Cicely and Other Stories

and Other Stories, by Annie Fellows Johnston

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Title: Cicely and Other Stories
Author: Annie Fellows Johnston
Illustrator: Sears Gallagher
Release Date: September 7, 2006 [EBook #19202]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: | | | | The # symbol is used to represent the musical symbol sharp. | | | | A number of obvious typographical errors have been corrected | | in this text. For a complete list, please see the end of | | this document. | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
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CICELY
AND OTHER STORIES
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Works of | | Annie Fellows Johnston | | | | THE LITTLE COLONEL SERIES | | The Little Colonel $ .50 | | The Giant Scissors .50 | | Two Little Knights of Kentucky .50 | | (The three stories above are also published in one | | volume, entitled The Little Colonel Stories, $1.50) | | The Little Colonel's House Party 1.00 | | The Little Colonel's Holidays 1.50 | | The Little Colonel's Hero net, 1.20 | | The Little Colonel at Boarding-School net, 1.20 | | | | OTHER BOOKS | | Big Brother .50 | | Ole Mammy's Torment .50 | | The Story of Dago .50 | | Cicely net, .40 | | Aunt 'Liza's Hero net, .40 | | Asa Holmes 1.00 | | Flip's "Islands of Providence" 1.00 | | Songs Ysame 1.00 | | | | L.C. PAGE AND COMPANY | | 200 Summer Street, Boston, Mass. | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
[Illustration: "THERE WERE VOICES PASSING HER DOOR." (See page 75)]

Cosy Corner Series
CICELY AND OTHER STORIES
By Annie Fellows Johnston
Author of "The Little Colonel's House Party," "The Little Colonel's Holidays," "Two Little Knights of Kentucky," etc.
Illustrated by Sears Gallagher and others
Boston L.C. Page & Company 1903

Copyright, 1901 BY PERRY MASON COMPANY
Copyright, 1902 BY L.C. PAGE & COMPANY (INCORPORATED)
All rights reserved
Published, May, 1902
Colonial Press Electrotyped and Printed by C.H. Simonds & Co. Boston, Mass., U.S.A.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
These stories first appeared in the Youth's Companion and Forward. The author wishes to acknowledge the courtesy of the editors in permitting her to republish them in the present volume.
Messrs. L.C. Page & Company wish also to acknowledge the courtesy of the editors, by which they were able to arrange for the use of the original illustrations.

CONTENTS
PAGE CICELY 11
ALIDA'S HOMELINESS 35
THE HAND OF DOUGLAS 59
ELSIE'S "PALMISTRY EVENING" 87
THEIR ANCESTRAL LATCH-STRING 111

ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
"THERE WERE VOICES PASSING HER DOOR" (See page 75) Frontispiece
"THE CHEER AND WARMTH OF IT ALL COMFORTED HER" 31
"HID HER FACE IN A GREAT BUNCH OF ROSES" 55
"'WHY, I HAVE NEVER EVEN HEARD OF THEM'" 67
"'WHAT IS THE MATTER?' HE REPEATED" 78
"IT WAS NOT HER VOICE ALONE WHICH DREW SO MANY ADMIRERS" 83
"'SHE HID HER FACE ON MY SHOULDER'" 100
"'LOOKING AT HER HAND A DOZEN TIMES A DAY'" 103
"'ASKED ME TO HUNT UP ALL THE REFERENCES'" 108
"PAUSING IN HER SCRUBBING" 116
"SHE ENTERTAINED THEM WITH STORIES OF HER TRAVELS" 122
"AT THE GATE HE TURNED FOR A LONG BACKWARD LOOK" 127
"'YOU NEEDN'T LOOK AT ME IN THAT WAY,' SHE WHISPERED, DEFIANTLY" 133

CICELY

CICELY
There was a noisy whir of sewing-machines in Madame Levaney's large dressmaking establishment. Cicely Leeds's head ached as she bent over the ruffles she was hemming. She was the youngest seamstress in the room, and wore her hair hanging in two long braids.
It seemed a pity that such girlish shoulders should be learning to stoop, and that her eyes had to bear such a constant strain. The light was particularly bad this afternoon. Every curtain was rolled to the top of its big window, but the dull December sky was as gray as a fog. Even the snow on the surrounding housetops looked gray and dirty in the smoky haze.
Now and then Cicely looked up from her work and glanced out of the window. The cold grayness of the outdoor world made her shiver. It was a world of sooty chimney-tops as she saw it, with a few chilly sparrows huddled in a disconsolate row along the eaves. It would soon be time to be going home, and the only home Cicely had now was a cheerless little back bedroom in a cheap boarding-house. She dreaded going back to it. It was at least warm in Madame Levaney's steam-heated workrooms, and it was better to have the noise and confusion