The testing of Janice Day

“Oh, Marty, so it is!” replied his cousin, sitting up very suddenly and throwing the covers aside. “How stupid of me to lie abed when the sun is up! I’ll be dressed and downstai...

He was a spare, gray-faced man, with watery and wandering eyes. Jason Day had never moved quickly in his whole life; but there had been much improvement in him, as well as in th...

“I don’t want to go aboard, Walky,” she declared, stopping breathlessly beside his wagon, and laying a kind hand on the bony hip of Josephus. “But I believe there is something a...

When her cousin and the young man came near enough, Janice saw that Mr. Bowman was a good-looking person in countenance as well as in figure. He had very blue eyes and very pink...

The approach to the old Day house was a triumph. Not only Aunt ’Mira and Uncle Jason, but most of the neighbors were out to see the homecoming of Janice’s new car.

As they came down Hillside Avenue, past the cornfields and Walky Dexter’s outlying barns and sheds, Janice caught sight of a figure turning out of the gate of the old Day place.

Janice found solace in her new car. She had now learned to run it alone, although at first Frank Bowman went with her if she took a trip of any length. She sat behind the wheel...

Nelson Haley remained away from Polktown for a fortnight and Janice had no idea where he had gone. She might possibly have found out by questioning Mrs. Beasely with whom he boa...

With slackened reins the horse dropped his fore-hoofs to the ground. Janice seized the bridle and stopped him from backing farther. The girl in the cart, the moment the peril wa...

Yes, this was Annette Bowman, to whose coming to Polktown Janice had looked forward with such pleased expectancy. Now she was very sorry she even knew Frank, for she did not see...

Marty’s voice had great carrying power. Janice dared not look up at once, for she feared Nelson and Annette were looking down at her, and she had an unfortunate habit of blushin...

Annette appeared at morning service on Sunday in one of her most striking frocks. The attention of good Mr. Middler’s parishioners was sadly distraught by the newcomer. It was q...

The Ladies’ Aid gave, as it did every summer, a lawn party in Major Price’s front yard. The big mansion, which had been built by some Price ancestor, was always thrown open to t...

From the evening of the lawn party (the Ladies’ Aid was bitter about that) Annette Bowman’s influence upon the younger element of Polktown was established. Contrary to her broth...

She had arranged with Miss ’Rill and her mother to take them to Middletown for some shopping; but they were not, after all, ready to make the trip. It must be put off for anothe...

Janice was having a good time at school. She found the girls attending the Middletown Seminary quite to her taste. They were hearty, healthy, sensible; and most of them were ver...

The Girls’ Guild was a growing and popular institution by this time. Mothers declared it a great help, for they could trust their girls to be in the old church vestry on Saturda...

Marty came home full of it from the village that evening. Janice had not said a word about her adventure of the afternoon, and Aunt ’Mira had been too involved in her own partic...

The next time that Janice chanced to stop before the squatters’ cabin in the woods, her welcome was very different from what it had ever been before. Dr. Poole had been calling...

Annette Bowman had kept up her association with the Slater girls. Judge Slater’s place was fully ten miles from Polktown and on a road that branched south into the valley from t...

That form of chastisement might have had a salutary effect upon Annette Bowman. Certainly, as it was, she behaved no better on the way to Polktown than she had at Judge Slater’s...

Early in the morning Janice went to Mrs. Beasely’s cottage. She was diffident about offering her services to the widow; but she was sure Aunt ’Mira would see nothing wrong in he...

School was to have re-opened on Monday; but the trustees postponed it a week, for it was hardly possible to hold the older classes without Mr. Haley. Miss ’Rill offered her serv...

Nelson was well enough by the end of the week to announce that school would be opened the following Monday. The scholars would make up their missed recitations in Christmas week...

A young girl’s head is “full of such a number of things.” This was true, indeed, of Janice Day’s. She had her school work to think of; her home interests; the Girls’ Guild; her...

Elder Concannon jerked open the tonneau door and plunged inside. “Go on, girl!” he gasped. “Heaven forgive me! I don’t know that I am doing right. But it’s any port in a storm....

The first flakes of snow, riding on the strong westerly gale, met them as the Kremlin struck into the Upper Road coming from Middletown once more. Before Janice dropped the Elde...

The thickening mist of snow shut off all sight of the shore when the school teacher was ten yards out upon the ice. Every few yards he stopped and shouted down wind, believing t...

The Middletown Seminary had closed for the Christmas holidays as usual; but Janice had been very busy at home finishing her Christmas presents, and sending off belated packages...

The Elder’s hired man brought out the sleigh and took Janice, Marty and Nelson Haley down to the Day house on Hillside Avenue; the Elder insisted on that. Marty sat in front wit...