Phyllis

Phyllis

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Phyllis, by Maria Thompson Daviess,
Illustrated by Percy D. Johnson
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Title: Phyllis
Author: Maria Thompson Daviess
Release Date: February 17, 2005 [eBook #15093]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
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PHYLLIS
by
MARIA THOMPSON DAVIESS
Author of The Tinder Box, The Melting of Molly, etc.
With Illustrations by Percy D. Johnson

New York The Century Co.
1914

[Illustration: Down that garden path I flew]

TO
HELENA RUTH KETCHAM

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Down that garden path I flew (Frontispiece)
Then Roxanne and the bottle and I all collapsed on the grass together
He stood there in the doorway and laughed until his big shoulders
shook
I never saw my father's face so lovely
Tony ... nosed almost every inch of the shed
He just moaned he was making an explosion
The Colonel handed me the medal
"You stand right here and tell me how it all looks"

CHAPTER I
The country is so much larger than the city and so empty that you rattle
around in it until you wonder if you are ever going to get stuck to any
place, especially if there isn't a house numbered anywhere. Our street is
named Providence Road and the house Byrd Mansion and I am afraid
I'll never be at home there as long as I live. But the doctor says Mother
has to live in the country for always, and I'm only glad it isn't any
countrier than Byrdsville.
The worst thing about it to me is that this house I live in and the town I
live in are named for the lovely dark-eyed girl who lives down in the
old-fashioned cottage that backs up on our garden. She moved out for
me to move in, just because I am rich and she is poor. I can't look at her
straight, but I love her so that I can hardly stand it. All the other girls in
school love her too, and she is not at all afraid of the boys, but treats
them just as if they were human beings and could be loved as such.

That awful long-legged Tony walks home with her almost every day
and they all laugh and have a good time.
I always wait until everybody has gone down the street with everybody
else so they won't see how lonesome I am. Crowded lonesomeness is
the worst of all. There are many nice boys and girls just about my age
here in Byrdsville; but they can never like me. I'm glad I found it out
before I tried to be friends with any of them. The first day I came to the
Byrd Academy I heard Belle tell Mamie Sue how to treat me, and that
is what settled me into this alone state.
"Of course, be polite to her, Mamie Sue," Belle said, not knowing that I
was behind the hat-rack, pinning on my hat. "But there never was a
millionaire in Byrdsville before, and I don't see how a girl who is that
rich can be really nice. The Bible says that it is harder for a rich man to
get to heaven than for a knitting-needle to stick into a camel, because
he and it are blunt, I suppose; and it must be just the same with such a
rich girl. Poor child, I am so sorry for her; but we must be very
careful."
"Why, Belle," said Mamie Sue, in a voice that is always so comfortable
because she is nice and fat, "Roxy said she was going to like her a lot,
and she's got Roxy's lovely house while Roxy has to live in the cottage,
which is just as bad as moving into a chicken coop after the Byrd
Mansion. If Roxy likes her, it seems to me we might. She didn't turn us
out of house and home, as the almanac says."
"Don't you see that Roxy has to be nice to her, because if she isn't we
will think it is spite about the house? Roxy can't show her resentment,