What Diantha Did | Page 3

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WHAT DIANTHA DID

CHAPTER I.
HANDICAPPED
One may use the Old Man of the Sea, For a partner or patron, But
helpless and hapless is he Who is ridden, inextricably, By a fond old
mer-matron.
The Warden house was more impressive in appearance than its
neighbors. It had "grounds," instead of a yard or garden; it had wide
pillared porches and "galleries," showing southern antecedents;
moreover, it had a cupola, giving date to the building, and proof of the
continuing ambitions of the builders.
The stately mansion was covered with heavy flowering vines, also with
heavy mortgages. Mrs. Roscoe Warden and her four daughters reposed
peacefully under the vines, while Roscoe Warden, Jr., struggled
desperately under the mortgages.
A slender, languid lady was Mrs. Warden, wearing her thin but still
brown hair in "water-waves" over a pale high forehead. She was sitting
on a couch on the broad, rose-shaded porch, surrounded by billowing
masses of vari-colored worsted. It was her delight to purchase skein on
skein of soft, bright-hued wool, cut it all up into short lengths, tie them
together again in contrasting colors, and then crochet this hashed
rainbow into afghans of startling aspect. California does not call for
afghans to any great extent, but "they make such acceptable presents,"
Mrs. Warden declared, to those who questioned the purpose of her
work; and she continued to send them off, on Christmases, birthdays,
and minor weddings, in a stream of pillowy bundles. As they were
accepted, they must have been acceptable, and the stream flowed on.
Around her, among the gay blossoms and gayer wools, sat her four
daughters, variously intent. The mother, a poetic soul, had named them
musically and with dulcet rhymes: Madeline and Adeline were the two
eldest, Coraline and Doraline the two youngest. It had not occurred to
her until too late that those melodious terminations made it impossible

to call one daughter without calling two, and that "Lina" called them
all.
"Mis' Immerjin," said a soft voice in the doorway, "dere pos'tively ain't
no butter in de house fer