Part 13 (1/2)

”No, you won't, 'cause you won't have money enough,” said Betty; ”and-- and I wouldn't accept it if you got it.”

”I'll leave you my old one when I go to school, and I advise you to study it well before you go to Miss Richards's. It may save you from putting your foot in it sometimes.”

”I wonder,” said Betty, with a sudden thought, ”if it would tell me what self-confidence is?”

”I can tell you that,” said Dan. ”Why do you want to know?”

”Oh--oh, because--but tell me first what it means, and then I will tell you--perhaps.”

”Well, it means--oh--you know--”

”No, I don't; and--and I don't believe you do either,” nodding her head very knowingly at her brother.

”Yes, I do,” cried Dan hotly. ”It means having a too jolly good opinion of yourself, and thinking you can do anything. Now, tell me why you wanted to know.”

But Betty was walking away with her head held very high, and her cheeks very red. ”I think it is quite time you started for the station to meet Aunt Pike and Anna,” she called back over her shoulder.

”Don't be late, whatever you do.”

”But you are coming too, Bet, aren't you?”

”No,” she answered frigidly, as she closed the door, ”I am not,” and to herself she added, with proud indignation, ”After Aunt Pike's calling me such a name as that, I shouldn't think of going to meet her.”

Kitty, Dan, and Tony were on the platform when the train arrived.

Their father had expressly wished them to go to meet their aunt and cousin, as he was unable to; so they went to please him, they told each other. But they would put up with a good deal for the sake of a jaunt to the station, and there really was some little anxiety and excitement, too, in their hearts as to what Anna would be like.

When she had stayed with them before she had been a little fair, slight thing, with a small face, frightened restless eyes, and a fragile body as restless as her eyes. Anna Pike gave one the impression of being all nerves, and in a perpetual state of tremor. She was said to be very clever and intellectual, and certainly if being always with a book was a proof of it, she was; but there were some who thought she did little with her books beyond holding them, and that it would have been better for her in every way if she had sometimes held a doll, or a skipping-rope, or a branch of a tree instead.

”She was rather pretty, I think, wasn't she?” said Kitty musingly, as they strolled up and down the platform waiting for the train.

”She was awfully skinny,” said Dan.

”Will Anna be bigger than me?” asked Tony, who did not remember her.

”Oh yes, she is as old as Dan, I think; but I always feel as though she were older even than I am. She used to seem so grown-up and clever, and she always did the right thing; and, oh dear, how dreadful it will be if she is still the same.”

Tony sighed. ”I wish there was somebody little, like me, to play with,”

he said wistfully; ”somebody as young as me.”

”But, Tony darling, you don't feel you want some one else, do you?

Why, we all play with you,” cried Kitty reproachfully.

”Yes, I know; but you only pretend. You don't think things are really-truly, like I do.”

”But I do, dear, I do, really; only yours are fairies and giants, and mine are knights and kings and ladies,” and her thoughts flashed right away from the busy station, with its brick platform and gleaming rails, the ordinary-looking men and women pacing up and down, and the noise and rattle of the place, to the quiet, still woods and hurrying river, with their mystery and calm, and to those other men and women pacing so stately amidst the silence and beauty. But Tony, tugging at her hand, very soon brought her abruptly back to her real surroundings.

”It is coming! it is coming!” he cried. ”I hear it.”

And a moment later, with a fast-increasing roar, the engine rounded the curve, and gradually slowing down, drew up alongside the platform.