"He hasn"t yet."
"It is easier for girls to be good than for boys," rejoined Hollis in an argumentative tone,
"Is it? I don"t see how."
"Of course you don"t. We are in the world where the temptations are; what temptations do _you_ have?"
"I have enough. But I don"t want to go out in the world where more temptations are. Don"t you know--" She colored and stopped,
"Know what?"
"About Christ praying that his disciples might be kept from the evil that was in the world, not that they might be taken out of the world. They have _got_ to be in the world."
"Yes."
"And," she added sagely, "anybody can be good where no temptations are."
"Is that why girls are good?"
"I don"t think girls are good."
"The girls I know are."
"You know city girls," she said archly. "We country girls have the world in our own hearts."
There was nothing of "the world" in the sweet face that he looked down into, nothing of the world in the frank, true voice. He had been wronging her; how much there was in her, this wise, old, sweet little Marjorie!
"Have you forgotten your errand?" she asked, after a moment.
"No, it is at Mr. Howard"s, the house beyond yours."
"I"m glad you had the errand."
"So am I. I should have gone home and not known anything about you."
"And I should have stayed tangled in the black berry vines ever so long,"
she laughed.
"You haven"t told me why you were there."
"Because I was silly," she said emphatically.
"Do silly people always hide in blackberry vines?" he questioned, laughing.
"Silly people like me," she said.
At that moment they stopped in front of the gate of Marjorie"s home; through the lilac-bushes--the old fence was overgrown with lilacs--Hollis discerned some bright thing glimmering on the piazza. The bright thing possessed a quick step and a laugh, for it floated towards them and when it appeared at the gate Hollis found that it was only Linnet.
There was nothing of the mouse about Linnet.
"Why, Marjie, mother said you might stay till dark."
Linnet was seventeen, but she was not too grown up for "mother said" to be often on her lips.
"I didn"t want to," said Marjorie. "Good-bye, Hollis. I"m going to hunt eggs."
"I"d go with you, it"s rare fun to hunt eggs, only I haven"t seen Linnet--yet."
"And you must see Linnet--yet," laughed Linnet, "Hollis, what a big boy you"ve grown to be!" she exclaimed regarding him critically; the new suit, the black onyx watch-chain, the blonde moustache, the full height, and last of all the friendly brown eyes with the merry light in them.
"What a big girl you"ve grown to be, Linnet," he retorted surveying her critically and admiringly.
There was fun and fire and changing lights, sauciness and defiance, with a pretty little air of deference, about Linnet. She was not unlike his city girl friends; even her dress was more modern and tasteful than Marjorie"s.
"Marjorie is so little and doesn"t care," she often pleaded with their mother when there was not money enough for both. And Marjorie looked on and held her peace.
Self-sacrifice was an instinct with Marjorie.
"I am older and must have the first chance," Linnet said.
So Marjorie held back and let Linnet have the chances.
Linnet was to have the "first chance" at going to school in September.
Marjorie stayed one moment looking at the two as they talked, proud of Linnet and thinking that Hollis must think she, at least, was something like his cousin Helen, and then she hurried away hoping to return with her basket of eggs before Hollis was gone. Hollis was almost like some one in a story-book to her. I doubt if she ever saw any one as other people saw them; she always saw so much. She needed only an initial; it was easy enough to fill out the word. She hurried across the yard, opened the large barn-yard gate, skipped across the barn-yard, and with a little leap was in the barn floor. Last night she had forgotten to look in the mow; she would find a double quant.i.ty hidden away there to-night. She wondered if old Queen Bess were still persisting in sitting on nothing in the mow"s far dark corner; tossing away her hindering hat and catching up an old basket, she ran lightly up the ladder to the mow. She never remembered that she ran up the ladder.
An hour later--Linnet knew that it was an hour later--Marjorie found herself moving slowly towards the kitchen door. She wanted to see her mother. Lifting the latch she staggered in.
She was greeted with a scream from Linnet and with a terrified exclamation from her mother.
"Marjorie, what _is_ the matter?" cried her mother catching her in her arms.
"Nothing," said Marjorie, wondering.
"Nothing! You are purple as a ghost!" exclaimed Linnet, "and there"s a lump on your forehead as big as an egg."
"Is there?" asked Marjorie, in a trembling voice.
"Did you fall? Where did you fall?" asked her mother shaking her gently.
"Can"t you speak, child?"
"I--didn"t--fall," muttered Marjorie, slowly.
"Yes, you did," said Linnet. "You went after eggs."
"Eggs," repeated Marjorie in a bewildered voice.
"Linnet, help me quick to get her on to the sitting-room lounge! Then get pillows and a comforter, and then run for your father to go for the doctor."
"There"s nothing the matter," persisted the child, smiling weakly. "I can walk, mother. Nothing hurts me."