The key to Betsy's heart

Betsy sat staring through the window of the first hack she had ever been in,--also it was the first she had ever seen. She was wondering, wondering, as she rolled along up two-m...

Betsy awoke with a strange feeling of being still in a dream. Instead of opening her eyes on the little attic room of the red house in the Hollow, she was greeted by what seemed...

Vanart VI. sat on the edge of his dish, with all of his four paws in the milk, and barked fiercely at his small sister, who hovered, shy and meek, on the farther edge of Elysium...

Life moved on the wings of youth for Van, and changes were many. The very morning after the trip to Madison Square, Bob Grant packed some things into a suit-case. It lay on the...

It was country all around the Hospital, which was itself a big and famous one. Dr. Johns was the head doctor, and when he said “Come,” people came there to work, and when he sai...

It was a summer full of events for both Van and his mistress. Slowly and patiently Aunt Kate corrected Betsy’s uncouth ways, and the book of “Manners” grew. Betsy took smaller m...

“Dr. Johns, Sir, I bin told you have taken my Betsy and are a-bringing of her up. I am expecting a good job up-State, and if I git it I can take her off your hands. I need her t...

Life on the Hill-Top moved serenely, and Van grew like a weed. His church-going did not make a saint of him, but ever, he grew dearer to the heart of Betsy. I suspect, even, tha...

“Why, dearie, you’ve done wonders in these three months, and I’m going to send you to Pelham Towers as a day pupil. You’ll meet little girls there with good manners and it will...

While Betsy was busy at school, the education of Van did not come to a standstill. But, alas! his new lessons were not in the path of virtue. The little Prince roamed the white...

Van by this time knew the Hill-Top from end to end, and for miles and miles on all sides. His four feet and his delicate nose had explored the whole countryside. He hunted with...

School was over, and it was very near the Fourth of July. Betsy had never seen a celebration, and neither had Van, for that matter, as there had been no demonstrations at the Ho...

When the cats were pretty well thinned out, he, in his solitary excursions, chanced on some half-grown chickens. He chased them a little, and they fluttered and scrambled awkwar...

It was late September, with a blue haze on the hills, and a low sun, that made the red trees redder and the yellow trees yellower, just the kind of a day for a little dog to run...

Another day or two of vain grieving, and Van’s gallant spirit began to react, and he showed more interest in the things around him. He would eat his food, but he was grave and s...

Next morning he was turned loose once more in the chicken-yard, and Mr. Trimble stayed outside. There was no one to interfere; Van might have killed the whole flock, for anythin...

It was a June morning; the air was soft, still, and windless. Betsy came out on the honeysuckle porch carrying a basket of lunch. Van lay there in the sweet sunshine.