Elsie's Friends at Woodburn

The twenty-fourth had been cold and stormy: a keen, biting wind blowing continuously, during the greater part of the day, bringing with it a heavy fall of sleet and snow.

“No, sir; and such splendid presents as you and the rest have given me! Why, I’d be the most ungrateful fellow in the world if I wasn’t as happy as a king!”

“Oh, Gracie, Gracie, I’ve had the nicest, the most splendid time that ever was!” cried Lulu, rushing into their own little sitting-room where Grace lay on the sofa, having that...

There was a flash of joy in Lulu’s eyes as she lifted them to his, then blushing and half hiding her face on his shoulder, “But I don’t deserve to have you say that, papa,” she...

They had been pursuing a path running parallel with the highway, and which had led them into a wood, but now the captain turned aside into another, leading to a hut standing som...

“Yes, I think so, and that we have a very great deal to be thankful for,” he replied. “If God’s will be so, I hope we may all see many happy years in it.”

Grace was very tired when they reached home, and her father carried her immediately to her own room, saying she must be undressed and put to bed at once, and her supper should b...

“I can scarce bear to think of such a possibility,” the captain said a trifle huskily, and tightening his clasp of Violet’s slender waist, “it seems that one such loss should be...

It was Sunday afternoon, and the house seemed very quiet, Lulu thought as she laid aside the book she had been reading and glanced at Grace, who lay on the sofa near by, her eye...

“Good-morning, my darlings,” he said, bending down to bestow a fatherly caress upon each; then with a smiling glance at Lulu, “I am glad to see you so industrious, daughter.”

For awhile Grace seemed to enjoy the fun, but an hour before the others were ready to give it up, her father perceived that she was growing weary and carried her off to bed.

When Edward and Zoe had retired to their own apartment on the breaking up of the company that evening, he led her up to a pier glass asking, “What do you think of the picture yo...

“Well, it’s all over!” exclaimed Lulu with a sigh, as she turned away from the window whence she had been watching the carriage that bore them till it disappeared from sight, “a...

The remaining winter months sped swiftly by, nothing occurring to mar the domestic felicity of our friends at Woodburn; then came gentle spring with her soft breezes, buds and b...

The ponies at once became the greatest pets with their young mistresses, and soon would come at their call, eat from their hands and submit to stroking and fondling with as much...

Of course Max and Grace inquired for what reason she had been sent away, and it was a mortification to Lulu to have to own that papa had ordered it as a punishment to her for di...

After breakfast came family worship; it was the regular order of things at Woodburn. Then the captain smilingly bade his little girls go to their rooms and dress for company.

“Grandma Elsie” sat by the bedside gazing with much motherly solicitude upon the sleeping face of her youngest daughter. She had sat thus for hours, sending up silent petitions...

A messenger had been dispatched early that morning from Woodburn to Ion with the news of the arrival of Violet’s son; then Zoe and Rosie had ridden over to Fairview with the tid...

“Not if I can help it,” returned Arthur with a slight smile; “but she will of course miss you soon, and demand a reason for your desertion of her; then what can be done better t...

Quite early the next morning, fully half an hour before breakfast time, Lulu and Grace came hand in hand, and with loving greetings, to the side of their father’s couch.

Every hour of the sojourn at Nantucket had been enjoyed by the Raymonds, yet when they came in sight of Woodburn, with its lawn trees, shrubbery and woods glorious in their autu...

Lulu joined the rest of the family that evening and listened to the reading, but was careful not to take any liberties inconsistent with her position as only a guest. She asked...