button, as if bound to fasten it on so firmly that
nothing should decapitate that.
“I used to think I’d like to be a queen or a great lady, and wear
velvet and jewels, and live in a palace, but now I don’t care much
for that sort of splendor. I like to make things pretty at home, and
know that they all depend on me, and love me very much. Queens