Mr. Pats Little Girl

Mr. Pat's Little Girl, by Mary F. Leonard,

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Title: Mr. Pat's Little Girl A Story of the Arden Foresters
Author: Mary F. Leonard
Release Date: March 31, 2005 [eBook #15511]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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MR. PAT'S LITTLE GIRL
A Story of the Arden Foresters
by
MARY F. LEONARD
Author of The Spectacle Man, etc.
With Illustrations by Chase Emerson
W.A. Wilde Company Boston and Chicago
1902

[Illustration]

TO
A.E.F.
IN LOVING MEMORY
this story is lovingly dedicated
BY HER NIECE

[Illustration: "HOW SWEET THE BREATH BENEATH THE HILL OF SHARON'S LOVELY ROSE."]

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
I.
THINGS BEGIN TO HAPPEN "A magician most profound in his art."
II. ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE HEDGE "Give me leave to speak my mind."
III. FRIENDSHIP "True it is that we have seen better days."
IV. AN UNQUIET MORNING "You amaze me, ladies!"
V. MAURICE "The stubbornness of fortune."
VI. PUZZLES "How weary are my spirits."
VII. THE MAGICIAN MAKES TEA "If that love or gold Can in this place buy entertainment, Bring us where we may rest ourselves and feed."
VIII. "TO MEET ROSALIND" "Put you in your best array."
IX. THE LOST RING "Wear this for me."
X. CELIA "One out of suits with fortune."
XI. MAKING FRIENDS "Is not that neighborly?"
XII. THE GILPIN PLACE "This is the Forest of Arden."
XIII. IN PATRICIA'S ARBOR "O, how full of briers is this working-day world."
XIV. THE ARDEN FORESTERS "Like the old Robin Hood of England."
XV. A NEW MEMBER "In the circle of this forest."
XVI. RECIPROCITY "Take upon command what we have."
XVII. A NEW COMRADE "I know you are a gentleman of good conceit."
XVIII. AN IMPRISONED MAIDEN "The house doth keep itself, There's none within."
XIX. OLD ACQUAINTANCE "And there begins my sadness."
XX. THE SPINET "Though art not for the fashion of these times."
XXI. "UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE" "Must you then be proud and pitiless?"
XXII. CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE "I sometimes do believe and sometimes do not."
XXIII. THE DETECTIVE "'Twas I, but 'tis not I."
XXIV. AT THE AUCTION "Assuredly the thing is to be sold."
XXV. QUESTIONS "They asked one another the reason."
XXVI. THE PRESIDENT "--And good in everything."
XXVII. OLD ENEMIES "Kindness nobler ever than revenge."
XXVIII. BETTER THAN DREAMS "I like this place."
XXIX. AT THE MAGICIAN'S "I would have you."
XXX. OAK LEAVES "Bid me farewell."

ILLUSTRATIONS
"'How sweet the breath beneath the hill Of Sharon's lovely rose'" (Frontispiece)
"Do you know Miss Betty?"
"Looking up, he discovered his visitors"
"They crossed over to speak to her"
"She chose a chest of drawers"
CHAPTER FIRST.
THINGS BEGIN TO HAPPEN.
"A magician most profound in his art."
It was Sunday afternoon. The griffins on the doorstep stared straight before them with an expression of utter indifference; the feathery foliage of the white birch swayed gently back and forth; the peonies lifted their crimson heads airily; the snowball bush bent under the weight of its white blooms till it swept the grass; the fountain splashed softly.
"'By cool Siloam's shady rill How fair the lily grows,'"
Rosalind chanted dreamily.
Grandmamma had given her the hymn book, telling her to choose a hymn and commit it to memory, and as she turned the pages this had caught her eye and pleased her fancy.
"It sounds like the Forest of Arden," she said, leaning back on the garden bench and shutting her eyes.
"'How sweet the breath beneath the hill Of Sharon's lovely rose.'"
She swung her foot in time to the rhythm. She was not sure whether a rill was a fountain or a stream, so she decided, as there was no dictionary convenient, to think of it as like the creek where it crossed the road at the foot of Red Hill.
Again she looked at the book; skipping a stanza, she read:--
"'By cool Siloam's shady rill The lily must decay; The rose that blooms beneath the hill Must shortly pass away.'"
The melancholy of this was interesting; at the same time it reminded her that she was lonely. After repeating, "Must shortly pass away," her eyes unexpectedly filled with tears.
"Now I am not going to cry," she said sternly, and by way of carrying out this resolve she again closed her eyes tight. It was desperately hard work, and she could not have told whether two minutes or ten had passed when she was startled by an