Barbara Hale: A Doctor's Daughter

“Feed you! Dear child, that’s the easiest part of it. Lottie adores feeding the hungry. But what bothers me is what I can do to keep you all happy.” Cara Burke, who had never be...

Between that day at the beach and the day set for the first session to the house party, Cara all but backed out several times. It was rather absurd, to ask five girls to week-en...

In a house that hid behind friendly old trees cuddled in trumpet vines and tender, little trailing things, Barbara Hale and her father, Dr. Winthrop Hale, lived. It was just off...

“Just for a lark,” Barbara told herself, “I’ll take the old cap and gown. We are sure to dress up after we undress, and I really haven’t a decent robe.”

Imagine trees, so many beautiful trees that they made canopies, tunnels and softest green shelters fit for fairies, for elves and for lovely little children. Outside and beyond...

She should not have come. Somehow she didn’t seem to belong. For a single second Barbara considered flight. A glance towards the freedom of the road made the girl feel like a pr...

She couldn’t see why Barbara had to bother with those “young uns,” and she didn’t see, anyhow, why Barbara had to leave the party “on account of a boy’s cut hand.”

“Oh, you know what I mean,” Barbara quickly drew back. “I mean they think they have to know all about the people they help. I’ve often seen that, when we had a sewing circle and...

The dinner party was spoiled for Barbara. All she could think of was Nicky slamming his door in the face of those thoughtless girls who wanted to go slumming. As if the habits a...

When the girls had quite exhausted all their powers of teasing Babs for again going off with the boys—just as she knew they would—she decided to ride to the ice-cream place in t...

Cara had scurried off and Babs was hiding behind the door, as she opened it. Giggling and spluttering in their hilarity they tumbled in, the Indian girl, in full regalia, leadin...

“And you think you can get it over at the little Italian store?” Dudley asked. “How in the world can we expect to wake the store man up? I imagine an Italian store-keeper might...

The party was over. It had been a delightful experience for Babs, and despite her natural opposition to that social life to which she felt alien, she had to admit that it “did h...

“I don’t see why not,” panted Mrs. Smalley to Mrs. Brownell. She was holding in her trembling hands the huge glass case of waxed passion flowers, and every time the case shook e...

That incident, simple as it seemed to be, immediately cast its spell over the two girls. Barbara was so upset by it, whatever it was, that she could hardly keep her mind on the...

“I believe now,” she admitted, “that it isn’t the best thing for a girl to get too interested in strangers: we can never understand them, especially those of other nationalities.”

It was not yet nine o’clock next morning when Miss Davis came around and told Barbara. She had decided not to oppose her sister and went out to the Community House to get the fa...

“Well, here’s your chance. Go ahead and tell. And judging from the look on your alabaster face it needs to be told. Honestly Babs, you look years older since yesterday. Nobody m...

“What is there to worry about?” again Babs questioned. She was purposely holding that soiled envelope without attempting to open it. The scrawl on its flap was positive proof th...

“You ought to bring it right in,” she counselled Babs. “They’ll have a real honest-to-goodness opening this afternoon with speeches and all, and you should have the Nelson sampl...

So that was what the girls meant when they spoke of the threatened reform school. Miss Davis had not burst out in anger, as Babs had imagined she might have done. How different...

“And you in your college robes! Say Babs, I wish you would sell me that outfit,” Cara said suddenly. “I’d love to wear it once in a while. I never intend to go to college, you k...

A small dark figure, like a queer sort of bug, could be seen at the top of the grating that supported Beacon Light. That was Nicky. The girls beneath were calling to him, Captai...

So spoke Dr. Hale to Barbara, late that night, after Barbara had told him the whole story of her complicated interest in Nicky and his family. She was sitting on the floor besid...

“Hello, Miss Barbara!” he called gaily, which was pretty good for Nicky. He had never called her “Miss Barbara” before. “Come on over! It’s all right. You can come. Cap Quiller...

“Yep. She said _you_ wanted to show it and _she_ didn’t. She said it was hers too, and she gave me five dollars not to tell.” This last admission caused the boy to flush a littl...