Melbourne House, Volume 1 | Page 2

as they both were in general, whenever they took it upon them to exercise authority, it was unflinchingly done. Her father would never even hear a supplication to reconsider a judgment, especially if pronounced at the desire of her mother. So Daisy knew.
It was a disappointment, greater than anybody thought or would have guessed, that saw her. She went out to the large porch before the door, and stood there, with the same thoughtful look upon her face, a little cast down now. Still she did not shed tears about the matter, unless one time when Daisy's hand went up to her brow rather quick, it was to get rid of some improper suggestion there. More did not appear, either before or after the sudden crunching of the gravel by a pair of light wheels, and the coming up of a little Shetland pony, drawing a miniature chaise.
"Hollo, Daisy! come along; he goes splendidly!"
So shouted the driver, a boy somewhat bigger than Daisy.
"Where are you going?"
"Anywhere--down to the church, if you'll be quick. Never mind your hat!"
He waited, however, while Daisy dashed into the house and out again, and then stepped into the low chaise beside him. Then the eager intimation was given to the pony, which set off as if knowing that impatience was behind him. The smooth, wide, gravelled road was as good and much better than a plank flooring; the chaise rolled daintily on under the great trees; the pony was not forgetful, yet ever and anon a touch of his owner's whip came to remind him, and the fellow's little body fairly wriggled from side to side in his efforts to get on.
"I wish you wouldn't whip him so!" said Daisy, "he's doing as well as he can."
"What do girls know about driving!" was the retort from the small piece of masculine science beside her.
"Ask papa," said Daisy quietly.
"Well, what do they know about horses, any how!"
"I can _see_," said Daisy, whose manner of speech was somewhat slow and deliberate, and in the choice of words, like one who had lived among grown people. "I can observe."
"See that, then!"--And a cut, smarter than ordinary, drove the pony to his last legs, namely, a gallop. Away they went; it was but a short-legged gallop after all; yet they passed along swiftly over the smooth gravel road. Great, beautiful trees overshadowed the ground on either side with their long arms; and underneath, the turf was mown short, fresh and green. Sometimes a flowering bush of some sort broke the general green with a huge spot of white or red flowers; gradually those became fewer, and were lost sight of; but the beautiful grass and the trees seemed to be unending. Then a gray rock here and there began to shew itself. Pony got through his gallop, and subsided again to a waddling trot.
"This whip's the real thing," said the young driver, displaying and surveying it as he spoke; "that is a whip now, fit for a man to use."
"A man wouldn't use it as you do," said Daisy. "It is cruel."
"That's what you think. I guess you'd see papa use a whip once in a while."
"Besides, you came along too fast to see anything."
"Well, I told you I was going to the church, and we hadn't time to go slowly. What did you come for?"
"I suppose I came for some diversion," said Daisy with a sigh.
"Ain't Loupe a splendid little fellow?"
"Very; I think so."
"Why, Daisy, what ails you? there is no fun in you to-day. What's the matter?"
"I am concerned about something. There is nothing the matter."
"Concerned about Loupe, eh!"
"I am not thinking about Loupe. O Ransom! stop him; there's Nora Dinwiddie; I want to get out."
[Illustration: THE CHURCH BY THE WINTERGREENS.]
The place at which they were arrived had a little less the air of carefully kept grounds, and more the look of a sweet wild wood; for the trees clustered thicker in patches, and grey rock, in large and in small quantities, was plenty about among the trees. Yet still here was care; no unsightly underbrush or rubbish of dead branches was anywhere to be seen; and the greensward, where it spread, was shaven and soft as ever. It spread on three sides around a little church, which, in green and gray, seemed almost a part of its surroundings. A little church, with a little quaint bell-tower and arched doorway, built after some old, old model; it stood as quietly in the green solitude of trees and rocks, as if it and they had grown up together. It was almost so. The walls were of native greystone in its natural roughness; all over the front and one angle the American ivy climbed and waved, mounting to the tower; while at the back, the closer clinging Irish ivy