Gypsy Breynton | Page 3

scribbling.
When his laudable work was completed, this ingenious and remorseless boy had to stand and laugh at it for five minutes. If Gypsy had only seen him then! And Gypsy was nearer than he thought--in the front door, and coming up the stairs with a great banging and singing and laughing, as nobody but Gypsy could come up stairs. Tom just put his hand on the window-sill, and gave one leap out on the kitchen roof, and Gypsy burst in, and stopped short.
Tom crouched down against the side of the house, and held his breath. For about half a minute it was perfectly still. Then a soft, merry laugh broke out all at once on the air, something as a little brook would splash down in a sudden cascade on the rocks.
"O--oh! Did you ever? I never saw anything so funny! Oh, dear me!"
Then it was still again, and then the merry laugh began to spell out the placard.
"Gypsy Breynton. Hon.--Hon. Gypsy Breynton,--what? Oh, Esq., M. A., D. D., LL. D.--what a creature he is! Gypsy Breynton, R. R. R. R.? I'm sure I don't know what that means--Tom! Thom--as!"
Just then she caught sight of him out on the ridge-pole, whittling away as coolly as if he had sat there all his life.
"Good afternoon," said Gypsy, politely.
"Good afternoon," said Tom.
"Been whittling out there ever since dinner, I suppose?"
"Certainly."
"I thought so. Come here a minute."
"Come out here," said Tom. Gypsy climbed out of the window without the slightest hesitation, and walked along the ridge-pole with the ease and fearlessness of a boy. She had on a pretty blue delaine dress, which was wet and torn, and all stuck together with burs; her boots were covered with mud to the ankle; her white stockings spattered and brown; her turban was hanging round her neck by its elastic; her net had come off, and the wind was blowing her hair all over her eyes; she had her sack thrown over one arm, and a basket filled to overflowing, with flowers and green moss, upon the other.
"Well, you're a pretty sight!" said Tom, leisurely regarding her. Indeed, he was not far from right. In spite of the mud and the burs and the tears, and the general dropping-to-pieces look about her, Gypsy managed, somehow or other, to look as pretty as a picture, with her cheeks as red as a coral, and the soft brown hair that was tossing about her eyes. Gypsy's eyes were the best part of her. They were very large and brown, and had that same irresistible twinkle that was in Tom's eyes, only a great deal more of it; and then it was always there. They twinkled when she was happy and when she was cross; they twinkled over her school-books; they twinkled, in spite of themselves, at church and Sabbath school; and, when she was at play, they shone like a whole galaxy of stars. If ever Gypsy's eyes ceased twinkling, people knew she was going to be sick. Her hair, I am sorry to say, was not curly.
This was Gypsy's one unalleviated affliction in life. That a girl could possibly be pretty with straight hair, had never once entered her mind. All the little girls in story-books had curls. Who ever heard of the straight-haired maiden that made wreaths of the rosebuds, or saw the fairies, or married the Prince? And Gypsy's hair was not only straight, it was absolutely uncurlable. A week's penance "done up in paper" made no more impression than if you were to pinch it.
However, that did not interfere with her making a bit of a picture, perched up there on the roof beside Tom, among her burs and her flowers and her moss, her face all dimples from forehead to chin.
"Where have you been?" said Tom, trying to look severe, and making a most remarkable failure.
"Oh, only over to the three-mile swamp after white violets. Sarah Rowe, she got her two hands full, and then she just fell splash into the water, full length, and lost 'em--Oh, dear me, how I laughed! She did look so funny."
"Your boots are all mud," said Tom.
"Who cares?" said Gypsy, with a merry laugh, tipping all the wet, earthy moss out on her lap, as she spoke. "See! isn't there a quantity? I like moss 'cause it fills up. Violets are pretty enough, only you do have to pick 'em one at a time. Innocence comes up by the handful,--only mine's most all roots."
"I don't know what's going to become of you," said Tom, drawing down the corner of his mouth.
"Neither do I," said Gypsy, demurely; "I wish I did."
"You won't learn to apply yourself to anything," persisted Tom. "Work or play, there's no system to you. You're like a----" Tom paused for a simile--"Well, like