An Old-fashioned Girl | Page 6

in freedom and
peanuts outside, with the staid old driver.
Fanny came flying down to meet her "darling Polly," as Tom presented
her, with the graceful remark, "I 've got her!" and the air of a dauntless
hunter, producing the trophies of his skill. Polly was instantly whisked
up stairs; and having danced a double-shuffle on the door-mat, Tom
retired to the dining-room, to restore exhausted nature with half a dozen
cookies.
"Ain't you tired to death? Don't you want to lie down?" said Fanny,
sitting on the side of the bed in Polly's room, and chattering hard, while
she examined everything her friend had on.
"Not a bit. I had a nice time coming, and no trouble, except the tipsy
coachman; but Tom got out and kept him in order, so I was n't much
frightened," answered innocent Polly, taking off her rough-and-ready
coat, and the plain hat without a bit of a feather.
"Fiddlestick! he was n't tipsy; and Tom only did it to get out of the way.
He can't bear girls," said Fanny, with a superior air.
"Can't he? Why, I thought he was very pleasant and kind!" and Polly
opened her eyes with a surprised expression.
"He 's an awful boy, my dear; and if you have anything to do with him,
he 'll torment you to death. Boys are all horrid; but he 's the horridest
one I ever saw."
Fanny went to a fashionable school, where the young ladies were so
busy with their French, German, and Italian, that there was no time for
good English. Feeling her confidence much shaken in the youth, Polly
privately resolved to let him alone, and changed the conversation, by
saying, as she looked admiringly about the large, handsome room,
"How splendid it is! I never slept in a bed with curtains before, or had
such a fine toilet-table as this."
"I 'm glad you like it; but don't, for mercy sake, say such things before
the other girls!" replied Fanny, wishing Polly would wear ear-rings, as
every one else did.
"Why not?" asked the country mouse of the city mouse, wondering
what harm there was in liking other people's pretty things, and saying

so. "Oh, they laugh at everything the least bit odd, and that is n't
pleasant." Fanny did n't say "countrified," but she meant it, and Polly
felt uncomfortable. So she shook out her little black silk apron with a
thoughtful face, and resolved not to allude to her own home, if she
could help it.
"I 'm so poorly, mamma says I need n't go to school regularly, while
you are here, only two or three times a week, just to keep up my music
and French. You can go too, if you like; papa said so. Do, it 's such
fun!" cried Fanny, quite surprising her friend by this unexpected
fondness for school.
"I should be afraid, if all the girls dress as finely as you do, and know
as much," said Polly, beginning to feel shy at the thought.
"La, child! you need n't mind that. I 'll take care of you, and fix you up,
so you won't look odd."
"Am I odd?" asked Polly, struck by the word and hoping it did n't mean
anything very bad.
"You are a dear, and ever so much prettier than you were last summer,
only you 've been brought up differently from us; so your ways ain't
like ours, you see," began Fanny, finding it rather hard to explain.
"How different?" asked Polly again, for she liked to understand things.
"Well, you dress like a little girl, for one thing."
"I am a little girl; so why should n't I?" and Polly looked at her simple
blue merino frock, stout boots, and short hair, with a puzzled air.
"You are fourteen; and we consider ourselves young ladies at that age,"
continued Fanny, surveying, with complacency, the pile of hair on the
top of her head, with a fringe of fuzz round her forehead, and a wavy
lock streaming down her back; likewise, her scarlet-and-black suit, with
its big sash, little pannier, bright buttons, points, rosettes, and, heaven
knows what. There was a locket on her neck, earrings tinkling in her
ears, watch and chain at her belt, and several rings on a pair of hands
that would have been improved by soap and water.
Polly's eye went from one little figure to the other, and she thought that
Fanny looked the oddest of the two; for Polly lived in a quiet country
town, and knew very little of city fashions. She was rather impressed
by the elegance about her, never having seen Fanny's home before, as
they got acquainted while Fanny paid a visit to a friend who lived near
Polly. But she