The Island House: A Tale for the Young Folks

ROAST POTATOES! ONLY A GIRL! DICK AND HIS DONKEY RED DAVE THE LITTLE WOODMAN A LITTLE TOWN MOUSE THE ISLAND HOUSE THE CHILDREN OF THE MARSHES A DOUBLE VICTORY LEFT IN CHARGE A SUNDAY TRIP IN A MINUTE! FARTHING DIPS TIMFY SYKES

think I'll get out here, young man.
All right, missus.
The old carrier stopped his jolting cart—an easy thing to do, for the wearied horse was glad of the chance of halting—and the passenger leisurely descended. With her descended also a bulging umbrella and numerous packages.
Good night, young man! she exclaimed. She thought this a very polite way of addressing men whom she regarded as somewhat beneath her in social station.
But he did not answer. He was urging on his sleepy horse, and though it was an easy matter to stop that interesting quadruped, yet it was a very different thing to make him go on again.
So she started off down a road leading out of the turnpike thoroughfare on which the carrier was travelling.
She was a tall, somewhat angular woman, with determination written on her face. In one hand she carried a number of parcels mysteriously tied together, and in the other hand her very bulgy umbrella, which she used as a walking stick, and staffed her way with it solemnly along the dim country road.
It was a summer evening, and there had been a heavy storm during the day. Dear! dear! how dirty it be, sure ly , she said, as she proceeded. Bad enough to be dirty in winter, but in summer it's disgraceful! Ha! how sweet that woodbine do smell! Now, if I could get a piece for the children!
She stopped and began to poke about in the hedge with her bulging umbrella. At last, after much reaching and pulling, she obtained a small piece of the sweet-smelling honeysuckle, stuck it in her large, old-fashioned bonnet, where it nodded like a plume, and pursued her way in triumph.